Oloth Insyxiengmay v. Richard Morgan

Oloth Insyxiengmay was convicted of two counts of murder in the first degree and two counts of assault in the first degree for an attack on four high school teens who egged his gang’s hangout. Following his conviction and a series of appeals in the Washington state courts, In-syxiengmay petitioned the district court for a writ of habeas corpus. He now contends that the district court erred in dismissing three of the six claims on the ground that the claims were proeedurally barred and denying his Sixth Amendment claim that he and his counsel were improperly excluded from an in camera hearing regarding a confidential informant. The three claims that the district court dismissed on procedural grounds are that the trial court failed to give a manslaughter instruction (claim 1), that a non-testifying co-defendant’s statement inculpating In-syxiengmay should not have been received in evidence (claim 2), and that the prosecution’s key witness’s adverse polygraph examination results should have been admitted (claim 6). Because Insyxiengmay timely presented the claims to the Washington Supreme Court as federal issues, and because his allegations regarding his Sixth Amendment claim…