Larry David Davis v. Jeanne S. Woodford, Warden, of California State Prison at San Quentin

Larry David Davis was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. After exhausting his California state appeals, he filed an amended petition for habeas corpus in federal district court, raising multiple constitutional challenges to both the conviction and sentence. The district court denied the petition. Having reviewed the record, transcript, arguments, and prior decisions, including the extensive opinions of the California Supreme Court and the district court, we affirm.

Background

Davis’s conviction and sentence stem from two events that occurred close in time and proximity in the early hours of August 28, 1988: the attempted rape of Suzanne H. and the death by asphyxiation and apparent kidnaping and sodomy of Dawn Holman. According to Suzanne H.’s trial testimony, she met Davis in a bar on August 26, 1988, and invited him to meet her the next evening for her birthday. She and Davis went out the next night, along with one of her friends. At the end of the evening, Suzanne H. drove her friend home, and then agreed to take Davis to a party ostensibly being given by a friend of his. As they were driving, Davis directed her to a dead-end road, took the keys…