Opinion ID: 707605
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Cumulative Due Process

Text: 46 The district court, relying on the panel opinion in Derden v. McNeel, 938 F.2d 605 (5th Cir.1991), 35 held that the combination of the two above-noted grounds on which it granted relief--that the punishment issues did not allow mitigating consideration of Nichols' alleged non-triggerman status and that the state was estopped to argue that the shot fired by Nichols was the fatal shot--plus certain aspects of the state trial court's habeas proceedings, 36 amounted to cumulative error which resulted in a denial of due process. Nichols, 802 F.Supp. at 78-79. Our en banc opinion in Derden states: 47 federal habeas corpus relief may only be granted for cumulative errors in the conduct of a state trial where (1) the individual errors involved matters of constitutional dimension rather than mere violations of state law; (2) the errors were not procedurally defaulted for habeas purposes; and (3) the errors 'so infected the entire trial that the resulting conviction violates due process.'  Derden v. McNeel, 978 F.2d 1453, 1454 (5th Cir.1992) (en banc) (quoting Cupp v. Naughten, 414 U.S. 141, 146-49, 94 S.Ct. 396, 400-01, 38 L.Ed.2d 368 (1973)), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 2928 [124 L.Ed.2d 679] (1993). 37 48 Since, as we have held, the jury was not unconstitutionally prevented from taking into account Nichols' claimed non-triggerman status in answering the punishment special issues, and the state was not constitutionally barred or estopped from arguing that the shot fired by Nichols was the fatal shot, therefore neither of these matters can form the basis for a proper claim of constitutional cumulative error. That leaves only the matter of the state habeas proceedings. However, errors in a state habeas proceeding cannot serve as a basis for setting aside a valid original conviction. An attack on a state habeas proceeding does not entitle the petitioner to habeas relief in respect to his conviction, as it is an attack on a proceeding collateral to the detention and not the detention itself. Millard v. Lynaugh, 810 F.2d 1403, 1410 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 838, 108 S.Ct. 122, 98 L.Ed.2d 81 (1987); Duff-Smith v. Collins, 973 F.2d 1175, 1182 (5th Cir.1992) (infirmities in state habeas proceedings do not constitute grounds for federal habeas relief), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1958, 123 L.Ed.2d 661 (1993); Vail v. Procunier, 747 F.2d 277 (5th Cir.1984) (same). See also Franzen v. Brinkman, 877 F.2d 26 (9th Cir.1989); Hopkinson v. Shillinger, 866 F.2d 1185, 1218-1220 (10th Cir.1989); Bryant v. State of Md., 848 F.2d 492 (4th Cir.1988); Kirby v. Dutton, 794 F.2d 245, 247 (6th Cir.1986); Williams v. Missouri, 640 F.2d 140, 143 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 451 U.S. 990, 101 S.Ct. 2328, 68 L.Ed.2d 849 (1981). 49 Accordingly, the district court erred in its holding that Nichols was entitled to relief on the court's cumulative error theory. 50 Having rejected each of the bases on which the district court granted habeas relief, we sustain the state's appeal and reverse the judgment of the district court insofar as it granted Nichols habeas relief. We turn now to consider Nichols' cross-appeal.