Joel Munt v. Kent Grandlienard

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

Joel Marvin Munt was convicted by a jury in Minnesota state court of the shooting death of his ex-wife and of kidnaping his three children. Munt sought habeas relief in federal court, arguing that the state trial court violated the United States Constitution when it refused to strike a juror, identified by the initials B.S., as biased. The district court 2 denied Munt’s petition for habeas relief. We affirm.

I. Background

Munt murdered his ex-wife. Munt approached her car on a city street, shot her in the head four times, kidnaped his three children from his wife’s car and…