Townsend

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

WILLIAM EMERSON TOWNSEND,  No. 07-15712 Petitioner-Appellant, D.C. No. v.  CV-03-00520- MICHAEL KNOWLES, Warden, Ione GEB(PAN) State Prison,

OPINION

Respondent-Appellee.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California Garland E. Burrell, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted March 9, 2009—San Francisco, California

Filed April 21, 2009

Before: Procter Hug, Jr. and Carlos T. Bea, Circuit Judges, and Nancy G. Edmunds,* District Judge.

Opinion by Judge Edmunds

*The Honorable Nancy G. Edmunds, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan, sitting by designation. John Paul Balazs, Law Offices of John P. Balazs, for the petitioner-appellant.

Robert Todd Marshall, Assistant Attorney General, AGCA - Office of the California Attorney General (SAC), for the respondent-appellee.

OPINION

EDMUNDS, District Judge:

William Emerson Townsend, a California state prisoner, appeals the district court’s order denying his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition, which challenged his conviction for second…