Keith Fair, Cross-Appellant v. Walter D. Zant, Warden, Georgia Diagnostic Classification Center, Cross-Appellee

VANCE, Circuit Judge:

This case comes before us on an appeal and cross-appeal from the district court’s decision granting Keith Fair’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Fair sought habeas relief on the ground, inter alia, that the trial judge improperly refused to permit him to withdraw his guilty plea after the oral announcement of the death sentence. The state supreme court affirmed. Fair v. State, 245 Ga. 868, 268 S.E.2d 316, cert, denied, 449 U.S. 986, 101 S.Ct. 407, 66 L.Ed.2d 250 (1980). The district court concluded that the events preceding Fair’s guilty plea destroyed its voluntary…