Roney R. Nunes v. Ana Ramirez-Palmer, Attorney General of the State of California

This is an appeal from the district court’s order denying a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The appeal is brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253 . The petitioner-appellant, Roney Nunes, contends that the district court erred when it rejected Nunes’s assertions that he was charged and sentenced under California’s recidivist statute in violation of the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

The issues presented are: 1) whether the state appellate court’s ruling upholding the constitutionality of Nunes’s sentence was the result of an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law; 2) whether the state appellate court’s ruling upholding the constitutionality of Nunes’s sentence was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts; 3) whether it was objectively reasonable for the state appellate court to reject Nunes’s claim of prosecutorial vindictiveness; and 4) whether it was objectively reasonable for the state appellate court to reject Nunes’s claim that the state trial court violated the Fourteenth Amendment when it denied his motion to strike his prior convictions at sentencing.

For the reasons set forth hereinafter, we…