Heriberto Castro Gutierrez v. Ron Barns

Good Law
590 F. App'x 674
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitJanuary 12, 201513-16296California529 words

Opinion

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

Appellant Heriberto Castro-Gutierrez, a California state prisoner, appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for habe-as corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 . Castro-Gutierrez contends that the trial court violated his right to due process by giving the jury an erroneous instruction on the kidnapping charge against him. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2253 (a). We review the district court’s decision de novo, see Lopez v. Thompson, 202 F.3d 1110, 1116 (9th Cir.2000), and we affirm.

Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, a federal court may grant a habeas petition on a claim adjudicated on the merits in state court 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” or “was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d). Castro-Gutierrez contends that the decision of the California Court of Appeal involved an unreasonable application of clearly established Federal law.

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