NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FILED
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT NOV 21 2011
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
JESSE ZUNIGA, No. 09-17812
Petitioner - Appellant, D.C. No. 4:07-cv-04319-PJH
v.
MEMORANDUM*
TOM FELKER, Warden,
Respondent - Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of California
Phyllis J. Hamilton, District Judge, Presiding
Submitted November 17, 2011**
San Francisco, California
Before: HAWKINS, McKEOWN, and M. SMITH, Circuit Judges.
Petitioner-Appellant Jesse Zuniga appeals the district court’s denial of his
petition for habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. As the facts and
procedural history are familiar to the parties, we do not recite them here except as
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
**
The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2).
necessary to explain our disposition. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§
1291 and 2253. We affirm.
Zuniga contends that the trial court violated his Sixth Amendment
Confrontation Clause rights by admitting the clerk’s records of his co-defendants’
guilty pleas into evidence. The Confrontation Clause prohibits the admission of
“testimonial statements of a witness who did not appear at trial unless he was
unavailable to testify, and the defendant had had a prior opportunity for cross
examination.” Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 53-54 (2004). The “core
class” of testimonial statements includes affidavits or declarations “made under
circumstances which would lead an objective witness reasonably to believe that the
statement would be available for use at a later trial.” Id. at 51-52. This is because
such testimonial evidence is “functionally identical to live, in-court testimony.”
Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 129 S. Ct. 2527, 2532 (2009). Business and
public records are generally nontestimonial because they were created for the
internal administration of the entity rather than for trial evidentiary purposes. Id. at
2539-40; see, e.g., United States v. Weiland, 420 F.3d 1062, 1077 (9th Cir. 2005)
(holding that records of a criminal defendant’s previous convictions in state court
are nontestimonial).
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We agree with the district court’s conclusion that this precedent forecloses
Zuniga’s Confrontation Clause claim. The clerk’s minutes were public records that
were created to document routine court activity, not for the purpose of being
introduced at Zuniga’s trial. The minutes do not describe the factual basis for the
plea, serve no prosecutorial function, and do not explicitly implicate Zuniga. Thus,
the clerk’s minutes were nontestimonial. Moreover, Zuniga failed to cite any case
law that would lead to the conclusion that admission of the clerk’s minutes “was
contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal
law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States,” 28 U.S.C. §
2254(d), the standard by which we must review this petition.
We decline to address Zuniga’s uncertified arguments regarding sufficiency
of the evidence. Zuniga has not made a “‘substantial showing of the denial of a
constitutional right’” sufficient to expand the certificate of appealability. Hiivala
v. Wood, 195 F.3d 1098, 1104 (9th Cir. 1999) (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2)).
AFFIRMED.
3