Opinion ID: 1467272
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Does Furnari's repeated litigation of the Parole Commission's denial of parole based on his offense severity rating constitute an abuse of writ? [4]

Text: Furnari also claimed in his petition in the District Court that the Parole Commission erroneously considered unreliable testimony when it determined that his offense severity rating was Category Eight. The Government answers that by asserting this claim Furnari is abusing the writ of habeas corpus. Furnari has raised the claim of an erroneous offense severity rating in all four of his habeas corpus petitions. The District Court denied his first petition in April 1999 but we vacated that order after we took notice of the Board's failure to specify the pertinent case factors on which it relied in reaching its decision. Furnari, 218 F.3d at 256. [5] The District Court rejected the erroneous offense severity claim in Furnari's second habeas petition in its July 18, 2002 order, a decision that Furnari did not appeal to this Court. In March 2004 the District Court denied Furnari's third habeas corpus petition seeking relief in part on the basis of an erroneous offense severity rating. In that decision the District Court noted that it had addressed the same issue in its July 18, 2002 order. As we have indicated, we affirmed the District Court's March 2004 order. Furnari, 125 Fed. Appx. at 437. When the District Court denied this claim and all other claims in Furnari's fourth habeas petition in its June 20, 2007 order, it stated that he previously had raised the issue and that we had upheld the District Court's rejections of it. When a prisoner files multiple petitions for habeas corpus relief, the abuse of the writ doctrine as set forth in 28 U.S.C. § 2244(a) may bar his claims: No circuit or district judge shall be required to entertain an application for a writ of habeas corpus to inquire into the detention of a person pursuant to a judgment of a court of the United States if it appears that the legality of such detention has been determined by a judge or court of the United States on a prior application for a writ of habeas corpus, except as provided in section 2255. The Supreme Court has determined that nothing in [28 U.S.C.] § 2255 requires that a sentencing court grant a hearing on a successive motion alleging a ground for relief already fully considered on a prior motion and decided against the prisoner. Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1, 9, 83 S.Ct. 1068, 1074, 10 L.Ed.2d 148 (1963). The Court in Sanders explained that a court may grant controlling weight to a denial of a prior application for habeas corpus when three criteria are met: (1) the same ground presented in the successive application was determined adversely to the applicant on the previous application; (2) the previous determination was made on the merits; and (3) the ends of justice would not be served by reaching the merits of the subsequent application. Id. at 11, 83 S.Ct. at 1075. In a case in which a successive petition includes a claim for relief already fully considered and rejected, if the Government opposes the petition on an abuse of the writ basis it has the burden to plead abuse of the writ and must make the claim with clarity and particularity in its answer to the petition. Id. at 10-11, 83 S.Ct. at 1074-75. But once the Government has made a claim of abuse of the writ, the burden shifts to the petitioner to show that the ends of justice would be served by the court entertaining his petition, a showing that the petitioner satisfies by supplementing his claim by making a colorable showing of factual innocence. Kuhlmann v. Wilson, 477 U.S. 436, 454, 106 S.Ct. 2616, 2627, 91 L.Ed.2d 364 (1986). Here the Government argues that Furnari has abused the writ by again asserting his severity rating claim and it has identified the relevant history of Furnari's petitions to support this contention. Specifically, the Government cites the District Court's July 18, 2002 order issued in response to Furnari's second habeas petition in which the District Court reviewed the Parole Commission's explanation of its credibility assessment of the Government informants and found that the Parole Commission had a rational basis for its acceptance of and reliance on the information received at the parole hearing. Accordingly, the District Court already had considered fully and rejected the severity rating claim on the merits before Furnari presented the same claim in his current application. Thus, we may give controlling weight to the denial of Furnari's prior habeas corpus petition with respect to the severity rating claim so long as giving it that weight would not offend the ends of justice. As we stated above, to meet the requirements for an ends of justice claim, Furnari must supplement his claim with a colorable showing of factual innocence. Kuhlmann, 477 U.S. at 454, 106 S.Ct. at 2627. But instead of claiming that he is innocent of the offenses for which he was convicted as Kuhlmann requires, Furnari claims that he is innocent of uncharged murders and violent conduct that the Parole Commission considered when it made its determination of his offense severity rating. He argues that we can consider this claim when determining whether he has made a colorable showing of factual innocence and points to two Supreme Court cases for support of his argument: Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 106 S.Ct. 2639, 91 L.Ed.2d 397 (1986), in which the Court indicated that in extraordinary cases, where a constitutional violation probably has resulted in the conviction of an individual who is actually innocent, a district court may grant the writ; and Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298, 115 S.Ct. 851, 130 L.Ed.2d 808 (1995), in which the Court stated that in order to establish a probability of innocence a petitioner must show that it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have convicted him in light of new evidence not presented at the trial. But these cases are not helpful to Furnari because they address situations in which prisoners may be innocent of the offenses for which they were convicted and imprisoned. Furnari does not supplement his claim with a colorable showing of factual innocence of the offenses for which he was convicted and, in fact, in these proceedings does not challenge his convictions on any basis. Indeed, no one can describe better than Furnari himself the wrong focus of his colorable showing of factual innocence claim than he does in his brief in which he explains that he finds himself in the unique position of having to prove himself innocent of conduct for which he never has been charged in order to contest what appears to be an irrebutable presumption against his parole. Appellant's br. at 41-42. But even if he could make a showing of actual innocence with respect to uncharged conduct he would not demonstrate that an ends of justice circumvention of the abuse of the writ bar would be appropriate because he would not make a colorable showing of actual innocence of the offenses for which he was convicted. Moreover, even if he could satisfy the ends of justice standard by making a showing different from a colorable showing of factual innocence of the offenses of conviction, we see nothing in the record to justify a conclusion that Furnari has made that showing by demonstrating that the Parole Commission wrongfully considered the uncharged conduct in calculating his category Eight severity rating. Accordingly, he has not shown that the ends of justice would be served by reaching the merits of his severity rating claim. Furnari also asks that we consider his latest challenge to the truth of the information corroborating Casso's information as new evidence. But neither the information nor the claim is new. We previously have considered and rejected Furnari's contention that there was no rational basis for the Parole Commission's justification for his Category Eight rating. See Furnari, 125 Fed.Appx at 437 (confirming the existence of a rational basis for the Parole Commission's conclusions). Thus, by advancing the litigation on the severity rating issue Furnari is abusing the writ and, accordingly, we will affirm the District Court's denial of habeas relief on this claim.