federal law . . . when our independent review . . . does not merely allow us ultimately to conclude that the petitioner has the better of two reasonable legal arguments, but rather leaves us with a `firm conviction' that one answer, the one rejected by the court, was correct and the other, the application of the federal law that the court adopted, was erroneous"). Therefore, to repeat, a "rational basis" exists for the state of California to conclude that the interests of society are best served by Appellant's incarceration for a minimum of fifty years. Harmelin, 501 U.S. at 1004 ("rational basis exists" to justify life in prison without possibility of parole for drug possession offense); Van Tran v. Lindsey, 212 F.3d at 1159 ("some erroneous applications may nonetheless be reasonable") (citing Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 410 (2000). Defendant's sentence is thus not an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law.

I respectfully concur in part and dissent in part.

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