Dino Kyzar v. Charles Ryan

On March 7, 1997, Leroy Cropper, an Arizona prisoner, stabbed a correctional officer to death at the Perryville state prison. A jury convicted Petitioner Dino Kyzar of conspiring with Cropper and others to commit a deadly or dangerous assault by a prisoner in violation of Ariz.Rev. Stat. Ann. § 13-1206.

Kyzar sought federal habeas relief on multiple grounds. In Kyzar’s first appeal, we vacated and remanded for the limited purpose of having the district court consider in the first instance whether the evidence adduced at trial was constitutionally insufficient to support his conviction. See Jackson v. Virginia, 448 U.S. 307 , 324, 99 S.Ct. 2781 , 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979) (holding that petitioner is entitled to habeas relief if, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, “no rational [jury] could have found proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt”).

On remand, the district court rejected Kyzar’s sufficiency of the evidence claim. We affirm.

I. Background

At this stage, we must view the record in the light most favorable to the prosecution and presume that the jury resolved any evidentiary conflicts in its favor. Id. at 326, 99 S.Ct. 2781…