NOT PRECEDENTIAL 

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT 

Nos. 19-1489 & 19-1667 

________________ 

RICHARD BALTER, 

 Appellant 

v. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Appeal from the United States District Court 

for the District of New Jersey 

(D.C. Civil Action No. 18-cv-16681) 

District Judge: Honorable Jerome B. Simandle 

Argued April 28, 2021 

Before: SMITH, Chief Judge, PHIPPS and ROTH, Circuit Judges

(Opinion filed: May 28, 2021) 

Richard Balter 

Petersburg FCI Medium 

P.O. Box 1000 

Petersburg, VA 23804 

 Appellant Pro Se 

Harrison P. Graydon (ARGUED) 

Duquesne University School of Law 

Federal Litigation Clinic 

912-914 Fifth Avenue 

Pittsburgh, PA 15219 

Adrian N. Roe 
2 

428 Boulevard of the Allies 

First Floor 

Pittsburgh, PA 15219 

 Counsel for Court Appointed Amicus Curiae 

Steven G. Sanders (ARGUED) 

Mark E. Coyne 

Office of United States Attorney General 

970 Broad Street 

Room 700 

Newark, NJ 07102 

 Counsel for Appellee 

OPINION*

ROTH, Circuit Judge 

 Richard Balter appeals the dismissal of his 8 U.S.C.§ 2255 Motion seeking to 

vacate his convictions for murder for hire and wire fraud. Because we agree with the 

District Court that his Motion was second or successive, we will affirm. 

I

 In 1994, Balter was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder for hire of 

Robert Cohen to collect on a $600,000 insurance policy on Cohen’s life. Cohen made 

Balter the beneficiary of the policy, hoping to refortify their business relationship. 

*

 This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not 

constitute binding precedent.
3

Cohen’s company, Uneeda, owed approximately $600,000 to Balter’s company, NPP.

Balter claimed that this debt was undermining NPP’s financial stability.1

 

In 1997, Balter filed a pro se § 2255 Motion, alleging ineffective assistance of 

counsel. The motion was denied on the merits. In 2007, in response to a 2005 request, 

the government returned two boxes of documents taken from NPP’s warehouse before 

trial. Because Balter had become blind due to macular degeneration,2 he recruited other 

inmates to help him review the documents. Some of the documents allegedly show that 

the insurance policy was Cohen’s idea, that Balter and Cohen had worked out a payment 

plan, that NPP was financially stable, and that Balter would have acquired Uneeda if 

Cohen had lived. Balter alleges that these documents undermined the government’s 

financial-motive theory and were not included in the files counsel was permitted to 

inspect before trial. 

In 2018, Balter filed another pro se § 2255 Motion, raising a Brady claim based on 

the documents. Before filing a second or successive § 2255 motion, a prisoner must 

“move in the appropriate court of appeals for an order authorizing the district court to 

consider the [§ 2255 motion].”3

 Under § 2255(h)(1), a successive motion is barred unless 

it, inter alia, “contain[s] . . . newly discovered evidence that . . . would be sufficient to 

1 See generally United States v. Balter, 91 F.3d 427 (3d Cir. 1996).

2 See generally Balter v. United States, No. 09-1409, 2014 WL 1365905 (M.D. Pa. Apr. 

7, 2014).

3 28 U.S.C. §§ 2244(b)(3)(A), 2255(h).
4

establish by clear and convincing evidence that no reasonable factfinder would have 

found the movant guilty of the offense.”4

 

The government argued that Balter’s motion was second or successive and moved 

either to dismiss it or to transfer it to this Court so that Balter could seek permission to 

file it. On February 27, 2019, the District Court did both. It granted the government’s 

Motion to Dismiss Balter’s habeas motion “without prejudice” and at the same time 

transferred Balter’s motion to this Court (Case No. 19-1489), pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 

1631. The government responded to the transfer, arguing that Balter’s motion did not 

meet the gatekeeping requirements of 28 U.S.C. § 2255(h)(1). On March 26, 2019, 

Balter moved to dismiss what he called the “appeal” in No. 19-1489, insisting that he did 

not need our Court’s permission to file his motion because it was not second or 

successive. We granted the dismissal of No. 19-1489 on April 4. 

