IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

No. 16-20312

In re: ERIC DEWAYNE CATHEY, 

 Movant,

-------------------------------------------

CONSOLIDATED WITH 16-70015

ERIC DEWAYNE CATHEY,

 Petitioner - Appellant

v.

LORIE DAVIS, DIRECTOR, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE, CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS DIVISION,

 Respondent - Appellee

Appeals from the United States District Court

for the Southern District of Texas

Before HIGGINBOTHAM, DENNIS, and ELROD, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Eric Dewayne Cathey filed a habeas petition raising an Atkins claim in 

the Southern District of Texas.1 The district court concluded that Cathey’s 

 

1 In Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court held that the execution of criminals who 

are intellectually disabled violates the Eighth Amendment. 536 U.S. 304, 321 (2002). The 

term “intellectual disability” has replaced the term “mental retardation.” See Brumfield v. 

Cain, 135 S. Ct. 2269, 2274 n.1 (2015). “Yet, because the term mental retardation is used by 

United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

May 11, 2017

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

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petition was successive and transferred it to this Court. Cathey appeals the 

district court’s transfer order. Alternatively, he asks this Court for 

authorization to file a successive habeas application. We AFFIRM the district 

court’s transfer order and GRANT the motion for authorization.

I.

Eric Dewayne Cathey was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to 

death in Texas state court. On direct appeal, the Texas Court of Criminal 

Appeals (“CCA”) affirmed Cathey’s conviction and sentence,2 and the United 

States Supreme Court denied his petition for a writ of certiorari.3 Cathey then 

filed a state habeas petition, which the CCA also denied. On April 2, 2004, 

Cathey filed a federal habeas petition in the Southern District of Texas. 

Relevant here, this petition did not include an Atkins claim. The district court 

denied Cathey’s petition, and this Court declined to grant a Certificate of 

Appealability (“COA”).4

In November 2008, on the eve of his scheduled execution, Cathey filed a 

second state habeas petition raising an Atkins claim. The CCA granted a stay 

and remanded to the state trial court for a hearing on the petition.5 Following 

a five-day hearing, the state trial court signed Cathey’s proposed findings of 

fact and conclusions of law and recommended that the CCA grant relief. On 

November 5, 2014, the CCA rejected this recommendation and denied Cathey’s 

second state habeas petition.6 Thereafter, Cathey filed in this Court a motion 

for authorization to file a successive habeas petition raising an Atkins claim. 

Less than two months later, Cathey asked for permission to withdraw this 

 

both the parties and relevant legal authority, we use mentally retarded throughout our 

opinion.” Ladd v. Stephens, 748 F.3d 637, 639 n.1 (5th Cir. 2014).

2 Cathey v. State, 992 S.W.2d 460, 461 (Tex. Crim. App. 1999).

3 Cathey v. Texas, 528 U.S. 1082 (2000).

4 See Cathey v. Dretke, 174 F. App’x 841, 841–42 (5th Cir. 2006).

5 Ex parte Cathey, 451 S.W.3d 1, 3 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014) (citation omitted).

6 See Ex parte Cathey, 451 S.W.3d at 3–4.

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motion because he no longer believed that his planned habeas petition 

qualified as successive. We granted Cathey’s request.

Soon after, Cathey filed a petition for habeas corpus raising an Atkins 

claim in the Southern District of Texas. The State moved to dismiss Cathey’s 

petition, urging that it was successive. The district court agreed and 

transferred Cathey’s petition to this Court.7 Cathey now appeals the district 

court’s transfer order. Alternatively, he again moves this Court for 

authorization to file a successive habeas petition. Consistent with our recent 

guidance,8 the clerk’s office consolidated Cathey’s two appeals. 

II.

Cathey first challenges the district court’s conclusion that his habeas 

petition is “second or successive.” Under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2), “[a] claim 

presented in a second or successive habeas corpus application . . . that was not 

presented in a prior application shall be dismissed unless” the petitioner can 

satisfy one of two narrow exceptions.9 “In the usual case, a petition filed second 

in time”—such as Cathey’s petition—“and not otherwise permitted by the 

terms of § 2244 will not survive AEDPA’s ‘second or successive’ bar.”10 But 

“AEDPA uses the phrase ‘second or successive’ as a ‘term of art.’”11 That is, 

“[t]he phrase does not encompass all ‘applications filed second or successively 

in time.’”12 Rather, “AEDPA’s bar on second or successive petitions only applies 

 

7 See also In re Epps, 127 F.3d 364, 365 (5th Cir. 1997) (per curiam).

8 See United States v. Fulton, 780 F.3d 683, 688 (5th Cir. 2015).

9 Emphasis added.

10 Panetti v. Quarterman, 551 U.S. 930, 947 (2007).

11 In re Lampton, 667 F.3d 585, 587–88 (5th Cir. 2012) (quoting Magwood v. Patterson, 

561 U.S. 320, 332 (2010)).

12 Id. at 588 (quoting Magwood, 561 U.S. at 332); see also Panetti, 551 U.S. at 944 

(“The Court has declined to interpret ‘second or successive’ as referring to all § 2254 

applications filed second or successively in time . . . .”).

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to a later-in-time petition that challenges the same state-court judgment as an 

earlier-in-time petition.”13

In Magwood v. Patterson, the Supreme Court applied this rule to a 

second-in-time habeas petition challenging a death sentence. The petitioner, 

Magwood, had been sentenced to death in Alabama state court. Following an 

unsuccessful direct appeal, Magwood filed a federal habeas petition. The 

district court upheld Magwood’s conviction, but vacated his death sentence and 

remanded for a new sentencing hearing. After the hearing was conducted in 

state court, Magwood was again sentenced to death. Magwood then filed a 

second federal habeas petition challenging his death sentence.14 Although this 

petition was filed second in time, the Court held that it was not “second or 

successive” because it was the “first application” to challenge the “intervening 

judgment” entered after the second sentencing hearing.15 That is, it was the 

first petition to challenge Magwood’s new death sentence.16

Cathey argues that the same analysis applies here. As he recounts the 

facts, the state trial court found that Cathey was intellectually disabled “and 

that his sentence should be commuted to life.” In rejecting these findings and 

conclusions, so the argument goes, the CCA effectively resentenced him to 

death and entered a new judgment. Consequently, Cathey claims that his 

current petition challenges this new judgment entered by the CCA—not the 

judgment entered when he was originally convicted. And just as in Magwood, 

he urges that this second-in-time habeas petition is the “first application” to 

challenge the “intervening judgment” and death sentence entered by the CCA. 

 

13 In re Lampton, 667 F.3d at 588.

14 See 561 U.S. at 324–39.

15 See id. at 339.

16 Id.

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The State disagrees, arguing that “Cathey’s 1997 death sentence has 

never been disturbed.” It asserts that in Texas, only the CCA has the authority 

to grant habeas relief, and it did not do so here. Because Cathey was denied 

relief, the State contends, he was never resentenced. The State thus concludes 

that “no new or intervening judgment has been entered in Cathey’s case since 

the time he filed his first federal habeas petition in 2004.” 

