Sanders

MEMORANDUM **

The Supreme Court partly reversed our prior decision in this case. See Brown v. Sanders, — U.S.-, 126 S.Ct. 884 , 163 L.Ed.2d 723 (2006). We now consider the remaining claims in Petitioner-Appellant Ronald L. Sanders’ appeal of the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition challenging his conviction by jury trial for murder with special circumstances and his capital sentence. We reverse the district court’s denial of an evidentiary hearing on Sanders’ claim that his trial counsel, Frank Hoover, provided ineffective assistance by acquiescing in Sanders’ request to forgo a penalty defense, and we remand so that the district court can conduct a hearing to determine the merits of this claim. We affirm the district court’s denial of Sanders’ other penalty-phase claims, which are without merit.

I.

At Sanders’ own request, no mitigating circumstances were presented to the jury in the penalty phase of his trial. The facts regarding Sanders’ decision not to present evidence and Hoover’s decision not to investigate are not fully developed in the record. Nevertheless, at some point during Hoover’s representation, Sanders indicated that he did not…