Opinion ID: 2650680
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Although Dickens procedurally defaulted his

Text: “new” IAC claim, Dickens may be able to show cause and prejudice under Martinez.
As an initial matter, we agree with the district court that Dickens failed to exhaust his “new” IAC claim. To exhaust a constitutional claim, the claim must be “fairly present[ed]” in state court to provide the state courts an opportunity to act on them. Duncan v. Henry, 513 U.S. 364, 365 (1995) (per curiam). A claim has not been fairly presented in state court if new factual allegations either “fundamentally alter the legal claim already considered by the state courts,” Vasquez, 474 U.S. at 260; Beaty, 303 F.3d at 989–90, or “place the case in a significantly different and stronger evidentiary posture than it was when the state courts considered it.” Aiken, 15 Martinez defines an initial-review collateral proceedings as “collateral proceedings which provide the first occasion to raise a claim of ineffective assistance at trial.” Martinez, 132 S. Ct. at 1315. DICKENS V. RYAN 31 841 F.2d at 883; accord Nevius v. Sumner, 852 F.2d 463, 470 (9th Cir. 1988). In Aiken, the habeas petitioner presented new evidence consisting of a decibel sound test performed by an expert which strengthened his claim that the interrogating officers heard him request counsel. 841 F.2d at 883. The court held that his right to counsel claim was unexhausted, because the new decibel evidence “substantially improve[d] the evidentiary basis for [his] right-to-counsel and voluntariness arguments, thereby presenting the very type of evidence which the state should consider in the first instance.”16 Id. Similarly, in Nevius, this Court held that a habeas petitioner failed to exhaust his Batson claim in state court where he attempted to introduce new and substantial supporting evidence on appeal. 852 F.2d at 469–70. At oral argument and in his appellate briefs, Nevius made allegations concerning comments the prosecutor allegedly made to defense counsel. The comments, “if proven, might have presented in a different light the factual issues concerning the motivation of the prosecutor in exercising his peremptory challenges.” Id. at 470. However, because the alleged 16 Our holdings in Aiken and Nevius are consistent with case law in other circuits. See, e.g., Smith v. Quarterman, 515 F.3d 392, 402 (5th Cir. 2008) (dismissing habeas petition for failure to exhaust because new evidence “regarding [petitioner]’s childhood and the effects of his substance abuse . . . constitute ‘material additional evidentiary support [presented] to the federal court that was not presented to the state court’” (citation omitted)); Demarest v. Price, 130 F.3d 922, 938–39 (10th Cir. 1997) (finding failure to exhaust because “new evidence submitted to the district court by [the petitioner] transformed his ineffective assistance of counsel claim into one that was ‘significantly different and more substantial’” (citation omitted)). 32 DICKENS V. RYAN remarks were not previously presented in a state court, this court found that the claims were unexhausted and not addressable in federal court. We conclude that the new allegations and evidence Dickens presented to the federal district court fundamentally altered Dickens’s previously exhausted IAC claim. Indeed, the new evidence creates a mitigation case that bears little resemblance to the naked Strickland claim raised before the state courts. There, Dickens did not identify any specific conditions that sentencing counsel’s allegedly deficient performance failed to uncover. He only generally alleged that sentencing counsel did not effectively evaluate whether Dickens “suffer[ed] from any medical or mental impairment.” This new evidence of specific conditions (like FAS and organic brain damage) clearly places Dickens’s Strickland claim in a “significantly different” and “substantially improved” evidentiary posture. See Nevius, 852 F.2d at 470; Aiken, 841 F.2d at 883. As such, the Arizona courts did not have a fair opportunity to evaluate Dickens’s altered IAC claim. Therefore, the district court correctly determined that Dickens’s newly enhanced Strickland claim is procedurally barred.