Meanwhile, on March 29, Balter appealed the District Court’s Order of February 

27. That appeal is designated Case No. 19-1667. Balter again challenged the District 

Court’s conclusion that his habeas motion was second or successive. 

On September 4, 2020, a Motions Panel of this Court directed that counsel be 

appointed as amicus curiae to assist Balter. In order to properly examine all issues before 

us, on April 26, 2021, we reopened the appeal in No. 19-1489. Balter had had sent a 

letter to the Court, stating that he had no objection to the reopening of No. 19-1489.

II

4 Id. § 2255(h)(1).
5

A.

As an initial matter, we have jurisdiction over Case No. 19-1667. Ordinarily, a 

district court should dismiss a second or successive § 2255 motion for lack of 

jurisdiction.5

 We have suggested, however, that in some circumstances a district court 

may transfer the motion to this Court as though it were a motion seeking permission to 

file a second or successive motion.6

 Although the government moved for dismissal or a 

transfer, the District Court did both, dismissing the case “without prejudice” and

transferring it. Because the District Court dismissed the case, it could not also transfer it. 

In order to resolve this conflict of dispositions, we will interpret the action taken by the 

District Court to be a dismissal. Moreover, it is evident from Balter”s pro se brief that he

wishes to stand on his petition as presented. The order of dismissal by the District Court

was, therefore, final and appealable.7

B.

Balter argues that § 2255(h) should not apply to Brady claims under the Supreme 

Court’s decision in Panetti v. Quarterman.

8

 Panetti, in turn, relied on Stewart v. 

Martinez-Villareal.

9

 In Stewart, a federal court denied as unripe a state prisoner’s “Ford

5 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(4).

6 Robinson v. Johnson, 313 F.3d 128, 139 (3d Cir. 2002) (“When a second or successive 

habeas petition is erroneously filed in a district court without the permission of a court of 

appeals, the district court’s only option is to dismiss the petition or transfer it to the court 

of appeals pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1631.” (emphasis added)).

7 28 U.S.C. § 2253(a); see also Goldblum v. Klem, 510 F.3d 204, 213 (3d Cir. 2007) 

(holding dismissal without prejudice is final and appealable where plaintiff stands on 

complaint). 8 551 U.S. 930 (2007).

9 523 U.S. 637 (1998).
6

claim,” a claim that a prisoner is not competent to be executed. The reason for the denial 

was because Arizona had not yet issued the death warrant. The court denied the 

prisoner’s other claims on the merits. When Arizona did issue the death warrant, the 

state court denied the Ford claim on the merits. The prisoner filed a second-in-time Ford

claim in federal court. The Supreme Court held that, because the prisoner did “not 

receive an adjudication of his [Ford] claim” when it was dismissed as unripe, “[t]here 

was only one application for habeas relief” and the claim was not second or successive.10 

In Panetti, the Court extended Stewart to a case in which a prisoner failed to file a Ford

claim in his initial petition.11

Balter argues that if the government continues to suppress evidence after trial, 

there could be Brady claims that, like Ford claims, cannot be brought in an initial § 2255 

Motion. Every circuit to address this issue,

12 however, has held that Stewart and Panetti

are limited to “the particular circumstances presented by a Ford claim.”13 Ford claims, 

unlike Brady claims, usually do not ripen until after an initial § 2255 motion is brought.

Moreover, § 2255(h)(1) already provides an exception for claims, like Balter’s proffered 

Brady claims, based on (1) “newly discovered evidence” that (2) “would be sufficient to 

10 Stewart, 523 U.S. at 644–45. 

11 Panetti, 551 U.S. at 945.

12 See Blackman v. Davis, 909 F.3d 772, 778–79 (5th Cir. 2018); In re Wogenstahl, 902 

F.3d 621, 627–28 (6th Cir. 2018); Brown v. Muniz, 889 F.3d 661, 674 (9th Cir. 2018); In 

re Pickard, 681 F.3d 1201, 1204–05 (10th Cir. 2012); Tompkins v. Sec’y, Dep’t of Corr., 

557 F.3d 1257, 1260 (11th Cir. 2009); Evans v. Smith, 220 F.3d 306, 322–23 (4th Cir. 

2000). But see Scott v. United States, 890 F.3d 1239 (11th Cir. 2018); United States v. 

