Larry D. Calloway v. Frank Blackburn, Warden

HENDERSON, Circuit Judge:

The appellant, Larry D. Calloway, was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to death on November 14, 1974, pursuant to the mandatory death penalty provision of Louisiana’s first-degree murder statute. La.Rev.Stat.Ann. § 14:30 (1974). On July 2, 1976, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the mandatory death penalty imposed by this statute violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. Roberts v. Louisiana, 428 U.S. 325, 96 S.Ct. 3001, 49 L.Ed.2d 974, reh. denied, 429 U.S. 890, 97 S.Ct. 248, 50 L.Ed.2d 173…