Opinion ID: 71998
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Dissent's Argument for an Evidentiary Hearing

Text: The dissent argues that Pierce is entitled to an evidentiary hearing in the federal district court on his Atkins claim because the state habeas court did not hold a live evidentiary hearing to determine whether Pierce was mentally retarded. The dissent urges this court to conclude that, as a matter of clearly established Supreme Court law, a live evidentiary hearing is guaranteed to a prisoner who has made a plausible showing of mental retardation. The most critical obstacle to the relief the dissent proposes is that Pierce never, in either his pleadings or voluminous briefing, cited the lack of a live evidentiary hearing in the state habeas court as a basis for obtaining an evidentiary hearing in the federal district court. [12] Throughout his federal habeas proceedings, Pierce's request for an evidentiary hearing has been premised solely on the propositions which this entire panel has rejectedthat Plata provided new evidence that Dr. Denkowski's affidavit testimony to the state habeas court was unreliable and that the TCCA may have adopted erroneous findings of fact regarding Dr. Garnett. Under our precedents, because Pierce did not raise the lack of an evidentiary hearing in the state court as a basis for relief in the district court or even in his pleadings and briefing to this court, we cannot consider it here. See Goodrum, 547 F.3d at 259 n. 49; Puckett, 930 F.2d at 448.