Opinion ID: 2973240
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Second or Successive Petitions

Text: Generally, a state prisoner cannot file a second or successive habeas corpus petition without first moving in the appropriate court of appeals for an order authorizing the district court to consider the petition. 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(3)(A). In order to obtain such authorization, the petitioner must make a prima facie showing that either: (1) a new rule of constitutional law applies to his case that the Supreme Court has made retroactive to cases on collateral review; or (2) there is a newly discovered factual predicate which, if proven, sufficiently establishes that no reasonable fact-finder would have found the applicant guilty of the underlying offense but for constitutional error. 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b); In re Clemmons, 259 F.3d 489, 491 (6th Cir. 2001). The Supreme Court has made clear that not every numerically second petition is “second or successive” for purposes of AEDPA. Slack v. McDaniels, 529 U.S. 473, 487 (2000) (a petition filed after a mixed petition has been dismissed before the district court has adjudicated any claim is not a second or successive petition); Martinez-Villareal v. Stewart, 523 U.S. 637 (1998) (a numerically second petition alleging a claim that was contained in a first petition, but dismissed as unripe, is not second or successive); see also Carslon v. Pitcher, 137 F.3d 416, 419 (6th Cir. 1998) (same). Although § 2244(b) specifies the treatment of second or successive petitions, courts defining “second or successive” generally apply abuse of the writ decisions, including those decisions that predated AEDPA. Martinez-Villereal, 529 U.S. at 643-45 (considering “abuse of the writ” cases in determining whether petitioner’s Ford claim is second or successive); see also Singleton v. Norris, 319 F.3d 1018, 1023 (8th Cir. 2003); Esposito v. United States, 135 F.3d 111, 113 (2d Cir. 1997) (per curiam); Pratt v. United States, 129 F.3d 54, 60 (1st Cir. 1997), cert. denied, 523 U.S. 1123 (1998); Reeves v. Little, 120 F.3d 1136, 1138 (10th Cir. 1997) (per curiam). In Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1 (1948), the Supreme Court explained abuse of the writ: [I]f a prisoner deliberately withholds one of two grounds for federal collateral relief at the time of filing his first application, in the hope of being granted two hearings rather than one or for some other such reason, he may be deemed to have waived his right to a hearing on a second application presenting the withheld ground....Nothing in the traditions of habeas corpus requires the federal courts to tolerate needless, piecemeal litigation, or to entertain collateral proceedings whose only purpose is to vex, harass, or delay. 2 Under the stay and abeyance procedure, district courts retain jurisdiction over mixed petitions and stay further proceedings pending the complete exhaustion of state remedies. Duncan v. Walker, 533 U.S. 167, 182-83 (2001) (Stevens, J., concurring). The procedure serves as an alternative to simply denying a petition containing unexhausted claims when the failure to retain jurisdiction would foreclose federal review of a meritorious claim because of the lapse of AEDPA’s one-year limitations period. No. 04-1286 In re Bowen Page 6 Id. at 18. Under the abuse of the writ doctrine, a numerically second petition is “second” when it raises a claim that could have been raised in the first petition but was not so raised, either due to deliberate abandonment or inexcusable neglect. McClesky v. Zant, 499 U.S. 467, 489 (1991). In Martinez-Villareal, 523 U.S. 637 (1998), the Supreme Court considered whether a petition is successive if it presents an issue for the numerically second time that was not ripe for review at the filing of the first petition. There, the Court held that the prisoner’s claim that he was not competent to be executed under Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986), was not successive when brought in a numerically second petition upon ripening, after the claim was dismissed as unripe in the first petition. Martinez-Villareal, 523 U.S. at 644. The Court noted that to hold otherwise would bar prisoners from ever obtaining federal habeas review simply because a first petition was dismissed due to technical procedural reasons. Id. at 645. The Court explicitly noted that because Martinez-Villareal brought his Ford claim in his first petition, the Court was not required to decide the appropriate treatment of a claim raised for the first time only after the federal courts have rejected the prisoner’s initial habeas application. Id. at 645, n.. Although Martinez-Villareal does not control our determination as to whether Bowen’s numerically second petition is barred, it does suggest the test we should apply in order to determine whether Bowen’s claim is “second or successive.” The Supreme Court has recognized that, although procedurally distinct, unripe and unexhausted claims are treated similarly under AEDPA. “[I]n both situations, the habeas petitioner does not receive an adjudication of his claim. To hold otherwise would mean that a dismissal of a first habeas petition for technical procedural reasons would bar the prisoner from ever obtaining habeas review.” Martinez-Villareal, 523 U.S. at 645. Similarly, Bowen’s inability to bring his unexhausted claim with his exhausted, and nearly time-barred, claims should not preclude him from bringing them in this numerically second petition. Had Austin not been the law, Bowen would have been required either to exhaust all of his claims before filing his first habeas petition in order to bring all his exhausted claims at once, or submit all his claims within one year of direct appeal, understanding that his unexhausted ineffective assistance claim would result in the dismissal of his petition as mixed. However, given the state of the law in this circuit when Bowen’s petition was considered, Bowen was unable to pursue either avenue. Under Austin, he risked losing federal review of his exhausted claims due to AEDPA’s statute of limitation if he took either approach. Given Austin, if the district court had dismissed his mixed petition, the AEDPA statute of limitation would have tolled on his exhausted claims, potentially foreclosing review of those claims. Thus, Bowen risked the very outcome the court in MartinezVillareal wished to avoid: “To hold otherwise would mean that a dismissal of a first habeas petition for technical procedural reasons would bar the prisoner from ever obtaining federal habeas review.” Martinez-Villareal, 523 U.S. at 645. Bowen’s numerically second habeas petition was not abusive. He does not present a claim that was deliberately abandoned in an attempt to preserve an issue with which he could return to federal court for a second time. Given that Bowen was not motivated to withhold his unexhausted claim from his first habeas petition out of a desire to vex, harass or delay, but was rather barred as a matter of law from bringing his ineffective assistance claim in his first habeas petition through no actions of his own, it is not appropriate to subject Bowen’s petition to the restrictions attendant to a second or successive petition.3 Bowen’s numerically second petition is not, therefore, “second or successive,” and is not subject to the restrictions of 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b). Of course, our decision affects only the numerically second petitions of those petitioners who properly presented federal habeas petitions in district courts in this circuit during the window 3 Given that Bowen’s numerically second petition was not successive, this Court need not decide if applying Austin to preclude Bowen from filing his numerically second petition would raise Suspension Clause concerns. No. 04-1286 In re Bowen Page 7 between Austin and Cowherd, and had other claims that could not be exhausted concurrently with those claims.