Martinez announced an exception to the longstanding Coleman rule that ineffective assistance of PCR counsel cannot establish cause to overcome procedural default. 132 S. Ct. at 1315. The Supreme Court held: Where, under state law, claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel must be raised in an initial-review collateral proceeding, a DICKENS V. RYAN 33 procedural default will not bar a federal habeas court from hearing a substantial claim of ineffective assistance at trial if, in the initial review collateral proceeding, there was no counsel or counsel in that proceeding was ineffective. Id. at 1320. As such, to establish “cause” to overcome procedural default under Martinez, a petitioner must show: (1) the underlying ineffective assistance of trial counsel claim is “substantial”; (2) the petitioner was not represented or had ineffective counsel during the PCR proceeding; (3) the state PCR proceeding was the initial review proceeding; and (4) state law required (or forced as a practical matter) the petitioner to bring the claim in the initial review collateral proceeding. Trevino v. Thaler, 133 S. Ct. 1911, 1918 (2013). Here, there is no dispute with respect to elements (3) and (4), because Arizona does not permit a petitioner to bring an IAC claim on direct appeal. Martinez, 132 S. Ct. at 1313, 1320. Arizona law requires a petitioner to bring such a claim in a collateral review proceeding. Id. The district court, applying the law as it stood at that time, correctly held that Dickens could not establish cause for his procedural default based on the alleged ineffectiveness of his PCR counsel. However, Martinez may provide a path for Dickens to demonstrate cause, if he can show the first two Martinez elements: (1) the claim is substantial and (2) that his PCR counsel was ineffective under Strickland. Thus, we vacate the district court’s ruling regarding whether cause existed to overcome the procedural default of Dickens’s newlyenhanced claim of ineffective assistance of sentencing counsel. We remand for the district court to consider the issue anew in light of Martinez. See Strategic Diversity, Inc. 34 DICKENS V. RYAN v. Alchemix Corp., 666 F.3d 1197, 1206 (9th Cir. 2012) (“Because the district court did not have the benefit of recent Supreme Court authority, we vacate the ruling on these grounds and remand.”). The state presents various arguments to convince us that Dickens is not entitled to remand under Martinez and that our conclusion would contravene Cullen v. Pinholster, 131 S. Ct. 1388 (2011), which the Supreme Court decided during the pendency of this appeal. We decline to address many of these arguments based on our remand regarding the applicability and impact of Martinez. However, we provide guidance to the district court on the following points: (a) Pinholster’s potential effect on Dickens’s “new” IAC claim; (b) the effect of Dickens’s other IAC claims on the “new” claim; and (c) whether § 2254(e)(2) bars Dickens’s request for an evidentiary hearing on remand.
We reject any argument that Pinholster bars the federal district court’s ability to consider Dickens’s “new” IAC claim. The state argues that the district court cannot consider new allegations or evidence proffered for the first time to the district court. In Pinholster, the Supreme Court made clear that a federal habeas court may not consider evidence of a claim that was not presented to the state court. 131 S. Ct. at 1398. However, this prohibition applies only to claims previously “adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings.” Id. at 1401; see also 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). Pinholster does not bar Dickens from presenting evidence of his “new” IAC claim, because the claim was not “adjudicated on the merits” by the Arizona courts. While the DICKENS V. RYAN 35 Arizona courts did previously adjudicate a similar IAC claim, the new allegations and evidence “fundamentally altered” that claim, as discussed above. See, e.g., Aiken, 841 F.2d at 883. Pinholster says nothing about whether a court may consider a “new” claim, based on “new” evidence not previously presented to the state courts. See 131 S. Ct. at 1401 n.10. Indeed, the Pinholster court expressly declined to “decide where to draw the line between new claims and claims adjudicated on the merits.” Id. Thus, Pinholster does not affect earlier cases like Vasquez, Aiken, and Nevius, or a federal habeas court’s ability to consider new evidence where the petitioner successfully shows cause to overcome the procedural default.
We reject the similar argument that Dickens’s other IAC claims, which were previously “adjudicated on the merits” by the Arizona Courts, foreclose the new IAC claim. Martinez allows a petitioner to argue “cause” based on PCR counsel’s ineffectiveness for counsel’s failure to raise a substantial trial counsel IAC claim. 132 S. Ct. at 1318–19. Martinez contains no language limiting this “equitable exception” simply because a petitioner brought other IAC claims that were exhausted. See id. Because courts evaluate procedural default on a claim-by-claim basis, it follows that Martinez would allow a petitioner to show cause, irrespective of the presence of other, separate claims.
