Jessie Heredia v. Larry Small

MEMORANDUM

The district court granted Jessie Here-dia’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus after concluding that the trial judge’s decision to discharge a juror (“Juror No. 9”) under California Penal Code § 1089 violated Heredia’s Sixth Amendment rights. The district court determined that the California Court of Appeal had not adjudicated Heredia’s constitutional claims on the merits, and that the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996’s (“AEDPA”) deferential standards of review thus did not apply. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d).

While respondent Larry Small’s appeal was pending in this court, the Supreme Court decided Johnson v. Williams, — U.S. -, 133 S.Ct. 1088 , 185 L.Ed.2d 105 (2013), which held that “[wjhen a state court rejects a federal claim without expressly addressing that claim, a federal habeas court must presume that the federal claim was adjudicated on the merits— but that presumption can in some limited circumstances be rebutted.” Id. at 1096 . Williams squarely controls our review of this case. As in Williams , the California Court of Appeal evaluated Heredia’s juror dismissal claim under state law, but made no express reference to his accompanying…