Case Name: Bruce Michael CASAWAY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Kenneth QUINN, Respondent-Appellee
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 2010-07-26
Citations: 389 F. App'x 666
Docket Number: No. 08-35335
Parties: Bruce Michael CASAWAY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Kenneth QUINN, Respondent-Appellee.
Judges: Before: GRABER and PAEZ, Circuit Judges, and BURNS, District Judge.
Reporter: West's Federal Appendix
Volume: 389
Pages: 666–668

Head Matter:
Bruce Michael CASAWAY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Kenneth QUINN, Respondent-Appellee.
No. 08-35335.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Argued and Submitted July 16, 2010.
Filed July 26, 2010.
Bruce Michael Casaway, Monroe, WA, pro se.
Jeff Ellis, Ellis, Holmes & Witchley, PLLC, Seattle, WA, for Petitioner-Appellant.
Gregory Joseph Rosen, Assistant Attorney General, AGWA-Offiee of the Washington Attorney General, Olympia, WA,' for Respondent-Appellee.
Before: GRABER and PAEZ, Circuit Judges, and BURNS, District Judge.
The Honorable Larry A. Burns, United States District Judge for the Southern District of California, sitting by designation.

Opinion:
MEMORANDUM
Bruce Michael Casaway appeals the district court's denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition for habeas corpus relief. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2253. We review de novo the district court's denial of the petition, Gonzalez v. Brown, 585 F.3d 1202, 1206 (9th Cir.2009), and we affirm.
Contrary to Casaway's assertions, the state courts did not look to the facts underlying his prior out-of-state convictions in concluding that those convictions qualified as strikes under the state's Persistent Offender Accountability Act. Rather, the state appeals court reached this conclusion solely by comparing the elements of Casa-way's out-of-state convictions to the elements of strike-eligible Washington offenses. Because this legal determination that the offenses were comparable involved no fact-finding, it did not violate Casaway's Sixth Amendment right to have facts that could result in an increased penalty proven to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. See Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). Moreover, if the state court erred in concluding that Casaway's out-of-state convictions were legally comparable to Washington strike-eligible offenses, that error was one of state law and thus is not cognizable on federal habeas review. See Rhoades v. Henry, 596 F.3d 1170, 1196 (9th Cir.2010).
We construe Casaway's additional argument that his trial counsel was unconstitu tionally ineffective for failing to seek an instruction directing the jury to evaluate his purported accomplice's testimony with caution as a motion to expand the certificate of appealability. So construed, the motion is denied. See 9th Cir. R. 22 — 1(e); see also Hiivala v. Wood, 195 F.3d 1098, 1104-05 (9th Cir.1999) (per curiam).
AFFIRMED.
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.