Kenneth Cantrell v. State of Alabama

GODBOLD, Circuit Judge:

This appeal requires application of the constitutional standards governing adequacy of representation by retained counsel, set out in Fitzgerald v. Estelle, 505 F.2d 1334 (CA5) (en banc), cert. denied, 422 U.S. 1011, 95 S.Ct. 236, 45 L.Ed.2d 675 (1975). The district court denied the writ of habeas corpus to appellant, a state prisoner. We reverse.

Appellant, represented by privately retained counsel, was convicted by an Alabama jury of first degree murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 1965. The events of his merits appeal are described in Cantrell v.…