JAMES THOMAS, APPELLANT,
v.
WALTER CRAVEN, WARDEN, APPELLEE

9th Cir. | 1973-03-02
No. 72-2028
473 F.2d 1235 United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1973) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 cases

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Holding

The court held that while the district court erred in its interpretation of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), this error did not lead to an incorrect result because there were no disputed factual issues.


Facts & Procedural History

Petitioner, a state prisoner, sought federal habeas corpus relief, alleging illegal search and seizure, insufficient evidence, and trial errors denyin…

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM:

PER CURIAM:

James Thomas, a California state prisoner, appeals the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He asserts illegal search and seizure, insufficiency of the evidence, and various trial errors, all of which in combination denied him due process. We affirm.

Thomas unsuccessfully presented the same contentions to the California Court of Appeal. People v. Thomas, 267 Cal. App.2d 698, 73 Cal.Rptr. 590 (1968). The California Supreme Court denied review. Having thus exhausted his state remedies, Thomas applied to the federal district court for relief.

Reasoning that 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) required it to accept as true the state appellate court’s factual statement, the district court declined to conduct an evidentiary hearing and denied the petition. In interpreting section 2254(d) in this fashion, the district court erred. As we recently observed, “that section provides no basis for avoiding an evidentiary hearing on disputed questions of fact by relying on factual statements contained in a state appellate opinion.” Hill v. Nelson, 466 F. 2d 1346, 1348 (9th Cir. 1972).

However, Thomas does not call into question any of the factual statements made by the state appellate court and erroneously “adopted” by the federal district court. Since the record reveals no disputed factual issues relevant to the petitioner’s claims, we have concluded that the district court’s invocation of section 2254(d) did not lead it into an erroneous result.

An examination of the undisputed facts reveals no constitutional violations. The arrest complained of was based on probable cause. The search was of the common stairway of an apartment hotel with the consent of the hotel manager. Without suggesting that the alleged errors at trial werfe1 indeed error, we note that in any event none would rise to constitutional dimensions. Crisafi v. Oliver, 396 F. 2d 293 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 889, 89 S.Ct. 208, 21 L.Ed.2d 167 (1968).

Affirmed.


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