091062P.pdf   07/15/2010  Kenneth Williams  v.  Larry Norris
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  09-1062
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Pine Bluff   
   [PUBLISHED] [Wollman, Author, with Riley, Chief Judge, and
   Melloy, Circuit Judge]
   Prisoner case - habeas. Arkansas courts' decision not to admit
   testimony of a corrections expert regarding prison negligence regarding
   Williams' escape was in accord with federal law and was not erroneous;
   even if the refusal to admit the evidence was error, it was harmless as
   Williams was allowed to introduce other evidence on the issue and the
   jury was not precluded from considering the negligence as a mitigating
   factor; insofar as victim impact testimony at sentencing asked the jury to
   act affirmatively and impose a death sentence it violated Supreme Court
   case law proscribing such testimony; however, the error was not so
   unduly prejudicial as to render the trial fundamentally unfair, and Williams
   was not entitled to relief on the claim; prospective juror, while initially
   hesitant, stated she could weigh all of the factors in the case and was not
   impermissibly biased; as a result, counsel was not ineffective for failing
   to move to strike the juror or object to her presence on the jury; any error
   in filling out the jury form on mitigating circumstances was harmless and
   counsel's performance was not ineffective; claim that counsel was
   ineffective in failing to produce certain mitigation testimony rejected;
   objection to trial in prison attire was without merit in light of the fact 
   that Williams was being tried for a murder committed during a prison escape;
   Arkansas courts applied the correct standards in considering Williams's
   claim that trial in restraints and in the presence of guards prejudiced the
   jury; Williams had no right for funding to investigate entirely speculative
   claims of juror misconduct.