Saranchak v. Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections

OPINION

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

This is the second appeal from District Court action on Daniel Saranchak’s petition for writ of habeas corpus following his conviction on first degree murder charges of killing both his grandmother, Stella Sar-anchok, 1 and his uncle, Edmund Saranc-hak. The first issue Saranchak raises in this appeal is whether the District Court erred when it rejected Saranchak’s claim that the degree-of-guilt phase of his trial in the Court of Common Pleas of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania was suffused with prejudice from the cumulative errors arising out of his counsel’s…