Jacques Slocum v. Wendy Kelley

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

Jacques R. Slocum was convicted in Arkansas state court of second-degree murder, endangering the welfare of a minor, and fleeing. He was sentenced to 99 years’ imprisonment. After exhausting his state post-conviction relief remedies, he filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, alleging several claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. The district court 2 dismissed Slocum’s ha-beas petition as proeedurally defaulted but granted a certificate of appealability on whether Slocum had a substantial claim that his trial counsel was ineffective…