Samuel Swoopes v. Charles Ryan

MEMORANDUM

Arizona state prisoner Samuel Swoopes appeals the district court’s July 21, 2011 order denying his petition for writ of habe-as corpus. We review de novo, see, e.g., Carrera v. Ayers, 699 F.3d 1104, 1106 (9th Cir.2012) (en banc), and we reverse and remand.

Swoopes filed his original federal petition in 1993, before the enactment of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). Review of Swoopes’ petition is accordingly governed by the pre-AEDPA standard of review. See, e.g., Sivak v. Hardison, 658 F.3d 898, 905 (9th Cir.2011). The district court, however, applied the AEPDA standard, and denied relief, finding that the state court did not unreasonably apply federal law. Compare 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d)(1) (1996) with 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d) (1966). Under the pre-AEDPA standard, while a federal habeas court does not defer to state courts’ ultimate determination of mixed questions of law and fact, such as questions of harmlessness, it usually does defer to the factual findings undérlying such determinations. See, e.g., Mayfield v. Calderon, 229 F.3d 895, 901 (9th Cir.2000). Because the district court applied the incorrect standard to its analysis of the petition,…