Virgil v. Dretke

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:

We confront here a situation in which two persons, both expressly stating an inability to serve as fair and impartial jurors, found their way onto the jury that convicted Frank Virgil and sentenced him to thir ty years in prison. Virgil, now seeking a writ of habeas corpus, contends that counsel’s failure to challenge for cause these two jurors deprived him of his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel. We agree and hold that the state court’s decision to the contrary was an unreasonable application of clearly established Federal law as…