Lopez, 577 F.3d 1053 (9th Cir. 2009); Douglas v. Workman, 560 F.3d 1156 (10th Cir. 

2009). 13 Id.
7

establish by clear and convincing evidence that no reasonable factfinder would have 

found the movant guilty of the offense.”14 Balter argues that applying § 2255(h)(1)’s 

clear-and-convincing-evidence standard, rather than Brady’s more lenient materiality 

standard, to Brady claims that could not be brought in an initial § 2255 motion is unfair. 

But because § 2255(h)(1) applies only to claims based on “newly discovered evidence,” 

Congress implicitly recognized that some claims that could not be brought sooner must 

meet that higher standard.15

In any event, we need not decide in this case whether § 2255(h) applies to the type 

of hypothetical Brady claim identified by Balter. Even if we were to construe Panetti

broadly to apply to Brady claims that could not have been brought in an initial motion, 

Balter has not shown that he could not bring his Brady claim in his initial § 2255 motion 

in 1997. To allege that a claim could not have been brought sooner because of newly 

discovered evidence, a prisoner must show that the evidence “objectively could not have 

been discovered [earlier] through the exercise of due diligence.”16 The due diligence 

requirement “‘cannot be collapsed’ into ‘the merits of [the] Brady [claim]’ itself,” and 

“where the record demonstrates that the defendant or defense counsel was aware of the 

14 28 U.S.C. § 2255(h)(1). 15 Cf. Felker v. Turpin, 518 U.S. 651, 664 (1996) (upholding AEDPA’s gatekeeping 

standards); In re Dorsainvil, 119 F.3d 245, 251 (3d Cir. 1997) (explaining that § 2255 is 

not inadequate “merely because [a prisoner] is unable to meet the stringent gatekeeping 

requirements of” § 2255(h)).

16 E.g., In re Will, 970 F.3d 536, 542 (5th Cir. 2020).
8

potential Brady material but failed to pursue investigation of that ultimate claim,” he has 

not been diligent.17 

The crux of Balter’s claim is an agreement between himself and Cohen. He 

obviously knew that that agreement existed. He also knew that the government seized 

the agreement and other documents from his business before trial. He told counsel that 

“the [g]overnment took all of his business records from [his business’] warehouse, and 

that within that mountain of papers should be proof that the [g]overnment’s theory of the 

case was wrong.”18 He was not diligent in recovering the agreement. 

Although Balter vaguely alleges that counsel “was unable to locate [the 

documents] when examining the boxes of records in the custody of the [g]overnment” 

because they were “deliberately hidden so that inspection by counsel was not reasonably 

calculated to turn them up,” he provides no details about whether he requested the 

documents from the government, how counsel otherwise came to inspect the boxes, or 

whether the documents were missing from the boxes or merely tucked between other 

documents (as he alleges they were in 2007). Nor does he explain why he did not include 

this claim in his initial § 2255 motion and waited over ten years to ask the government 

what happened to the missing documents. 

17 Bracey v. Superintendent Rockview SCI, 986 F.3d 274, 293–94 (3d Cir. 2021)

(alterations in original) (quoting Johnson v. Dretke, 442 F.3d 901, 910 (5th Cir. 2006)).

18 Mem. in Support Mot. Vacate at 3, Dist. Ct. Doc. No. 1-1.
9

Because Balter has not shown that he was unable to present his claim earlier, 

Panetti could not possibly apply here. Accordingly, Balter’s Motion is second or 

successive, and he was required to seek our permission before filing.

III

For the above reasons, we will affirm the Judgment of Dismissal of the District 

Court.