Gary Watkins v. Jodi DeAngelo-Kipp

OPINION

BERNICE BOUIE DONALD, Circuit Judge.

Prior to a jury trial for charges arising from the murder of Quincy Varner, Gary Watkins submitted four times to psychiatric evaluation. Though the first evaluator found him incompetent, subsequent evaluators found him competent and criminally responsible for his actions. Despite his bizarre behavior during trial, including exhibiting paranoid beliefs and urinating on a television screen, defense counsel did not request a fifth psychiatric evaluation. A jury found Watkins guilty as charged. Nearly four years after filing a timely habeas petition…