Ricky Lee Earp v. John Stokes, Warden, of California State Prison at San Quentin

Ricky Lee Earp is on death row in San Quentin, California, after being convicted in Los Angeles County of the 1988 rape and murder of eighteen-month-old Amanda Doshier. The jury convicted Earp of first-degree murder and found three death-qualifying special circumstances to be true: rape, sodomy, and lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under the age of fourteen. In the separate penalty phase, the jury recommended that Earp be put to death for his crimes. The California Superior Court (“trial court”) imposed that sentence on February 21,1992.

All reviewing courts thus far have upheld Earp’s conviction and sentence. The California Supreme Court (“state court”) affirmed Earp’s conviction and death sentence on direct appeal, and summarily denied his state habeas corpus petition on the merits without affording him an evi-dentiary hearing on any of his claims. People v. Earp, 20 Cal.4th 826 , 85 Cal.Rptr.2d 857 , 978 P.2d 15 (1999). The United States Supreme Court denied cer-tiorari. Earp v. California, 529 U.S. 1005 , 120 S.Ct. 1272 , 146 L.Ed.2d 221 (2000). Earp then filed a federal habeas corpus petition in the United States District Court for the Central District of California,…