Karl Eric Gratzer v. Mike Mahoney, Warden

Karl Eric Gratzer appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for habeas corpus, claiming that a jury instruction in his 1982 trial in Montana for deliberate homicide violated his constitutional right to due process. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

The facts underlying Gratzer’s conviction for deliberate homicide are recounted at State v. Gratzer, 209 Mont. 308 , 682 P.2d 141 (1984); a summary suffices for our purposes. In December of 1981, the relationship between Gratzer and his then-girlfriend was deteriorating and Gratzer began to suspect that his girlfriend was interested in another man, Timothy Hull. On -the evening of April 14, 1982, Gratzer discovered his girlfriend’s car near a dormitory of the Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology; his girlfriend did not live in the dormitory. Gratzer was observed letting the air out of two tires of the car and was chased away by the observers.

Gratzer returned to' the parking lot armed with a .357 magnum pistol. He saw his girlfriend exit the dormitory, discover the flat tires, and reenter the dormitory. She came out of the dormitory hand-in-hand with Hull. As they approached the car, Gratzer confronted them with gun in…