Marcelina Diaz v. Kimberly Hughes

MEMORANDUM

In sufficiency of the evidence cases, “the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 , 99 S.Ct. 2781 , 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). In Juan H. v. Allen, 408 F.3d 1262 (9th Cir. 2005), we held that a state court’s application of Jackson “must be objectively unreasonable” to be cognizable on habeas review. Id. at 1275 n.13 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

Here, the state court’s decision that there was sufficient evidence to convict Diaz was not objectively unreasonable. The court pointed to expert evidence that “there was a one in a trillion chance the DNA on the garden shears belonged to someone other than Diaz.” A juror would have to make inferences to connect the DNA evidence to the actual burglary, but the court found that such inferences were reasonable based on the physical and circumstantial evidence. This was not an objectively unreasonable application of Jackson.

Diaz argues that there was no direct evidence that she personally entered the…