MEMORANDUM OPINION

RICHARD G. ANDREWS, District Judge.

Pending before the Court is an Application For A Writ Of Habeas Corpus Pursuant To 28 U.S.C. § 2254 ("Petition") filed by Petitioner James McNeill. (D.I. 2) The State filed an Answer in opposition, to which Petitioner filed a Reply. (D.I. 18; D.I. 23) For the reasons discussed, the Court will deny Petitioner's § 2254 Petition.

I. BACKGROUND

On September 2013, Petitioner pled guilty to aggravated possession of cocaine and aggravated possession of alprazolam. (D.I. 18 at 1) On that same day, the Superior Court sentenced Petitioner as follows: (1) for possession of cocaine, to five years of Level V incarceration and successful completion of a drug treatment program; and (2) for possession of alprazolam, one year at Level V, suspended for one year of Level III probation. (D.I. 18 at 2) Petitioner did not file a direct appeal.

On May 8, 2014, Delaware's Office of Defense Services ("OPD") filed a motion for post-conviction relief pursuant to Delaware Superior Court Criminal Rule 61 ("Rule 61 motion") on Petitioner's behalf, which the Superior Court dismissed on December 3, 2014. (D.I. 18 at 2). The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Superior Court's denial of Petitioner's Rule 61 motion on October 12, 2015. (D.I. 18 at 2)

On September 19, 2016, the OPD filed a § 2254 Petition on Petitioner's behalf, asserting that Petitioner's lack of knowledge of the OCME misconduct was material to his decision to plead guilty and, therefore, his guilty plea was involuntary pursuant to Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 748 (1970). (D.I. 2) Petitioner also argues that the Delaware Supreme Court made unreasonable findings of fact during his post-conviction appeal regarding OCME misconduct. The State filed an Answer asserting that the Petition should be denied as time-barred and, alternatively, as meritless. (D.I. 18) Petitioner filed a Reply in opposition. (D.I. 23)

A. OCME CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

The relevant information regarding the OCME evidence mishandling is set forth below:

Brown v. State, 108 A.3d 1201, 1204-05 (Del. 2015).

II. PETITION IS NOT TIME-BARRED

The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA") prescribes a one-year period of limitations for the filing of habeas petitions by state prisoners, which begins to run from the latest of:

28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1). AEDPA's limitations period is subject to statutory and equitable tolling. See Holland v. Florida, 560 U.S. 631, 645 (2010) (equitable tolling); 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(2) (statutory tolling).

Petitioner's § 2254 Petition, filed in 2016, is subject to the one-year limitations period contained in § 2244(d)(1). See Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 336 (1997). The State contends that the starting date for the limitations period is October 4, 2013, the date on which Petitioner's conviction became final. (D.I. 18 at 6) Petitioner, however, appears to assert that he is entitled to a later starting date for AEDPA's limitations period — April 15, 2014 — under § 2244(d)(1)(D), because that is the date on which the State began to notify defendants in certain active cases about the OCME evidence misconduct. (D.I. 23 at 6-7)

In order to determine if the April 15, 2014 revelation of the OCME misconduct constitutes a newly discovered factual predicate warranting a later starting date for the limitations period under § 2244(d)(1)(D), the Court must first distill Petitioner's OCME argument to its core. The argument appears to be two-fold. First, Petitioner asserts a twist on the typical Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) by alleging that the State's affirmative representation that it had fulfilled its Brady v. Maryland obligation when, in fact, it did not disclose the at-that-time undiscovered OCME misconduct, violated his constitutional rights and affected his ability to voluntarily enter a guilty plea. Second, he contends that the Delaware state courts should have deemed his guilty plea involuntary under Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. 742, 748 (1970) due to the State's failure to disclose the Brady v. Maryland evidence, i.e., the OCME misconduct. In short, Petitioner asserts that his lack of knowledge about the OCME misconduct is vital to his habeas claim because that lack of knowledge rendered his guilty plea involuntary and unknowing under Brady v. United States.

