United States Ninth Circuit

Grant of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in a murder case is affirmed over the state's claims of error where: 1) petitioner's claim on which relief was granted was properly exhausted; 2) on the merits, he demonstrated ineffective assistance of counsel under Strickland; and 3) the state court's decision to the contrary constituted an unreasonable application of clearly established Supreme Court law.

Appellate Information

• Argued 06/09/2006
• Decided 09/06/2006
• Published 09/06/2006

Judges

• REINHARDT, Circuit Judge:, Before: REINHARDT, TROTT, and WARDLAW, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Bill Lockyer, Attorney General for the State of California;  Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General;  Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General;  Kenneth C. Byrne, Supervising Deputy Attorney General (on the briefs);  Xiomara Costello, Deputy Attorney General, Los Angeles, CA (argued), for the respondent-appellant., Maria E. Stratton, Federal Public Defender (on the briefs);  Mark R. Drozdowski, Deputy Federal Public Defender, Los Angeles, CA (argued), for the petitioner-appellee.