Will v. Lumpkin, No. 18-70030 (5th Cir. 2020)
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The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment that petitioner's Rule 60(b) motion was a successive habeas petition. The court held that when a court order disposes of a habeas claim on procedural and, in the alternative, substantive grounds, a Rule 60(b) motion contesting this order inherently presents a successive habeas petition. In this case, petitioner's Rule 60(b) motion—facially challenging a procedural ruling and implicitly challenging a merits determination—presents a habeas claim. Therefore, the district court correctly held that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the motion under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.
The court also affirmed the denial of petitioner's inherent-prejudice claim where petitioner identifies no clearly established law that the CCA misapplied, nor any unreasonable factual determinations on which that court based its holding.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on October 22, 2020.
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