Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit July 28, 2003, 99-99020 (Michael Angelo Morales v. Jeanne S. Woodford, as Warden of San Quentin State Prison)

OPINION

KLEINFELD, Circuit Judge.

Michael Morales, a state prisoner convicted of murder with special circumstances and sentenced to death, appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

Facts

A. The Murder and Investigation

Seventeen year-old Terri Winchell disappeared on a Thursday evening, January

*1140

8, 1981. Her mother lay sick in bed.