Donald Beardslee v. Jeanne S. Woodford, Warden, of the California State Prison at San Quentin

Good Law

2003 Daily Journal DAR 3105·327 F.3d 799·2003 WL 1343897·2003 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 2466·2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 5379

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitMarch 20, 200301-99007California14,650 words

Opinion

Thomas, J.

Donald Beardslee appeals from the district court’s denial of his petition for habe-as corpus. Juries in San Mateo County, California, convicted Beardslee on two counts of first degree murder with special circumstances and sentenced him to death. The California Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and sentence, and Beardslee filed a habeas corpus petition in federal district court. The district court rejected each of his claims and dismissed the petition. We affirm.

I

A

On April 24, 1981, Donald Beardslee returned home from work and discovered that his roommate, Rickie Soria, and a few of her friends had arranged to “get back at” Stacy Benjamin in Beardslee’s apartment. Benjamin had taken drug money from William Forrester but had not delivered the drugs. Forrester, Soria, and Frank Rutherford planned to lure her to the apartment with a request for drugs and then force her to return the money. Beardslee, who had invited Soria to move in with him the previous month, was acquainted with her friends and knew of their involvement with drugs. Beardslee claimed he was especially fearful of the violent Rutherford, who brought a sawed-off shotgun to the apartment that…

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Parties

Donald BEARDSLEE-
Plaintiff
Jeanne S. WOODFORD, Warden, of the California State Prison at San Quentin-
Defendant

Judges

Tashima
Thomas
Paez

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