UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT _________________

X Petitioner-Appellee, - ALTON HIGGINS, - - - No. 05-1564 v. , > PAUL RENICO, - Respondent-Appellant. - N Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Bay City. No. 02-10124—David M. Lawson, District Judge. Argued: September 20, 2006 Decided and Filed: November 20, 2006 Before: CLAY and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; STAFFORD, District Judge.*

_________________ COUNSEL ARGUED: William C. Campbell, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellant. Chaundra C. King, SQUIRE, SANDERS & DEMPSEY, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: William C. Campbell, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellant. Chaundra C. King, Howard J.C. Nicols, SQUIRE, SANDERS & DEMPSEY, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee. _________________ OPINION _________________ STAFFORD, District Judge. Respondent, Paul Renico (“Renico”), appeals a conditional grant of habeas corpus relief to Petitioner, Alton Higgins (“Higgins”), under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. We AFFIRM.

* The Honorable William H. Stafford, Jr., United States District Judge for the Northern District of Florida, sitting by designation.

1 No. 05-1564 Higgins v. Renico Page 2

I. BACKGROUND On April 3, 1995, Alvin Ramsey (“Ramsey”) was shot to death as he sat in the driver’s seat of a car parked in a Detroit neighborhood. Alton Higgins (“Higgins”) was one of three people sitting with Ramsey in that automobile at or near the time Ramsey was shot. Another of those three people, Michael Adams (“Adams”), exited the vehicle and fled on foot before shots were fired, leaving Higgins, Ramsey and Wayne Young (“Young”) in the car. Not long after the shooting, 16-year-old Young, wearing a green jacket, surrendered to the police while the police were canvassing the neighborhood. The police were looking for Young because “word on the street” was that Young was the shooter and because a witness had reported that a black male wearing a green jacket was seen running from the car after two shots were fired. Although he denied shooting Ramsey, Young admitted that he had been in the car with Ramsey, sitting next to him in the front passenger seat, when a guy sitting in the rear seat behind Ramsey put a gun to Ramsey’s neck. Identifying the man in the rear seat only as “211,” Young explained that he did not know the man’s real name. In his own words, Young continued: “I got out and1 started running. I heard one shot as I turned the corner I heard a second shot.” J.A. Supp. at 2. When asked specifically where he was when he heard