Opinion ID: 1058176
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Federal Court Proceedings

Text: In April of 1996, the petitioner initiated what have amounted to extensive and lengthy proceedings in federal court by filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The district court found that the petitioner had been denied effective assistance of counsel during the sentencing phase of his trial, vacated the death penalty, and granted a new sentencing hearing. The district court further found that a prosecutorial misconduct issue could not be reviewed because the petitioner had not raised the issue in his application for permission to appeal to this Court. Abdur'Rahman v. Bell, 999 F.Supp. 1073 (M.D.Tenn.1998). On appeal, a divided panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the petitioner had not established prejudice from his counsel's ineffectiveness in the sentencing phase of the trial, reversed the district court's judgment, and reinstated the petitioner's death sentence. Abdur'Rahman v. Bell, 226 F.3d 696 (6th Cir.2000). The United States Supreme Court denied a writ of certiorari. Abdur'Rahman v. Bell, 534 U.S. 970, 122 S.Ct. 386, 151 L.Ed.2d 294 (2001). After the denial of certiorari, the petitioner filed a motion seeking relief from the judgment in the district court and a motion seeking to vacate the judgment in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b). The petitioner alleged that the district court had erred in finding that the prosecutorial misconduct issue raised in the habeas corpus petition could not be reviewed. [2] The district court concluded that the petitioner's motion was a successive petition for habeas corpus relief that was precluded by 28 United States Code section 2444(b)(2). A divided panel of the Sixth Circuit affirmed. See Abdur'Rahman v. Bell, No. 98-6568/6569, 01-6504 (6th Cir., Jan. 18, 2002). The United States Supreme Court initially granted the petitioner's petition for certiorari, Abdur'Rahman v. Bell, 535 U.S. 981, 122 S.Ct. 1463, 152 L.Ed.2d 461 (2002), but then dismissed the appeal as improvidently granted. Abdur'Rahman v. Bell, 537 U.S. 88, 123 S.Ct. 594, 154 L.Ed.2d 501 (2002) (Stevens, J., dissenting). Thereafter, a majority of the Sixth Circuit, hearing the matter en banc, held that the petitioner had filed a proper motion for relief from the judgment in the district court under Rule 60(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and that the motion was not a second or successive habeas corpus petition. Abdur'Rahman v. Bell, 392 F.3d 174 (6th Cir.2004) (en banc). Although the majority remanded the case to the district court, the United States Supreme Court again intervened, this time granting the State's petition for writ of certiorari and remanding the case to the Sixth Circuit for further consideration of the petitioner's motion under Gonzalez v. Crosby, ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 2641, 162 L.Ed.2d 480 (2005). In Gonzalez , the Supreme Court held that a motion under Rule 60(b)(6) is not to be treated as a successive habeas petition if it does not assert, or reassert, claims of error in the movant's state conviction. Id. As a result of the foregoing, the petitioner's habeas corpus proceeding has remained pending in the federal court system for nearly ten years after he filed his petition.