Pineda

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

In this action Ernest Pineda, a California prisoner, seeks federal habeas corpus relief from his 1964 conviction in the California Superior Court for possession of heroin. Such relief was initially sought from the United States District Court, for the Eastern District of California, where the petition was denied without an evidentiary hearing. On appeal from that denial, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded, with directions that petitioner was entitled to an evidentiary hearing on the question of whether petitioner’s counsel in the state court had deliberately bypassed or waived available state procedures when he failed to raise a possible Fourth Amendment defense. Pineda v. Craven, 424 F.2d 369 (1970). On remand to the Central District, the judge ordered the case transferred to this judicial district since the witnesses needed for the evidentiary hearing reside in this district.

In this court, counsel for petitioner then filed an amended petition for habeas corpus relief, realleging the Fourth Amendment ground and adding thereto a claim of denial of the Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel based on evidence first…