Kyzar v. Ryan

Leroy Cropper and Dino Kyzar (defendant) were prisoners in state prison. In 1997, Cropper cursed at correctional officers who had confiscated contraband from Cropper. Later, Cropper told another prisoner, Eugene Long, what happened and asked Long to summon Kyzar to Cropper’s cell. Cropper told Kyzar that he wanted “the good one”—prison slang for a knife or shank, an improvised sharp weapon—and made a stabbing motion. Kyzar asked Cropper if Cropper was sure about his plan and asked how much time Cropper had left on his sentence. Cropper told Kyzar that his sentence did not matter because Cropper was a career criminal. Kyzar then recruited another prisoner, Joshua Brice, to show Kyzar and Long where they could find a shank. Another prisoner showed Kyzar where a knife was hidden. Long retrieved the knife and returned to his cell. Kyzar asked another prisoner to ask Long if the preparations had been handled, and the other prisoner was told that preparations had been made. Cropper used the knife given to him by Long to stab and kill a correctional officer. The prison was locked down after the killing, and Kyzar was detained outside with Brice. Kyzar and Brice witnessed Cropper and Long being escorted out of the building in restraints while guards yelled at Cropper and cried. Kyzar then told Brice, who knew the knife was given to Cropper, to keep Brice’s mouth shut. Kyzar was charged with conspiring with Cropper to commit a dangerous or deadly assault by a prisoner, and the jury found Kyzar guilty. Kyzar lost a state court appeal of his conviction and filed a petition for habeas corpus in federal court, arguing that the conviction was invalid under the Due Process Clause because insufficient evidence existed to support the conviction. The district court denied Kyzar’s petition. Kyzar appealed.