Opinion
No. CIV S-06-1964 FCD KJM P.
August 16, 2007
ORDER
Petitioner is a state prison inmate proceeding pro se with a petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging his Sacramento County conviction for robbery and his sentence of 119 years to life.
The petition raises the following grounds: (1) the denial of his right to a jury trial on the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity (raised in grounds one and two of the petition); and (2) denial of his right to represent himself during the sanity phase of the trial. Respondent filed an answer to the petition on April 12, 2007.
On May 10, 2007, petitioner filed a motion to add the following grounds to his petition: (1) the Superior Court failed to order a psychiatric evaluation when he initially entered his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, so evidence of his mental state closer in time to the offenses was lost; (2) the trial court refused to allow him to present evidence in support of his defense, causing him to concede his guilt and throw himself on the mercy of the jury; (3) the denial of the right to effective assistance of counsel, however, the basis of this claim is not entirely clear since plaintiff also suggests that he was representing himself; (4) he was not competent during the pretrial proceedings, causing him to reject a plea offer of a single term of twenty-five-years-to-life; (5) a single robbery was improperly charged as two robberies because there were two cashiers at the check stand; (6) his record was used against him; (7) ineffective assistance of counsel on appeal, stemming from counsel's refusal to raise the six preceding issues; (8) ineffective assistance of counsel during the trial on his NGI plea; (9) use of inadmissible evidence at the NGI trial; (10) two of petitioner's witnesses died between his first and second trials; (11) ineffective assistance of appellate counsel on his second appeal.
It does not appear that petitioner has exhausted his state remedies on these eleven claims by giving the California Supreme Court an opportunity to review them. Nor has he made the showing required by Rhines v. Weber, 544 U.S. 269, 278 (2005), before this court may enter a stay of these proceedings to allow petitioner to return to the state court to exhaust.
Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that petitioner's May 10, 2007 motion to add additional grounds for relief to his habeas petition is denied.