Vickers v. Stewart

. SCHROEDER, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Robert Vickers was an inmate on Arizona’s death row when he burned a fellow inmate to death by splashing burning liquid through the food slot of the victim’s cell. Vickers started the fire with an incendiary device he created by pouring bottles of hair tonic into an empty ice cream container, stuffing a tissue inside and lighting it. A jury convicted Vickers of first degree murder and the trial judge sentenced him to death. This is an appeal from the district court’s *615denial of Vickers’ first federal petition for writ of habeas corpus.

The facts are set…