The determinative question is whether the 2014 CCA decision 

constitutes a new judgment under Magwood such that Cathey’s present habeas 

petition is not “second or successive” under § 2244. “While Magwood

establishes that a habeas application challenging a ‘new judgment’ is not 

second or successive, it does not define the term ‘new judgment.’”17 This Court 

has explained, “[w]hether a new judgment has intervened between two habeas 

petitions, such that the second petition can be filed without this Court’s 

permission, depends on whether a new sentence has been imposed.”18

There was no formal resentencing here. “Texas trial courts only make 

recommendations to the Court of Criminal Appeals but do not rule on habeas 

petitions.”19 Indeed, they lack the authority to grant relief on an Atkins claim 

or vacate a death sentence.20 Cathey acknowledges there was no formal 

resentencing, but asks this Court to take a functional approach in determining 

whether there was a new sentence. In this vein, Cathey argues that the Texas 

 

17 United States v. Jones, 796 F.3d 483, 485 (5th Cir. 2015).

18 In re Lampton, 667 F.3d at 588 (citation omitted). 

19 Hatten v. Quarterman, 570 F.3d 595, 599 n.3 (5th Cir. 2009) (citing Ex parte Brown, 

205 S.W.3d 538, 546 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006)); accord Moore v. Texas, 137 S. Ct. 1039, 1044 

(2017) (“Under Texas law, the CCA, not the court of first instance, is ‘the ultimate factfinder’ 

in habeas corpus proceedings.” (citations omitted)).

20 See Ex parte Alexander, 685 S.W.2d 57, 60 (Tex. Crim. App. 1985) (“It is well 

established that only the Court of Criminal Appeals possesses the authority to grant relief in 

a post-conviction habeas corpus proceeding where there is a final felony conviction. The trial 

court is without such authority.” (citations omitted)); accord Padieu v. Court of Appeals of 

Tex., Fifth Dist., 392 S.W.3d 115, 117 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013) (per curiam).

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procedure “affords the petitioner the same ability to present new evidence in 

the trial court supporting his claim as a resentencing hearing would.” 

However, Magwood instructs that “[a] § 2254 petitioner is applying for 

something: His petition ‘seeks invalidation (in whole or in part) of the judgment

authorizing the prisoner’s confinement.’”21 Cathey argues that the 2014 CCA 

decision is the “most recent order by which Cathey’s punishment is currently 

authorized.” But if Cathey convinced a court to invalidate that decision, he 

would in all likelihood continue to be detained as Texas trial courts do not have 

authority to grant habeas petitions. We are thus persuaded that there was no 

intervening judgment here because the 2014 CCA decision is not the one 

authorizing his confinement. The district court’s transfer order is affirmed.

III.

In the alternative, Cathey seeks permission to file a successive habeas 

petition. We find that he has made the requisite prima facie showing and 

therefore grant his motion for authorization to file a successive petition. 

Paramount to this decision is the standard of review at this stage and the 

process that follows.22 Our grant of a motion to file a successive petition is 

“tentative in the following sense: the district court must dismiss the motion 

that we have allowed the applicant to file, without reaching the merits of the 

motion, if the court finds that the movant has not satisfied the requirements 

for the filing of such a motion. The district court then is the second gate through 

which the petitioner must pass before the merits of his or her motion are 

heard.”23 “The district court must conduct a thorough review to determine if 

 

21 Magwood, 561 U.S. at 332 (quoting Wilkinson v. Dotson, 544 U.S. 74, 83 (2005)).

22 See In re Morris, 328 F.3d 739, 740–41 (5th Cir. 2003) (per curiam).

23 Id. at 741 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).

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the motion conclusively demonstrates that it does not meet AEDPA’s second or 

successive motion requirements.”24

Under 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2):

A claim presented in a second or successive habeas corpus 

application under section 2254 that was not presented in a prior 

application shall be dismissed unless--

(A) the applicant shows that the claim relies on a new rule 

of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral 

review by the Supreme Court, that was previously 

unavailable; or

(B)(i) the factual predicate for the claim could not have been 

discovered previously through the exercise of due diligence; 

and

(ii) the facts underlying the claim, if proven and viewed in 

light of the evidence as a whole, would be sufficient to 

establish by clear and convincing evidence that, but for 

constitutional error, no reasonable factfinder would have 

found the applicant guilty of the underlying offense.

Cathey argues that his Atkins claim satisfies subsection (A). To satisfy 

this subsection, Cathey must make a “prima facie showing” that: (1) “his Atkins 

claim was not presented” in a prior application; (2) his Atkins claim “relies on 

a new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral review 

by the Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable”; and (3) his Atkins 

claim has merit.25 “Our court has adopted the following definition of prima 

facie showing: We understand it to be simply a sufficient showing of possible 

merit to warrant a fuller exploration by the district court.”26 “If we determine 

that it appears ‘reasonably likely’ that the motion and supporting documents 

 

24 Id. (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).

25 In re Campbell, 750 F.3d 523, 530 (5th Cir. 2014) (internal quotations and citations 

omitted); accord In re Henderson, 462 F.3d 413, 415 (5th Cir. 2006) (per curiam).

26 In re Campbell, 750 F.3d at 530 (quoting In re Morris, 328 F.3d at 740); accord In 

re Wood, 648 F. App’x 388, 390 (5th Cir. 2016) (per curiam) (unpublished) (“In other words, 

this court should not, at this stage, rule on the merits, but merely determine whether [the 

petitioner’s] claim deserves further exploration by the district court.”).

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indicate that the application meets the ‘stringent requirement’ for the filing of 

a successive petition, then we must grant the filing.”27 Cathey has made a 

sufficient showing to proceed to a fuller review, though “[w]e express no view 

on whether [Cathey] will or ultimately should prevail on his claim.”28

The State does not dispute the first element, that Cathey’s Atkins claim 

was “not presented” in his prior federal habeas petition.29 It does, however, 

dispute that Cathey’s claim relies on a previously unavailable new rule of 

constitutional law and that Cathey’s claim has merit. 

A.

Disputes over the second element with respect to Atkins claims are 

infrequent because “[t]here is no question that Atkins created a new rule of 

constitutional law . . . made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the 

Supreme Court.”30 And in the typical case, the petitioner has filed his habeas 

petition before Atkins was decided, making an Atkins claim “previously 

unavailable.”31 Here, however, Atkins was decided on June 20, 2002, yet 

Cathey filed his original federal habeas petition (without raising an Atkins 

claim) on April 2, 2004.

Cathey acknowledges that Atkins had been decided by the time he filed 

his first federal petition, but argues that the rule was “previously unavailable 

to [him] under the circumstances.” He identifies two circumstances that 

rendered Atkins practically unavailable in April 2004: 

Courts did not consider the Flynn Effect until at least 2005. 

Between February and April 2004, as Mr. Cathey was filing his 

 

27 In re Woods, 155 F. App’x 132, 135 (5th Cir. 2005) (per curiam) (unpublished) 

(citations omitted).

28 In re Mathis, 483 F.3d 395, 399 (5th Cir. 2007).

29 See In re Campbell, 750 F.3d at 530 (citation omitted). 30 Id. (citations omitted).

31 See, e.g., id. (citations omitted); In re Henderson, 462 F.3d at 414–15; In re Brown, 

457 F.3d 392, 396 (5th Cir. 2006).

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first federal habeas petition, Texas first articulated its standards 

for Atkins claims. At the time, a 77 IQ test score was not perceived 

to be within the range for Atkins-level intellectual functioning. 

Indeed, a review of published cases reveals that only one applicant 

in the country with an unadjusted IQ score above 75 brought an 

Atkins claim before Mr. Cathey filed his first federal habeas 

petition in 2004—a claim that was unsuccessful. What is more, it 

was not until after Mr. Cathey filed his second state habeas 

petition in 2008 that the State disclosed other evidence in its 

possession suggesting that Mr. Cathey’s true IQ was at most 73 

and, in fact, well within Atkins range.32

The Flynn Effect “is a phenomenon positing that, over time, 

standardized IQ test scores tend to increase with the age of the test without a 

corresponding increase in actual intelligence in the general population. Those 

who follow the Flynn effect adjust for it by deducting from the IQ score a 

specified amount for each year since the test was normalized.”33 Cathey avers 

that, in 2004, he did not know about the “problem of aging norms” nor “the 

State’s evidence of a lower IQ score,” and thus “had no reason to pursue an 

Atkins claim that nobody else had won and only one person had even tried.” 

