Opinion ID: 46119
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Jackson Claim

Text: Whitaker next argues that his death sentence is unconstitutional because the state’s plea offer of life imprisonment impermissibly burdened his rights to plead not guilty and to be tried by a jury. Whitaker first raised this claim in his untimely “supplement” to his original state habeas petition. Although the state court clerk initially treated this supplemental filing as a part of Whitaker’s original petition, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ultimately characterized the filing as a second or successive pleading and dismissed it as an abuse of the writ. The district court dismissed this claim after finding both that the claim was procedurally defaulted and that it was ultimately meritless.
14 Where a state court has previously dismissed a habeas petitioner’s claim pursuant to an adequate and independent state procedural ground, a federal court will not consider that claim unless the petitioner shows either (i) cause for the default and actual prejudice; or (ii) that a fundamental miscarriage of justice will result if the claim is not considered. See Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U.S. 722, 750 (1991). This court has repeatedly held that a dismissal for abuse of the writ under Texas law is an adequate and independent state procedural ground for dismissal. See Aguilar v. Dretke, 428 F.3d 526, 533 (5th Cir. 2005). Whitaker does not seriously dispute that his supplemental state habeas petition, which contained his Jackson claim, was untimely under Texas law. Nor does Whitaker attempt to show either cause and prejudice or a fundamental miscarriage of justice. Rather, Whitaker argues only that the court should not read the Texas statute governing the filing of capital habeas petitions “hyper-technically” to deem a supplemental petition successive when the supplemental petition is filed 15 before the original petition is decided on the merits. Because Whitaker neither disputes that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was permitted to treat his supplemental petition as a second or successive petition as a matter of Texas law nor asserts that the Texas procedural rule conflicts with federal law, we find that the district court properly dismissed this claim as procedurally defaulted.
Even were Whitaker’s Jackson claim not procedurally defaulted, we would still deny his request for a COA because reasonable jurists could not debate the district court’s resolution of this claim on the merits. In Jackson, the Supreme Court held that a section of the Federal Kidnaping Act violated the defendant’s Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights because it permitted the death penalty to be imposed on only those defendants who insisted on asserting their rights to plead not guilty and to be tried by a jury. 390 U.S. at 582-83.4 The 4 The Jackson court interpreted the statutory provision at issue in that case to prohibit a death sentence in cases where the defendant either pleaded 16 Court found that, because the statute reserved the death penalty exclusively for defendants who were convicted after a jury trial, it impermissibly penalized those defendants for choosing to assert their constitutional rights. Id. at 382-83. Whitaker asserts that the Texas capital sentencing scheme is analogous to the statutory scheme in Jackson because it permits a defendant charged with capital murder to avoid a possible death sentence only if the defendant agrees to plead guilty and the state agrees not to seek the death penalty. Whitaker’s argument is meritless. First, Whitaker ignores a crucial distinction between the statutory scheme in Jackson and the Texas capital sentencing scheme. In Jackson, a defendant could be sentenced to death only if he pleaded not guilty and insisted on a trial by jury; if the defendant either pleaded guilty or guilty or waived the right to a jury trial. See id. at 581 (“Under the Federal Kidnaping Act, therefore, the defendant who abandons the right to contest his guilt before a jury is assured that he cannot be executed; the defendant ingenuous enough to seek a jury acquittal stands forewarned that, if the jury finds him guilty and does not wish to spare his life, he will die.”). 17 waived a jury trial, a death sentence could not be imposed. Under Texas law, however, a defendant who pleads guilty to a capital offense still faces the possibility of a death sentence unless the prosecution agrees not to seek the death penalty. Thus, the Texas statute does not impermissibly reserve the death penalty for those defendants who assert their constitutional rights. See Corbitt v. New Jersey, 439 U.S. 212, 217 (1978); Spinkellink v. Wainwright, 578 F.2d 582, 608 (5th Cir. 1978). Second, Jackson does not prevent prosecutors from exercising their discretion to offer the possibility of a lesser sentence in exchange for a guilty plea, even in cases involving the death penalty. See Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 747-53 (1970); Spinkellink, 578 F.2d at 608-09. Accordingly, the prosecution’s plea bargain offer in this case did not violate Jackson, and we deny Whitaker’s request for a COA on this claim.