Vickers

INTRODUCTION

17 Petitioner seeks a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 for a state 18 conviction that he alleges violated his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights. Respondent 19 moves to dismiss the petition because petitioner still has a criminal appeal pending in state 20 court. For the reasons stated below, respondent’s motion to dismiss is GRANTED. The petition 21 is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE.

STATEMENT

23 A Contra Costa County Superior Court jury found petitioner Michael Vickers guilty of 24 second-degree murder and intentional discharge of a firearm for a shooting that occurred in 25 December of 2014. The jury also found true the allegations of a prior strike and prior serious 26 felony conviction. These enhancements (which were, at the time, mandatory) increased 27 petitioner’s sentence and he received 60 years to life in state custody. Petitioner appealed to the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, which affirmed petitioner’s conviction in an unpublished opinion in June 2019 but remanded the case for potential sentence modification. The First Appellate District believed it “necessary for the trial court to 4 …