 

32 Footnotes and citations omitted.

33 Wiley v. Epps, 625 F.3d 199, 203 n.1 (5th Cir. 2010), as revised (Nov. 17, 2010) 

(citation omitted). This Court has routinely declined to address Flynn Effect arguments, 

typically reciting some version of the following: “the Flynn Effect ‘has not been accepted in 

this Circuit as scientifically valid.’” E.g., Gray v. Epps, 616 F.3d 436, 446 n.9 (5th Cir. 2010) 

(quoting In re Mathis, 483 F.3d at 398 n.1). Importantly, however, nor has the Flynn Effect 

been rejected. In Brumfield v. Cain, this Court agreed it had “not recognized the Flynn effect,” 

but found it “not necessary to decide whether to recognize the Flynn effect in this case.” 808 

F.3d 1041, 1060 n.27 (5th Cir. 2015), cert. denied, 136 S. Ct. 2411 (2016) (mem) (citations 

omitted). Similarly, in Wiley v. Epps, this Court declined to address “what, if any, impact [the 

Flynn Effect] has in this case.” 625 F.3d at 210; accord In re Salazar, 443 F.3d 430, 433 n.1 

(5th Cir. 2006) (per curiam) (assuming for argument that the Flynn Effect is valid, but 

“express[ing] no opinion as to whether this is actually the case”). At this juncture, we follow 

that pattern. It is not necessary to accept or reject the Flynn Effect’s validity to determine 

whether Atkins was previously unavailable to Cathey in 2004. We also note the Eleventh 

Circuit’s recent conclusion that district courts, upon their consideration of the expert 

testimony, may apply or reject the Flynn Effect, which is a finding of fact reviewed for clear 

error. See Ledford v. Warden, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, 818 F.3d 600, 640 

(11th Cir. 2016); see also Walker v. True, 399 F.3d 315, 322–23 (4th Cir. 2005) (directing 

district court to consider Flynn Effect evidence).

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Cathey further argues that denying his motion would encourage “kitchen-sink 

petitions,” in that “it would require habeas petitioners to raise any and all 

imagined or theorized legal bases for habeas relief—whether grounded in fact 

or not—out of fear that those claims would be later foreclosed even in the light 

of developments in the law or facts.” 

The State responds that this Court’s decision in Mathis v. Thaler34

forecloses Cathey’s claim. The State argues that, like Cathey, “Mathis filed his 

first federal habeas petition in April 2003, after Atkins was decided in June 

2002, yet the petition did not include an Atkins claim.”35 Several years later, 

Mathis sought authorization to file a successive petition raising an Atkins 

claim. Although Mathis did not file his first petition until after the issuance of 

Atkins, he argued that the Atkins rule was “previously unavailable” to him. 

This Court disagreed and concluded that Mathis “offer[ed] no cogent argument 

to excuse his failure to include his Atkins claim in his first federal petition 

when that claim was available to him for nine months after Atkins was 

decided.”36 The State presses us to do the same here. Cathey responds that 

Mathis was a case of “intentional withholding of a viable and available ground” 

for relief, whereas Cathey “had little basis under the law as it existed at the 

time he filed his first federal habeas petition to conclude that he had a claim 

that arose under the Supreme Court’s Atkins doctrine.” 

Further, with respect to the Flynn Effect, the State argues that the legal 

availability of a claim “does not depend on its prior success in lower courts.” 

The State, citing psychology articles, asserts that, in any event, the Flynn 

Effect was recognized for at least twenty years before Cathey’s first federal 

petition, so Cathey could have learned of it and premised his Atkins claim on 

 

34 616 F.3d 461 (5th Cir. 2010).

35 Id. at 467.

36 Id. at 473.

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it in his first federal petition. The State points to Rivera v. Dretke,37 which, in 

2006, mentioned the issue of rising IQ scores in relation to an Atkins claim. 

Moreover, though the State acknowledges prison worksheets that reference an 

IQ of “below 73,” it notes that the documents do not explain the basis for that 

score. The State also disputes that it withheld the worksheets, suggesting that 

they were available upon the proper request.

This Court has had few occasions to analyze whether a rule of 

constitutional law was “previously unavailable” for purposes of a successive 

habeas petition when the pertinent Supreme Court decision was published at 

the time of the petitioner’s initial habeas petition. In the recent unpublished 

case of In re Wood, Wood filed his initial federal habeas petition on May 6, 

2002, before Atkins, but amended his petition on October 2, 2002, after 

Atkins.38 However, “Wood did not raise an Atkins claim in the amended 

petition, nor did he seek to amend the petition a second time to include an 

Atkins claim.”39 Only later when Wood attempted to file a successive writ did 

he raise an Atkins claim, asserting it was previously unavailable to him.40 This 

Court considered “whether a rule was ‘available’ if, as in Wood’s case, it was 

announced while a defendant’s first federal habeas petition was pending.”41

After noting that courts faced with this issue had not adopted categorical rules, 

this Court “adopt[ed] the [Eleventh Circuit’s] feasibility standard,” which 

“takes into account the particular circumstances of the previous habeas 

proceeding: ‘[i]f the new rule was announced while the original § 2254 petition 

was pending the applicant must demonstrate that it was not feasible to amend

 

37 No. Civ. B-03-139, 2006 WL 870927 (S.D. Tex. Mar. 31, 2006), aff'd in part, vacated 

in part sub nom. Rivera v. Quarterman, 505 F.3d 349 (5th Cir. 2007).

38 In re Wood, 648 F. App’x at 389.

39 Id. at 390.

40 See id. at 389.

41 Id. at 391.

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his or her pending petition to include the new claim.’”42 Applying this standard, 

this Court found that Wood had “not made a prima facie showing of 

unavailability,”43 because he had “not demonstrated that his representation in 

the initial federal habeas proceedings was so deficient as to render the Atkins

claim functionally unavailable; nor ha[d] he given any other explanation that 

could excuse his failure to amend his petition to include an Atkins claim and 

seek a stay and abeyance thereof.”44 The Wood decision essentially adopted a 

rebuttable presumption that a new rule of constitutional law was previously 

available if published by the time a district court ruled on a petitioner’s initial 

habeas petition. 

Mathis v. Thaler supports this understanding. In Mathis, this Court 

rejected Petitioner Mathis’s arguments that Atkins was “previously 

unavailable” when Atkins was published before Mathis filed his initial habeas 

petition.45 Mathis argued “that had he attempted to exhaust his Atkins claim 

in state court prior to filing his first federal habeas application, he risked 

forfeiting federal review of his previously exhausted claims . . . [and that] if he 

had pursued his Atkins claim in a successive state habeas petition, he also 

risked forfeiting federal review of his exhausted claims” because of uncertainty 

in the law as it applied to AEDPA’s statute of limitations.46 The Court rejected 

both arguments. In doing so, it stated that “Mathis offer[ed] no cogent 

argument to excuse his failure to include his Atkins claim in his first federal 

petition[.]”47 Similar to Wood, the Mathis Court was guided by the dates of the 

Supreme Court decision and initial habeas filing, but did not endorse a strict 

 

42 Id. (quoting In re Everett, 797 F.3d 1282, 1288 (11th Cir. 2015) (other citation 

omitted)).

43 Id. at 392 (citations omitted).

44 Id. 

45 Mathis, 616 F.3d at 467, 473.

46 Id. at 467–68 (footnote omitted).

47 Id. at 473.

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rule—likely recognizing the potential for a gray area of previous unavailability 

despite technical availability. 

