Frederick Lashley v. William Armontrout, Warden, Missouri Department of Corrections

ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.***

Frederick Lashley, a Missouri prisoner convicted of capital murder, appeals the District Court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 application for a writ of habeas corpus. We affirm the conviction, but reverse and remand for resentencing.

I

Lashley “brutally took the life of [a] physically infirm woman, who for many years had cared for and reared him, in order to rob her.” State v. Lashley, 667 S.W.2d 712, 716 (Mo.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 873, 105 S.Ct. 229, 83 L.Ed.2d 158 (1984). Lashley broke into his foster mother’s home while she was away, darkened the front room, and…