The Ninth Circuit yesterday affirmed the denial of habeas corpus relief for Gregory Demetrulias, whose death sentence for a 1989 robbery-murder in Riverside the California Supreme Court unanimously upheld on appeal (People v. Demetrulias (2006) 39 Cal.4th 1). The Supreme Court also denied state habeas petitions in 2008 and 2010.
In Demetrulias v. Davis, the federal appeals panel rejected claims of evidentiary and instructional error and of ineffective assistance of counsel. As usual, the panel reviewed the Supreme Court’s appellate and habeas ruling under the “ ‘highly deferential standard’ ” required by the federal Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, even as to Supreme Court dismissals of arguments without explanation.
Demetrulias is the Ninth Circuit’s fourth California capital habeas decision in the past two weeks. (See here and here.)
The Ninth Circuit usually, but not always, refuses to overturn Supreme Court death penalty affirmances.
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