Today presents a per curiam opinion in which all three members of the panel concur and say that but for prior circuit precedent, they'd reverse.
Fairly unusual. Albeit in an unusual case, in which an African-American LWOP prisoner who had two mistrials and two hung juries (ultimately being convicted the fifth time around) has powerful evidence -- from his lawyer's daughters, no less -- that "his trial attorney held deeply racist
beliefs about African Americans in general and him in
particular."
Not your usual Ninth Circuit opinion. Either procedurally or with respect to substance.
