United States Ninth Circuit

Denial of a petition for writ of habeas corpus from a conviction for special circumstances murder is reversed where: 1) a state court's conclusion, that petitioner's invocation of his right to remain silent was ambiguous, was an unreasonable application of Miranda and based on an unreasonable determination of the facts, particularly in light of petitioner's declaration, "I plead the Fifth"; 2) further, construing an officer's statement, "Plead the Fifth? What's that?", as asking what petitioner meant was also an unreasonable determination of the facts; and 3) the errors were not harmless.

Appellate Information

• Argued 10/09/2007
• Decided 02/15/2008
• Published 02/15/2008

Judges

• McKEOWN, Circuit Judge:, Before:  MARY M. SCHROEDER, STEPHEN REINHARDT, SIDNEY R. THOMAS, BARRY G. SILVERMAN, M. MARGARET McKEOWN, KIM McLANE WARDLAW, W. FLETCHER, RONALD M. GOULD, RICHARD A. PAEZ, RICHARD C. TALLMAN, JOHNNIE B. RAWLINSON, RICHARD R. CLIFTON, CONSUELO M. CALLAHAN, CARLOS T. BEA, and SANDRA S. IKUTA, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Charles M. Bonneau (argued), Sacramento, California, for the petitioner-appellant., Peter C. Pfaffenroth (argued), Jeffrey T. Green, Harold L. Rogers, Sidley Austin LLP, Washington, DC;  Charles D. Weisselberg, University of California School of Law (Boalt Hall), Berkeley, California;  David M. Porter, Sacramento, California;  Sheryl Gordon McCloud, Seattle, Washington, for amicus curiae National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.


• For Appellees:
  
• Rachelle A. Newcomb, Deputy Attorney General (argued) and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General;  Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General;  Michael P. Farrell, Senior Assistant Attorney General;  Stephen G. Herndon, Supervising Deputy Attorney General;  Brian R. Means, Deputy Attorney General;  Sacramento, California, for the respondent-appellee.