Espinoza-Matthews

Background

On May 4, 2000 Espinoza-Matthews pleaded guilty to con- spiracy to commit robbery, to three counts of robbery, to the unlawful taking of a vehicle and to possession of a firearm by an ex-felon, with special allegations as to a number of those counts. After accepting Espinoza-Matthews’s plea, on June 15, 2000 the Riverside County Superior Court sentenced him 1 All further citations to Title 28 provisions will simply take the form “Section—.” ESPINOZA-MATTHEWS v. CALIFORNIA 16753 to 19 years and 8 months in state prison. On October 1, 2001 the California Court of Appeal substantially affirmed Espinoza-Matthews’s conviction in an unpublished disposi- tion.

On December 10, 2001 Espinoza-Matthews filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the California Supreme Court. That petition was denied on April 17, 2002.

Three days before that denial Espinoza-Matthews was placed in Ad/Seg at California State Prison, Sacramento (“Sacramento”) for his own protection, after he had been assaulted and slashed by another inmate. Espinoza-Matthews was housed in Ad/Seg from April 14, 2002 until March 2003, with only one interruption for him to return to court on May 16,…