This case falls into that gray area. At this preliminary stage, we find that 

Cathey has presented sufficiently “cogent argument[s]”48 that Atkins was 

previously unavailable at the time of his first petition and its disposition. At 

that time, Cathey believed his IQ score to be 77—outside of the range that was 

then understood to satisfy the subaverage intellectual functioning prong of an 

Atkins claim. In Atkins, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment 

prohibited the execution of intellectually disabled criminals.49 The Atkins 

Court noted that 70 to 75 or lower is “typically considered the cutoff IQ score 

for the intellectual function prong of the mental retardation definition.”50

However, it left “to the State[s] the task of developing appropriate ways to 

enforce the constitutional restriction upon [their] execution of sentences.”51

The Texas courts “follow[ed] an American Association on Mental 

Retardation (AAMR) definition of mental retardation, adopted by [the Texas 

Court of Criminal Appeals] in Ex parte Briseno,” which required “‘significantly 

subaverage’ general intellectual functioning . . . usually evidenced by an IQ ‘of 

about 70’ or below[.]”52 This Court has observed this baseline score of 70 when 

analyzing Atkins claims by Texas petitioners.53 Indeed, the Briseno court 

 

48 Id.

49 See Atkins, 536 U.S. at 321.

50 Id. at 309 n.5 (citation omitted). 

51 Id. at 317 (internal quotation marks, citation, and footnote omitted).

52 Ex parte Woods, 296 S.W.3d 587, 589 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009) (citation and footnote 

omitted); accord Ex parte Hearn, 310 S.W.3d 424, 430 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010) (“[T]his court 

interprets the ‘about 70’ language of the AAMR’s definition of mental retardation to represent 

a rough ceiling, above which a finding of mental retardation in the capital context is 

precluded.” (citations omitted)); Ex parte Sosa, 364 S.W.3d 889, 891 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012); 

Busby v. Davis, No. 15-70008, 2017 WL 396549, at *3 (5th Cir. Jan. 27, 2017) (unpublished) 

(“Texas developed its Atkins framework in Ex parte Briseno.” (citing Ex parte Briseno, 135 

S.W.3d 1 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004) abrogated by Moore, 137 S. Ct. 1039)).

53 In re Mathis, 483 F.3d at 397 (“Typically, a person’s IQ must be measured at 70 or 

below to qualify as mentally retarded.” (citing In re Hearn, 418 F.3d 444, 447 n. 4 (5th Cir. 

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ultimately found that the petitioner’s IQ scores of 72 and 74 did not satisfy the 

“significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning” prong.54 Briseno

was published two months before Cathey filed his initial federal habeas 

petition.55 At that point in time, Cathey had no reason to believe his known 

score of 77—outside even the 70 to 75 range cited by the Atkins Court and 

sometimes others56—would satisfy an Atkins claim.57 Even the State calls an 

IQ score of 77 “a score above the range considered indicative of intellectual 

disability.”

The State nevertheless suggests that Cathey could have raised an Atkins 

claim based on a Flynn Effect-argument. Cathey in turn argues that the Flynn 

Effect was not recognized as viable in the courts at that time. By our review, 

the first mention of “Flynn Effect” in the case law—and the only mention before 

Cathey filed his initial habeas petition—was in a 2003 Western District of 

Virginia district court case.58 In Walton v. Johnson, the petitioner argued the 

Flynn Effect inflated his IQ scores.59 The district court explained the Flynn 

Effect, but ultimately noted that, even if it applied it, the petitioner’s IQ score

would still be too high.60 We are not persuaded that this single case out of the 

 

2005))); Blue v. Thaler, 665 F.3d 647, 657 (5th Cir. 2011); Morris v. Dretke, 413 F.3d 484, 489 

(5th Cir. 2005).

54 Ex parte Briseno, 135 S.W.3d at 14.

55 Briseno was published on February 11, 2004.

56 Ex parte Modden, 147 S.W.3d 293, 298 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004) (noting “the 70–75 

score that generally indicates subaverage general intellectual functioning”).

57 Nor was there any reason to believe otherwise before December 23, 2004, when the 

district court denied habeas relief, so he could amend his petition as per Wood. See 648 F. 

App’x at 392.

58 Walton v. Johnson, 269 F. Supp. 2d 692, 699 n.5 (W.D. Va. 2003), judgment vacated 

by 407 F.3d 285 (4th Cir. 2005), affirming judgment of district court en banc, 440 F.3d 160 

(4th Cir. 2006).

59 Id. The petitioner had received full-scale IQ scores on the Wechsler Adult 

Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) test of 90, 77, and 69. Id. at 695. 

60 The district court applied the Flynn Effect to his score of 90, the only score before 

his eighteenth birthday, and found his adjusted score of 85 would still be too high. Id. at 699 

n.5. We find the next mention out of the Eleventh Circuit in In re Hicks, 375 F.3d 1237 (11th 

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Western District of Virginia demonstrates that an Atkins argument based on 

the Flynn Effect was “available” to Cathey, who believed his IQ score to be 77. 

Not only was the Flynn Effect discussion in Walton relegated to a footnote, but 

whether Cathey was intellectually disabled for Atkins purposes was, and is, to 

be informed by Texas law, not Virginia law.61

We find the first mention of “Flynn Effect” out of a Texas court, or federal 

court applying Texas law, in In re Salazar.62 In Salazar, the petitioner’s expert 

opined that the petitioner’s IQ score may have been inflated by the Flynn 

Effect.63 This Court noted that the expert did “not indicate what effect it would 

have had on [the petitioner’s] score in particular or even whether it is 

appropriate to adjust an individual’s score based on this theory.”64 It then 

found that the petitioner’s IQ score was still too high even applying the Flynn 

Effect.65 The State argues that Salazar “did not render Atkins newly available, 

and . . . does not represent a new rule of constitutional law recognized by the 

Supreme Court.” The State is correct. But Cathey does not argue that Salazar 

contains a new rule of constitutional law for § 2244(b)(2) purposes; Cathey 

points to Salazar to support his contention that the courts in April of 2004 had 

not considered the Flynn Effect, thus rendering any Atkins claim premised on 

that effect unviable. Rivera v. Dretke,66 which the State cites to, does not alter 

the landscape. In Rivera, a district court decision noted the phenomenon of the 

Flynn Effect,67 but the decision was released after Salazar. Moreover, in 

 

Cir. 2004) (by the court). In Hicks, “Flynn Effect” is mentioned in evidence cited to by the 

dissenting judge. Id. at 1242–43 (Birch, J., dissenting).

61 See Atkins, 536 U.S. at 317. 62 443 F.3d 430, 433 (5th Cir. 2006).

63 Id. The petitioner scored an 87 on the WAIS-R test. Id.

64 Id. (footnote omitted).

65 Id. at 433 n.1 (noting “readjusted score would range from 80.7 to 74.4, both of which 

are above the cutoff score of 70”). 

66 2006 WL 870927.

67 2006 WL 870927, at *14.

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Rivera, the petitioner presented an IQ score of 68,68 whereas Cathey was 

sitting on an IQ score of 77.

The State argues that Cathey “provides no support for excusing the 

failure to properly raise an available claim simply because the claim is 

meritless.” This argument assumes the conclusion: that claims are “available” 

despite being meritless. We think a claim must have some possibility of merit 

to be considered available. In the same way we would not expect someone who, 

based on evidence, believed he was nineteen-years-old at the time of his crime 

to bring a Roper claim,69 we cannot expect someone who, based on evidence, 

believed his IQ was 77 to bring an Atkins claim two years after Atkins was 

decided in a state that had declared 70 as the benchmark IQ score,70 even 

accounting for a five-point margin of error.71 For similar reasons, the State’s 

contention that a claim’s legal availability “does not depend on its prior success 

in lower courts” is not sound in the context of this particular Atkins claim. 

