Watkins v. Straub

OPINION

GILMAN, Circuit Judge.

Donald Watkins, a Michigan prisoner, appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Watkins was convicted by a state-court jury in July of 1992 of first-degree murder and other offenses. The district court denied both his petition and his application for a certificate of appealability. A prior panel of this court granted a certificate of appealability as to the single issue of whether the claims raised in Watkins’s habeas petition were procedurally defaulted. For the reasons set forth below, we…