Heck Van Tran v. Roland Colson

OPINION

ROGERS, Circuit Judge.

Heck Van Tran, a Tennessee prisoner under sentence of death, appeals the district court’s judgment denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Van Tran raised twenty-six claims in his original habeas petition. The district court and this court have certified three claims for this appeal: (1) whether Van Tran is intellectually disabled and his execution would therefore violate the Eighth Amendment under Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 122 S.Ct. 2242, 153 L.Ed.2d 335 (2002); 1 (2) whether, as applied to Van Tran’s crime, the…