Dennis Thompson, Jr. v. Deirdre Battaglia

WOOD, Circuit Judge.

In a fit of rage provoked by his father’s beating of his stepmother a day earlier, nineteen-year-old Dennis Thompson, Jr., shot and killed his father and his father’s girlfriend, Don Renee Rouse. Thompson was convicted of first-degree murder for the two killings and, although he faced the death penalty, was sentenced to life in prison. After the Illinois courts affirmed his conviction and rejected his post-conviction appeal, he turned to the federal district court, which denied his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We now affirm that denial.

I

Dennis Thompson, Sr.…