Covello

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 ERIC MINCHAK, No. 2:20-cv-00063 KJM GGH P Petitioner, v. FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS PATRICK COVELLO, Respondent.

17 Introduction and Summary Petitioner, a state prisoner proceeding through counsel, has filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The matter was referred to the United States Magistrate Judge pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1) and Local Rule 302(e). Petitioner, Eric Minchak, had a post-adulthood, tragic history of deteriorating mental illness. He robbed and murdered a person at a gas station (the “murder”), and the issues in this petition center around whether petitioner was sane at the time of the crime commission. Petitioner asserts that he was denied due process in the sanity phase. Specifically, petitioner asserts by giving an instruction that was at best incomplete, and at worst, at odds with state law with respect to potential overlap between a mental…