Frierson

MEMORANDUM *

Lavell Frierson appeals the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition challenging his California special circumstances findings and death penalty sentence for first degree felony murder in People v. Frierson, 53 Cal.3d 730 , 280 Cal.Rptr. 440 , 808 P.2d 1197, 1200 (1991) (Frierson III). Concurrent with the filing of this memorandum, we filed an opinion addressing Frierson’s penalty phase claims in Frierson v. Wood-ford, No. 04-99002 (opinion). This memorandum disposes of Frierson’s special circumstances claims. Because the facts of this case are detailed in our opinion, we need not recite them here.

Frierson raises three claims of error in the special circumstances phase of the third trial: two ineffective assistance of counsel claims and one prosecutorial misconduct claim. As explained below, we conclude that Frierson has failed to prove that he was prejudiced by the deficiencies of his counsel or the prosecution’s violation of his rights, thereby failing to establish that ineffective assistance of counsel, or that a violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 , 83 S.Ct. 1194 , 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), occurred. We therefore affirm the…