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Thread: Hector Juan Ayala - California Death Row

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    Hector Juan Ayala - California Death Row


    Hector Juan Ayala


    Facts of the Crime:

    Sentenced to death in San Diego County on November 30, 1989 for the April 26, 1985 murders of Jose Luis Rositas, Marcos Antonio Zamora and Ernesto Dominguez Mendez in the course of a robbery. On February 9, 1989, Reynaldo Ayala was also sentenced to death.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On May 22, 2009, Ayala filed an appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over the denial of his habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir.../ca9/09-99005/

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    HECTOR AYALA V. ROBERT WONG

    In today's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opinions, the court reversed the district court’s denial of Ayala’s petition and remanded with instructions to grant the writ.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Guess who wrote the 2-1 decision? Yep, that's right...Judge Reinhardt. He must have some sort of record for the most death sentences ever overturned by a federal appeals judge.

    So, anyway, if one counts the district court judge's decision to deny Ayala's habeas petition, two federal judges have thus far voted to uphold his sentence, while two have voted to overturn it. Hopefully, the Ninth Circuit will vote to rehear this case en banc, but I won't hold my breath.

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    HECTOR AYALA V. ROBERT WONG

    In today's opinions, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals withdrew its opinion dated August 29, 2012, DENIED a petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc as moot, and filed a new opinion reversing the district court's denial of Ayala's 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition challenging his conviction and death sentence for murder and robbery based on a violation of Baston v Kentucky, with instructions to grant the writ and order that Ayala be released from custody unless the state elects to retry him within a reasonable amount of time.

    Judges

    Reinhardt, Wardlaw, and Callahan.

    Callahan dissented
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    And the article

    Federal appeals court overturns conviction, death penalty for 1985 San Diego triple killing

    A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the conviction and death penalty of a man for three San Diego murders, saying he was denied a chance to argue the trial was tainted by racial prejudice.

    The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday also ordered Hector Ayala freed unless the state of California planned to retry him in a "reasonable" amount of time.

    Ayala was convicted in 1989 of killing three people during a 1985 drug robbery at a San Diego garage.

    At trial, the prosecution excused all seven black and Hispanic jurors who might have served.

    Ayala's counsel made three motions arguing that the prosecution was systematically excluding minority jurors. The Superior Court judge accepted the prosecution's explanations that the rejections were based on "race-neutral" reasons and denied the motions.

    The appellate panel, in a 2-1 ruling, said some of those justifications appeared to be "highly implausible."

    In one case, for instance, the prosecution claimed it used a peremptory challenge to excuse a juror "because he did not dress or act like other jurors, and did not mix or socialize with them," the court said.

    Another was excused because the prosecution said it was concerned that he might not be willing to impose the death penalty. However, the appellate court noted that white jurors who seemed concerned or hesitant about the death penalty were not excused.

    The appeals court said Ayala's attorney was barred from the closed hearing where the prosecution gave its justifications and didn't receive a transcript of the proceedings until after the trial.

    That "prevented Ayala from showing that the prosecution utilized its peremptory challenges in a racially discriminatory manner, and thus permitted him to be tried, convicted, and sentenced to death by a jury selected in a manner repugnant to the Constitution," the court said.

    Ayala had appealed after a divided California Supreme Court found that there were trial errors but they were harmless.

    http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/sto.../#.UjOOFn_b1Xg
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    The USSC granted cert for the state in this case today.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/c.../102014zor.pdf

    What are the chances the 9th Circuit is gonna get another smackdown from the USSC?
    Last edited by FFM; 06-18-2015 at 09:33 AM.

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    It's a near certainty that the Ninth Circuit will get smacked down yet again. I do wonder, with the Ninth Circuit supposedly randomly selecting panels for its cases from among its 29 active judges, how Reinhardt time and again keeps ending up on capital cases. I suspect that the assignment process is somehow less than random.

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    Edited

    The 17 Supreme Court decisions we're still waiting for

    In the coming weeks, the Supreme Court is scheduled to release decisions with sweeping ramifications. Though the rulings on same-sex marriage and Obamacare subsidies are the most anticipated, justices will also be releasing decisions on issues relating to environmental law, free speech, police brutality, property rights (and raisins), the drawing of congressional maps, the use of lethal injection – and even a patent dispute involving a popular Spider-Man toy.

    CRIMINAL JUSTICE

    Davis v. Ayala (Argued 3/3/15) — Hector Ayala, a Hispanic man, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by a jury in which prosecutors were able to challenge the inclusion of black and Hispanic jurors. At a closed hearing, a state court determined that prosecutors had established sufficient nonracial reasons for challenging the inclusion of the jurors. But Ayala appealed, because he wasn't given a transcript of the hearing until after the trial, and juror questionnaires had been lost. From Oyez: "Is a state court's determination that a federal constitutional violation is harmless error an 'adjudication on the merits' for purposes of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996? Did the Court of Appeals properly apply the standard articulated in Brecht v. Abrahamson for reviewing whether a constitutional violation is harmless error?"

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/th...rticle/2566241
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #10
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    The 9th Circuit has been reversed in this case 5-4.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions...-1428_n64o.pdf
    Last edited by FFM; 06-18-2015 at 09:33 AM.

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