Walter Dean Waring v. Paul Delo, Superintendent, Potosi Correctional Center, Missouri Department of Corrections

LOKEN, Circuit Judge.

The State of Missouri appeals a writ of habeas corpus. The district court granted the writ to petitioner Walter Dean Waring on the ground that the ten-year sentence imposed after his conviction for involuntary manslaughter was a vindictive judicial response to his prior withdrawal of a guilty plea. Having concluded that Waring did not receive a vindictive sentence, we reverse.

I

In the early morning hours of November 27, 1986, after a long night of drinking, Waring drove his employer’s truck through several marking posts and reflectors on a dead-end road near Irwin,…