                                  OPINION

BEFORE: McKEAGUE and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges; POLSTER, District Judge.*

        McKEAGUE, Circuit Judge. While at a gas station in Tennessee, Frederick Morrow

and his friends encountered a pickup truck flying the Confederate flag. Unhappy with this

display and “looking for a fight,” they chased the truck along a highway while Morrow fired

several bullets. One struck the driver in the chest, and he died the next day. Morrow was

convicted of civil rights intimidation, attempted aggravated kidnapping, and felony murder in

Tennessee state court. He filed a petition for habeas corpus in thea flagpole welded to the

toolbox in the truckbed. The couple stopped in Guthrie, Kentucky, to buy gas at Janie’s Market.

Damien Darden, 17, was parked at Janie’s Market with three friends in his car, Morrow, 17;

Marcus Merriweather, 15; and Tony Andrews, 17. All four young men are African American.

       Damien saw the Confederate flag and told his friends that he wanted to fight the

occupants of the truck. Damien left briefly to gather more friends and two cars returned with

him. In the first car, Robert Bell drove with Ricky Williams and Michael Mimms. In the second

car, Octavius Burks drove with Marcus Darden, who is Damien Darden’s brother. When the cars

returned to Janie’s Market, there was an encounter between the Westermans and Damien’s car.

The details