That Atkins was “previously unavailable” is bolstered by evidence that 

came to light in 2010 that suggests Cathey’s IQ is “below 73.” Citing to the 

Atkins trial transcript, Cathey explains that a “Service Investigation 

Worksheet” indicating an IQ score of “below 73” was brought to his counsel’s 

attention by the State. At the hearing, Captain Steven Bryant, of the Polunsky 

Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (“TDCJ”) Correctional 

Institution Division, testified that when a prisoner first arrives, an IQ test is 

 

68 Id. at *14, *26.

69 In Roper v. Simmons, the Supreme Court held that the death penalty was 

unconstitutional for juvenile offenders under the age of 18. 543 U.S. 551, 568, 578 (2005).

70 Ex parte Hearn, 310 S.W.3d at 428 (“Determining whether one has significantly

subaverage intellectual functioning is a question of fact. It is defined as an IQ of about 70 or 

below.” (footnote omitted)).

71 Blue, 665 F.3d at 658 (“[Ex parte Hearn, 310 S.W.3d 424 (Tex. Crim. App. 2010)] 

establishes that, under Texas law, the lack of a full-scale IQ score of 75 or lower is fatal to an 

Atkins claim.” (citations omitted)).

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given.72 Upon being given the worksheet from 1998, Captain Bryant agreed 

that the form indicated Cathey’s IQ was below 73. In fact, there are two such 

worksheets. The State explains that “[t]he documents . . . are TDCJ Service 

Investigation Work Sheets, which are completed when an inmate is charged 

with a prison disciplinary infraction.” The worksheets, from 1998 and 2006, 

indicate Cathey was appointed counsel to assist him in the disciplinary process 

because, among other reasons, his “IQ [was] below 73.” Unable to dispute the 

existence of these worksheets, the State instead argues that the worksheets do 

not state the basis for the “below 73” comment. The parties also dispute 

whether the State withheld the documents, but both agree that they came to 

light in 2010 around the time of the state court hearing. Ultimately, Cathey 

has presented evidence that Cathey’s IQ was “below 73,” which, if true, would

make an Atkins claim available where it previously was not. “Below 73” puts 

Cathey in the margin of error of 70.73 Indeed, his IQ score may be even lower 

should a reviewing court ultimately find merit in the Flynn Effect.74 This, in 

combination with the courts’ treatment of the Flynn Effect in 2004, is sufficient 

to make a prima facie case of previous unavailability that merits fuller 

 

72 We note that other cases confirm that IQ tests are performed in prisons. Busby, 

2017 WL 396549, at *4 n.25 (prison records of Texas inmate “show that he was administered 

an ‘unknown’ IQ test in 2001”); Rivera, 2006 WL 870927, at *2 (noting evidence including 

“[p]rison records indicating that [petitioner] had been given [IQ] tests while in prison (for a 

previous unrelated conviction)”).

73 Ex parte Hearn, 310 S.W.3d at 428 (“There is ‘a measurement error of approximately 

5 points in assessing IQ,’ which may vary from instrument to instrument. Thus, any score 

could actually represent a score that is five points higher or five points lower than the actual 

IQ.” (citations omitted)).

74 In Ledford, the Eleventh Circuit surveys the state of Flynn Effect arguments in 

various circuits. 818 F.3d at 635–37. It also notes that the DSM-V references the Flynn Effect, 

stating, “[i]n its only reference to the Flynn effect, the DSM–V provides: ‘Factors that may

affect [intelligence] test scores include practice effects and the “Flynn effect” (i.e., overly high 

scores due to out-of-date test norms).’” Id. at 638 (citing American Psychiatric Association, 

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed. 2013) at 37).

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exploration in the district court.75 In the face of this evidence, we are not 

prepared to foreclose Cathey’s petition before the district court’s second, 

“thorough review.”76

As per Wood, Cathey has made a prima facie showing that it was not 

feasible to amend his initial petition to include an Atkins claim,77 and has 

provided an “explanation that could excuse his failure to amend his petition to 

include an Atkins claim and seek a stay and abeyance thereof.”78 We further 

note that Mathis v. Thaler, to which the parties frequently cite, concerned 

whether Mathis satisfied § 2244(b)(2)’s requirements,79 not the preliminary 

issue we face now whether a prima facie case has been shown. This distinction 

is important. In order to file a successive writ in the district court, this Court 

 

75 See In re Morris, 328 F.3d at 741 (Higginbotham, J., concurring) (expressing doubt 

but joining in grant of motion to file successive writ given “tentative” process). We recognize 

the difficulty in pinpointing precisely when Cathey’s Atkins claim became available, but we 

need not determine that. The statute only requires that the constitutional rule was 

“previously unavailable” at the time of Cathey’s initial habeas finding. See Mathis, 616 F.3d 

at 467 (“The issue before us is whether Mathis has demonstrated that his Atkins claim was 

‘previously unavailable’ at the time he filed his first federal habeas application.” (citing 28 

U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2); In re Salazar, 443 F.3d at 431–32. Cathey filed his first federal habeas 

petition on April 2, 2004. 

76 In re Morris, 328 F.3d at 740–41 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). 

This Court has held “that a petitioner cannot bring a successive claim” under subsection (B) 

“where he does not assert that the newly discovered evidence would negate his guilt of the 

offense of which he was convicted, i.e., capital murder.” In re Webster, 605 F.3d 256, 257 (5th 

Cir. 2010); accord In re Sparks, 657 F.3d 258, 260 n.2 (5th Cir. 2011) (per curiam); Turner v. 

Epps, 460 F. App’x 322, 330 (5th Cir. 2012) (per curiam) (unpublished) (applying Webster to 

§ 2244(b)(2)). Cathey does not—and cannot—allege that the IQ scores establish that he is not 

guilty of capital murder. The argument that “eligibility” for capital punishment ought not be 

governed by the rules on successive writs, though not without purchase, appears to be 

foreclosed. See In re Webster, 605 F.3d at 259–60 (Wiener, J., concurring). However, 

notwithstanding the distinction sometimes drawn between a legal and factual basis of a 

claim, In re Davis, 121 F.3d 952, 956 (5th Cir. 1997), to our knowledge, this Court has not 

held that a petitioner is barred from moving to file a successive claim under subsection (A) 

where evidence supports his argument that a new rule of constitutional law is available 

where it previously was not, which is what Cathey does here.

77 In re Wood, 648 F. App’x at 391.

78 Id. at 392. 

79 See Mathis, 616 F.3d at 464–65.

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must first determine whether the petitioner has made “a sufficient showing of 

possible merit to warrant a fuller exploration by the district court.”80 “If we 

grant the motion, the district court must conduct its own independent review 

of whether or not [Cathey] has met the requirements of § 2244(b). The district 

court is, therefore, the ‘second gate through which the petitioner must pass 

before the merits of his or her motion are heard.’”81 This Court granted 

Mathis’s motion for authorization upon finding he made the prima facie

showing.82 Only after returning to the district court did the district court 

dismiss Mathis’s petition for failing to satisfy § 2244(b)(2),83 which this Court 

then affirmed.84 All we decide now is that Cathey has made “a sufficient 

showing of possible merit”85 that Atkins established a new rule of 

constitutional law previously unavailable to him; he must still prove it in the 

district court.

B.

