Cornejo
Cornejo v. Mendoza-Powers
Opinion
lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM **
Kelly Cornejo, a California state prisoner, appeals pro se from the district court’s judgment denying his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253 , and we review de novo a district court’s decision to deny a § 2254 petition, Sass v. Cal. Bd. of Prison Terms, 461 F.3d 1123, 1126 (9th Cir.2006), and we affirm.
Cornejo contends that the California Board of Prison Terms’ (the “Board”) decision to deny him parole violated his due process rights. We disagree because there was “some evidence” to support the Board’s denial of parole, including not only the gravity of the commitment offense, but the Board’s finding, based on Cornejo’s demeanor and equivocal statements at the parole hearing, that he had not yet fully grappled with, and accepted responsibility for, the magnitude of the murder he had committed. See Powell v. Gomez, 33 F.3d 39, 40 (9th Cir.1994) (noting that “the appeal court may set aside the factual findings only if they lack ‘fair support’ in the record”); see also Sass, 461 F.3d at 1128 (stating that it is not our task to balance the evidence and determine whether we agree with the ultimate decision).