Yokamon Hearn v. Rick Thaler, Director

EDITH BROWN CLEMENT, Circuit Judge:

Yokamon Laneal Hearn was charged in Texas state court with the murder of Joseph Franklin Meziere. A jury found Hearn guilty of murder committed in the course of a kidnapping and robbery — a capital offense — and the state court sentenced him to death based on the jury’s verdict on the two special issues at sentencing. Hearn petitioned unsuccessfully for post-conviction relief in state court and his initial federal habeas petition in federal district court was dismissed. However, on the basis of the Supreme Court’s decision in Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S.…