Ike Easley, Jr. v. Sheldon Frey

TERENCE T. EVANS, Circuit Judge.

Robert Taylor, the superintendent at Illinois’ Pontiac Correctional Center, was stabbed to death in his office on the morning of September 3, 1987. The murder weapon was a homemade knife — in prison parlance, a “shank.” Ike Easley, an inmate at Pontiac, was tried and convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to death in connection with the crime. Later, his sentence was commuted to life in prison. He is here today appealing the denial of his petition for habeas corpus, see Easley v. Hinsley, 305 F.Supp.2d 867 (N.D.Ill. 2004), filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §…