United States Ninth Circuit
Durbin v. People of the State of California, 10-56548
The district court's denial of defendant' habeas corpus petition challenging the use of one of the prior convictions to enhance his sentence to 25 years to life under California's Three Strikes Law, is reversed and remanded, where: 1) although defendant has fully served the sentence for the 2000 conviction for making criminal threats, he is "in custody" for the 2008 sentence for purposes of habeas review; and 2) when a defendant cannot be faulted for failing to obtain timely review of a constitutional challenge to an expired prior conviction, as here, and that conviction is used to enhance his sentence for a later offense, he may challenge the enhanced sentence under 28 U.S.C. section 2254 on the ground that the prior conviction was unconstitutionally obtained.
Appellate Information
- Decided 06/20/2013
- Published 06/20/2013
Judges
- WATFORD
Court
- United States Ninth Circuit