Kenneth Gray v. Jeff Norman

COLLOTON, Circuit Judge.

Kenneth Gray was convicted of second-degree murder, first-degree burglary, and armed criminal action in Missouri state court. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence on direct appeal, State v. Gray, 100 S.W.3d 881 (Mo.Ct.App.2003) (Gray I), and later affirmed the denial of Gray’s motion for post-conviction relief. State v. Gray, No. SD29047 (Mo.Ct.App. Dec. 29, 2008) (Gray II). Gray filed a petition for writ of habe-as corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, raising federal constitutional challenges to his conviction. The district court 1 denied…