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Bruce v. Smith

An issue of state procedural law which was decided in a subsequent case could not be the basis for a collateral attack, such as defendant's petition for habeas relief.

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We affirmed Richard Bruce’s murder conviction on direct appeal, rejecting his argument that the trial court should have given his requested charge on the state’s burden of proof on his affirmative defense.1 Nine years later, we expressly overruled that specific holding.2 Bruce then filed a petition for habeas corpus alleging that he was denied his constitutional right to due process when the trial court failed to give the requested charge, but the habeas court dismissed the petition as successive and barred by res judicata under state law. We granted Bruce’s application to appeal to consider whether the trial court’s failure to charge the jury on the state’s burden to disprove his accident defense entitles him to habeas corpus relief. Although the trial court erred in dismissing Bruce’s petition, we conclude that he is not entitled to habeas relief because the omission of the requested jury charge at his murder trial did not violate his constitutional right to due process.

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