Cesar Ramirez Gutierrez v. Bertram S. Griggs, Superintendent, California Institution for Men at Chino

Cesar Gutierrez appeals from the district court’s summary denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (b). Gutierrez was convicted of murder and is now serving a life sentence in a California state prison. The principal issue in this appeal is whether a district court can summarily dismiss a habeas petition under Rule 4, 28 U.S.C., following' § 2254 without first resolving whether a petitioner has exhausted available state remedies with respect to the claim raised in the petition. Because we are convinced that it would be wasteful and inefficient to require a district court to make the exhaustion inquiry when on the face of the petition it is obvious that Gutierrez is not entitled to relief, we affirm.

I. Background

The facts of this case are not in dispute. On March 22, 1977, under orders from the Nuestra Familia, a para-military street gang, Gutierrez and Frank Reyes, a fellow gang member and Gutierrez’s codefendant at trial, executed Flavio Garza, a Familia member who had been placed on the gang’s “hit list.” Garza had apparently been marked for execution because he had refused to kill someone else.

Garza’s execution was witnessed by a Morgan…