Richard Adams Hovey v. Robert L. Ayers, Jr., Acting Warden, California State Prison at San Quentin

WARDLAW, Circuit Judge.

Richard Hovey appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He seeks relief from his 1982 conviction and sentence of death for first degree murder during the course of a kidnapping. He asserts that more than a dozen errors infected his trial, principally: denial of the due process right to be present at a mid-trial hearing on his attorney’s competence; ineffective assistance of counsel at the guilt and penalty phases; Griffin error, see Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965); Brady error, see Brady v.…