Clinton D. Wallace v. Jason Johnson, Director, Division of Adult Parole Operations

CourtDistrict Court, E.D. California
DecidedSeptember 22, 2025
Docket2:23-cv-02667
StatusUnknown

This text of Clinton D. Wallace v. Jason Johnson, Director, Division of Adult Parole Operations (Clinton D. Wallace v. Jason Johnson, Director, Division of Adult Parole Operations) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clinton D. Wallace v. Jason Johnson, Director, Division of Adult Parole Operations, (E.D. Cal. 2025).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 10 CLINTON D. WALLACE, No. 2:23-cv-2667 DJC CSK 11 Petitioner, 12 v. ORDER & FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS 13 JASON JOHNSON, Director, Division of Adult Parole Operations, 14 Respondent.1 15 16 17 I. INTRODUCTION 18 Petitioner is a former state prisoner, proceeding without counsel, with a petition for writ of 19 habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §2254. Petitioner challenges his 2022 conviction for three 20 counts of possession of a firearm by a felon (Cal. Penal Code § 29800(a)(1)) and one count of 21 possession of ammunition by a felon (Cal. Penal Code § 30305(a)(1)). Petitioner was sentenced 22 to four years imprisonment. The petition raises one claim: petitioner’s statement regarding his 23 place of employment was obtained in violation of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) and 24 should not have been used against petitioner at trial. After carefully considering the record, this 25

1 Following the filing of the petition, petitioner was released from incarceration and placed on 26 parole. Accordingly, this Court substitutes Jason Johnson, Director, Division of Adult Parole 27 Operations, as the proper respondent. See Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases, Rule 2 (if the petitioner is in custody under a state court judgment, the petition must name as respondent the 28 state court officer who has custody). 1 Court recommends that the petition be denied. 2 II. STANDARDS FOR A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS UNDER ANTITERRORISM 3 AND EFFECTIVE DEATH PENALTH ACT (AEDPA) 4 An application for a writ of habeas corpus by a person in custody under a judgment of a 5 state court can be granted only for violations of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United 6 States. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a). A federal writ is not available for alleged error in the interpretation 7 or application of state law. See Wilson v. Corcoran, 562 U.S. 1, 5 (2010); Estelle v. McGuire, 8 502 U.S. 62, 67-68 (1991). 9 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) sets forth the following standards for granting federal habeas corpus 10 relief: 11 An application for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court shall not be granted 12 with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings unless the adjudication of the claim - 13 (1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an 14 unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United 15 States; or 16 (2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence 17 presented in the State court proceeding. 18 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). 19 For purposes of applying § 2254(d)(1), “clearly established Federal law” consists of 20 holdings of the Supreme Court at the time of the last reasoned state court decision. Thompson v. 21 Runnels, 705 F.3d 1089, 1096 (9th Cir. 2013) (citing Greene v. Fisher, 565 U.S. 34, 39-40 22 (2011)); Stanley v. Cullen, 633 F.3d 852, 859 (9th Cir. 2011) (citing Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 23 362, 412 (2000)). Circuit court precedent “may be persuasive in determining what law is clearly 24 established and whether a state court applied that law unreasonably.” Stanley, 633 F.3d at 859 25 (quoting Maxwell v. Roe, 606 F.3d 561, 567 (9th Cir. 2010)). However, circuit precedent may 26 not be “used to refine or sharpen a general principle of Supreme Court jurisprudence into a 27 specific legal rule that th[e] [Supreme] Court has not announced.” Marshall v. Rodgers, 569 U.S. 28 58, 64 (2013) (citing Parker v. Matthews, 567 U.S. 37, 48-49 (2012) (per curiam)). Nor may it be 1 used to “determine whether a particular rule of law is so widely accepted among the Federal 2 Circuits that it would, if presented to th[e] [Supreme] Court, be accepted as correct. Id. Further, 3 where courts of appeals have diverged in their treatment of an issue, there is no “clearly 4 established federal law” governing that issue. See Carey v. Musladin, 549 U.S. 70, 77 (2006). 5 A state court decision is “contrary to” clearly established federal law if it applies a rule 6 contradicting a holding of the Supreme Court or reaches a result different from Supreme Court 7 precedent on “materially indistinguishable” facts. Price v. Vincent, 538 U.S. 634, 640 (2003). 8 Under the “unreasonable application” clause of § 2254(d)(1), “a federal habeas court may grant 9 the writ if the state court identifies the correct governing legal principle from [the Supreme 10 Court’s] decisions, but unreasonably applies that principle to the facts of the prisoner’s case.”2 11 Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63, 75 (2003) (quoting Williams, 529 U.S. at 413); see also Chia v. 12 Cambra, 360 F.3d 997, 1002 (9th Cir. 2004). In this regard, “a federal habeas court may not issue 13 the writ simply because that court concludes in its independent judgment that the relevant state- 14 court decision applied clearly established federal law erroneously or incorrectly. Rather, that 15 application must also be unreasonable.” Williams, 529 U.S. at 411; see also Schriro v. Landrigan, 16 550 U.S. 465, 473 (2007); Lockyer, 538 U.S. at 75 (“It is not enough that a federal habeas court, 17 in its independent review of the legal question, is left with a firm conviction that the state court 18 was erroneous”) (internal quotations and citation omitted). “A state court’s determination that a 19 claim lacks merit precludes federal habeas relief so long as ‘fairminded jurists could disagree’ on 20 the correctness of the state court’s decision.” Harrington v. Richter, 562 U.S. 86, 101 (2011) 21 (quoting Yarborough v. Alvarado, 541 U.S. 652, 664 (2004)). Accordingly, “[a]s a condition for 22 obtaining habeas corpus from a federal court, a state prisoner must show that the state court’s 23 ruling on the claim being presented in federal court was so lacking in justification that there was 24 an error well understood and comprehended in existing law beyond any possibility for fair- 25 minded disagreement.” Id. at 103. 26 2 Under § 2254(d)(2), a state court decision based on a factual determination is not to be 27 overturned on factual grounds unless it is “objectively unreasonable in light of the evidence presented in the state court proceeding.” Stanley, 633 F.3d at 859 (quoting Davis v. Woodford, 28 384 F.3d 628, 638 (9th Cir. 2004)). 1 If the state court’s decision does not meet the criteria set forth in § 2254(d), a reviewing 2 court must conduct a de novo review of a habeas petitioner’s claims. Delgadillo v. Woodford, 3 527 F.3d 919, 925 (9th Cir.

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Miranda v. Arizona
384 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1966)
Chapman v. California
386 U.S. 18 (Supreme Court, 1967)
Fare v. Michael C.
442 U.S. 707 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Estelle v. McGuire
502 U.S. 62 (Supreme Court, 1991)
Lockyer v. Andrade
538 U.S. 63 (Supreme Court, 2003)
Price, Warden v. Vincent
538 U.S. 634 (Supreme Court, 2003)
Wiggins v. Smith, Warden
539 U.S. 510 (Supreme Court, 2003)
Yarborough v. Alvarado
541 U.S. 652 (Supreme Court, 2004)
Schriro v. Landrigan
550 U.S. 465 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Carey v. Musladin
549 U.S. 70 (Supreme Court, 2006)
Maxwell v. Roe
606 F.3d 561 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
Wilson v. Corcoran
131 S. Ct. 13 (Supreme Court, 2010)
Harrington v. Richter
131 S. Ct. 770 (Supreme Court, 2011)
Stanley v. Cullen
633 F.3d 852 (Ninth Circuit, 2011)
Greene v. Fisher
132 S. Ct. 38 (Supreme Court, 2011)
Robert Lewis Himes v. S. Frank Thompson
336 F.3d 848 (Ninth Circuit, 2003)
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Bluebook (online)
Clinton D. Wallace v. Jason Johnson, Director, Division of Adult Parole Operations, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clinton-d-wallace-v-jason-johnson-director-division-of-adult-parole-caed-2025.