Gary Brown v. Mark Nooth

MEMORANDUM

Gary Carson Brown appeals the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 ha-beas corpus petition. Brown’s petition challenges his state court convictions and sentence stemming from the assault and kidnapping of Lindsey Ulrich. The State concedes the trial court violated Brown’s Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause rights by admitting testimonial statements from a nontestifying witness, Michelle Hartford, Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 53-54 , 124 S.Ct. 1354 , 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), but argues the error was harmless. Brown argues the error had a substantial and injurious effect on the jury’s verdict. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253. We affirm the district court’s order.

We review de novo a district court order denying a petition for writ of habeas corpus. Fairbank v. Ayers, 650 F.3d 1243, 1250 (9th Cir.2011). The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) permits federal courts to grant a state prisoner habeas relief only if the state court’s decision “was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254…