Lark v. Secretary Pennsylvania Department of Corrections

OPINION OF THE COURT

GREENBERG, Circuit Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

This matter comes on before this Court on appeal from a final order entered in the District Court on July 5, 2007, conditionally granting Appellee Robert Lark a writ of habeas corpus, vacating his Pennsylvania state court death sentence, and ordering the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to retry Lark within 180 days or release him.1 See Lark v. Beard, 495 F.Supp.2d 488 (E.D.Pa.2007) (“Lark II”). The Court granted the writ based on Lark’s claim that at his trial the Commonwealth violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause…