Court Opinion

ID: 9495569
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:05:51.16489+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:05.482577
License: Public Domain

GILMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Because I am not comfortable with either the majority opinion or Judge Boggs’s dissent, I write separately to express my own views. Although I agree with the majority opinion that the petitioner presents a strong claim for habeas relief, at least at the sentencing phase of the case, I disagree with the decision to certify questions to the Tennessee Supreme Court. Judge. Boggs lays out a cogent argument to the effect that the majority’s questions are loaded with a number of unwarranted assumptions, the answers to which will not advance the ultimate resolution of this case. I therefore agree with Judge Boggs that this court can and should decide the case on the merits as it is currently before us.
Although I agree with Judge Boggs’s rationale on the question of certification, I decline to join his conclusion that we should affirm the district court’s opinion. I find particularly disturbing the notion that the defendant’s entitlement to relief hinges on a hypothetical statistical analysis that attempts to find mathematical precision in an endeavor that in the end requires a judgment call based on a sound understanding of human nature. I agree with Judge Merritt’s response on this point as expressed in footnote 4 of his opinion. Judge Boggs’s conclusion that “an honest application of the Schlup standard means that a prisoner can meet it only if a judge can conscientiously assert that every reasonable juror is almost certain to vote to acquit” seems to me an *788overstatement of Justice Steven’s language that the test is whether “it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have convicted.” Judge Boggs’s interpretation would make the Schlup standard virtually impossible for a defendant to meet. In my opinion, it is a misreading of the standard as articulated by the Supreme Court.
In sum, I believe that there is no need to certify any questions to the Tennessee Supreme Court and this court should decide the issues currently before it on the merits. But I also disagree with Judge Boggs’s interpretation of the Schlup standard and his resulting resolution of this case. Finding myself caught between Seylla and Charybdis (to say nothing of medieval angels and Foucault), I respectfully file this separate dissent.