Bernard Lee Hamilton v. Dan Vasquez, Warden of San Quentin John K. Van De Kamp, Attorney General of the State of California

Bernard Lee Hamilton, a California death-row prisoner, appeals, pro se, the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition. Hamilton was also not represented by counsel in the district court. Hamilton contends that the trial court’s decision to shackle him during his state criminal trial violated due process. The district court, however, denied the petition without reviewing the record of his trial in the state court. Hamilton therefore argues on appeal that the district court erred in not ordering the state court record sua sponte.

Hamilton was convicted of first-degree murder, burglary, robbery, and kidnapping, and sentenced to death. Hamilton was shackled throughout most of the two-month long trial. On October 9, 1987, Hamilton filed this petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal district court, alleging that the trial court’s decision to shackle him during his jury trial violated his right to a fair trial. The district court rejected the state’s alternative contentions that Hamilton’s petition should be dismissed as a successive petition, or as an abuse of the writ. The district court reached the merits of Hamilton’s claim, and determined that the trial…