BEATY v. SCHRIRO
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today released an opinion in BEATY v. SCHRIRO, No. 05-99013, a habeas corpus appeal. The panel consisted of Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, Susan P. Graber, and M. Margaret McKeown, Circuit Judges.
O’SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge:
We previously remanded this capital habeas appeal to the district court with instructions to conduct an evidentiary hearing on whether Petitioner’s inculpatory statements to a prison psychologist were voluntary within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment. We must now decide whether the district court erred in subsequently concluding that such statements were constitutionally voluntary and therefore properly admitted at Petitioner’s trial. I A Donald Edward Beaty was convicted in Arizona state court for the murder and sexual assault of thirteen-year-old Christy Ann Fornoff. The facts surrounding this crime were detailed in our previous opinion:
. . .