Curtis Echols v. A.G. Thomas

Curtis Lee Echols, Jr., a Georgia prisoner, appeals from the judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia denying his petition for habe-as corpus relief filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Echols contends that the life sentences imposed upon him in state court were not authorized by state law and that his court-appointed attorney was ineffective for failing to so advise him or to challenge their imposition. Because Echols’ attacks on his sentences turned on an unanswered question of Georgia law, we certified the following question to the Supreme Court of…