Robert Allan Cornell, Appellee/cross-Appellant v. State of Iowa, Appellant/cross-Appellee

SCHATZ, District Judge.

Appellee, Robert Allan Cornell, was convicted by a jury in Iowa state court of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Following an unsuccessful appeal to the state supreme court, State v. Cornell, 266 N.W.2d 15 (Iowa), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 947 (1978), Cornell filed the instant petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Among his asserted grounds for relief, Cornell claimed that the trial judge improperly coerced a verdict when he inquired into the numerical division of the jury after they had retired to deliberate on the case and then followed the inquiry…