Marshall Batchelor v. Burl Cain, Warden

DENNIS, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from the district court’s grant of habeas relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Months before his criminal trial, petitioner-appellee Marshall Batchelor moved to dismiss his appointed counsel in exercise of his constitutional right to represent himself under Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975). The state trial court denied the motion and Batchelor was subsequently convicted by a jury of armed robbery and sentenced to sixty years of imprisonment. On direct appeal, a state appellate court reversed the conviction due to the…