Christopher Johnson v. George A. Vose, Jr.

COFFIN, Senior Circuit Judge.

After closing arguments at Christopher Johnson’s state trial for armed robbery and assault, during a bench conference, the judge stated for the record that the defendant had rejected an offered sentence of six-to-nine years. 1 Johnson subsequently was found guilty by the jury, and the judge thereafter imposed a nine-to-fifteen-year sentence. In his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, Johnson claims that the harsher sentence should be presumed vindictive, and thus violative of his due process rights, under the principles established in North Carolina v. Pearce,…