Hearing We also reject the state’s argument that, even if Martinez applies to the standard for Dickens to show cause, 36 DICKENS V. RYAN § 2254(e)(2) will bar Dickens from introducing the new evidence to the district court. Petitioners seeking habeas relief cannot obtain an evidentiary hearing on their claims unless they comply with § 2254(e)(2). Section 2254(e)(2) severely restricts a petitioner’s ability to obtain a hearing on a claim for relief where the petitioner “failed to develop the factual basis of a claim in State court proceedings” due to “a lack of diligence, or some greater fault, attributable to the prisoner or the prisoner’s counsel.” See Lopez v. Ryan, 630 F.3d 1198, 1206 (9th Cir. 2011). A petitioner’s attorney’s “fault” is generally attributed to the petitioner for purposes of § 2254(e)(2)’s diligence requirement. See Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 420, 437–40 (2000). Section 2254(e)(2), however, does not bar a hearing before the district court to allow a petitioner to show “cause” under Martinez. When a petitioner seeks to show “cause” based on ineffective assistance of PCR counsel, he is not asserting a “claim” for relief as that term is used in § 2254(e)(2); indeed, such a claim of ineffective assistance of PCR counsel is not a constitutional claim. See Martinez, 132 S. Ct. at 1319–20. Instead, the petitioner seeks, on an equitable basis, to excuse a procedural default. See id. A federal court’s determination of whether a habeas petitioner has demonstrated cause and prejudice (so as to bring his case within Martinez’s judicially created exception to the judicially created procedural bar) is not the same as a hearing on a constitutional claim for habeas relief. See Coleman, 501 U.S. at 750 (recognizing the “cause and prejudice” exception to procedural default); Woodford v. Ngo, 548 U.S. 81, 91 (2006) (“[H]abeas law includes the judge-made doctrine of procedural default”); Dretke v. Haley, 541 U.S. 386, 394 (2004) (describing the “various exceptions to the procedural default doctrine” as “judge-made rules”). DICKENS V. RYAN 37 Therefore, a petitioner, claiming that PCR counsel’s ineffective assistance constituted “cause,” may present evidence to demonstrate this point. The petitioner is also entitled to present evidence to demonstrate that there is “prejudice,” that is that petitioner’s claim is “substantial” under Martinez. Therefore, a district court may take evidence to the extent necessary to determine whether the petitioner’s claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel is substantial under Martinez. The facts and procedural posture of Dickens’s case illustrate this point. Dickens had a new claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Because the claim was new, it was procedurally defaulted (thus technically exhausted). However, if Dickens can show cause and prejudice to excuse a procedural default, AEDPA no longer applies and a federal court may hear this new claim de novo. Pirtle v. Morgan, 313 F.3d 1160 (9th Cir. 2002). Martinez may provide a means to show “cause” to overcome the default and reach the merits of the new claim. Because § 2254(e)(2) by its terms does not prevent consideration of the substantive evidence of the claim to the extent necessary to determine if Dickens has successfully proven “cause,” Dickens will have a fair opportunity to show cause and prejudice so as to overcome the procedural bar of the otherwise defaulted claim. See Martinez, 132 S. Ct. at 1317.17 Thus, § 2254(e)(2) does not 17 The state argues that Martinez does not apply, because the assertion of ineffective assistance of PCR counsel as cause must itself be exhausted or it is procedurally barred. It is true that “the exhaustion doctrine . . . generally requires that a claim of ineffective assistance be presented to the state courts as an independent claim before it may be used to establish cause for a procedural default.” Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 488–89 (1986) (citation omitted). However, the case law in light of Martinez now indicates that there is no requirement that a petitioner assert an ineffective 38 DICKENS V. RYAN bar a cause and prejudice hearing on Dickens’s claim of PCR counsel’s ineffectiveness, which requires a showing that Dickens’s underlying trial-counsel IAC claim is substantial.