Court Opinion

ID: 9490470
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:44:15.386193+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:06.915737
License: Public Domain

T.G. NELSON, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring:
In my view, the 1996 Act unconstitutionally suspends the writ of habeas corpus as to competency to be executed claims. It does so in an unambiguous fashion, by prohibiting the consideration of claims in second or successive petitions that do not fit the exceptions found in § 2244(b)(1) and (2). As we point out in the order, Martinez-Villareal’s competency to be executed claim cannot come within the statutory exceptions.
In Turner, we “looked through” a prior petition that had been dismissed without action. Since the earlier petition had no practical or legal effect, it was appropriate to simply ignore it. By contrast, the petition which was the subject of our prior opinion was perhaps Martinez-Villarears third try at getting into federal court, and was extensively litigated by the parties, to the point of denial of certiorari by the Supreme Court. 80 F.3d 1301 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 117 S.Ct. 588, 136 L.Ed.2d 517 (1996). Thus, I don’t believe Turner justifies our ignoring several years of litigation in the federal courts.
The law as it existed prior to the Act gave state prisoners the opportunity to present all their federal claims in federal court. They could lose the opportunity if they neglected to include a claim in a first petition. However, “old” § 2244(b) allowed the consideration of successive petitions containing “new grounds,” if the “ends of justice” would be served. This opportunity was ehminated by the 1996 amendments to § 2244.
As we noted in our prior opinion, a petitioner could come to federal court with a “procedurally defaulted claim if the petitioner can show cause for the procedural default and actual prejudice as a result of the alleged violations of federal law.” 80 F.3d at 1305. A showing of cause required the petitioner to demonstrate the existence of an objective factor external to the defense which hampered efforts to comply with the procedural rule. Id. (citing Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 488, 106 S.Ct. 2639, 2645, 91 L.Ed.2d 397 (1986)). The lack of ripeness of a claim of incompetence to be executed would appear to be a classic case of an external impediment to presentation of the claim.
Thus, on April 23, 1996, a claim involving lack of competency to be executed could be considered in a successive petition filed in federal court. On April 24, 1996, and since, under the clear terms of § 2244, such claims simply cannot be considered by any federal court, in spite of the fact that there was no earlier opportunity to do so. If the writ has not been suspended as to those claims, it is difficult to see how it can ever be suspended as to any class of claims.
My conclusion that the writ has been suspended as to claims such as Martinez-Villa-real’s would require an analysis of the appropriate remedy to ensure that MartinezVillareal could get to federal court. The remedy we order, the transfer to the district court of the petition filed here, is an appropriate one, and I fully concur in the result.