Carlos Harris v. Raul Lopez

MEMORANDUM

Petitioner Carlos Harris appeals the district court’s denial of his habeas petition. The district court rejected Harris’s claim that the presence on his jury of a former schoolteacher with whom he had problems decades before violated his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to an impartial jury in 2005. We affirm.

In the absence of a showing of cause and prejudice, a federal habeas court will not review a claim rejected by the state court on the basis of an independent and adequate state procedural rule. Walker v. Martin, — U.S. -, -, 131 S.Ct. 1120 , 1127, 179 L.Ed.2d 62 (2011). Harris cannot demonstrate prejudice because he cannot show that Juror No. 8 was actually or impliedly biased. See United States v. Gonzalez, 214 F.3d 1109, 1111-12 (9th Cir. 2000). Actual bias is “bias in fact — the existence of a state of mind that leads to an inference that the person will not act with entire impartiality.” Id. at 1112 (internal quotation marks omitted). Implied bias exists in “extreme situations where the relationship between a prospective juror and some aspect of the litigation is such that it is highly unlikely that the average person could remain impartial in his…