Spearman

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 PAUL LEE MOREAU, No. 2:17-cv-02439 KJN Petitioner, v. FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS M.E. SPEARMAN, Respondent. 16 I. Introduction Petitioner is a state prisoner, proceeding without counsel, with an application for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Petitioner challenges his 2016 conviction for assault with a deadly weapon, for which he was sentenced to twelve years in state prison. Petitioner claims that the trial court abused its discretion by allowing the prosecution to impeach petitioner with a prior conviction for “the exact same crime” he faced at trial, (2) in the alternative, petitioner suffered ineffective assistance of counsel because trial counsel did not request that the prior conviction be sanitized, and (3) trial counsel was also ineffective in failing to object to the $2,400 fine imposed where petitioner lacked the ability to pay. After careful review of the record, this court…