Joseph Martin Gaines v. Walter Kelly, Superintendent, Attica Correctional Facility

180 F.3d 371, 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 11855, 1999 WL 371707

Opinion

ORDER

Joseph Martin Gaines appeals from the final judgment of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York denying Gaines’s petition for writ of habeas corpus and dismissing his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 action.

The judgment of the district court is hereby REVERSED on the ground that the state trial court’s reasonable doubt instruction was constitutionally defective. An opinion further explaining the panel’s reasons shall follow forthwith. This case is hereby REMANDED to the district court with instructions to grant Gaines’s petition and to order Gaines’s release from custody unless the State of New York provides him with a new trial within sixty (60) days of the date of entry of the district court’s order.

The mandate shall issue immediately.