Thompson

MEMORANDUM *

Tony Thompson was convicted by the state of California in 1996 for robbery and petty theft and since that time has been serving a three-strikes sentence of 30 years to life in prison for stealing cases of baby formula to feed his two hungry and anemic young daughters. He appeals the district court’s dismissal of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Because we hold that the state court was objectively unreasonable in concluding that trial counsel’s closing argument did not amount to a concession of his guilt, and thus ineffective assistance of counsel, in violation of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 , 104 S.Ct. 2052 , 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), we reverse the district court and remand for issuance of the writ.

Thompson is entitled to a writ of habeas corpus under AEDPA if the state court’s determination either was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts or unreasonably applied clearly-established Supreme Court law. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d). Here, it was both. First, the *583 state court’s decision was based on the unreasonable factual finding that counsel conceded Thompson’s guilt in only one isolated passage and did so sarcastically only to…