We now turn to the third and final element—whether Cathey’s Atkins 

claim has merit.86 In Texas, intellectual disability was defined “as a disability 

characterized by: (1) ‘significantly subaverage’ general intellectual functioning; 

(2) accompanied by ‘related’ limitations in adaptive functioning; (3) the onset 

of which occurs prior to the age of 18.”87 This formulation originated in Ex parte 

Briseno, which “adopted the definition of, and standards for assessing, 

 

80 In re Campbell, 750 F.3d at 530 (quoting In re Morris, 328 F.3d at 740); accord In 

re Arnick, 826 F.3d 787, 789 (5th Cir. 2016) (per curiam) (Elrod, J., dissenting) (describing 

this Court’s review of successive motions as “modest”).

81 In re Mathis, 483 F.3d at 397 (citations omitted).

82 Id. at 399–400.

83 Mathis, 616 F.3d at 466.

84 Id. at 473.

85 In re Campbell, 750 F.3d at 530 (quoting In re Morris, 328 F.3d at 740).

86 See id.; In re Henderson, 462 F.3d at 415.

87 Hunter v. State, 243 S.W.3d 664, 666 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007) (citing Ex parte Briseno, 

135 S.W.3d at 7).

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intellectual disability contained in the 1992 (ninth) edition of the American 

Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) manual, predecessor to the current

[American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

(AAIDD)]-11 manual. Briseno incorporated the AAMR–9’s requirement that 

adaptive deficits be ‘related’ to intellectual-functioning deficits.”88 In order to 

determine relatedness, courts looked to “seven evidentiary factors”—which 

came to be known as the Briseno factors.89

In Moore v. Texas, the Supreme Court reviewed Texas’s method for 

determining intellectual disability, with a focus on the Briseno factors. In June 

of 2016, Cathey moved for a stay pending the outcome in Moore. We denied his 

motion, noting that “[i]f—during our review of the filings—we determine that 

Moore may prove controlling, we retain the right to hold our decision and wait 

for the Supreme Court’s guidance.” This is what we did.

In Moore, the CCA had rejected a Texas habeas court’s recommendation 

“that the CCA reduce Moore’s sentence to life in prison or grant him a new trial 

on intellectual disability.”90 “In the CCA’s view, the habeas court erroneously 

employed intellectual-disability guides currently used in the medical 

community rather than the 1992 guides adopted by the CCA in Ex parte 

Briseno.”91 However, the Supreme Court vacated the CCA’s judgment, finding 

that the Briseno factors—“[n]ot aligned with the medical community’s 

information, and drawing no strength from [the Court’s] precedent”—could not 

be used to restrict someone from being deemed intellectually disabled.92

 

88 Moore, 137 S. Ct. at 1046 (internal citations and footnote omitted).

89 Id. (internal quotation marks omitted); accord Ex parte Briseno, 135 S.W.3d at 8 

(“There are . . . some other evidentiary factors which factfinders in the criminal trial context 

might also focus upon in weighing evidence as indicative of mental retardation or of a 

personality disorder[.]”).

90 Moore, 137 S. Ct. at 1046 (citation omitted).

91 Id. (citations omitted).

92 Id.

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Indeed, although he would have affirmed the CCA’s decision on other grounds, 

Chief Justice Roberts observed that the Court unanimously agreed that the 

Briseno “factors are an unacceptable method of enforcing the guarantee of 

Atkins, and that the CCA therefore erred in using them to analyze adaptive 

deficits.”93 The Court did not announce what should replace the Briseno

factors; however, it observed that “[t]he medical community’s current 

standards supply one constraint on States’ leeway in [enforcing Atkins’s 

holding],” and faulted the CCA for “rejecting the habeas court’s application of 

medical guidance.”94

The state habeas court used “the generally accepted, uncontroversial 

intellectual-disability diagnostic definition” of “(1) intellectual-functioning 

deficits . . . ; (2) adaptive deficits (‘the inability to learn basic skills and adjust 

behavior to changing circumstances[]’); and (3) the onset of these deficits while 

still a minor.”95 These same factors guide our determination of whether 

Cathey’s Atkins claim has merit.

Vacating the decision below, the majority in Moore: (1) held that the 

Briseno factors adopted by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for evaluating 

an Atkins claim are based on “superseded [medical] standards,”96 that “creat[e] 

an unacceptable risk that persons with intellectual disability will be executed,” 

in violation of the Eighth Amendment, and thus “may not be used . . . to restrict 

qualification of an individual as intellectually disabled,”97 (2) reiterated “that 

the Constitution ‘restrict[s] . . . the State’s power to take the life of’ any

intellectually disabled individual” and that “[e]xecuting intellectually disabled 

individuals . . . runs up against a national consensus against the practice . . . 

 

93 Id. at 1053 (Roberts, C.J., dissenting).

94 Id. at 1053 (majority opinion).

95 Id. at 1045 (internal citations omitted).

96 Id. at 1052. 97 Id. at 1044.

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and creates a ‘risk that the death penalty will be imposed in spite of factors 

which may call for a less severe penalty,’”98 (3) explained that, although “‘the 

task of developing appropriate ways to enforce’ the restriction on executing the 

intellectually disabled” is left to the States, “States’ discretion is not . . . 

‘unfettered,’” and “[e]ven if ‘the views of medical experts’ do not ‘dictate’ a 

court’s intellectual-disability determination, . . . the determination must be 

‘informed by the medical community’s diagnostic framework,’”99 (4) stated that 

Supreme Court precedent precludes “disregard of current medical 

standards,”100 (5) held that “[t]he CCA’s conclusion that Moore’s IQ scores 

established that he is not intellectually disabled is irreconcilable with Hall,”

which instructs that, “where an IQ score is close to, but above, 70, courts must 

account for the test’s ‘standard error of measurement,’” and that “[b]ecause the 

lower end of Moore’s score range falls at or below 70, the CCA had to move on 

to consider Moore’s adaptive functioning”101 and (6) held that “[t]he CCA’s 

consideration of Moore’s adaptive functioning . . . deviated from prevailing 

clinical standards and from the older clinical standards the court claimed to 

apply.”102

“A prima facie showing of mental retardation is simply a sufficient 

showing of possible merit to warrant a fuller [exploration] by the district 

court.”103 Importantly, “the state court findings concerning the Atkins claim 

are wholly irrelevant to our inquiry as to whether [the petitioner] has made a 

prima facie showing of entitlement to proceed with his federal habeas 

 

98 Id. at 1048 (quoting Atkins, 536 U.S. at 320–21). 99 Id. (quoting Hall, 134 S. Ct. at 1998, 2000).

100 Id. at 1049.

101 Id. (quoting Hall, 134 S. Ct. at 1995, 2001).

102 Id. at 1050.

103 In re Hearn, 418 F.3d at 445 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

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application, which is an inquiry distinct from the burden that [the petitioner] 

must bear in proving his claim in the district court.”104

1.

The first prong, intellectual-functioning deficits, is typically “indicated 

by an IQ score ‘approximately two standard deviations below the mean’—i.e., 

a score of roughly 70—adjusted for ‘the standard error of measurement[.]”105

Briseno and its progeny used the same numerical baseline.106 Adjusting for the 

five-point standard error of measurement, as we must,107 Cathey’s known IQ 

score of 77 results in a range of 72 to 82. However, the Hall108 Court reminded 

that “[i]ntellectual disability is a condition, not a number. Courts must 

recognize, as does the medical community, that the IQ test is imprecise.”109

Cathey has offered evidence that suggests such imprecision in his score of 77. 

First, Cathey has offered evidence of the consequences of the Flynn Effect, an 

accepted scientific phenomenon,110 regardless of its ultimate status in the 

courts and its application to specific IQ scores.111 Cathey urges that correcting 

for the Flynn Effect results in “a true IQ of 71.6,” which yields a range of 66.6 

and 76.6 after accounting for the standard error of measurement. We need not 

 

104 In re Wilson, 442 F.3d 872, 878 (5th Cir. 2006) (by the court) (citation omitted);

accord In re Henderson, 462 F.3d at 415; In re Mathis, 483 F.3d at 397.

