1. This case presents an important question dividing the circuits regarding when a certificate of appealability must issue, so that a state prisoner denied habeas relief by a federal district court may appeal. See 28 U.S.C. § 2253. This Court has established that to obtain a COA, a prisoner need only demonstrate that "reasonable jurists could debate whether ... the petition should have been resolved in a different manner or that the issues presented were adequate to deserve encouragement to proceed further." Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000) (quotation marks omitted). In this case, the panel denied Shockley's petition for a COA in a 2-1 decision, in which one of the panel judges would have granted a COA on the ineffective assistance of trial counsel claim raised by Shockley, and the Eighth Circuit denied rehearing en banc over the dissents of two judges.

Whether a trial court's refusal to inquire into a juror's potential bias, stemming from a published book with violent vigilante themes, constitutes a violation of a criminal defendant's right to an impartial jury