Gary Burris v. Al C. Parke, Superintendent, Indiana State Prison, and Pamela Carter, Attorney General of the State of Indiana

POSNER, Chief Judge.

This death-penalty case, twice reargued before the full court, has a tortured history. In 1981 Gary Bums, convicted in an Indiana state court of a murder committed in 1980, was sentenced to death. The judgment was affirmed by the state’s highest court, Burris v. State, 465 N.E.2d 171 (Ind.1984), and Burris then sought postconviction relief in the Indiana courts. On appeal from the denial of relief by the trial court, the state’s supreme court upheld the conviction but vacated the death sentence. Burris v. State, 558 N.E.2d 1067 (Ind.1990). A new sentencing hearing was…