No. 24-6354

Shelben T. Curtis v. Ron Neal, Warden

Lower Court: Seventh Circuit
Docketed: 2025-01-22
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: ineffective-assistance jury-instruction retroactive-application sixth-amendment sudden-heat voluntary-manslaughter
Key Terms:
DueProcess HabeasCorpus JusticiabilityDoctri
Latest Conference: 2025-03-07
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the lower courts unreasonably applied Brantley retroactively when deciding if counsel's ineffectiveness denied Sixth Amendment rights due to inability to anticipate legal changes regarding voluntary manslaughter and sudden heat mitigation

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

I: Whether the lower courts unreasonably applied Brantley retroactively when it decided that the petitioner was not denied his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel because counsel could not anticipate a change in law, in that, it was unclear if sudden heat was a mitigator or element of voluntary manslaughter when charged as a standalone offense. QUESTION II: Whether the petitioner was denied his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsefwhen trial counsel failed to object to the aggravated battery jury instruction, which listed an uncharged element in the aggravated battery jury instruction. = ii

Docket Entries

2025-03-10
Petition DENIED.
2025-02-20
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/7/2025.
2025-02-12
Waiver of right of respondent Neal, Warden to respond filed.
2024-07-02
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due February 21, 2025)

Attorneys

Neal, Warden
James Allen BartaOffice of the Indiana Attorney General, Respondent
Shelben T. Curtis
Shelben T. Curtis — Petitioner