Anthony Hammonds v. Charles Harrison

MEMORANDUM

California state prisoner Anthony Dewayne Hammonds appeals the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habe-as corpus petition challenging his jury conviction of child endangerment, for which he received a three-strikes sentence of 25 years to life. We review the district court’s decision to deny Hammonds’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus de novo. Lambert v. Blodgett, 393 F.3d 943, 964 (9th Cir.2004).

Hammonds contends that he is entitled to a writ of habeas corpus because his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to investigate potential witnesses, an issue we certified, and on the grounds that insufficient evidence supported his conviction and that his sentence is cruel and unusual in violation of the Eighth Amendment, issues we did not certify.

Hammonds was convicted of child endangerment after police discovered a child in the rear house of a property on which there was also a shed containing a methamphetamine lab. Police raided the property a few days later, and arrested Ham-monds, who was found hiding in a closet in the front house of the property. Ham-monds contends that his counsel’s performance was deficient because…