Mayle

Griggs v. Mayle

Good Law
46 F. App'x 496
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitSeptember 17, 2002No. 01-55229; D.C. No. CR-99-00753-MMMCalifornia335 words

Opinion

Lead Opinion

*497 MEMORANDUM **

Isaac Griggs, a California state prisoner, appeals pro se the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2253 . We review de novo, Schell v. Witek, 218 F.3d 1017, 1022 (9th Cir.2000) (en banc), and we affirm.

Griggs contends that the trial court erred by allowing the preliminary hearing transcript of a primary witness to be read into evidence, in place of live testimony at trial, thereby violating the Confrontation Clause. We find this contention unpersuasive.

The district court concluded that the prosecution demonstrated that the witness was unavailable and her testimony bore sufficient indicia of reliability. See Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 65-66 , 100 S.Ct. 2531 , 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980) (setting forth a two-part test for determining violations of the Confrontation Clause). This was based on a finding that the prosecution made a good faith effort in attempting to locate the witness, see Roberts, 448 U.S. at 74 (stating that the law does not require the performance of “futile” acts to find the witness, but merely reasonable efforts); Barber v. Page, 390 U.S. 719, 724-25 , 88 S.Ct. 1318 , 20 L.Ed.2d 255…

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