Circuit Watcher

07-10 Yarbrough v. Johnson
Published opinion after argument: Affirmed
Eastern District of Virginia 2:05-cv-00368-JBF Jerome B. Friedman
Before NIEMEYER and TRAXLER, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.
NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge: A jury in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, convicted Robert Yarbrough of the 1997 capital murder and robbery of Cyril Hamby, and sentenced him to death. The Supreme Court of Virginia vacated his sentence because of an erroneous jury instruction. On remand, a second jury sentenced Yarbrough to death again, and the Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed.
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After exhausting state procedures for post-conviction relief, Yarbrough filed the present petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, asserting six grounds for relief. The district court denied Yarbrough’s petition, but granted him a certificate of appealability with respect to his claim that his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective because he failed to request that the trial court appoint a DNA expert at public expense. We expanded the certificate of appealability to include Yarbrough’s claim that the trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective for inadequately investigating and presenting evidence in mitigation at sentencing.
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For the reasons that follow, we affirm the district court’s dismissal of Yarbrough’s two claims for which a certificate of appealability has been issued, concluding that in denying these claims on the merits, the Supreme Court of Virginia neither unreasonably applied clearly established federal law nor made an unreasonable determination of the facts. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). … Yarbrough v. Johnson.