William Rennie, Iii v. Michael Martin

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
WILLIAM RENNIE, III,
Petitioner - Appellant,
v.
MICHAEL MARTIN,
Respondent - Appellee.
No. 12-15156
D.C. No. 2:09-cv-00698-WBS-
TJB
MEMORANDUM*
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of California
William B. Shubb, Senior District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted August 15, 2013
San Francisco, California
Before: REINHARDT, GRABER, and HURWITZ, Circuit Judges.
William Rennie, III, appeals the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254
habeas petition. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and affirm.
FILED
AUG 21 2013
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.

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1. The decision of the California Superior Court, rejecting Rennie’s speedy trial
claim, was not unreasonable. The state court applied settled federal law, recognizing
that the lengthy delay here is “presumptively prejudicial,” Doggett v. United States,
505 U.S. 647, 651-52 (1992), that the state “bears the burden of explaining pretrial
delays,” McNeely v. Blanas, 336 F.3d 822, 827 (9th Cir. 2003), and that our tolerance
of the delays attributable to state “negligence varies inversely with its protractedness,”
Doggett, 505 U.S. at 657. But the California court also appropriately recognized that
Rennie’s belated failure to invoke his speedy trial rights formally weighs heavily
against him. See Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 531-32 (1972). In light of that
failure and the absence of any evidence of actual prejudice, we cannot find the
superior court’s decision unreasonable.
2. Rennie’s ineffective assistance of counsel argument also fails. The superior
court reasonably concluded that Rennie did not demonstrate “a reasonable probability
that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have
been different.” Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 694 (1984).
AFFIRMED.

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