Anastacio Lara v. S. Ryan, Warden

BETTY B. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Anastacio Lara (“Lara”) was convicted by a jury of two counts of attempted murder and two counts of non-aggravated mayhem. The jury was instructed that it could convict him of attempted murder under either a proper theory of express malice or an improper implied-malice theory. Lara brought a petition for habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, alleging that the flawed jury instruction made it impossible to determine whether he was convicted under the correct legal theory. The district court denied habeas relief, and we affirm.

I

The California Court of…