Pursuant to Brady v. United States, a guilty plea is considered involuntary if it is "induced by threats (or promises to discontinue improper harassment), misrepresentation (including unfulfilled or unfillable promises), or perhaps by promises that are by their nature improper as having no proper relationship to the prosecutor's business (e.g. bribes)." Brady, 397 U.S. at 755. A violation of Brady v. Maryland occurs when the government fails to disclose evidence materially favorable to the accused, including both impeachment evidence and exculpatory evidence.2 See United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 676 (1985). For purposes of the inquiry under § 2244(d)(1)(D), whether or not the OCME misconduct affected, or could have affected, Petitioner's decision to plead guilty depends on whether the drugs in his case were tested by the OCME and the results were provided to him prior to entering a plea. Therefore, in order to trigger a later starting date under § 2244(d)(1)(D) for this involuntary plea/Brady v. Maryland Claim, Petitioner must show that (1) the drug evidence in his case was tested by the OCME and he received the results of the test before entering a plea; and (2) exercising due diligence, he could not have learned that the evidence in his case may have been part of the compromised drug evidence involved in the OCME scandal until April 15, 2014. For the following reasons, the Court concludes that Petitioner has met this burden.

First, Petitioner pled guilty on September 4, 2013. The OCME report concerning the drug evidence in this case is signed and dated July 17, 2013, and presumably, was provided to Petitioner on or around that date. (D.I. 22-8 at 393) Second, facts sufficient to provide a basis for a good faith claim that state employees engaged in impermissible conduct were not available to defense counsel until April 15, 2014 when, as part of its Brady v. Maryland obligation, the State informed Petitioner and other defendants that all drug evidence housed at the lab was susceptible to compromise.3 (D.I. 23 at 7)

Given these circumstances, the Court concludes that AEDPA's limitations period in this case began to run on April 15, 2014.4 Accordingly, to comply with the one-year limitations period, Petitioner had to file his § 2254 petition by April 15, 2015. See Wilson v. Beard, 426 F.3d 653 (3d Cir. 2005) (holding that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(a) and (e) applies to federal habeas petitions); Phlipot v. Johnson, 2015 WL 1906127, at *3 n. 3 (D. Del. Apr. 27, 2015) (AEDPA's one-year limitations period is calculated according to the anniversary method, i.e., the limitations period expires on the anniversary of the date it began to run).

Petitioner did not file the instant § 2254 Petition until September 19, 2016, approximately one year and five months after the expiration of AEDPA's statute of limitations. Therefore, the Petition is time-barred, unless the limitations period can be statutorily or equitably tolled. See Holland v. Florida, 560 U.S. 631, 645 (2010) (equitable tolling); 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(2) (statutory tolling).

A. Statutory Tolling

Pursuant to § 2244(d)(2), a properly filed application for state collateral review tolls AEDPA's limitations period during the time the application is pending in the state courts, including any post-conviction appeals, provided that the application is filed during AEDPA's one-year limitations period. Swartz v. Meyers, 204 F.3d 417, 424-25 (3d Cir. 2000). However, the limitations period is not tolled during the ninety days a petitioner has to file a petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court regarding a judgment denying a state post-conviction motion. See Stokes v. Dist. Attorney of Philadelphia, 247 F.3d 539, 542 (3d Cir. 2001).

Here, when Petitioner filed his Rule 61 motion on May 8, 2014, twenty-three days of AEDPA's limitations period had already expired. The Rule 61 motion tolled the limitations from May 8, 2014 through October 12, 2015, the date on which the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Superior Court's denial of the motion. The limitations clock started to run again on October 13, 2015, and ran the remaining 342 days without interruption until AEDPA's limitations period expired on September 19, 2016. However, since Petitioner filed his Petition on September 19, 2016, the Petition is timely. Given these circumstances, the Court will review the Petition.

III. STANDARD OF REVIEW

When a state's highest court has adjudicated a federal habeas claim on the merits, the federal court must review the claim under the deferential standard contained in 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). A claim has been "adjudicated on the merits" for the purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) if the state court decision finally resolves the claim on the basis of its substance, rather than on a procedural or some other ground. See Thomas v. Horn, 570 F.3d 105, 115 (3d Cir. 2009). Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), federal habeas relief may only be granted if the state court's decision was "contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States," or the state court's decision was an unreasonable determination of the facts based on the evidence adduced in the trial. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1) & (2); see also Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 412 (2000); Appel v. Horn, 250 F.3d 203, 210 (3d Cir. 2001). This deferential standard of § 2254(d) applies even "when a state court's order is unaccompanied by an opinion explaining the reasons relief has been denied." As recently explained by the Supreme Court, "it may be presumed that the state court adjudicated the claim on the merits in the absence of any indication or state-law procedural principles to the contrary." Harrington v. Richter, 562 U.S. 86, 98-100 (2011).

