Jewel Harrison v. Bill Lockyer, Attorney General

Jewel Harrison appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for habeas corpus. Holding that the California treatment of a defendant’s request to review a peace officer’s file does not deny a defendant due process as interpreted by precedents of the United States Supreme Court, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

FACTS

Officer Gary Foppiano of the Oakland Police Department was assigned to a street prostitution undercover operation on September 24, 1996. He sat in an unmarked car monitoring Officer Beverly Flemmings, a female police officer dressed as a prostitute, and positioned himself to signal a nearby arrest every time a man solicited Flemmings.

At approximately 10:00 p.m., a man speaking in “broken Spanish” approached Foppiano. Then another man pushed the first aside, thrust a gun in Foppiano’s window and told him that this was “a jacking.” Flemmings had by this time noticed the men talking to Foppiano.

The man who declared that “a jacking” was taking place told Foppiano that if he did not hand over his wallet, he would be shot. Foppiano grabbed his wallet with his left hand and then shot the man with a gun in his right hand “two or three…