Cortez-Ochoa

MEMORANDUM **

Petitioner Artemio Cortez Ochoa (“Petitioner”), a California prisoner, appeals the denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition challenging his conviction of second-degree murder with personal use of a firearm. Because the relevant facts are known to the parties, we do not recite them here. Petitioner argues that the state trial court violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process and his Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury by presenting inadequate jury instructions. We disagree. Because Petitioner cannot demonstrate that the state court’s adjudication of the merits “resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States,” 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d)(1), we affirm.

I

Petitioner contends that the court erred (1) in failing to sua sponte instruct the jury that imperfect self-defense could negate implied malice and (2) in instructing the jury that voluntary manslaughter required a finding of intent to kill. These errors, he argues, prevented the jury from properly considering his theory that imperfect self-defense should result in a…