Graham v. Hoke

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

NICKERSON, District Judge.

Petitioner applies for a writ of habeas corpus.

In 1982 in Supreme Court, Kings County, New York, petitioner, then nineteen years old, was convicted after a jury trial of murder in the second degree and robbery in the first degree. The court sentenced him to concurrent terms of twenty years to life on the murder conviction and twelve and one half to twenty five years on the robbery conviction.

Before trial the court denied petitioner’s motion for a severance of his case from that of his codefendant, Benjamin Stephens, despite the court’s ruling that…