CHAD A. READLER, Circuit Judge. In state court, Richard Whitman stood trial for the shooting death of David Eadie. The trial court instructed the jury on self-defense but did not provide Whitman’s requested instruction on the castle doctrine. A jury convicted Whitman. Finding no relief on direct appeal, Whitman turned to federal habeas proceedings. The federal constitutional issue Whitman asks us to resolve in his favor, however, was not properly preserved in state court and is now barred from further review there. On that basis, Whitman has procedurally defaulted his claim. We thus affirm the district court’s judgment in the warden’s favor.