United States Ninth Circuit

Denial of a habeas petition challenging a death sentence is reversed where: 1) a state trial court's failure to give a felony-murder special circumstance jury instruction violated due process; 2) retroactive application of a new interpretation of case law and of the felony-murder special circumstance statute, on direct review, violated due process; and 3) the violations were not harmless.

Appellate Information

• Argued 02/17/2005
• Decided 03/17/2006
• Published 03/17/2006

Judges

• Before DOROTHY W. NELSON, WILLIAM A. FLETCHER, and RAYMOND C. FISHER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Maria E. Stratton, Sean K. Kennedy and Mark R. Drozdowski, Office of the Federal Public Defender, Los Angeles, CA, for the petitioner-appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bill Lockyer, Robert R. Anderson, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Keith H. Borjon and Scott A. Taryle, Office of the California Attorney General, Los Angeles, CA, for the respondent-appellee.