Opinion ID: 788211
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Petitioner's Cross-Appeal: The Right To Testify

Text: 64 The district court granted petitioner a certificate of appealability on whether the state trial court infringed upon petitioner's Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to present a defense and testify on his own behalf by repeatedly striking from the record his trial testimony regarding the victim's threats. Both the district court and the state appellate court rejected petitioner's argument that his right to testify on his own behalf was denied. Both courts also concluded that any such violation of petitioner's rights was harmless error. 65 For present purposes, we shall assume, without deciding, that petitioner's right to testify was violated by what the state concedes were improperly sustained hearsay objections, and that the state court's decision to the contrary constituted an objectively unreasonable application of Rock v. Arkansas, 483 U.S. 44, 52, 107 S.Ct. 2704, 97 L.Ed.2d 37 (1987). We nevertheless deny petitioner relief on his cross appeal because, as we explain below, we conclude that any error did not have a substantial and injurious effect on the jury verdict.
66 At trial, defendant argued, among other things, that he killed his wife in unreasonable self-defense. California recognizes the doctrine of imperfect (or unreasonable) self-defense. If a defendant killed a human being because the defendant honestly, yet unreasonably, feared the imminent infliction of death or great bodily injury, the defendant is guilty, not of murder, but of voluntary manslaughter. Imperfect self-defense is not an affirmative defense; it negates an element of murder—malice aforethought. People v. Barton, 12 Cal.4th 186, 199-201, 47 Cal. Rptr.2d 569, 576-78, 906 P.2d 531, 538-40 (1995). 67 Petitioner took the stand at his trial and tried to explain why he feared his wife: 68 Defense Counsel: After the time that you found [the guns] to be missing, did Mary ever threaten to shoot you? 69 Petitioner: Yes, sir. 70 Defense Counsel: On how many occasions? 71 Petitioner: At least half a dozen. 72 Defense Counsel: And what would she say? 73 Prosecutor: Objection. Hearsay. 74 The Court: Sustained. 75 Defense Counsel: Did she threaten you within a week of her death? 76 Petitioner: Yes, she did. 77 Prosecutor: Objection. Hearsay. 78 The Court: Sustained. 79 Prosecutor: Move to strike. 80 The Court: Motion granted. 81