The Third Circuit granted the appellee’s motion to publish its opinion in Baxter v. Superintendent Coal Twp. SCI. The case arose in the context of a habeas corpus petition wherein the petitioner claimed that the trial court’s reasonable doubt instruction to the jury was inaccurate and caused prejudice. The instruction provided the example that if a loved one had a life-threatening illness and the only solution was surgery, you would have moved beyond a reasonable doubt by allowing them to go forward with the surgery. The Third Circuit agreed that the instruction was problematic, but the Court held that the petitioner was not prejudiced.
