DANNY FONTANA V. FRANK CHAVEZ, No. 12-16307 (9th Cir. 2014)

Annotate this Case

Download PDF

FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS SEP 25 2014 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT DANNY ALFRED FONTANA, Petitioner - Appellant, No. 12-16307 D.C. No. 3:11-cv-03701-WHA v. MEMORANDUM* FRANK X. CHAVEZ, Warden; ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, Respondents - Appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California William Alsup, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted September 9, 2014 San Francisco, California Before: REINHARDT, GOULD, and BERZON, Circuit Judges. On the issues certified for appeal to this court, Petitioner contends that the California trial court violated his due process right to present a defense and Sixth Amendment right to cross-examine adverse witnesses. The California Supreme * This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. Court rejected these claims. Assuming constitutional error, we hold that the trial court s exclusion of evidence related to the victim s consensual sex with her boyfriend was harmless under Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619 (1993). AFFIRMED. 2

Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.