Opinion ID: 1091971
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Successive Writ Bar, Procedural Bar and Preservation of Issues.

Text: In its response, the State raises, as a preliminary issue, the specter of the Successive Writ Bar contained in Miss. Code Ann. § 99-39-27(9) (Cum.Supp. 1991), by pointing out that Gilliard sought and was given an evidentiary hearing on two issues in an application for leave to file a petition for writ of error coram nobis in 1984. Gilliard v. State, 446 So.2d 590 (Miss. 1984). All other claims raised in that post-conviction collateral petition were found to be procedurally barred either because they were raised on direct appeal and decided adversely to Gilliard, Id. at 592, or were not raised on direct appeal and could not be raised for the first time on collateral attack. Id. at 593. As to the two issues remanded for evidentiary hearing, this Court affirmed the denial of those claims by the trial court. Gilliard v. State, 462 So.2d 710 (Miss. 1985). When the Court decided these two final issues in 1985, proceedings before state courts were at an end. See Culberson v. State, 580 So.2d. 1136 (Miss. 1990). Thereafter, Gilliard, having exhausted state remedies, filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the federal system and has run the gamut of federal appeals from denial of relief in the federal district court. Significantly, and unlike Culberson, the federal courts have not remanded this case to the state courts for exhaustion of any claims. See Rose v. Lundy, 455 U.S. 509, 102 S.Ct. 1198, 71 L.Ed.2d 379 (1982). Gilliard has filed this petition as his last attempt to have his death penalty reversed. The State's position is to have this Court bar this petition as a successive writ. Alternatively, the State would have this Court apply the procedural bars to the claims raised here by Gilliard, as set out in Miss. Code Ann. § 99-39-21, should this Court accept Gilliard's contention that it has accepted petitions for post-conviction relief from persons who have similarly run the state and federal post-conviction relief courses to exhaustion before the advent of the Uniform Post-Conviction Collateral Relief Act. See Johnson v. State, 508 So.2d 1126 (Miss. 1987), and Evans v. State, 485 So.2d 276 (Miss. 1986). Gilliard's contention is that the claims he raises fall under the exception to the successive writ bar  that there have been intervening decisions by this Court or the United States Supreme Court which would have actually adversely affected the outcome of his conviction and sentence, and that he has evidence not reasonably discoverable at the time of his conviction and sentence which would have caused a different result in them. Miss. Code Ann. § 99-39-27(9). Each of Gilliard's claims will be examined in light of the successive writ bar, Miss. Code Ann. § 99-39-27(9), and procedural bar, Miss. Code Ann. § 99-39-21(6).