Court Opinion

ID: 9482888
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:03:58.966413+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:16.221889
License: Public Domain

FAIRCHILD, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring.
The Illinois Appellate Court, reviewing Freeman’s post conviction proceeding, was “the last state court rendering a judgment in the case.” See Harris v. Reed, 489 U.S. 255, 263, 109 S.Ct. 1038, 1043, 103 L.Ed.2d 308 (1989). The Court did not “clearly and expressly” state that its denial of relief rested on Freeman’s failure to raise his Fifth Amendment claim on direct appeal. Accordingly, if the rule pronounced in Harris be applied literally, that failure does not bar consideration on federal habeas of the Fifth Amendment claim and it would be unnecessary to explain the failure by showing cause and prejudice.
The situation is unusual in that the Appellate Court considered Freeman’s Fifth Amendment claim, finding it had no merit, but did so only as a step in its reasoning that Freeman’s counsel had not been ineffective. Moreover, the implication is very strong that, having rejected the explanation of failure to raise the claim, the Court was treating the failure as procedural default.
Perhaps in these peculiar circumstances, Harris requires no specific, express statement, and the failure to raise the claim on direct appeal would bar consideration on federal habeas unless explained by cause and prejudice, as Judge Ripple has ably demonstrated.
I fully agree that cause and prejudice have been established.