Opinion ID: 158618
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Grant an Evidentiary Hearing

Text: 6 Before the federal district court, Mr. Smallwood requested an evidentiary hearing to develop an adequate factual record regarding his ineffective assistance of counsel claims. Particularly, he wished to ferret out whether his counsel's decisions were tactical, whether his counsel failed to fully investigate and prepare mental health issues that support his defense theory and provide mitigation evidence, and whether his appellate counsel had a conflict of interest. Generally, under the AEDPA, if a petitioner has failed to develop the factual basis of his habeas claim in state court, he is not entitled to a federal evidentiary hearing unless he initially shows: (1) the claim relies on a new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable, 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(2)(A)(I), or (2) a factual predicate that could not have been previously discovered through the exercise of due diligence, id. § 2254(e)(2)(A)(ii). The district court found that Mr. Smallwood had not met the requirements of § 2254(e)(2) and denied petitioner's request for an evidentiary hearing. 7 We agree with the district court that Mr. Smallwood has failed to satisfy § 2254(e)(2)'s requirements. Petitioner's ineffective assistance of counsel claims are not based on a new rule of constitutional law, and the factual basis for the claims could have been discovered with the exercise of due diligence in state court. However, in Miller v. Champion, 161 F.3d 1249, 1253 (10th Cir. 1998), we recently held that § 2254(e)(2)'s restrictions on an evidentiary hearing do not apply when the petitioner diligently sought to develop the factual basis underlying his habeas petition, but a state court prevented him from doing so. If the Miller exception applies, petitioner is entitled to an evidentiary hearing so long as his allegations, if true and if not contravened by the existing factual record, would entitle him to habeas relief. Id. 8 Mr. Smallwood does not fall within the Miller exception because he did not diligently seek to develop the factual basis of his ineffective assistance of counsel claims in state court. With the exception of his conflict of interest allegation, petitioner did not seek an evidentiary hearing in state court on the ineffective assistance of counsel issues before us. Moreover, petitioner failed to properly raise his conflict of interest claim before the state courts. See Smallwood v. State, 937 P.2d 111, 117 (Okla. Crim. App. 1997) (refusing to suspend application of state procedural rules for post-conviction relief to consider petitioner's pro se handwritten statement attached to his first application for post-conviction relief asserting ineffective assistance of counsel claims). Although the OCCA invited petitioner to assert his ineffective assistance of counsel claims so long as he complied with the court's procedural rules, see id., he did not do so. Under these circumstances, we cannot conclude that petitioner diligently sought to develop a factual basis for his ineffective assistance of counsel claims in state court. Accordingly, the district court did not err in denying Mr. Smallwood's request for an evidentiary hearing.