Perry v. Foulk, 3:15-cv-03554

Petitioner Eric L. Perry was convicted in California of first‑degree murder (shooting Ronald Spears) and two counts of attempted second‑degree robbery. Spears was shot after Perry, who had asked for a ride, took out a gun and demanded cash and a chain. Spears was shot while trying to flee.
Perry sought to introduce third‑party culpability evidence implicating Kevin Duarte, who, two weeks later, shot and killed Tony Simon at a nearby gas station and confessed to that killing.
The trial court excluded the Duarte evidence as not sufficiently linked to the Spears shooting; the California Court of Appeal affirmed.
Perry filed a federal habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 arguing the exclusion violated his due process/right to present a defense.
The district court applied the AEDPA standard and concluded the state courts’ exclusion was not contrary to, or an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law, and that any error was not prejudicial given strong inculpatory evidence against Perry (fingerprints, eyewitness ID, and possession of Spears’ necklace).

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether excluding third‑party culpability evidence violated due process/right to present a defense	Perry: evidence linking Duarte to the Spears shooting should have been admitted to show third‑party culpability	Warden: Duarte evidence lacked adequate nexus to the Spears shooting and was properly excluded under state rules	Court: State courts reasonably excluded the evidence; no federal due process violation under AEDPA
Whether exclusion of the evidence was prejudicial	Perry: exclusion deprived jury of a plausible alternative perpetrator and affected verdict	Warden: strong physical and eyewitness evidence against Perry meant any error was harmless	Court: No prejudice; error (if any) not a substantial/injurious influence on verdict

Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362 (2000) (standard for federal habeas review under AEDPA)
Holmes v. South Carolina, 547 U.S. 319 (2006) (limits on excluding defense evidence; due process right to present a defense)
Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619 (1993) (harmless‑error standard on collateral review)
Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473 (2000) (standard for certificate of appealability)
Phillips v. Herndon, 730 F.3d 773 (9th Cir. 2013) (upholding exclusion of unreliable/insubstantial third‑party culpability evidence)
Christian v. Frank, 595 F.3d 1076 (9th Cir. 2010) (same)
Spivey v. Rocha, 194 F.3d 971 (9th Cir. 1999) (same)