Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-04-03612/USCOURTS-ca8-04-03612-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
David J. Gherity
Appellant
Michael Hatch
Appellee
Lori Swenson
Appellee

Document Text:

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

___________

No. 04-3612

___________

David J. Gherity, *

*

Appellant, *

*

v. * Appeal from the United States

* District Court for the

Lori Swenson, Hennepin County * District of Minnesota.

Probation; Michael Hatch, Minnesota *

Attorney General, * [UNPUBLISHED]

*

Appellees. *

___________

Submitted: March 7, 2006

Filed: March 10, 2006

___________

Before ARNOLD, BYE, and SMITH, Circuit Judges.

___________

PER CURIAM.

David J. Gherity, who filed this habeas petition while his state court motion for

postconviction relief was still pending, appeals the district court's order dismissing

his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition for incomplete exhaustion of state remedies. We

granted a certificate of appealability on whether the district court should have stayed

the habeas petition pending exhaustion. In light of the Supreme Court's recent

holding in Rhines v. Weber, 125 S. Ct. 1528, 1534-35 (2005), that a district court has

discretion to stay a habeas petition to allow the petitioner to exhaust his claims in

state court, we believe the district court should analyze each unexhausted claim to

Appellate Case: 04-3612 Page: 1 Date Filed: 03/10/2006 Entry ID: 2019326
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determine whether Mr. Gherity had good cause for failing to exhaust it, whether such

unexhausted claims are potentially meritorious, and whether he engaged in abusive

litigation tactics. See Akins v. Kenney, 410 F.3d 451, 453-56 (8th Cir. 2005); Rhines

v. Weber, 409 F.3d 982, 983 (8th Cir. 2005) (per curiam). Because Mr. Gherity

completed his sentence after he filed his federal habeas petition, if a stay is not

granted, the state court's delay will have deprived him of the opportunity to challenge

his criminal conviction.

Accordingly, we reverse the district court's dismissal of Mr. Gherity's petition

and remand for the district court to determine whether to exercise its discretion to

grant a stay pending exhaustion in this case.

______________________________

Appellate Case: 04-3612 Page: 2 Date Filed: 03/10/2006 Entry ID: 2019326