Opinion ID: 3047718
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Comer’s Claims Regarding His Appearance at

Text: Sentencing, Raised For First Time in Federal Habeas Proceedings, Were Later Expressly Ruled Procedurally Barred By State Courts In 1990, the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed Comer’s convictions and sentences. In 1993, the Arizona Supreme Court denied Comer’s petition for review of the trial court’s 1992 denial of Comer’s first state post-conviction petition. Neither on direct appeal nor in his first state post-conviction petition did Comer claim that his constitutional rights were violated because his sentence was pronounced when he was nearly naked and slumped in a wheelchair. Comer raised his appearance at sentencing claims for the first time in his amended 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition filed in 1995 in federal district court. Specifically, Comer argued that (1) sentencing him while he was unclothed and semiconscious violated the Fourteenth Amendment by impairing his Eighth Amendment right to allocution and (2) sentencing him while he was unclothed violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The District Court ruled that Comer’s appearance at sentencing claims were unexhausted and, after concluding that Comer’s unexhausted claims were now procedurally preCOMER v. SCHRIRO 3121 cluded by state court rule, denied Comer’s motion to hold his 2254 petition in abeyance pending exhaustion.5 When Comer later returned to state court and raised his appearance at sentencing claims in his second state postconviction petition, the state trial court in 1998 dismissed the entire second state post-conviction petition as procedurally barred6 and ruled specifically that Comer’s appearance at sentencing claims were procedurally barred.7 In 1999, the Arizona Supreme Court denied Comer’s petition for review.8