Bolin v. Baker, No. 15-99004 (9th Cir. 2021)
Annotate this CaseThe Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's denial of a stay and abeyance pending exhaustion of unexhausted claims under Rhines v. Weber, 544 U.S. 269 (2005). In this case, petitioner filed a 28 U.S.C. 2254 petition challenging the constitutionality of his conviction and capital sentence. The district court concluded that petitioner lacked good cause under Rhines for his failure to exhaust because his state postconviction counsel's ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC) was not sufficiently egregious. However, the panel subsequently held in Blake v. Baker, 745 F.3d 977 (9th Cir. 2014), that IAC by a petitioner's state-court counsel satisfies the good cause standard under Rhines. Therefore, the district court erred in applying the standard the panel later rejected in Blake and the panel remanded for the district court to apply the proper standard.
Court Description: Habeas Corpus. The panel reversed the district court’s denial of a stay and abeyance pending exhaustion of unexhausted claims, under Rhines v. Weber, 544 U.S. 269 (2005), and remanded, in a case in which Nevada state prisoner Gregory Bolin filed a 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition contesting the constitutionality of his conviction and capital sentence. The district court held that Bolin lacked “good cause” under Rhines for his failure to exhaust because his state post- conviction counsel’s ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC) was not “sufficiently egregious.” This court subsequently held in Blake v. Baker, 745 F.3d 977 (9th Cir. 2014), that IAC by a petitioner’s state-court counsel satisfies the “good cause” standard under Rhines. The panel held that the district court erred in applying the standard later rejected in Blake, and remanded for the district court to apply the proper standard.
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