Hassinger

MEMORANDUM *

Charles Michael Hassinger was convicted in California of six counts of lewd or lascivious acts on a child under age fourteen. The district court denied his habeas petition. We affirm.

The California Court of Appeal reasonably concluded that the trial court’s use of California Jury Instructions 2.50.01 and

2.50.1 did not allow the jury to convict Hassinger on proof less than a reasonable doubt. Although we decided that an earlier version of these instructions did allow a jury to convict upon finding the defendant had committed a prior uncharged sexual offense only by a preponderance of the evidence, see Gibson v. Ortiz, 387 F.3d 812 (9th Cir.2004), the following passage has since been added to the instructions: “[I]f you find by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant committed a pri- or sexual offense, that is not sufficient by itself to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed the charged crimes.” California Jury Instructions 2.50.01. In People v. Reliford, 29 Cal.4th 1007 , 130 Cal.Rptr.2d 254 , 62 P.3d 601 (2003), the California Supreme Court decided that when read as a whole, there was not a reasonable likelihood that the jury interpreted…