Haggard

ORDER GRANTING PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

Petitioner Lewis Haggard, an inmate at the Correctional Training Facility in Sole-dad, California, filed this action seeking a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 . This matter is now before the Court for consideration of the merits of the habeas petition. For the reasons set forth below, the Court GRANTS the petition.

BACKGROUND

In 1979, petitioner was convicted of kidnaping for the purpose of committing robbery and was sentenced to seven years to life in prison. This habeas petition does not challenge petitioner’s conviction, but rather the February 4, 2004 decision of the Board of Parole Hearings (“BPH” or “Board”) finding petitioner unsuitable for parole. The 2004 hearing was petitioner’s thirteenth parole hearing, and was conducted at a time when he was twenty-four years into his sentence.

I. Background Facts of the Crime

Petitioner came from an unstable family. Petitioner’s mother died when he was six years old. Shortly thereafter, his alcoholic father abandoned him. Petitioner lived with relatives and ran away several times, and eventually dropped out of high school at the age of sixteen. He sometimes abused…