* This order and judgment is not binding precedent, e xcept under the

doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and col lateral estoppel. The court generally disfavors the citation of orders and judg ments; nevertheless, an order and judgment may be cited under the terms and condi tions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3. 

## F I L E D United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit 

### FEB 12 1997 

### PATRICK FISHER Clerk UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT

JASON STARR,

Petitioner-Appellant,

v. WYOMING DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS STATE PENITENTIARY WARDEN, also known as Duane Shillinger; WYOMING ATTORNEY GENERAL,

Defendants-Appellees. No. 96-8033 (D.C. No. 93-CV-259) (D. Wyo.)

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

Before ANDERSON, KELLY, and LUCERO, Circuit Judges.

Jason Starr, a Wyoming state prisoner proceeding pr o se and in forma pauperis, appeals for a second time the district co urt’s dismissal of his habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The distri ct court dismissed the petition1 After examining the briefs and appellate record, th is panel has determined

unanimously that oral argument would not materiallyassist the determination of this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a); 10th Cir. R. 34.1.9. The c ase is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument.

2 Petitioner filed his notice of appeal on April 11, 1996. On May 22, 1996, the district court issued a certificate of probable cause (CPC). We have previously held that the standard for issuing a CPC is the same as the standard for issuing a certificate of appealability, required in its stead as of April 24, 1996 by the Antiterrorist and Effective Death Penalty Act. See Lennox v. Evans , 87 F.3d 431, 434 (10th Cir. 1996), cert. denied , 65 U.S.L.W. 3488 (U.S. Jan. 13, 1997) (No. 96-6621). Accordingly, the district court’s C PC determination permits petitioner to proceed on appeal. In its May 22, 1996 order, the district court also allowed petitioner to proceed in forma pauperis on appeal. The Prison Li tigation Reform Act (PLRA), which became law on April 26, 1996, imposes filing fee obligations on a “prisoner” who “brings a civil action or files an appeal in forma pauperis.” Pub. L. No. 104-134, § 804(a)(3), 110 Stat. 1321 (1996). Even assuming that a § 2254 habeas petition is subject to the PLRA, the PLRA do es not apply to the petition before us because Starr filed his notice of appeal on April 11, 1996, fifteen days before the PLRA became law. See White v. Gregory , 87 F.3d 429, 430 (10th Cir.) (finding amendments to 28 U.S.C. § 1915 inapplicabl e to an appeal of § 1983 action where notice of appeal filed before Act beca me law), cert. denied , 117 S. Ct. 528 (1996). -2- this time on the ground of state procedural default

. 1 We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253, and affirm. 2 In 1985, petitioner was charged in Wyoming state co urt with one count of first degree murder and one count of attempted murd er. Counsel was appointed to represent him. At his arraignment, the court was p resented with a plea agreement whereby, in exchange for guilty pleas, the state ag reed to reduce the attempted murder charge to aggravated assault and to recommen d sentences of life on the-3-

murder charge and five to ten years for the assault . As the factual basis for the pleas was being established, petitioner told the co urt that the murder victim had threatened to shoot him, see R., doc. 21, ex. J at 18, and had reached for the glove compartment where petitioner thought a gun might be concealed, see id. at 18-19. When petitioner persisted in this self-defense clai m, the court rejected the plea agreement and set the case for trial. Five hours later, after talking with his lawyer, pe titioner again came before the court in a change-of-plea hearing. The plea ag reement was again presented, and petitioner did not renew his self-defense claim . Following testimony from the sheriff who investigated the crimes, which providedno support for a claim of self-defense, the court accepted petitioner’s guilty pleas and sentenced him accordingly. Petitioner did not file a direct appe al; however, over the course of the next eight years, he proceeded to make numerous other filings. In 1986, petitioner filed a motion for credit for p resentence incarceration in state court. This motion was denied, and no appeal was taken. In 1990, he filed in state court a motion for correction of an illega l sentence, seeking merger of offenses. That motion was also denied, but this ti me petitioner appealed. Because the record was not timely docketed, the Wyo ming Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, but treated it as a petition for writ of certiorari and granted the petition. On certiorari, the court affirmed th e district court’s denial of-4-

