Gonzales v. United States District Court

Ernest Valencia Gonzales seeks a writ of mandamus to stay his district court federal capital habeas proceedings under Rohan ex rel. Gates v. Woodford, 334 F.3d 803 (9th Cir.2003). There, we held that when a capital habeas petitioner “raises claims that could potentially benefit from his ability to communicate rationally,” id. at 819 , his statutory right to counsel includes the right to competence during habeas proceedings. The district court denied Gonzales’s motion for a competency determination under Rohan because “[Gonzales’s] properly-exhausted claims are record-based and/or resolvable as a matter of law, irrespective of [his] capacity for rational communication with counsel,” and therefore “cannot benefit from [his] personal input.” Our recent decision in Nash v. Ryan, 581 F.3d 1048 (9th Cir.2009), is to the contrary. In Nash we held that the prosecution of a habeas appeal that is record-based and resolvable as a matter of law can benefit from communication between client and counsel. Id. at 1054-55 . Because we conclude that Nash controls this case, we hold that, although Gonzales’s exhausted claims are record-based or legal in nature, he is entitled to a stay…