Finally, a federal court must presume that the state court's determinations of factual issues are correct. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1); see also Appel, 250 F.3d at 210. This presumption of correctness applies to both explicit and implicit findings of fact, and is only rebutted by clear and convincing evidence to the contrary. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1); see also Campbell v. Vaughn, 209 F.3d 280, 286 (3d Cir. 2000); Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 341 (2003) (stating that the clear and convincing standard in § 2254(e)(1) applies to factual issues, whereas the unreasonable application standard of § 2254(d)(2) applies to factual decisions).

IV. DISCUSSION

A. Claim One: Unreasonable Application of Brady v. United States.

In Claim One, Petitioner contends that the Delaware Supreme Court did not comply with Brady v. United States' requirement that "all of the relevant circumstances surrounding" the plea must be considered when assessing if his plea was voluntary. (D.I. 15 at 21) He asserts that the Delaware Supreme Court erred by focusing on his admission of guilt during the plea colloquy, contending that a "defendant's recitals on the record at the time he entered his guilty plea do not foreclose proof at a later time that those themselves were involuntary," and "the assessment of such proof does not involve any question of guilt or innocence." (D.I. 15 at 20) Specifically, he alleges that,

(D.I. 15 at 29-30)

Citing to the First Circuit's decision in Ferrara v. United States, 456 F.3d 278 (1st Cir. 2006), Petitioner asserts that the OCME misconduct rendered his guilty plea involuntary because it was egregious, antedated Petitioner's plea, is imputed to the State, and was material to Petitioner's choice to plead guilty.6 (D.I. 15 at 27-30) In Ferrara, the First Circuit held that a defendant may "collaterally attack his sentence on the ground that his guilty plea was not knowing or voluntary if his claim is based on evidence not available to him at the time of the plea," without distinguishing between evidence that is newly discovered and evidence that was withheld as a result of a Brady v. Maryland violation. Ferrara, 456 F.3d at 289. The Ferrara Court established a two-pronged test for determining if a defendant has a right to rescind his guilty plea because of newly discovered government misconduct: (1) egregious impermissible government misconduct antedated the entry of the plea; and (2) the misconduct influenced the defendant's decision to plead guilty or, in in other words, the misconduct was material to that choice. See Ferrara, 456 F.3d at 290.

Petitioner presented essentially the same argument to the Delaware Supreme Court on post-conviction appeal, which denied the argument as meritless. Since the Delaware Supreme Court in Petitioner's case relied on Aricidiacono when it denied instant argument, the Court will also reference Aricidiacono when analyzing the Delaware Supreme Court's decision under § 2254(d)(1).

In Aricidiacono, the Delaware Supreme Court rejected the defendants' due process argument that their pleas were involuntary under Brady v. United States, explaining:

Aricidiacono, 125 A.3d at 679. The Aricidiacono Court also rejected the argument — which was premised on the First Circuit's decision in Ferrara — that the defendants' pleas were rendered involuntary due to the "egregious" OCME misconduct that antedated their pleas, because none of the defendants asserted that they "were not in fact telling the truth when they freely admitted their factual guilt." Aricidiacono, 125 A.3d at 680. Describing Ferrara's "egregious misconduct" rationale as a "gloss on Brady v. United States," the Delaware Supreme Court refused to "embrace" the defendants' "egregious misconduct" argument. Nevertheless, the Delaware Supreme Court noted that "even if there was conduct at the OCME that could be said to be egregious, we have determined, in accordance with our prior reasoning in Ira Brown v. State and Anzara Brown v. State, that this conduct did not materially affect any of the pleas." Aricidiacono, 125 A.3d at 680 n. 24. The Delaware Supreme Court opined:

Aricidiacono, 125 A.3d at 681.

