013665P.pdf   03/11/2003  Stacey A. Lannert  v.  Patricia Jones
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  01-3665
   Eastern District of Missouri   
   Prisoner case- habeas. Argument that trial court violated 
   state law in refusing to admit battered spouse syndrome 
   evidence did not rise to the level of a constitutional 
   violation and did not give rise to a ground for federal 
   habeas relief; even if the claim was reviewable under 
   Hicks v. Oklahoma, 447 U.S. 343(1980), the state trial 
   court's exclusion of the evidence was not erroneous under 
   Missouri law where there was no evidence of abuse or 
   threats on the night Lannert murdered her father and 
   where the evidence showed she was the aggressor; 
   refusal to give self-defense instruction did not violate 
   Lannert's due process rights as she was not entitled to 
   such an instruction under Missouri law; 
   Judge Heaney concurring.