Court Opinion

ID: 9601468
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:44:35.516736+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:57.701613
License: Public Domain

BYE, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the result.
I agree the habeas petition Terrick Nooner filed in the district court was not a second or successive petition, and Nooner did not require the authorization of the circuit court before filing the petition in the district court. I therefore concur in the result reached by the Court, but write separately because I do not agree the claim brought in the petition ripened only after Arkansas set an execution date.
The Court characterizes Nooner’s claim as an Eighth Amendment claim brought pursuant to Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399, 106 S.Ct. 2595, 91 L.Ed.2d 335 (1986), and Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 122 S.Ct. 2242, 153 L.Ed.2d 335 (2002). A fair reading of Nooner’s petition, however, indicates the thrust of his claim is based on the constitutional right-of-access to the courts, a claim which is merely prefatory to his bringing a Ford or Atkins claim. Nooner claimed, as a condition of his confinement, the Arkansas Department of Corrections was denying him access to mental health professionals and such a denial violated his constitutional right of access to the courts by impeding his ability to prepare a future Ford-based incompetency claim or Aifcms-based mental retardation claim when his execution date was actually set. I believe a right-of-access claim ripens when the state places a substantial impediment in the way of the future litigation a prisoner seeks to pursue, so long as the prisoner shows the underlying claim itself is colorable. See Christopher v. Harbury, 536 U.S. 403, 413-15, 122 S.Ct. 2179, 153 L.Ed.2d 413 (2002) (discussing the distinction between a right-of-access claim brought to remove a roadblock to future litigation, and the underlying (future) claim itself, and indicating such a claim is viable when the prisoner shows the underlying claim is “nonfrivo-lous” or “arguable.”).
I concur in the result.