Craig Ross v. Ronald Davis

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

CRAIG ANTHONY ROSS, No. 17-99000 Petitioner-Appellant, D.C. No. v. 2:96-cv-02720-

SVW

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

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Stephen V. Wilson, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted May 24, 2021 Pasadena, California

Filed March 25, 2022

Before: Mary H. Murguia, Chief Judge, and Kim McLane Wardlaw and Consuelo M. Callahan, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Wardlaw SUMMARY *

Habeas Corpus / Death Penalty

The panel affirmed the district court’s denial of Craig Anthony Ross’s habeas corpus petition in a case in which a jury sentenced Ross to death after convicting him of three counts of murder, five counts of robbery, and two counts of rape in concert.

Ross claimed that an erroneous aiding and abetting instruction allowed the jury to find him guilty of the first- degree murder counts without making the finding that he had the intent to kill, and thus the imposition of the death penalty…