Adonay Melendez v. Cheryl Pliler, Warden Attorney General of the State of California
Opinion
Opinion
Fogel, J.
Adonay Melendez, a state prisoner, appealed his conviction on the ground that the admission of a co-defendant’s partially redacted statement impheating him in a murder violated his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation. The California Court of Appeal determined that Melendez had not objected timely to admission of the statement at trial and consequently had waived his right to assert his Sixth Amendment claim on appeal. The California Supreme Court affirmed, and Melendez filed the instant federal habeas petition. The district court determined that the Sixth Amendment claim was procedurally defaulted. Melendez now contends that the district court erred because the state appellate court’s conclusion that his Sixth Amendment claim was waived was not based on a “clear, consistently applied, and well-established” principle of state law. Calderon v. U.S. Dist. Court, 96 F.3d 1126 , 1129 (9th Cir.1996), cert. denied, 520 U.S. 1204 , 117 S.Ct. 1569 , 137 L.Ed.2d 714 (1997) (internal quotations and citations omitted). On the particular facts of this case, we agree. We therefore reverse and remand with instructions to consider the claim on the merits.