105 Moore, 137 S. Ct. at 1045 (quoting AAIDD–11, at 27).

106 See Ex parte Briseno, 135 S.W.3d at 7 n. 24; Ex parte Hearn, 310 S.W.3d at 428.

107 Moore, 137 S. Ct. at 1049 (“Hall instructs that, where an IQ score is close to, but 

above, 70, courts must account for the test’s ‘standard error of measurement.’” (citation 

omitted)).

108 Hall v. Florida, 134 S. Ct. 1986 (2014).

109 Id. at 2001 (citation omitted).

110 See Ex parte Cathey, 451 S.W.3d at 12 (“The trial judge heard extensive evidence 

concerning the ‘Flynn Effect,’ including testimony from Professor Flynn himself. It was 

generally agreed by all of the experts that the ‘Flynn Effect’ does exist and is valid.”); Moore, 

137 S. Ct. at 1049 (“Hall indicated that being informed by the medical community does not 

demand adherence to everything stated in the latest medical guide. But neither does our 

precedent license disregard of current medical standards.”).

111 See supra note 33.

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credit this specific output to acknowledge that the Flynn Effect raises the 

inference that Cathey’s score of 77 from a 1996 IQ test last normed in 1978 

may be susceptible to inflation. This inference is viable not because we today 

decide to accept the Flynn Effect—we need not reach that issue—but because 

Cathey has also presented documents from 1998 and 2006 that note his IQ is 

“below 73.” This inference of inflation is buttressed by results from 

achievement tests administered by Dr. Yohman, and school records that reflect 

low to failing grades in ninth grade and dropping out the following year. The 

Hall Court warned that “[a] State that ignores the inherent imprecision of [IQ]

tests risks executing a person who suffers from intellectual disability.”112 That 

risk lurks here.

The State contends that in Blue v. Thaler, this Court rejected an 

argument to adjust IQ scores of 76 and 77 down based on the Flynn Effect. But 

Blue never mentions “Flynn Effect,” and further that case considered whether 

to issue a COA, not whether to allow a successive petition.113 Further still, 

whereas “Blue [did] not produce[] an IQ score within the parameters serving 

as a precursor to a diagnosis of mental retardation[,]”114 Cathey has produced 

evidence suggestive of an IQ score “below 73.” 

The State also argues that “the only issue in this case is whether it was 

unreasonable for the state court to decline to adjust Cathey’s IQ score to 

account for the Flynn Effect.” But this is incorrect. As previously stated, “the 

state court findings concerning the Atkins claim are wholly irrelevant to our 

inquiry as to whether [the petitioner] has made a prima facie showing of 

entitlement to proceed with his federal habeas application, which is an inquiry 

 

112 Hall, 134 S. Ct. at 2001 (citation omitted).

113 Blue, 665 F.3d at 652.

114 Id. at 661 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).

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distinct from the burden that [the petitioner] must bear in proving his claim in 

the district court.”115

Finally, the State avers that “[t]his Court has consistently denied 

relief . . . ‘when an inmate has IQ scores both under and over 70.’” But none of 

the cases the State cites to were at the same successive writ procedural posture 

as here,116 and all of them predate the Supreme Court’s decision in Hall. In 

Hall, “the Florida Supreme Court ha[d] . . . held that a person whose test score 

is above 70, including a score within the margin for measurement error, does 

not have an intellectual disability and is barred from presenting other evidence 

that would show his faculties are limited.”117 But the Supreme Court found 

that this “strict IQ test score cutoff”118 was unconstitutional.119 The Court 

found it “disregard[ed] established medical practice . . . [by] tak[ing] an IQ 

score as final and conclusive evidence of a defendant’s intellectual capacity, 

when experts in the field would consider other evidence[,]” and by “rel[ying] on 

a purportedly scientific measurement of the defendant’s abilities . . . while 

refusing to recognize that the score is, on its own terms, imprecise.”120 The 

Supreme Court was focused on the standard error of measurement, not the 

Flynn Effect, but nevertheless indicated skepticism of IQ cut-offs. Given the 

procedural posture and evidence presented, we will not now resort to such a 

cut-off. Cathey has made “a sufficient showing of possible merit [of significant 

 

115 In re Wilson, 442 F.3d at 878.

116 Pierce v. Thaler, 604 F.3d 197, 199 (5th Cir. 2010) (affirming denial of habeas relief 

and evidentiary hearing on Atkins claim); Eldridge v. Quarterman, 325 F. App’x 322, 329 (5th 

Cir. 2009) (unpublished) (denying COA); Williams v. Quarterman, 293 F. App’x 298, 316 (5th 

Cir. 2008) (per curiam) (unpublished) (affirming denial of habeas relief on Atkins claim).

117 Hall, 134 S. Ct. at 1994 (citation omitted).

118 Id.

119 Id. at 2000.

120 Id. at 1995. The Court noted that its analysis did not include states that used 

cutoffs of 75 or greater, as the petitioner did not challenge those rules. Id. at 1996.

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subaverage intellectual functioning] to warrant a fuller exploration by the 

district court.”121

2. 

We also find Cathey has made a prima facie showing of adaptive deficits. 

As recently explained by the Supreme Court, “Briseno adopted the definition 

of, and standards for assessing, intellectual disability contained in the 1992 

(ninth) edition of the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR) 

manual, predecessor to the current AAIDD–11 manual.”122 In Briseno, the 

CCA noted that “[i]mpairments in adaptive behavior” were defined as 

“significant limitations in an individual’s effectiveness in meeting the 

standards of maturation, learning, personal independence, and/or social 

responsibility that are expected for his or her age level and cultural group, as 

determined by clinical assessment and, usually, standardized scales.”123

However, the Briseno Court found “[t]he adaptive behavior criteria [to be] 

exceedingly subjective” and thus offered “some other evidentiary factors which 

factfinders in the criminal trial context might also focus upon in weighing 

evidence as indicative of mental retardation or of a personality disorder[.]”124

These evidentiary factors came to be known as the “Briseno factors.”125

Further, “Briseno incorporated the AAMR–9’s requirement that adaptive 

deficits be ‘related’ to intellectual-functioning deficits.”126

 

121 In re Campbell, 750 F.3d at 530 (quoting In re Morris, 328 F.3d at 740).

122 Moore, 137 S. Ct. at 1046 (citing Briseno, 135 S.W.3d, at 7; other citation omitted)).

123 Ex parte Briseno, 135 S.W.3d at 7 n.25 (citing American Association on Mental 

Deficiency at 11).

124 Id. at 8. These include, for example, “Did those who knew the person best during 

the developmental stage—his family, friends, teachers, employers, authorities—think he was 

mentally retarded at that time, and, if so, act in accordance with that determination?” and 

“Has the person formulated plans and carried them through or is his conduct impulsive?” Id.

