Boyer

Oregon state prisoner Andrew Lee Boyer appeals the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition. He argues that the evidence presented was constitutionally insufficient for a rational jury to find him guilty of attempted aggravated murder beyond a reasonable doubt. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253(a). Our review of the evidence convinces us that the prosecution presented evidence of specific intent to kill, as that element has been defined by Oregon state law and interpreted by the state appellate court. Accordingly, the state court’s determination that there was sufficient evidence of Boyer’s intent to support a conviction for attempted aggravated murder was an objectively reasonable application of Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307 , 99 S.Ct. 2781 , 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). We affirm.

I. Factual and Procedural History

In 1997, a jury convicted Boyer of more than twenty counts of sexual offenses, including sexual abuse, sodomy, and attempted sodomy. Boyer was also convicted of two counts of attempted aggravated murder, based on the theory that, in the course of and in furtherance of the crimes of sexual abuse and…