Matkin

MEMORANDUM *

Matkin’s claim is not barred by the procedural default doctrine because the California Court of Appeal did not deny habeas corpus relief on an adequate and independent state ground. See Bennett v. Mueller, 822 F.3d 573, 580 (9th Cir.2003). “To be deemed adequate, the state law ground for decision must be well-established and consistently applied,” id. at 583 , and the California courts have not applied the simultaneous objection rule to Allen charges, see People v. Barraza, 23 Cal.3d 675, 683-84 , 153 Cal.Rptr. 459 , 591 P.2d 947 (1979). Therefore, the Respondents cannot invoke this rule to foreclose federal review and we have jurisdiction to decide this appeal.

“Whether the state trial judge coerced the ‘holdout’ juror[s] to join with the others to make the verdict unanimous is a mixed question of law and fact.” Jiminez v. Myers, 40 F.3d 976, 979 (9th Cir. 1993) (citation omitted). The California Court of Appeal correctly identified the applicable legal issue: whether Matkin was denied due process because the supplemental instruction was coercive, causing minority jurors to abandon their views in order to join the majority. See Lowenfield v. Phelps, 484 U.S. 231,…

concurring in part and dissenting in part.

I agree that Matkin’s claim is not proeedurally barred. However, I would hold that the California Court of Appeal’s denial of her habeas corpus petition was an objectively unreasonable application of United States Supreme Court precedent because the Allen charge given in this case was not counterbalanced by an instruction “remind[ing] jurors of their duty and obligation not to surrender conscientiously held beliefs simply to secure a verdict for either party.” United States v. Mason, 658 F.2d 1263, 1268 (9th Cir.1981).