Holmes v. Levenhagen

POSNER, Circuit Judge.

This is the latest stage in a protracted federal habeas corpus proceeding in which Eric Holmes (we shall continue to call him by that name even though he changed it to “Koor An Nur of Katie Mary Brown” after converting to Islam) challenges the death sentence that an Indiana court imposed on him in 1993 after a jury convicted him of two murders that he had been accused of committing in 1989. He sought federal habeas corpus in 2001, raising a number of colorable issues one of which was whether he was competent to assist his lawyers in that proceeding. The district judge,…