CARSON CITY —Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto announced today the U. S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the State of Nevada in McDaniel v. Troy Don Brown. 

“Troy Brown should not have had his conviction overturned by the federal courts,” said Attorney General Masto. “The Nevada Attorney General’s office is dedicated to assuring that every case will be tried in keeping with the letter of the law.  We are prepared to argue to the highest court of the land to keep this commitment.”

In the 1997 Elko County case, a jury convicted Troy Don Brown of two counts of sexual assault on a child under 14. Brown was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 10 years. Brown subsequently filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, claiming insufficient evidence to convict, but the Nevada Supreme Court found the record evidence was sufficient to sustain Brown’s conviction.

In subsequent proceedings in Federal Court, it was held that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the conviction.

At issue before the U.S. Supreme Court was the standard by which a federal habeas court should assess a sufficiency of the evidence claim under Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S.307 (1979). Jackson v. Virginia limits consideration of the evidence to that evidence presented at trial.  In the per curiam decision issued today, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals determination that there was not sufficient evidence to convict Troy Brown and directed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to consider Brown’s remaining claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.