Williams v. Paramo

Filing 20

ORDER signed by Magistrate Judge Kendall J. Newman on 02/05/14 denying 19 Motion for stay and abeyance. Petitioner's amended motion for stay under Rhines, if any, shall be filed within 30 days from the date of this order. (Plummer, M)

Download PDF
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 11 FRANK J. WILLIAMS, 12 Petitioner, 13 14 No. 2:13-cv-0417 TLN KJN P v. ORDER D. PARAMO, 15 Respondent. 16 On January 9, 2014, petitioner filed a document styled, “Motion to Hold Proceedings in 17 18 Abeyance,” under Rhines v. Weber, 544 U.S. 269, 277 (2005). (ECF No. 19.) Petitioner 19 contends that all of the claims1 contained in his federal petition are exhausted, but seeks to stay 20 consideration of such claims so that he may exhaust twelve unidentified claims in state court. 21 Petitioner states that “the claims he seeks to exhaust in state court are not dilatory litigation 22 tactics, but stem from due process violations, and hold merit for examination by the courts. 23 Petitioner was represented by counsel who failed to perform adequate representation as 24 established by the Supreme Court in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984).” (ECF No. 25 19 at 1.) 26 1 27 28 Petitioner challenges his May 27, 2010 conviction, and raises two claims in his federal petition: the trial court failed to sua sponte instruct on the lesser-included offense of simple assault, and there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction of assault with a deadly weapon. (ECF No. 5.) 1 1 However, by order filed October 4, 2013, petitioner was informed of the requirements for 2 filing a motion for a stay under Rhines, and advised that if he sought a stay under Rhines, he must 3 address each condition set forth in Rhines. (ECF No. 17 at 2-3.) 4 Under Rhines, a district court may stay a mixed petition if the following conditions are 5 met: (1) “the petitioner had good cause for his failure to exhaust,” (2) “his unexhausted claims 6 are potentially meritorious,” and (3) “there is no indication that the petitioner engaged in 7 intentionally dilatory litigation tactics.” Id., 544 U.S. at 278. The Supreme Court has made clear 8 that this option “should be available only in limited circumstances.” Id. at 277. Moreover, a stay 9 that is granted pursuant to Rhines may not be indefinite; reasonable time limits must be imposed 10 on a petitioner‟s return to state court. Id. at 277-78. 11 “Good cause” under Rhines is not clearly defined. The Supreme Court has explained that 12 in order to promote the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act‟s (“AEDPA”) twin goals 13 of encouraging the finality of state judgments and reducing delays in federal habeas review, “stay 14 and abeyance should be available only in limited circumstances.” Rhines, 544 U.S. at 277. The 15 Ninth Circuit has provided no clear guidance beyond holding that the test is less stringent than an 16 “extraordinary circumstances” standard. Jackson v. Roe, 425 F.3d 654, 661-62 (9th Cir. 2005). 17 Several district courts have concluded that the standard is more generous than the showing 18 needed for “cause” to excuse a procedural default. See, e.g., Rhines v. Weber, 408 F. Supp. 2d 19 844, 849 (D. S.D. 2005) (applying the Supreme Court's mandate on remand). This view finds 20 support in Pace, where the Supreme Court acknowledged that a petitioner‟s “reasonable 21 confusion” about the timeliness of his federal petition would generally constitute good cause for 22 his failure to exhaust state remedies before filing his federal petition. Pace v. DiGuglielmo, 544 23 U.S. 408, 416-17 (2005). However, in Wooten v. Kirkland, 540 F.3d 1019 (9th Cir. 2008), the 24 Ninth Circuit ruled that petitioner did not show good cause by arguing that he was “under the 25 impression” that his counsel had raised all claims before the state court of appeal. Id., at 1024. 26 The Ninth Circuit explained that finding good cause in that argument “would render stay-and- 27 abey orders routine” and “would run afoul of Rhines and its instruction that district courts should 28 only stay mixed petitions in „limited circumstances.‟” Wooten, 540 F.3d at 1024. 2 1 More recently, in Martinez v. Ryan, 132 S. Ct. 1309, 1315 (2012), the Supreme Court 2 held that ineffective assistance of post-conviction counsel may constitute cause for overcoming 3 procedural default. Id. Numerous courts have drawn an analogy between “good cause” for 4 failure to exhaust and the showing required to overcome a procedural bar. See, e.g., Hernandez v. 5 Sullivan, 397 F.Supp.2d 1205,1207 (C.D. Cal. 2005); Bader v. Warden, 2005 WL 1528761 at *7 6 (D.N.H.2005) (unpublished memorandum). Under the procedural default doctrine, the “cause” 7 standard requires a petitioner to show that some objective factor external to the defense impeded 8 counsel's efforts to raise the claim in state court. Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 488 (1986). 