Henry v. Spearman, No. 17-70170 (9th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this CaseThe Ninth Circuit granted petitioner's motion to file a second or successive 28 U.S.C. 2254 habeas corpus petition, challenging California's second-degree felony murder rule as unconstitutionally vague under Johnson v. United States. Determining that petitioner had standing and his claim was not effectively moot, the panel held that petitioner made a prima facie showing that his claim relied on the new and retroactively applicable rule in Johnson. The panel concluded that there was a plausible position that Johnson did not limit its constitutional rule to certain features of the Armed Career Criminal Act's residual clause that the State contends was absent from California's second-degree felony murder rule.
Court Description: Habeas Corpus The panel granted California prisoner Shedrick Henry’s motion to file a second or successive 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition urging that California’s second- degree felony-murder rule is unconstitutionally vague under Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015). The panel rejected the State of California’s arguments that Henry lacks standing to bring a vagueness challenge and that his claim is effectively moot. The panel held that there is a plausible position that Johnson did not limit its constitutional rule to certain features of the Armed Career Criminal Act’s residual clause that the State contends are absent from California’s second-degree felony-murder rule, and concluded that Henry has made a prima facie showing that his claim “relies on” the new and retroactively applicable rule of Johnson.
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