With respect to the Court's § 2254(d)(1) inquiry in this case, both Parties acknowledge that the clearly established federal law governing the voluntariness of guilty plea claims is the standard articulated in Brady v. United States. Petitioner, however, argues that the Court should incorporate Ferrara's approach and consider undisclosed "egregious government misconduct" preceding the entry of a guilty plea as a relevant circumstance under Brady v. United States, namely, a misrepresentation that induced Petitioner to enter a guilty plea. The Court is not persuaded. First, Ferrara does not constitute "clearly established federal law" because it is not a decision issued by the United States Supreme Court. Second, the Court has not uncovered any Supreme Court precedent adopting Ferrara's rationale equating "egregious undisclosed government misconduct" with a misrepresentation capable of rendering a guilty plea involuntary.7 And finally, the Court has not found any Third Circuit case law mirroring Ferrara's holding or explicitly adopting its reasoning. Indeed, at least one federal district court has criticized Ferrara as an overly "expansive interpretation of the relevant language from Brady v. United State."8 Hasbajrami v. United States, 2014 WL 4954596, at *3 (E.D.N.Y. Oct. 2, 2014). To the extent Petitioner asserts that the Delaware Supreme Court unreasonably applied clearly established federal law by failing to apply Ferrara, it is unavailing for the reasons just stated.

Even if Petitioner's argument is not considered to be premised specifically on Ferrara, but rather, on general due process principles established in Brady v. United States, he is not entitled to habeas relief. In Brady v. United States, the Supreme Court determined that a guilty plea is not rendered invalid merely because it is entered to avoid a harsher sentence, explaining:

Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. at 755; see also Tollett v. Henderson, 411 U.S. 258, 267 (1973) (explaining a defendant may challenge a conviction based on a guilty plea on the ground that the plea was not "voluntary and intelligent."); Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 56 (1985) (noting that the "longstanding test for determining the validity of a guilty plea is whether the plea represents a voluntary and intelligent choice among the alternative choices of action open to the defendant."). The Supreme Court has noted that a plea is involuntary if it is induced by "actual or threatened physical harm or by mental coercion overbearing the will of the defendant," or if the defendant is so "gripped" by fear or hope of leniency that he cannot "rationally weigh the advantages of going to trial against the advantages of pleading guilty." Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. at 750 However, a plea is not involuntary "whenever motivated by the defendant's desire to accept the certainty or probability of a lesser penalty rather than face a wider range of possibilities extending from acquittal to conviction and a higher penalty authorized by law for the crime charged." Id. at 751.

Significantly, "the voluntariness of [a defendant's] plea can be determined only by considering all of the relevant circumstances surrounding it." Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. at 749. While the Supreme Court has not articulated a list of the "relevant circumstances" to be considered when assessing the voluntariness of a plea, the Supreme Court has noted that a plea is not unintelligent just because later events prove that going to trial may have been a wiser choice:

Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. at 756-57. The Supreme Court has reaffirmed this principle while underscoring the inherent risk of entering a guilty plea, stating:

McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 769-70 (1970). 756. The Supreme Court has also advised that:

Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. at 757. In other words, "the Constitution, in respect to a defendant's awareness of relevant circumstances, does not require complete knowledge of the relevant circumstances, but permits a court to accept a guilty plea ... despite various forms of misapprehension under which a defendant might labor." United States v. Ruiz, 536 U.S. 622, 630 (2002) (emphasis added).

Finally, it is well-settled that a petitioner challenging the voluntary nature of his plea on habeas review faces a heavy burden. See Zilich v. Reid, 36 F.3d 317, 320 (3d Cir. 1994). The "representations of the defendant, his lawyer, and the prosecutor at [a plea] hearing, as well as any findings made by the judge accepting the plea, constitute a formidable barrier in any subsequent collateral proceedings. Solemn declarations in open court carry a strong presumption of verity." Blackledge v. Allison, 431 U.S. 63, 73-74 (1977). Significantly, there is

Brady v. United States, 397 U.S. at 757.

After reviewing the Delaware Supreme Court's decision within the aforementioned legal framework, the Court concludes that the Delaware Supreme Court did not unreasonably apply Brady v. United States and its progeny by holding that Petitioner's lack of knowledge about the OCME misconduct did not render his guilty plea involuntary.9 Instead, the Delaware Supreme Court considered the "relevant circumstances" required by Brady v. United States when assessing the voluntariness of Petitioner's plea. For instance, the Delaware Supreme Court considered the substantial benefit Petitioner derived from pleading guilty, as demonstrated by its statement that, "[a]s to [the other] defendants, the State notes the substantial benefits the defendants obtained by the plea process, with most defendants obtaining a plea to a greatly reduced set of charges and to sentences far below that which they could have received had they gone to trial." Aricidiacono, 125 A.3d at 680. In this case, Petitioner was charged with aggravated possession of cocaine, aggravated possession of alprazolam, aggravated possession of oxycodone, and possession of drug paraphernalia. (D.I. 18 at 1) He entered a guilty plea to aggravated possession of cocaine and alprazolam, in exchange for which the State agreed to dismiss the remaining two charges. (D.I. 18 at 1) In addition, the State agreed that it would not seek to declare Petitioner a habitual offender "for purposes of this plea offer only." (D.I. 22-4 at 124)

