State Ex Rel. Ballard v. Painter

Ricco J. Ballard, appellant/petitioner below (hereinafter referred to as “Mr. Ballard”) appeals from an order by the Circuit Court of Berkeley County dismissing Mr. Ballard’s petition for habeas corpus. 1 Mr. Ballard has assigned error to six rulings by the circuit court in dismissing the petition. Mr. Ballard contends that the circuit court committed reversible error in: (1) finding the sentence imposed by the trial judge was not excessive; (2) finding the State did not improperly use a peremptory strike to exclude the only African-American on the jury panel; (3) finding trial counsel did…