Danny Hendricks v. Kelly Lock, Superintendent of Central Missouri Correctional Center

RICHARD S. ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

In this appeal, the State of Missouri seeks to reverse the conditional grant of habeas corpus to Danny Hendricks, a Missouri prisoner. The District Court, 1 in granting the writ, held that the insufficient performance of appellate counsel had in effect denied Mr. Hendricks his first appeal of right in the state courts. We agree and affirm.

I

The facts, viewed in a light most favorable to the verdict, are as follows. A confidential informant helped an undercover Missouri detective to arrange to buy drugs from Mr. Hendricks’s sister, Connie Wood. Mr. Hendricks was…