Ronald Sanders v. Ron Davis

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

RONALD L. SANDERS, No. 17-16511 Petitioner-Appellant, D.C. No. v. 1:92-cv-05471-

LJO-SAB

RONALD DAVIS, Warden, San Quentin State Prison, OPINION Respondent-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California Lawrence J. O’Neill, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted June 25, 2021 Pasadena, California

Filed January 13, 2022

Before: M. Margaret McKeown, Richard A. Paez, and Eric D. Miller, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Paez; Dissent by Judge Miller SUMMARY *

Habeas Corpus/Death Penalty

The panel reversed the district court’s denial of habeas relief to Ronald Sanders, who was sentenced to death following his California state murder conviction; and remanded with instructions to issue a conditional writ of habeas corpus granting Sanders a penalty phase trial.

Sanders told his attorney, Frank Hoover, that he viewed a life without parole (LWOP) sentence as unacceptable and that he did not want Hoover to present a penalty defense. Viewing Sanders’s objection as a…