125 See, e.g., Ex parte Sosa, 364 S.W.3d at 892–93.

126 Moore, 137 S. Ct. at 1046 (citation and footnote omitted).

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In Moore, the Supreme Court criticized the CCA for its continued 

reliance on the standard set out in Briseno:

The CCA . . . fastened its intellectual-disability determination to 

“the AAMR’s 1992 definition of intellectual disability that [it] 

adopted in Briseno for Atkins claims presented in Texas deathpenalty cases.” By rejecting the habeas court’s application of 

medical guidance and clinging to the standard it laid out in 

Briseno, including the wholly nonclinical Briseno factors, the CCA 

failed adequately to inform itself of the “medical community's 

diagnostic framework[.]”127

The Moore Court noted that “current manuals offer ‘the best available 

description of how mental disorders are expressed and can be recognized by 

trained clinicians’”128 and also cited the latest AAIDD manual for its definition 

of intellectual disability. It found that “[i]n determining the significance of 

adaptive deficits, clinicians look to whether an individual’s adaptive 

performance falls two or more standard deviations below the mean in any of 

the three adaptive skill sets (conceptual, social, and practical).”129

Turning to those standards here, in the category of conceptual skills, 

Cathey points to evidence suggesting his difficulties with language, using 

money, and reading and writing. In the category of social skills, Cathey points 

to evidence of his gullibility, his lack of self-esteem, and his difficulties with 

relationships. And in the category of practical skills, Cathey points to his 

challenges completing chores, impairments in assessing risks, and difficulties 

keeping steady work. Furthermore, Cathey highlights evidence from Dr. Jack 

Fletcher, who administered the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales test to 

 

127 Id. at 1053 (internal citations omitted).

128 Id. (quoting DSM–5, at xli; other citations omitted).

129 Id. at *6 (citing AAIDD–11, at 43); accord Ladd, 748 F.3d at 645–46 (“With respect 

to limitations in adaptive functioning, the CCA has explained that ‘three adaptive-behavior 

areas are applicable to determining mental retardation: conceptual skills, social skills, and 

practical skills.’” (quoting Ex parte Hearn, 310 S.W.3d at 428)).

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analyze Cathey’s adaptive behaviors. As part of this test, Dr. Fletcher 

interviewed Cathey’s older sister and former wife. From these interviews, Dr. 

Fletcher concluded that Cathey’s adaptive behavior composite score was in the 

first percentile or less.130

The State responds that its expert, Dr. Tim Proctor, disagreed with 

aspects of Dr. Fletcher’s administration of the Vineland. For instance, Dr. 

Proctor noted concerns with applying the Vineland retrospectively, and noted 

concerns with the subjects’ credibility. These may be valid critiques, but at this 

stage they are insufficient for us to completely discount Dr. Fletcher’s 

conclusions. The State also argues that Dr. Proctor “reviewed Cathey’s prison 

correspondence and testified that Cathey’s correspondence demonstrated, inter 

alia, an awareness of his Atkins claim, an ability to plan, an understanding of 

current events, an ability to manage money, and an ability to think abstractly.” 

The State specifically notes Dr. Proctor’s testimony “that an inmate’s prison 

behaviors are relevant in assessing the inmate for intellectual disability.” 

However, Moore signaled restraint in using such evidence: “the CCA stressed 

Moore’s improved behavior in prison. Clinicians, however, caution against 

reliance on adaptive strengths developed ‘in a controlled setting,’ as a prison 

surely is.”131

Ultimately, we find that Dr. Fletcher’s testing and conclusions regarding 

Cathey’s adaptive deficits, in combination with the affidavits and school 

records, satisfy a prima facie case of adaptive deficits. 

 

130 From his interview with Cathey’s sister, Dr. Fletcher determined a composite score 

of 66, and scored 66 in socialization, 68 in daily living, and 69 in communication. From his 

interview with Cathey’s ex-wife, Dr. Fletcher determined a composite score of 59, and scored

61 in communication and daily living, and 60 in socialization.

131 Moore, 137 S. Ct. at 1050 (citations omitted).

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3.

Finally, Cathey has presented sufficient evidence to show the onset of 

these deficits prior to age 18. Cathey argues he “suffered numerous serious 

head traumas during his childhood, a risk factor for intellectual disability.” 

Cathey also contends that “[i]mpaired care-giving and adult nonresponsiveness are also risk factors for mental retardation.”132 Cathey notes

his “traumatic environment” growing up, including drug-dealing, gun battles, 

and prostitution taking place in the home. Cathey urges that these are risk 

factors identified by the American Association on Intellectual and 

Developmental Disabilities. Cathey concludes that there is “[n]o evidence of an 

intervening cause after age 18 . . . that could account for [his] limitations in 

intellectual and adaptive functioning.”

The State responds that Cathey was not in special education classes, and 

that his “poor school performance was attributable to factors other than his 

intelligence.” The State asserts that before Atkins, no one thought Cathey was 

intellectually disabled, pointing again to the CCA opinion denying Cathey’s 

Atkins claim. The State argues that much of Cathey’s evidence is “readily 

contradicted” by trial testimony. However, “[a]t his pre-Atkins trial, [Cathey] 

had little reason to investigate or present evidence relating to intellectual 

disability. In fact, had he done so at the penalty phase, he ran the risk that it 

would ‘enhance the likelihood . . . future dangerousness [would] be found by 

the jury.’”133

Given the evidence Cathey presented and that there is no identifiable 

intervening cause, Cathey has made a sufficient showing of onset before the 

 

132 See also Moore, 137 S. Ct. at 1051 (“[T]raumatic experiences . . . count in the 

medical community as ‘risk factors’ for intellectual disability. Clinicians rely on such factors 

as cause to explore the prospect of intellectual disability further, not to counter the case for 

a disability determination.” (citations omitted)).

133 Brumfield, 135 S. Ct. at 2281 (quoting Atkins, 536 U.S., at 321).

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age of 18 to proceed. “Cases in which this court has denied a motion to file a 

successive habeas claim based on Atkins usually involve sparse records, where 

no expert has diagnosed the movant with retardation.”134 Here, Cathey has put 

forth a variety of evidence, including Dr. Fletcher’s test result and conclusions, 

family member affidavits, and school and hospital records. “[F]rom our 

vantage, the evidence shows more than sufficient ‘possible merit to warrant a 

fuller exploration by the district court.’”135

IV.

“[T]he Constitution ‘places a substantive restriction on the State’s power 

to take the life’ of a mentally retarded offender.”136 Cathey has offered 

sufficient evidence that he may be excluded from the death penalty for this 

reason. At this stage, he has made a prima facie showing that his successive 

petition satisfies 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2)(A), and we accordingly grant his 

motion for authorization. We remind that such a grant is “tentative” and is to 

be followed by the district court’s “thorough review.”137 

In addition to undertaking a thorough review on the question of 

successiveness, there are procedural questions concerning the timeliness of 

Cathey’s claim that the district court has not yet decided, and should decide in 

its review. Like the petitioner in Campbell, Cathey first raised an Atkins claim 

several years after Atkins was actually decided.138 Cathey argues that his 

 

134 In re Mathis, 483 F.3d at 398 (citation omitted); accord In re Brown, 457 F.3d at 

396–97 (failing to make prima facie showing of intellectual disability when report relied upon 

indicates an IQ “significantly above the range of [intellectual disability],” and report “does 

not demonstrate deficits in specific areas of adaptive functioning” (citations omitted)); In re 

Johnson, 334 F.3d 403, 404 (5th Cir. 2003) (per curiam) (two letters from forensic psychologist 

referring to “multiple areas of concern,” prior evaluation that “did not clearly reflect mental 

incapacitation,” and a “belief” of verbal intelligence levels, along with seventh grade 

transcript reflecting academic failure insufficient).

135 In re Campbell, 750 F.3d at 532 (citations omitted).

136 Atkins, 536 U.S. at 321 (quoting Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399, 405 (1986)).

137 In re Morris, 328 F.3d at 741 (citations and quotation marks omitted).

138 In re Campbell, 750 F.3d at 532.

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motion is nevertheless timely because the State withheld the “below 73” IQ 

evidence, and alternatively based on equitable tolling. As in Campbell, “[t]he 

delay gives us pause,” but further factual development is needed.139 The 

district court is best positioned to initially resolve the statute of limitations 

issue.140

For the reasons stated above, we AFFIRM the district court’s transfer 

order and GRANT the motion for authorization.

 

139 Id. at 533.

140 See id. at 534; see also In re Henderson, 462 F.3d at 417.

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