9 Other district courts have found the “good cause” requirement for a stay to be less 10 stringent than that required in the procedural default context. See, e.g., Corjasso v. Ayers, 2006 11 WL 618380 at *1 (E.D. Cal. 2006) (comparing good cause standard to that of excusable neglect); 12 Hoyos v. Cullen, 2011 WL 11425 (S.D. Cal. Jan. 4, 2011) (same). 13 Here, petitioner has inadequately addressed the conditions required under Rhines. 14 First, the court cannot determine whether the proposed unexhausted claims have merit 15 because petitioner failed to set forth the twelve claims he proposes to now exhaust. Petitioner 16 alleges that the proposed claims are not barred by state law, and that state review of such claims 17 would “make moot any further action by the federal courts.” (ECF No. 19 at 4.) However, 18 petitioner fails to provide facts demonstrating that the proposed claims have merit; thus, petitioner 19 fails to meet the second condition of Rhines. 20 Second, although petitioner alleges that these unidentified claims “are not dilatory 21 litigation tactics,” petitioner does not expressly articulate why he earlier failed to raise the claims 22 in state court, and alleges no facts showing his diligence in exhausting such claims. Petitioner 23 fails to describe the alleged “due process violations” that he argues do not constitute dilatory 24 litigation tactics. Thus, petitioner does not meet the third Rhines condition. 25 Finally, petitioner fails to demonstrate good cause. Petitioner claims he was represented 26 by counsel who allegedly failed to perform adequate representation, and states counsel failed to 27 address the twelve issues in state court before the state court heard the issues raised in the federal 28 petition. However, although petitioner was represented by counsel on appeal, petitioner claims in 3 1 his verified petition that he was not represented by counsel in post-conviction challenges. (ECF 2 No. 5 at 10.) Thus, petitioner fails to establish how counsel‟s failure to raise these claims on 3 appeal prevented petitioner from raising them in collateral challenges in state court. 4 Petitioner also claims he is a layman at law and had no understanding of the law until 5 informed by a fellow prisoner, but states the “ongoing conflict with both trial and appellate 6 counsel is apparent in the record.” (ECF No. 19 at 4.) However, lack of legal knowledge does 7 not constitute “good cause” because lack of legal knowledge is a routine characteristic and 8 circumstance suffered by prisoners. Such argument is insufficient to show good cause as it would 9 run contrary to Rhines‟ instruction that stays should be granted only in limited circumstances. 10 See Wooten, 540 F.3d at 1024; Daly v. McEwen, 2011 WL 4964449, at *4 (C.D. Cal. Oct.19, 11 2011) (holding that petitioner failed to show good cause to warrant a Rhines stay in arguing that 12 he was ignorant of the law and required the assistance of more knowledgeable prisoners); 13 Holloway v. Curry, 2010 WL 2985078, at *3-4 (E.D. Cal. July 27, 2010) (concluding that 14 petitioner's argument that he is a layman and was unaware of the exhaustion requirement is 15 insufficient to show good cause to warrant a Rhines stay), report and recommendation adopted 16 by, 2010 WL 3703836 (Sept. 17, 2010); Hamilton v. Clark, 2010 WL 530111, at *2 (E.D. Cal. 17 Feb. 9, 2010) (holding that petitioner's lack of understanding of the exhaustion requirement and 18 limited access to the prison law library were insufficient to show good cause for a failure to 19 exhaust). For all of these reasons, petitioner fails to demonstrate good cause under Rhines. 20 Because petitioner has not made the showing required to obtain a stay under Rhines, 21 petitioner‟s motion for stay and abeyance is denied without prejudice. In an abundance of 22 caution, petitioner is granted thirty days in which to file an amended motion for stay under 23 Rhines. Petitioner must identify the twelve claims he seeks to exhaust. Also, petitioner is 24 cautioned that he must provide factual support to address each condition required under Rhines. 25 However, inasmuch as petitioner has filed his reply to the answer, petitioner is not 26 required to renew his motion for stay. If petitioner does not file an amended motion for stay, the 27 petition for writ of habeas corpus will stand submitted once the thirty day period has expired. 28 //// 4 1 Accordingly, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that: 2 1. Petitioner‟s motion for stay and abeyance (ECF No. 19) is denied without prejudice; 3 4 and 2. Petitioner‟s amended motion for stay under Rhines, if any, shall be filed within thirty 5 days from the date of this order. 6 Dated: February 5, 2014 7 8 /will0417.mts 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 5

Disclaimer: Justia Dockets & Filings provides public litigation records from the federal appellate and district courts. These filings and docket sheets should not be considered findings of fact or liability, nor do they necessarily reflect the view of Justia.


Why Is My Information Online?