Van Hook v. Bobby

OPINION

MERRITT, Circuit Judge.

This opinion represents this panel’s fourth review of this case. Robert Van Hook petitioned for federal habeas corpus relief in 1995 after waiving trial by jury and after a three-judge Ohio panel sentenced him to death for the brutal murder of David Self in connection with a homosexual encounter and after the Ohio courts upheld Van Hook’s death sentence. State v. Van Hook, 39 Ohio St.3d 256, 530 N.E.2d 883, 884 (1988) (finding that Van Hook “lured Self into a vulnerable position,” strangled him, killed him with a kitchen knife and mutilated his body), cert.…