Opinion ID: 789280
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Procedural Default: Fair Presentment

Text: 21 Next, the Respondent argues that Sanders procedurally defaulted his claim because he solely relied on Indiana state law, which does not implicate a cognizable federal claim upon which habeas relief could be granted. Petitioners are required to fairly present their federal claims to the state courts in order to give the State the opportunity to pass upon and correct alleged violations of its prisoners' federal rights. Hough v. Anderson, 272 F.3d 878, 892 (7th Cir.2001) (quoting Duncan v. Henry, 513 U.S. 364, 365, 115 S.Ct. 887, 130 L.Ed.2d 865 (1995)). 22 We have held that fair presentment requires a petitioner to put forward operative facts and controlling legal principles. Sweeney v. Carter, 361 F.3d 327, 332 (7th Cir.2004). Whether he has done so depends on several factors, including: (1) whether the petitioner relied on federal cases that engage in constitutional analysis; (2) whether the petitioner relied on state cases which apply a constitutional analysis to similar facts; (3) whether the petitioner framed the claim in terms so particular as to call to mind a specific constitutional right; and (4) whether the petitioner alleged a pattern of facts that is well within the mainstream of constitutional litigation. Id. 23 In Sanders's appeal to the Court of Appeals of Indiana, he alleged a due process violation and argued that if the jury makes its decision without knowing that to convict on murder it must find beyond a reasonable doubt that sudden heat was absent then in effect there is no jury finding on the question of the presence or absence of sudden heat. To support his argument, Sanders cited Sullivan v. Louisiana, 508 U.S. 275, 277-78, 113 S.Ct. 2078, 124 L.Ed.2d 182 (1993), in which the Supreme Court held that it is a due process violation if the court offers a defective jury instruction on reasonable doubt. 24 Although Sanders is not challenging the jury instruction defining reasonable doubt, it is clear that he was attempting to raise a constitutional complaint about the failure of the jury instructions to require the jury to find the absence of sudden heat beyond a reasonable doubt before convicting him of murder and attempted murder. See Sweeney, 361 F.3d at 332 (finding that petitioner had fairly presented a federal ineffective assistance of counsel claim when he cited the Sixth Amendment and Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984) to the state court). Because Sanders's brief to the state appellate court applied the Supreme Court's due process analysis to his jury instruction challenge and provided a citation to a case that would have alerted the court to the alleged federal nature of the claim, he fairly presented his federal constitutional claim to the Indiana state courts. See Baldwin v. Reese, 541 U.S. 27, 124 S.Ct. 1347, 1351, 158 L.Ed.2d 64 (2004); see Chambers v. McCaughtry, 264 F.3d 732, 738 (7th Cir.2001).