This is #2 in http://jira.jboss.com/jira/browse/JGRP-145, split into itw own issue:

When a joiner P requests the state from coordinator C, then 2 use cases are not handled:
#2 C crashes while the state transfer is in progress

#2 is similar to the client JOIN, where the JOIN is redirected to the new coordinator. However, this is not done for state transfer.
In this case, P probably continues to wait for the state forever. We need to either return from Channel.getState() with an exception, or redirect the state request to the new coordinator