Whether the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause was violated when the defendant was prevented from cross-examining an informant witness on topics intended to develop the witness's lack of credibility, bias, and motive to lie

QUESTION PRESENTED The Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause guarantees a criminal defendant a reasonable opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses against him. | The breadth of this opportunity is unquestionably at its apex when the witness is an informant. Was Gibbs denied this right when he and his co-defendants were prevented from cross-examining informant Feissa on numerous topics intended to develop his lack of credibility, bias toward the prosecution, and motive to lie when i the state court unreasonably viewed these topics as irrelevant? i | | | i | i | ! | 1 | | i | i 1 | | | i i i ; | PARTIES AND LIST OF PRIOR PROCEEDINGS The parties to this proceeding are Petitioner Raymond Lequan Gibbs and Respondent Neil McDowell, Warden of Ironwood State Prison in Blythe, California.! The California Attorney General Represents Respondent. | Gibbs was convicted in Los Angeles County Superior Court following a jury _ trial in People v. Dennis Wallace, case no. YA07570, Judge James R. Brandlin, presiding, in 2011. The case involved three defendants: Raymond Gibbs, Dennis Wallace, and Deyaa Khalill. The California Court of Appeal affirmed Gibbs’s conviction on appeal in ; People v. Dennis Wallace, No. B243535, on January 8, 2014. Petitioner’s