BOYD v. NEWLAND
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today released an amended order in BOYD v. NEWLAND, No. 03-17098, a habeas corpus appeal. The panel consisted of Richard D. Cudahy, Susan P. Graber, and Raymond C. Fisher, Circuit Judges.
GRABER, Circuit Judge:
The California courts denied a Batson motion made by Petitioner Mobassa Boyd and denied his request for a free transcript of the entire voir dire for use on appeal. We must ask whether those rulings were contrary to, or unreasonably applied, clearly established federal law as determined by the Supreme Court. In an earlier decision in this case, we answered “no.” Boyd v. Newland, 393 F.3d 1008 (9th Cir. 2004). In response to a petition for rehearing and in light of recent Supreme Court cases clarifying Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), we conclude that our earlier analysis was flawed. We now hold that the California appellate courts violated clearly established federal law by denying Petitioner’s habeas petition because, without an entire voir dire transcript, those courts could not evaluate the relevant circumstances surrounding the contested strike, as Batson requires. In that respect we reverse and remand with instructions to grant the petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Petitioner also argues that the California courts erred by enhancing his sentence because of a nonjury juvenile adjudication. As in our earlier decision, we disagree and, in this respect, affirm. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Petitioner Mobassa Boyd is African-American. He was charged in California with unlawfully possessing a firearm after having previously suffered a juvenile adjudication for a felony, Cal. Penal Code § 12021(e), and with unlawfully possessing a sawed-off shotgun, id. § 12020(a)(1). . . .
The Amended Opinion filed on June 26, 2006, slip op. at 7011, and published at 455 F.3d 897 (9th Cir. 2006), is amended as follows:
On slip opinion page 7032, line 20, after the sentence ending “entire voir dire transcript” add:
A transcript of the complete voir dire, as distinct from a partial transcript up to the time of the Batson motion, is proper because comparative juror analysis is appropriate both at the time of the Batson motion and in light of all subsequent voir dire testimony. See . . .