Michael Yancey v. Jeanne Woodford

FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION APR 28 2011 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U .S. C O U R T OF APPE ALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT MICHAEL J. YANCEY, No. 08-15966 Petitioner - Appellant, D.C. No. 5:05-cv-01028-JF v. MEMORANDUM * JEANNE S. WOODFORD, Director of the California Department of Corrections; CHARLES HARRISON, Warden of the California State Prison, Los Angeles County, Respondents - Appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California Jeremy D. Fogel, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted April 13, 2011 San Francisco, California Before: KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, N.R. SMITH, Circuit Judge, and BLOCK, District Judge.** * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3. ** The Honorable Frederic Block, Senior United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York, sitting by designation. Page 2 The state court could reasonably conclude that the constitutional errors at trial were harmless. Yancey therefore can’t make the more difficult showing of prejudice required on collateral review. See Fry v. Pliler, 551 U.S. 112, 119–20 (2007). State courts do not have to follow the federal procedural rule on severance, see Collins v. Runnels, 603 F.3d 1127, 1131–32 (9th Cir. 2010), and we don’t review whether the trial court’s evidentiary rulings were proper under state law, see Estelle v. McGuire, 502 U.S. 62, 67–68 (1991). AFFIRMED.