Owen Duane Nunnemaker v. Eddie S. Ylst

Owen Duane Nunnemaker, a California state prisoner, appeals the district court’s dismissal of his petition for a writ of habe-as corpus filed under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 . A California jury convicted Nunnemaker of first degree murder under Cal. Penal Code § 187 . At trial, a psychiatrist called by the state prosecutor gave testimony on statements made by Nunnemaker in a post-arrest interview. Nunnemaker contends that the admission of the psychiatrist’s testimony violated his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, that his Fifth and Sixth Amendment claims are not barred by procedural default, and that he received ineffective assistance of counsel. In light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Harris v. Reed, - U.S. -, 109 S.Ct. 1038 , 103 L.Ed.2d 308 (1989), decided after the district court ruled on Nunnemaker’s petition, we reverse in part and remand the case to the district court for consideration of Nunnemaker’s Fifth and Sixth Amendment challenges to his conviction. We affirm the district court’s judgment that Nunne-maker was not deprived of effective assistance of counsel.

BACKGROUND

On January 30, 1976, Owen Duane Nunnemaker was convicted in California state court of first…