Weir
Weir v. Curry
Opinion
Opinion
Henderson, J.
ORDER GRANTING PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS
Pro se Petitioner Duane Weir, a sixty-five-year-old state prisoner incarcerated at the Correctional Training Facility in Sole-dad, California who recently was diagnosed with lung cancer, seeks a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging the California Board of Parole Hearings’ (“BPH”) March 13, 2006 decision denying him parole. Doc. #1; see Doc. ## 14 & 15.
On February 23, 1979, Petitioner was sentenced to seven-years-to-life following his conviction of felony-murder and related crimes arising from the death of Samuel Lowery. Doc. # 7-1 at 22-23, 26 & 35-36. His minimum eligible parole date was March 10, 1985. Id. at 26 . At the time of his 2006 parole denial, Petitioner had served twenty-eight years in prison, over twenty-one years past his minimum eligible parole date.
The state superior court determined that BPH’s decision denying Petitioner parole was supported by “some evidence.” Doc. #7-6 at 5. The court explained that the primary reason for Petitioner’s parole denial was “the circumstances of [his] crime,” which indicated that “he would pose an unreasonable risk or threat to society.” Id. The court relied…