No. 22-1652

FAGBEMI MIRANDA,

Petitioner, Appellant,

v.

STEPHEN KENNEDY,

Respondent, Appellee.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS

[Hon. Denise J. Casper, U.S. District Judge]

Before

Barron, Chief Judge, Howard and Montecalvo, Circuit Judges.

Susan J. Baronoff, with whom Baronoff Law Office was on brief, for appellant.

Eva M. Badway, Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts, with whom Maura Healey, Attorney General of Massachusetts, was on brief, for appellee.

January 3, 2025 HOWARD, Circuit Judge. In June 2013, Fagbemi Miranda was convicted of first-degree murder in Massachusetts state court. At the jury trial, defense counsel's aim was to discredit the government's key witness, advancing the theory that Miranda's brother was instead responsible for the shooting. Miranda, however, wanted to testify that he shot the victim but that it was in self-defense, so he should be acquitted -- a theory that trial counsel and the judge did not believe to be viable. The issues in this habeas case stem largely from that disagreement in approach. Under the deferential standard of review we apply to state-court convictions on habeas review, we find Miranda's arguments to be unavailing and affirm.

I.

A.

The charges against Miranda stemmed from events that took place in the evening of October 10, 2005.1 Miranda and a man named Christopher Barros were engaged in an argument outside the house where Miranda lived with his family (the "Miranda home"), screaming and aggressively gesturing at one another in close proximity. A third, unidentified man looked on. Shortly before

1 We primarily draw the facts of the October 10 altercation from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's decision affirming Miranda's conviction. Commonwealth v. Miranda, 484 Mass. 799 (2020). These are facts that "the jury could have found based on the Commonwealth's evidence." Id. at 800. Details of Miranda's trial, including his testimony, are drawn from trial transcripts.

- 2 - 8:30 p.m., Miranda's younger brother, Wayne Miranda ("Wayne"), came out of the Miranda home and joined the argument. He then ran back inside and returned with a black handgun, which he pointed at Barros's forehead. Miranda tried to get the gun away from Wayne and push him back into the Miranda home, repeatedly yelling "no" and telling him to stop.

Barros ran across the street and into an open driveway alongside a nearby house. Wayne chased after him, and Miranda chased after Wayne, with the unidentified man following behind. When the brothers reached the end of the driveway, they halted near the garage, and after briefly exchanging words, Wayne passed the gun to Miranda. A neighbor who lived on the second floor of the house saw Miranda raise the gun and point it toward the fence on the far side of the yard. Two gunshots rang out. Another neighbor then saw both Miranda brothers and the unidentified man emerge from the driveway onto the sidewalk, where one of the brothers passed the gun to the other brother before going inside the Miranda home.

Police responded soon after and located Barros, who was unconscious, on the other side of the fence. No weapons were found on his person or nearby. He had been shot in the left arm and leg, and he was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. The neighbor living in the house did not report what she had seen in the driveway and refused to make a formal statement. Based on

- 3 - their