Yarborough

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

RICHARD LEE MASON,  No. 04-17330 Petitioner-Appellant, D.C. No. v.  CV-03-00450-FCD/

M. YARBOROUGH, JFM

Respondent-Appellee.  OPINION

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California Frank C. Damrell, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted February 16, 2006—San Francisco, California

Filed May 5, 2006

Before: J. Clifford Wallace, Michael Daly Hawkins, and Sidney R. Thomas, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Hawkins; Concurrence by Judge Wallace COUNSEL

Matthew Alger, Clovis, California, for the appellant.

Justain P. Riley, Deputy Attorney General, Sacramento, Cali- fornia, for the appellee.

OPINION

HAWKINS, Circuit Judge:

Petitioner-Appellant Richard Lee Mason (“Mason”) seeks habeas corpus review of his state court convictions arising out of two separate shooting incidents in Stockton, California, one resulting in first-degree murder charges. Mason’s fundamen- 5104 MASON v. YARBOROUGH tal contention here is that the…