Jane Ellyn Benson v. Cal Terhune, Director Susan E. Poole, Warden

California state prisoner Jane Ellyn Benson appeals the district court’s denial of her petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging her 1988 jury trial conviction for second degree murder with a firearm and her 17-years-to-life sentence. Benson contends that while she was in jail before and during her trial, the jail staff medicated her with mind-altering psychotropic and other drugs without her informed consent, thereby violating her right to due process and to a full and fair trial. Athough the powerful combination of drugs prescribed to relieve Benson’s relatively minor back pain, insomnia and mild depression raises serious questions, on the facts established here we affirm the district court’s denial of habeas relief.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On June 16,1987, Jane Benson, carrying a Raven .25 caliber pistol, went to the home of her friend, Elaine Wright, in an attempt to recover property that Wright’s fiancé purportedly had stolen. Benson, who admitted she was under the influence of methamphetamine at the time, fatally shot Wright as she lay in bed.

That same day, Benson was arrested, booked for murder and taken into custody at the Lake County Jail in…