Richard James Kellogg v. Erik Skon, Warden

JOHN R. GIBSON, Circuit Judge.

Richard Kellogg petitioned the district court 1 for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a) (1994) following his conviction in Minnesota state court on two counts of criminal sexual conduct. The convictions resulted from the sexual abuse of his girlfriend’s six-year-old daughter. The district court denied Kellogg’s petition but granted his application for a certificate of appealability on two issues: whether the prosecutor’s commenting on the presumption of innocence and calling him a “monster” during closing argument violated his Constitution al…