William Wieland v. S. Thompson

MEMORANDUM

The state trial court found sufficient evidence to convict William Warren Wieland under Oregon Revised Statutes section 163.095(2)(e). See Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 , 99 S.Ct. 2781 , 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Under our doubly deferential review, see Coleman v. Johnson, — U.S. -, 132 S.Ct. 2060, 2062 , 182 L.Ed.2d 978 (2012) (per curiam), and “viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution,” Jackson, 443 U.S. at 319 , 99 S.Ct. 2781 , we conclude that fair-minded jurists could find the State’s evidence sufficient. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d); Harrington v. Richter, 562 U.S. 86 , 131 S.Ct. 770, 786 , 178 L.Ed.2d 624 (2011).

1. A reasonable jury could have found that Wieland committed arson in 1986 based on evidence describing the circumstances of the 1986 fires. The Wieland family suffered through three fires in 1986, the first two of which occurred on Mondays. After the second fire, Cindy Wie-land and victim Katherine Kimbrel decided that Kimbrel would sleep in the living room on the next Sunday night in order to catch the arsonist on Monday morning. Cindy and Kimbrel told Wieland, as well as friends of the family, about their plan. But the…