United States Ninth Circuit

Grant of petitioner's habeas petition challenging his conviction of first-degree murder is reversed and remanded with directions to enter judgment for the state, where: 1) after petitioner's conviction, but before his conviction became final, the Nevada Supreme Court in Byford v. State invalidated the Kazalyn instruction and replaced it with a separate instruction, and subsequently determined that Byford was applicable to cases pending on direct appeal when Byford was decided, and failure to apply the new Byford instruction was considered an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law under 28 U.S.C. section 2254(d)(1); 2) following the grant of habeas relief, SCOTUS clarified section 2254(d)(1)'s unreasonable application clause in White v. Woodall; and 3) under Woodall, the state court did not unreasonably apply federal law in originally denying petitioner’s Byford claim.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/15/2014
• Published 08/15/2014

Judges

• TASHIMA

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel