MERAS v. Sisto

676 F.3d 1184, 2012 WL 1382857, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 8104
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedApril 23, 2012
Docket09-15399
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 676 F.3d 1184 (MERAS v. Sisto) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
MERAS v. Sisto, 676 F.3d 1184, 2012 WL 1382857, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 8104 (9th Cir. 2012).

Opinions

Opinion by Chief Judge KOZINSKI; Concurrence by Judge BEA.

OPINION

KOZINSKI, Chief Judge:

Edward L. Meras, a California state prisoner, appeals the district court’s order denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He claims that testimony introduced during his trial violated his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation. He’s probably right, but he loses anyway.

Background

Intruders broke into Richard Peabody’s home, stabbed him multiple times and stole property. Soon after, police found a bloodstained pair of blue jeans in Meras’s apartment. Criminalist Jennai Lawson performed DNA analysis on the blood and produced a lab report concluding that it was Peabody’s. Lawson testified at Meras’s first trial, which ended in a hung jury. She was busy during Meras’s second trial, so the state called her supervisor, Jill Spriggs, to testify to the contents of her report. Meras objected that Lawson’s report was hearsay, and introducing it through Spriggs would violate his right to confront witnesses against him. The court overruled the objection, holding that the report was admissible under the business records exception to the hearsay rule, and allowed Spriggs to testify to its contents:

Q. [D]oes the file reflect where Ms. Lawson got [the jeans] from?
A. Yes, she got them from the freezer.
Q. Great. Did she also receive blood samples associated with ... Edward Meras and Richard Peabody?
A. Yes.
Q. And did she perform DNA typing analysis on those items of evidence?
A. Yes.
Q. And what were the results of the tests that she performed on those items?
A. The ... genetic profile, obtained from blood stains on the ... jeans[, is] the same as Richard Peabody’s.

The jury found Meras guilty of robbery, burglary and assault with a deadly weapon. He appealed the Confrontation Clause ruling, but the California Court of Appeal affirmed in a reasoned decision. People v. Meras, No. F044043, 2005 WL 1562735 (Cal.Ct.App. July 5, 2005) (unpublished). The California Supreme Court summarily denied review, and Meras did not file a petition for a writ of certiorari.

[1187]*1187He did file a timely federal habeas petition, which the district court denied. Meras v. Sisto, No. l:07-cv-00400-JMD-HC, 2009 WL 382641 (E.D.Cal. Feb. 13, 2009) (unpublished order). We granted a certificate of appealability as to “whether the trial court violated [Meras’s] Sixth Amendment right to confrontation by admitting a non-testifying expert’s lab report and/or extrajudicial statements into evidence.”

Analysis

We review the district court’s decision de novo. Doody v. Ryan, 649 F.3d 986, 1001 (9th Cir.2011) (en banc). Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”), the district court was bound to reject Meras’s Confrontation Clause claim unless the state court’s adjudication resulted in a decision that either (1) “was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States,” or (2) “was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). Meras relies on the former provision.

1. We must first decide what constitutes “clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States,” for purposes of Meras’s Confrontation Clause claim. See Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63, 71, 123 S.Ct. 1166, 155 L.Ed.2d 144 (2003). Section 2254(d)’s “backward-looking language requires an examination of the state-court decision at the time it was made.” Greene v. Fisher, — U.S.-, 132 S.Ct. 38, 44, 181 L.Ed.2d 336 (2011) (internal quotation marks omitted). It “requires federal courts to focu[s] on what a state court knew and did,” so “clearly established Federal law” includes only Supreme Court decisions “as of the time the state court renders its decision.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted) (emphasis and alteration in original); see Nardi v. Pepe, 662 F.3d 107, 110 (1st Cir.2011) (“[0]nly Supreme Court precedent in effect at the time of the state court adjudication on the merits counts as ‘clearly established Federal law----’” (quoting id.)). The last state court adjudication on the merits of Meras’s claim was that of the California Court of Appeal in 2005.

Meras relies on three Supreme Court decisions: Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U.S. 305, 129 S.Ct. 2527, 174 L.Ed.2d 314 (2009), and Bullcoming v. New Mexico, — U.S. -, 131 S.Ct. 2705, 180 L.Ed.2d 610 (2011). Of these, only Crawford was decided before the Court of Appeal affirmed Meras’s conviction, so only Crawford constitutes “clearly established Federal law” for purposes of our review. See Greene, 132 S.Ct. at 44; Nardi, 662 F.3d at 110 (“[T]he only pertinent Supreme Court precedent that applied at the time of the [2008] decision affirming Nardi’s conviction was Crawford.”).

Meras argues that we can nevertheless rely on Melendez-Diaz and Bull-coming because their holdings were “dictated by precedent existing at the time [his] conviction became final” and are therefore retroactive under Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 301, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989) (emphasis omitted). However, the Supreme Court recently explained that “the AEDPA and Teague inquiries are distinct. The retroactivity rules that govern federal habeas review on the merits—which include Teague—are quite separate from the relitigation bar imposed by AEDPA; neither abrogates or qualifies the other.” Greene, 132 S.Ct. at 44 (internal citation and quotation marks omitted). Even if applying Melendez-[1188]*1188Diaz and Bullcoming to Meras’s claim would comport with Teague, doing so would contravene section 2254(d)(1) by “authorizfing] relief when a state-court merits adjudication resulted in a decision that became contrary to, or an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted) (emphasis in original).

In Greene, the Supreme Court left open the question of “[wjhether § 2254(d)(1) would bar a federal habeas petitioner from relying on a decision that came after the last state-court adjudication on the merits, but fell within one of the exceptions recognized in Teague, 489 U.S. at 311, 109 S.Ct. 1060.” Id. at 44 n. *; see Teague, 489 U.S. at 311, 109 S.Ct.

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MERAS v. Sisto
676 F.3d 1184 (Ninth Circuit, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
676 F.3d 1184, 2012 WL 1382857, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 8104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/meras-v-sisto-ca9-2012.