Craig Williams v. Derral Adams

MEMORANDUM

Craig Williams petitions for a writ of habeas corpus, contending that he was denied due process and a fair trial by admission of (1) gang evidence and gang expert testimony; and (2) evidence concerning Williams’s knowledge of narcotics sales in his neighborhood. Williams also argues that his right to confrontation was violated by admission of (8) Bruce Battle’s out-of-court statements identifying Williams as his shooter.

1.

Admission of the gang evidence was not so “unduly prejudicial that it rendered] the trial fundamentally unfair.” Payne v. Tennessee, 501 U.S. 808, 825 , 111 S.Ct. 2597 , 115 L.Ed.2d 720 (1991). The government theorized that Williams, a Baby Gangster (“B.G.”), had murdered Bruce, an Original Gangster (“O.G.”), as part of an ongoing, violent rivalry between the B.G. and O.G. factions of the Atlantic Drive Crips over control of narcotics sales in Williams’s neighborhood. Although inflammatory, evidence of such gang-related retaliation was highly probative of motive and central to the prosecution’s theory of the case. See Windham v. Merkle, 163 F.3d 1092, 1103-04 (9th Cir.1998). Admission of this evidence was therefore not “unduly prejudicial.” Payne,…