RICHTER v. HICKMAN
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today released an opinion in RICHTER v. HICKMAN, No. 06-15614, a habeas corpus appeal. The panel consisted of Robert R. Beezer, Stephen S. Trott, and N. Randy Smith, Circuit Judges.
BEEZER, Circuit Judge:
Appellants in these two consolidated cases were jointly convicted of murder, attempted murder, robbery and burglary in California state court. They were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In the present action, they appeal the district court’s denial of writs of habeas corpus. Appellants allege that they received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial in violation of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984). Appellants further allege that the prosecution suppressed exculpatory evidence at trial in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963). Appellant Christian Branscombe (”Branscombe”) argues that his trial counsel failed to engage in “meaningful adversarial testing” in viola. . .