John Michael Davis v. Walter D. Zant, Warden, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center

ANDERSON, Circuit Judge:

John Michael Davis appeals the denial of his federal petition for habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Davis was convicted by a jury of first degree murder and armed robbery in connection with the death by strangulation of Susan Marlene Isham; he pled guilty to theft arising from the same incident. He was sentenced to death for the murder, twenty years for the armed robbery and ten years for theft. Davis’s trial was conducted in June 1985. However, Patricia Underwood, Davis’s codefendant, has consistently maintained, since at least November 1984, that she…