Additionally, the Delaware Supreme Court stated it was "adher[ing]" to its prior decision in Brewer v. State in rejecting Petitioner's argument10 and, in Brewer, the Delaware Supreme Court opined:

Brewer v. State, 119 A.3d 42 (Table), 2015 WL 4606541, at *2-*3 (Del. July 30, 2015).

The Brewer excerpt demonstrates that, as clearly mandated by Brady v. United States, the Delaware Supreme Court considered if Petitioner entered the plea upon the advice of competent counsel. The excerpt also demonstrates that the Delaware Supreme Court considered, but concluded, that the unrelated general OCME misconduct did not amount to improper coercion, nor did it affect Petitioner's awareness of the direct consequences of pleading guilty. The Delaware Supreme Court explained that "the defendants here submitted no evidence to suggest a natural inference that any misconduct at the OCME (or lack of knowledge of that conduct) coerced or otherwise induced the defendants to falsely plead guilty." Aricidiacono, 125 A.3d at 679. As the Court explains in its discussion regarding Claim Two, the Delaware Supreme Court reasonably determined the facts by concluding that Petitioner failed to demonstrate that his case was tainted by the OCME misconduct. Consequently, the Delaware Supreme Court's refusal to issue a per se determination that the general existence of OCME misconduct was sufficient to render Petitioner's guilty plea involuntary, without proof that there was any actual OCME misconduct with respect to the evidence in Petitioner's case, did not violate Brady v. United States.

Similarly, the Delaware Supreme Court did not violate Brady v. United States by placing great significance on Petitioner's admission of guilt during the plea colloquy, because it considered this fact in conjunction with Petitioner's failure to assert his factual innocence during or after the plea. An admission of guilt "is entitled to significant (albeit not dispositive) weight when, as now, [a defendant] seeks to vacate that plea through a collateral attack." Wilkins, 754 F.3d at 30. "Such an admission is especially compelling because [he] neither attempts to explain it away nor makes any assertion of factual innocence." Id.

Given Petitioner's failure to demonstrate a link between the misconduct and his case, Petitioner's unawareness of the unrelated general OCME misconduct only amounted to one of the "various forms of misapprehension under which a defendant might labor."11 See Ruiz, 536 U.S. at 630. As Petitioner concedes, and the body of Delaware caselaw concerning the OCME misconduct demonstrates, the OCME investigation constitutes impeachment evidence that would only be useful if Petitioner had decided to go to trial. See Ira Brown, 108 A.3d at 1206-07. In Ruiz, the United States Supreme Court specifically held that the Government is not constitutionally required to disclose material impeachment evidence prior to entering a plea agreement with a criminal defendant. See Ruiz, 536 U.S. at 633. The Ruiz Court explained:

Ruiz, 536 U.S. at 629. The Supreme Court also recently reaffirmed that "a guilty plea makes [case-related constitutional defects that occurred prior to the entry of the guilty plea] irrelevant to the constitutional validity of the conviction," "[b]ecause the defendant has admitted the charges against him." Class v. United States, 138 S.Ct. 798, 805-06 (2018).

As suggested by the aforementioned jurisprudence, if unknown non-exculpatory conduct at the OCME was not material to a defendant's decision to plead guilty, that same non-exculpatory misconduct cannot provide a basis for rendering a defendant's counseled decision to enter a guilty plea involuntary, especially when that defendant participated in a plea colloquy in open court, freely acknowledged his guilt, and has not asserted his factual innocence. Although knowledge of the OCME misconduct would have provided Petitioner with "more bargaining leverage," it cannot be said that the lack of that knowledge rendered his guilty plea involuntary. Rather, Petitioner's argument amounts only to a miscalculation of the strength of the State's case.

