Rosa v. Williams, No. 10-2162 (10th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff-Appellant Peter Rosa sought a Certificate of Appealability (COA) so that he could challenge the district court’s dismissal of his habeas petition. Plaintiff was charged with first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy stemming from the stabbing death of a wheelchair-bound inmate while incarcerated. He confessed to holding the victim while another inmate stabbed him over 200 times. Plaintiff unsuccessfully sought to suppress the confession at trial and on appeal before the New Mexico Supreme Court. The trial judge found Plaintiff guilty on all charges and sentenced him to life. The Supreme Court affirmed the trial court on direct appeal. Plaintiff filed a state habeas petition in 2003 but the Supreme Court denied certiorari. Plaintiff raised five claims in his federal habeas petition, but abandoned two of them. The remaining claims were based on the alleged ineffective assistance of his two trial attorneys. The district court dismissed Plaintiff’s petition with prejudice, and denied a COA. On appeal to the Tenth Circuit, Plaintiff raised the same ineffective assistance of counsel claims that were rejected by the federal district court. The Tenth Circuit concluded that Plaintiff did not show that he was prejudiced by his counsel’s performance. Accordingly, reasonable jurists would not find the lower court’s rejection of a COA as debatable or wrong. The Court therefore affirmed the lower courts’ decisions to deny Plaintiff a COA, and dismissed his appeal.
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