Opinion ID: 707548
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Charron's Second Habeas Petition

Text: 21 After the district court dismissed Charron's first habeas petition, he filed this second federal habeas petition. In this petition and accompanying motions, Charron requested the court to grant an order permitting DNA testing on evidence within the State's possession, along with an additional order requiring the State to preserve evidence within its possession. The magistrate judge concluded that this petition was abusive, Charron did not satisfy the cause and prejudice or actual innocence tests, and recommended dismissal with prejudice. The district court adopted this conclusion. 22 The doctrine of abuse of the writ defines the circumstances in which federal courts decline to entertain a claim presented for the first time in a second or subsequent petition for a writ of habeas corpus. McCleskey, 499 U.S. at 470, 111 S.Ct. at 1457. In McCleskey, the Supreme Court held that the cause and prejudice standard applicable to state procedural defaults applies to abuse of the writ cases as well. Id. at 493, 111 S.Ct. at 1469. Stated otherwise, a habeas petitioner who presents claims in a second or subsequent habeas petition which were not raised in the first habeas petition must show cause for the failure and prejudice arising therefrom. Id.; see also Washington v. Delo, 51 F.3d 756, 760 (8th Cir.1995), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 205, --- L.Ed.2d ---- (1995). 23 In this case, Charron's DNA claims were not included in his first petition and are abusive under McCleskey. Charron contends that the magistrate judge erred in concluding that his petition was abusive due to the fact that his first federal habeas petition was denied on the basis of procedural default and not on the merits. He argues that based on Hill v. Lockhart, 877 F.2d 698 (8th Cir.1989), aff'd Hill v. Lockhart, 894 F.2d 1009 (8th Cir.) (en banc, reinstating panel opinion), cert. denied, 497 U.S. 1011, 110 S.Ct. 3258, 111 L.Ed.2d 767 (1990), the merits of an abusive petition may be considered when the first habeas petition was denied on procedural grounds. However, in Hill we merely held that, given the history and background of the case, the district court did not abuse its discretion in considering the merits of Hill's second habeas petition, 877 F.2d at 702; we did not hold, as Charron seems to argue, that district courts are compelled to consider the merits of second or subsequent petitions. In fact, adopting Charron's argument would fly in the face of McCleskey, wherein the Court held that in order for a federal court to address the merits of an abusive habeas petition, the petitioner must meet either the stringent cause and prejudice or actual innocence tests. McCleskey, 499 U.S. at 494, 111 S.Ct. at 1470. Charron also argues that cause may be supplied due to the fact that the first petition was drafted pro se. However, we have squarely rejected this argument in the context of state procedural defaults, Stanley v. Lockhart, 941 F.2d 707, 710 (8th Cir.1991), and conclude that the same rule applies to abuse of the writ cases as well. 24 Charron also contends that he established cause due to ineffective assistance of counsel. The counsel to whom Charron refers is his trial counsel; however, it would not be trial counsel's ineffectiveness that would supply cause, but the ineffectiveness of any counsel who assisted Charron in his first habeas petition. Because Charron had no habeas counsel in the district court, there can be no cause attributed. In any event, there is no right to counsel in a habeas proceeding, McCleskey, 499 U.S. at 495, 111 S.Ct. at 1470, and thus there can be no right to effective counsel in federal habeas corpus proceedings. 25 Charron further asserts that cause is established because at the time he filed his first federal habeas petition he was not aware of the existence of DNA technology. The petitioner can show cause where the factual ... basis for a claim was not reasonably available to him and he was not on notice of the claim's availability. Jennings, 7 F.3d at 782 (internal quotations and citations omitted). It is clear from this language that the standard is one of reasonableness, i.e., whether a reasonable habeas petitioner, using due diligence, would have been aware of the existence of this type of evidence at the time the first habeas petition was filed. The magistrate judge traced the history of DNA technology, observing that it arose in Great Britain in 1985 and by December 1, 1986, such evidence had been used in over two hundred cases in the United States. (Appellant's Addend. at 3.) From this, the magistrate judge concluded that such evidence was available long before Charron filed his first habeas petition in 1990. 8 We agree. In addition to the numerous treatises cited by the magistrate judge in her thorough report and recommendation outlining the use and availability of DNA evidence as of late 1986, our independent research reveals a number of reported appellate cases discussing DNA evidence that were decided prior to the time Charron filed his first habeas petition on November 21, 1990. See, e.g., White v. State, 301 Ark. 74, 781 S.W.2d 478 (1989); Spencer v. Commonwealth, 238 Va. 563, 385 S.E.2d 850 (1989), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 1093, 110 S.Ct. 1171, 107 L.Ed.2d 1073 (1990); Martinez v. State, 549 So.2d 694 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1989). Because Charron has failed to establish cause, we decline to conduct a prejudice inquiry. 9 26 Charron finally complains that the district court erred by refusing to permit him to conduct discovery to show manifest injustice. Rule 6 of the Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases in the United States District Courts states that [a] party shall be entitled to invoke the processes of discovery available under the Federal Rules of Procedure if, and to the extent that, the judge in the exercise of his discretion and for good cause shown grants leave to do so, but not otherwise. After carefully reviewing the record, we conclude that Charron has not offered good cause to conduct discovery and accordingly, the district court did not abuse its ample discretion in denying Charron the opportunity to do so. 27 We have examined Charron's remaining arguments and sub-arguments and conclude that they are without merit.