Dewayne C. Britz v. Roger D. Cowan, Warden

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that a defendant who is insane at the time of the offense is actually innocent for purposes of the fundamental miscarriage of justice test
• holding that if acquitted on grounds of insanity, a defendant is actually innocent of murder, notwithstanding the fact that he caused the death of his victim
• holding that the defense of insanity renders a petitioner factually innocent rather than legally innocent, and therefore this affirmative defense is a cognizable actual innocence claim under Schlup
• explaining that affirmative defense can be grounds for actual innocence because a jury acquitting based on the affirmative defense means the defendant was actually innocent
• suggesting that evidence of insanity could satisfy actual innocence exception
• “One can kill and yet be innocent of murder.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).