Opinion ID: 3062116
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The OCCA’s denial of direct appellate relief

Text: Several months later, on August 20, 2007, O’Neal petitioned for certiorari in the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (“OCCA”) in regards to her conviction and sentence. O’Neal asserted six grounds of error by the trial court, including that the trial court should have allowed her to withdraw her nolo plea on the basis that the plea was involuntary due to the alleged fact that she was never informed of the 85% Rule. In arguing that her alleged ignorance of the 85% Rule rendered her plea involuntary and therefore subject to withdrawal, O’Neal cited the OCCA’s August 2006 decision in Ferguson v. State, 143 P.3d 218, 219 (Okla. Crim. App. 2006) (where defendant had entered into a negotiated nolo plea, holding that ignorance of the 85% Rule rendered defendant’s plea involuntary), as well as the OCCA’s May 2007 decision in Pickens v. State, 158 P.3d 482 (Okla. Crim. App. 2007) (applying the involuntary-plea rule announced in Ferguson to a situation with a blind nolo plea, like O’Neal’s). On January 11, 2008, the OCCA denied O’Neal’s petition for certiorari on all grounds. With respect to the trial court’s denial of O’Neal’s motion to withdraw her plea, the OCCA held that O’Neal had waived her argument for withdrawal based on ignorance of the 85% Rule by failing to raise it in her motion to withdraw. The OCCA cited 4 Anderson v. State, 130 P.3d 273 (Okla. Crim. App. 2006), for the proposition that the argument had been available to O’Neal at the time of her motion, and observed that Rule 4.2(B) of the Rules of the OCCA precludes a defendant from raising an issue in her certiorari petition if she did not raise it in her application to withdraw her plea. The OCCA held that any error in regard to plea involuntariness vis-à-vis the 85% Rule was thus waived and the issue was therefore not properly before the court. On January 28, 2008, O’Neal petitioned the OCCA for rehearing, asking the court to reconsider its denial of her certiorari petition. O’Neal reasserted that she should be afforded relief from her nolo plea pursuant to the holding of Pickens, and then pointed out that just a few weeks before the OCCA denied her certiorari petition, the OCCA granted relief pursuant to a similar argument in Sharp v. State, Case No. 2007-345 (Okla. Crim. App., Nov. 30, 2007) (unpublished). O’Neal asserted that Sharp held that Pickens announced a new rule of criminal procedure that must be applied to cases pending on direct review. Further, in that vein, O’Neal cited Griffith v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 107 (1987), for the proposition that arbitrarily selective application of new rules of criminal procedure is unconstitutional. Accordingly, O’Neal contended, the OCCA’s grant of relief in Sharp, and denial of relief in her case, unconstitutionally denied her equal protection and due process because “both cases [i.e., hers and Sharp’s] were in precisely the same factual and procedural posture.” Dist. ct. doc. 8-4, at 2. On February 15, 2008, the OCCA denied O’Neal’s petition for rehearing. The OCCA characterized O’Neal’s petition as seeking rehearing solely on the grounds that 5 the OCCA’s denial of her certiorari petition was in conflict with Pickens. The OCCA did not acknowledge Sharp. The OCCA recognized that Pickens was decided two months after O’Neal had petitioned for certiorari, but “having reviewed Petitioner’s allegation[,] [found] that she is not entitled to rehearing.” Dist. Ct. doc. 8-5, at 2. The OCCA said that it “fully considered Pickens in arriving at its [prior] decision” to deny O’Neal’s certiorari petition. Id. 3. The district court’s denial of habeas relief, O’Neal’s appeal, and the questions before this Court On May 13, 2009, O’Neal petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus in the Western District of Oklahoma. Her petition identified two grounds for relief: (1) “Violation of Equal Protection and Due Process” and (2) “Ineffective counsel.” R. at 8-12. O’Neal’s habeas petition was referred to a magistrate judge. The magistrate judge issued an initial recommendation, adopted by the district court, which led O’Neal to submit an amended habeas petition. Then, in a second recommendation, the magistrate judge rejected on the merits O’Neal’s equal protection and due process claims. The district court, however, did not reach the merits of those claims, but rather rejected them on the grounds that O’Neal had failed to exhaust them in state court. On October 19, 2010, O’Neal timely appealed the dismissal of her habeas petition. On April 8, 2011, we granted COA on the following question: Whether petitioner’s federal constitutional rights were violated by the [OCCA’s] failure to apply the holding of [Pickens] to her case, in particular when it granted that relief in [Sharp]. 6 Thus, the only issues before us in this appeal are O’Neal’s equal protection and due process claims. See 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(3) (stating that the scope of the COA circumscribes this Court’s consideration of issues on habeas appeals). We pause to emphasize certain issues we do not decide. First, to the extent that counsel for O’Neal seeks to raise an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel issue in the supplemental brief, that argument is outside the scope of the COA. See id. Likewise, we do not consider any direct claim that O’Neal’s ignorance of the 85% Rule rendered her plea involuntary under federal jurisprudence—a claim that is not now asserted by O’Neal as a basis for habeas relief, and in any event would also be outside the scope of the COA. See id. Finally, we do not reach the question of whether a lack of exhaustion of O’Neal’s equal protection and due process claims in state court bars us from granting habeas relief on those claims, as we deny O’Neal’s petition on the merits. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(2) (“An application for a writ of habeas corpus may be denied on the merits, notwithstanding the failure of the applicant to exhaust the remedies available in the courts of the State.”).