petitioner’s motion for correction of an illegal se ntence; however, the Court sua sponte granted petitioner the presentence incarceration credit he had earlier requested. See Starr v. State , 821 P.2d 1299, 1300-01 (Wyo. 1991). In 1993, petitioner filed in state court a petition for post-conviction relief, claiming “false imprisonment, kidnaping, illegal se ntence, [and] illegal incarceration.” R., doc. 1 at 4. This petition wa s dismissed, and petitioner did not seek review by the state Supreme Court. Next, petitioner filed a habeas petition in federal district court, which was dismi ssed without prejudice for failure to exhaust state remedies. No appeal was t aken. Petitioner returned to state court, filing in the Wyoming Supreme Court a “Petition for Writ of Certiorari for Restoration of Petitioner’s Direct Appeal.” Petitioner alleged he was denied his right to direct appeal, had receivedineffective assistance of counsel, that his guilty pleas were not voluntary, and that he was denied access to the courts. The Wyoming Supreme Court denied the p etition without reaching the merits, characterizing it as an improperly filed se cond petition for post-conviction relief, and barred as successive. R., doc. 1, atta ch. In 1993, petitioner filed this habeas action, claim ing he was denied his right to direct appeal, that he received ineffective assi stance of counsel, and that he was denied access to the courts. He later added th at his guilty pleas were coerced. The district court initially dismissed th e petition without prejudice as-5-

“mixed,” containing both exhausted and unexhausted claims, and petitioner appealed. We concluded that the district court err ed in finding unexhausted claims, reversed the order of dismissal, and remand ed the case for consideration of the state procedural default issue. On remand, the district court concluded, on cross m otions for summary judgment, that petitioner by his failure to follow state procedural rules had defaulted his habeas claims in state court. The co urt further found that petitioner had failed to demonstrate the necessary cause and p rejudice to excuse his default, and ordered the petition dismissed with prejudice. Petitioner again appeals, this time challenging the district court’s conclusion th at he failed to establish the cause and prejudice necessary to excuse any default , and further arguing that a refusal to hear his claim will result in a fundamental miscarriage of justice. Petitioner also contends: (1) he has been denied du e process and equal protection in this habeas action because, despite repeated req uests, he has never received copies of all the documents submitted by the state in opposing his petition; and (2) the district court was prejudiced against him and failed to properly review his

case. We review the district court’s order dismissing thi s habeas petition de novo, applying the same legal standard as did the d istrict court under Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). See Shillinger v. Haworth , 70 F.3d 1132, 1136 (10th Cir. 1995).-6-

Summary judgment is appropriate only if “there is n o genuine issue as to any material fact and . . . the moving party is entitle d to a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). Petitioner apparently has not conceded that he defaulted his claims in state
court. See Appellant’s Br. at 3(d). The Wyoming Supreme Court was clear, however, that it would not consider the claims because petitioner failed to follow the state’s procedural rules in seeking post-convic tion relief. “The law of procedural defaults . . . applies to preclude feder al habeas review of claims that have not been adjudicated on the merits by a state court because of noncompliance with a state procedural rule.” Brech een v. Reynolds , 41 F.3d 1343, 1354 (10th Cir. 1994), cert. denied , 115 S. Ct. 2564 (1995). Petitioner’s default arises from his failure to pursue the claim s now before us in his first petition for post-conviction relief filed in state court. Because of his procedural default, we may not consi der petitioner’s claims unless he is able to show “cause for the default an d actual prejudice as a result of the alleged violation of federal law, or demonstrat e that failure to consider the claims will result in a fundamental miscarriage of justice.” Coleman v. Thompson , 501 U.S. 722, 750 (1991). To show cause, petitio ner must establish that some objective factor, external to him and notfairly attributable to him, impeded his efforts to comply with the state’s proc edural rules. See id. at 753.-7-

