Gauthier

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 BERTHO PAYTON GAUTHIER, Case No.: 21-CV-1706-LL-WVG

Petitioner,

REPORT AND

v. RECOMMENDATION ON FIRST

AMENDED PETITION FOR WRIT

R. JOHNSON, Warden, et al.,

OF HABEAS CORPUS

Defendants. 16 I. INTRODUCTION Before the Court is pro se prisoner Bertho Gauthier’s (“Petitioner”) operative First Amended Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. section 2254 (“First Amended Petition”). (Doc. No. 3.) Petitioner seeks habeas relief from the state trial court’s alleged violation of Petitioner’s due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment. Petitioner specifies the trial court improperly disregarded Petitioner’s history of substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”) as mitigating factors during his sentencing hearing. (Id. at 2.) Petitioner argues the trial court’s purported exclusion of both mitigating factors violated California Penal Code section 1170.91,…