Filed: Mar. 08, 2013
Latest Update: Mar. 28, 2017
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 12-7270 JOEY H. JOHNSON, Petitioner – Appellant, v. WARDEN OF BROAD RIVER CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION, Respondent – Appellee, and STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA; WILLIAM R. BYARS, SCDC Director, Respondents. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Aiken. J. Michelle Childs, District Judge. (1:11-cv-02754-JMC) Submitted: February 28, 2013 Decided: March 8, 2013 Before SHEDD, AGEE, and WYNN, Cir
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 12-7270 JOEY H. JOHNSON, Petitioner – Appellant, v. WARDEN OF BROAD RIVER CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION, Respondent – Appellee, and STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA; WILLIAM R. BYARS, SCDC Director, Respondents. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Aiken. J. Michelle Childs, District Judge. (1:11-cv-02754-JMC) Submitted: February 28, 2013 Decided: March 8, 2013 Before SHEDD, AGEE, and WYNN, Circ..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 12-7270
JOEY H. JOHNSON,
Petitioner – Appellant,
v.
WARDEN OF BROAD RIVER CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION,
Respondent – Appellee,
and
STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA; WILLIAM R. BYARS, SCDC Director,
Respondents.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Aiken. J. Michelle Childs, District Judge.
(1:11-cv-02754-JMC)
Submitted: February 28, 2013 Decided: March 8, 2013
Before SHEDD, AGEE, and WYNN, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Joey H. Johnson, Appellant Pro Se. William Edgar Salter, III,
Assistant Attorney General, Donald John Zelenka, Senior
Assistant Attorney General, Columbia, South Carolina, for
Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
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PER CURIAM:
Joey H. Johnson appeals from the district court’s
order adopting the report and recommendation of the magistrate
judge and denying Johnson’s 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (2006) petition.
We previously granted a certificate of appealability on the
issues of whether, in light of Martinez v. Ryan,
132 S. Ct. 1309
(2012), (1) the trial court erred in failing to place the case
in abeyance to permit Johnson to exhaust his claim that he
received ineffective assistance of counsel when his trial
counsel failed to file a requested notice of appeal or
(2) Johnson showed sufficient cause for his failure to exhaust
this claim. After further briefing, we affirm.
The question before us is whether Johnson can show
cause for his failure to exhaust based upon the ineffective
assistance of counsel during his postconviction proceeding. The
Martinez court characterized its holding as a “limited
qualification” to the rule in Coleman v. Thompson,
501 U.S. 722,
752-53 (1991), that an attorney’s negligence in a postconviction
proceeding does not establish cause for procedural default. The
Court noted the reality that when an “initial-review collateral
proceeding is the first designated proceeding for a prisoner to
raise a claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel, the
collateral proceeding is in many ways the equivalent of a
prisoner’s direct appeal . . . .” Martinez, 132 S. Ct. at 1317.
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Accordingly, while ineffective assistance in initial-review
collateral proceedings might constitute cause for failure to
exhaust certain claims, the Martinez rule did not “concern
attorney errors in other kinds of proceedings including appeals
from initial-review collateral proceedings . . . .” Id. at
1320.
Thus, even assuming that Johnson could raise his
instant ineffective assistance claim for the first time only in
his state postconviction proceeding, he was represented by
counsel at his postconviction hearing, and his claim was
properly exhausted at that hearing. Instead, Johnson is
asserting that his attorney improperly failed to preserve his
ineffective assistance claim on appeal from the denial of his
postconviction petition. However, Martinez assures that Johnson
got a day in court at his original postconviction hearing;
“deprivation of a second day [i.e. an appeal] does not
constitute cause.” Arnold v. Dormire,
675 F.3d 1082, 1087 (8th
Cir. 2012).
Accordingly, because Johnson alleges only ineffective
assistance of appellate postconviction counsel, his allegations
do not constitute cause for his failure to exhaust under the
limited exception in Martinez. Instead, his claims fall under
the general Coleman rule that ineffective assistance of
postconviction counsel cannot constitute cause for procedural
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default. As such, the district court correctly declined to stay
the case pending Johnson’s attempt to exhaust in a second
postconviction petition.
We thus affirm the district court’s judgment. We deny
Johnson’s motion for appointment of counsel. We dispense with
oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are
adequately presented in the materials before this court and
argument would not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED
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