On appeal, petitioner asserts that cause exists, ad vancing two arguments. First, he asserts that the trial court told him he could not file a direct appeal. Second, he contends his trial attorney was ineffect ive in (1) failing to object to the court’s “false advice”; (2) in failing to inform him of his right to appeal; and (3) in “allow[ing] the trial court to ‘coerce’ [him ] into involuntarily pleading guilty.” See Appellant’s Br. at 3. Even were these assertions supported by the record and sufficient to establish cause for petiti oner’s failure to file a direct appeal, they do not excuse petitioner’s default, i. e., his failure to include in his first post-conviction petition in state court all o f his claims for post-conviction relief. That failure is the default upon which the Wyoming Supreme Court relied in refusing to address the claims now before us, an d that is the default for which cause must be established. Our own review of the record reveals nothing which would constitute cause for petitioner’s failure to abide by the procedural rules governing Wyoming’s post-conviction proceedings. Petitioner apparentlydid not have the benefit of a transcript of the change of plea hearing at the tim e he filed his first state court petition for post-conviction relief. However, peti tioner was present at the hearing and asserts that he did not file a direct appeal be cause of a statement by the judge made at that hearing. Under these circumstances pe titioner cannot now take the-8-

position that he was unaware of the judge’s stateme nt—and thus the basis of his claim—until after he saw a transcript of the hearin g. Although petitioner has failed to establish cause t o excuse his procedural default, we may nevertheless address his claim if o ur failure to do so would result in a fundamental miscarriage of justice. See Coleman , 501 U.S. at 750. The fundamental miscarriage of justice exception applie s only when a petitioner “‘supplements his constitutional claim with a colorable showing of factual innocence.’” Brecheen , 41 F.3d at 1357 (quoting Herrera v. Collins , 113 S. Ct. 853, 862 (1993)) (further quotations omitted). Although petitioner now claims to have been “coerced” into abandoning his claim of se lf-defense and pleading guilty, he has made no showing whatsoever that he w as indeed acting in selfdefense during the incident which gave rise to his conviction. On the contrary, the transcripts upon which he relies reflect that, although he suggested he acted in self-defense at his arraignment, see R., doc. 21, ex. J at 18-19, he later represented to the court that he was not alleging s elf-defense, see R., doc. 21, ex. K at 3-4, admitted to shooting and killing the vict im because he “lost [his] head,” id. at 14-15, and further admitted that he did not thi nk the victim would try to kill him, see id. at 17. Accordingly, petitioner has not made a suf ficient showing of actual innocence to overcome his procedural default

.-9-

Petitioner also argues that he has been denied due process and equal protection in this habeas action because, despite r epeated requests, he has never received copies of three of the fourteen exhibits w hich accompanied the state’s motion to dismiss in district court, and thus “coul d not defend against evidence . . . used against him” in this action. Appellant’s Br. at 2. In particular, he complains of not having received Respondent’s Exhibit E (report of petitioner’s mental evaluation at the Wyoming State Hospital), Respondent’s Exhibit F (report of independent psychological eval uation of petitioner), and Respondent’s Exhibit G (petitioner’s plea agreement ). Even if petitioner did not receive these three exhibits, there has been no con stitutional violation. The record indicates that all three were provided to th e district court by way of background information, and the court did not rely upon them in dismissing the petition. Nor do we. Furthermore, Exhibit G embod ies the plea agreement presented to the state court at petitioner’s arraig nment and at his change of plea hearing, which both he and his counsel acknowledgedin open court. See R., doc. 21, ex. J at 13-14 and ex. K at 8-9. Plainly, peti tioner cannot now claim to be unaware of its contents. Finally, petitioner also alleges bias on the part o f the district court in this habeas proceeding, citing as “evidence” its rulings against him and its failure to order respondent to provide him copies of the reque sted exhibits. Adverse rulings-10-

alone do not establish judicial bias, and we find n one here. Cf. Bradshaw v. Story , 86 F.3d 164, 166 (10th Cir. 1996) (affirming dism issal of § 2241 petition, where petitioner argued that § 2255 was an inadequate remedy, citing sentencing court’s denial of his previous § 2255 petitions as evidence of bias). AFFIRMED. The mandate shall issue forthwith.
ENTERED FOR THE COURT

Carlos F. Lucero Circuit Judge