Ayala v. Saba, 940 F. Supp. 2d 18

Ayala was indicted in Massachusetts on multiple counts including unlawful possession of ammunition without a firearms ID card (Count 7) and other related drug, weapon, and enhancement charges; co-defendant Wilfredo Figueroa was tried with Ayala.
Ballistics certificates were admitted at trial; the ballistics expert did not testify.
On June 13, 2008 the court granted a motion for a required finding of not guilty as to Count 2 and part of Count 1; Ayala was convicted on Counts 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7 on June 18, 2008 and pled guilty to the enhancements on Counts 6 and 7.
Ayala was sentenced to concurrent and consecutive terms totaling up to nine years on Count 7, with shorter terms on Counts 1, 3, 5; the appellate court later reversed Counts 5 and 6 but affirmed Count 7.
Ayala sought further review to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; federal habeas was filed under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging the Ballistics certificate issue as violating Melendez-Diaz.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Confrontation clause: admission of ballistics certificates without certifier testimony	Ayala	Ayala	No reversible error; not clearly unreasonable
Harmlessness of error in ballistics certificate admission	Ayala	Ayala	Harmless given officer testimony and bullets evidence
Scope of federal review under §2254(d)	Ayala	Ayala	State court decision not unreasonable under AEDPA
Certificate of Appealability standard	Ayala	Ayala	COA granted; reasonable jurists could debate outcome

Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, 557 U.S. 305 (2009) (confrontation clause and chemist certificates)
Estelle v. McGuire, 502 U.S. 62 (1991) (habeas review standard; omission of state-law errors)
Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619 (1993) (harmless error standard in habeas)
Mitchell v. Esparza, 540 U.S. 12 (2003) (objectively unreasonable harmless-error review in AEDPA)
Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473 (2000) (debatable among jurists standard for COA)