Stark

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

THOMAS LESTER STARK,  No. 03-17241 Petitioner-Appellant, v.  D.C. No.

CV-02-00290-MMC

ROD HICKMAN, WARDEN,

OPINION

Respondent-Appellee.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Maxine M. Chesney, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted October 21, 2005—San Francisco, California

Filed August 1, 2006

Before: Sidney R. Thomas and William A. Fletcher, Circuit Judges, and James C. Mahan,* District Judge.

Opinion by Judge Mahan

*The Honorable James C. Mahan, United States District Judge for the District of Nevada, sitting by designation.

8567 8570 STARK v. HICKMAN

COUNSEL

John J. Jordan, San Francisco, California, for the petitioner- appellant.

John Deist, Office of the California Attorney General, San Francisco, California, for the respondent-appellee.

OPINION

MAHAN, District Judge:

Thomas Stark, a California state prisoner, appeals the dis- trict court’s dismissal of his pro se 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition. Stark contends that his federal right to due process was…