Gregory Christian v. David Ballard

Affirmed by published opinion. Chief Judge TRAXLER wrote the majority opinion, in which Judge AGEE joined. Judge GREGORY wrote a separate dissenting opinion.

TRAXLER, Chief Judge:

In September 2003, petitioner Gregory Brent Christian (“Christian”) pled guilty in West Virginia state court to two counts of first-degree armed robbery, and to one count of malicious assault arising out of his shooting of a police officer who was investigating the robberies. Pursuant to a plea agreement, Christian was sentenced to concurrent terms of 25 years imprisonment on the robbery counts, and to a consecutive…