Isaiah Taylor v. Jeffrey Beard

MEMORANDUM

California state prisoner Isaiah Taylor appeals the denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition. We review de novo the district court’s decision to deny a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, and we affirm. Yee v. Duncan, 463 F.3d 893, 897 (9th Cir.2006).

Taylor was convicted of kidnapping for robbery and kidnapping during a carjacking. On appeal, Taylor claims that: (1) the state court improperly found that the victim’s'suggestive identification admitted at trial was reliable; (2) his counsel rendered ineffective assistance by failing to interview three alibi witnesses; and (3) together these errors constituted cumulative error that deprived him of a fair trial.

We reject Taylor’s first claim. The state court applied the appropriate clearly established federal law in determining that the identification was reliable, see Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U.S. 98, 106, 114 , 97 S.Ct. 2243 , 53 L.Ed.2d 140 (1977); Neil v. Diggers, 409 U.S. 188, 199-200 , 93 S.Ct. 375 , 34 L.Ed.2d 401 (1972), and the court’s application of these precedents was not unreasonable, see 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d)(1). Even if we were to conclude that the state court’s reliability determination was an…