After IFP screening of an amended complaint by a state prisoner experiencing a mental-health crisis, the court allowed his Eighth Amendment excessive-force claim to proceed against two correctional officers who allegedly held him against a hot metal plate causing severe burns, but dismissed his deli
After the California Supreme Court denied a state habeas petition while the federal stay-and-abey motion was pending, the magistrate judge denied the stay request as moot, finding that the petitioner had now fully exhausted his federal claims because they were substantially equivalent to claims pres
The court dismissed a federal habeas petition challenging a California Vehicle Code infraction for lack of jurisdiction, ruling that a 30-day driver’s license suspension is a collateral consequence of conviction that does not satisfy 28 U.S.C. § 2254’s requirement that the petitioner be
After holding an evidentiary hearing, the court denied a federal prisoner’s motion to vacate his sentence for ineffective assistance of counsel, ruling that even though his lawyer miscalculated the sentencing guidelines before trial, the petitioner could not show prejudice because he had alrea