United States of America Ex Rel. Bruce Barksdale v. Frank Blackburn, Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary

AINSWORTH, Circuit Judge:

Bruce Barksdale, seeking to set aside his seventeen-year-old conviction for aggravated rape, appeals from the district court denial of his petition for a writ of habeas *1117corpus. As the basis for his petition, Barks-dale, who is black, alleges that blacks were systematically excluded from the Orleans Parish grand jury which indicted him and from the petit jury venire which included the jurors who convicted him.1 A panel of this court, with one judge dissenting, agreed with Barksdale’s contentions and reversed the district court. United States ex rel. Barksdale v.…