The following excerpt is from Severson v. Marshall, 46 F.3d 1145 (9th Cir. 1995):
A jury instruction is constitutionally sound if it creates a permissive inference that allows, but does not require, the jury to infer an essential fact from proof of another fact so long as "the inferred fact is more likely than not to flow from the proved fact on which it is made to depend." Schwendeman v. Wallenstein, 971 F.2d 313, 316 (9th Cir.1992) (citations and internal quotations omitted), cert. denied, 113 S.Ct. 975 (1993). An improper jury instruction merits habeas relief only if the instruction so infected the entire trial that the resulting conviction violated due process. Estelle, 112 S.Ct. at 482.
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