In sum, the Court concludes that the Delaware Supreme Court did not unreasonably apply Brady v. United States in holding that Petitioner's guilty plea was not rendered involuntary due to his lack of knowledge about the OCME misconduct Accordingly, the Court will deny Claim One for failing to satisfy § 2254(d)(1).12

B. Claim Two: Unreasonable Finding of Fact

In affirming the Superior Court's denial of Petitioner's Rule 61 motion, the Delaware Supreme Court made the following observations about the misconduct at the OCME:

Aricidiacono, 125 A.3d at 677-78. The Delaware Supreme Court held that "the poor evidence-handling practices at the OCME, however regrettable," did not entitle defendants who had freely admitted their guilt when pleading guilty to relief. Id. at 678-79. The Delaware Supreme Court then stated, even if it assumed that the conduct at the OCME amounted to egregious government misconduct, "this conduct did not materially affect any of the pleas." Id. at 680 n.24

In Claim Two, Petitioner contends that the Delaware Supreme Court "incorporated unreasonable [factual] findings" from Aricidiacono that "minimized the OCME misconduct and belittled the unrealistic burden of proof it placed on the petitioners." (D.I. 15 at 24) Petitioner's true complaint appears to be what he terms "the state court's misguided fixation on [Petitioner's] admission of guilt rather than on the voluntariness of that admission." (D.I. 15 at 21) Petitioner's statement that "[i]t defies logic to require [him] to provide a link between OCME misconduct and his case" (D.I. 15 at 22) also appears to challenge the Delaware Supreme Court's refusal to characterize the OCME misconduct as "egregious undisclosed government misconduct" in its Brady v. United States analysis. To the extent this portrayal is an accurate summary of Petitioner's argument in Claim Two, the Court has already rejected the instant argument in its discussion of Claim One. Moreover, as the State aptly asserts, this "claim fails for the simple reason that the Delaware court's reasonable application of federal law rendered unnecessary any need to delve further into OCME employee misconduct or the integrity of the drug evidence in [Petitioner's] case." (D.I. 18 at 18-19)

Even if Petitioner's factual challenge is more than a rehashing of Claim One, it is unavailing. Petitioner appears to be dissatisfied with the state courts' description of the specific instances of OCME misconduct, as indicated in his chart depicting "State Court's Unreasonable Findings" versus "Actual Facts." (D.I. 15 at 24-27) He asserts that the state courts' findings "either contradicted or understated significant facts in the record." (D.I. 15 at 24) In short, he appears to contend that the Delaware Supreme Court unreasonably determined there was an insufficient link between the OCME misconduct and his case. (D.I. 15 at 23)

Since Claim Two challenges the factual basis of the Delaware Supreme Court's decision, the relevant inquiry is whether that decision was "based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2). In making this determination, the Court must presume that the Delaware Supreme Court's factual findings are correct unless rebutted by clear and convincing evidence. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1).

After reviewing Petitioner's argument in context with the record, the Court concludes that Petitioner has failed to provide clear and convincing evidence rebutting the Delaware Supreme Court's factual determination that Petitioner failed to demonstrate a sufficient link between the general OCME misconduct and his case. Petitioner was provided with the OCME lab report before he pled guilty, and Bipin Mody was the chemist who tested the drugs. Petitioner asserts Mody's credibility was "seriously compromised" and that his employment was terminated at some point after Petitioner's case "due to failing to properly complete reports and improper handling of evidence." (D.I. 15 at 16, 33) These assertions, however, fall far short of establishing a nexus between any misconduct and the evidence in his case. Considering all of these circumstances together with Petitioner's failure to assert his factual innocence, the Court cannot conclude that the Delaware Supreme Court unreasonably determined the facts by holding that the existence of overall misconduct at the OCME was insufficient to establish that Petitioner's case was tainted by the same misconduct.

As explained by the Superior Court in State v. Irwin, just one of the over 700 Delaware post-conviction cases involving the OCME misconduct, and relied on by the Aricidiacono Court:13

State v. Irwin, 2014 WL 6734821, at *7, *9 (Del. Super. Ct. Nov. 17, 2014). Accordingly, the Court will deny Claim Two.

C. Request for Evidentiary Hearing

Petitioner "requests that this Court conduct an evidentiary hearing and allow full briefing on his claim." (D.I. 2 at 17; D.I. 7 at 34) Additionally, if the Court fails to grant him habeas relief, Petitioner asks the Court to "order the State to retest evidence; order the State to produce evidence envelopes, all chain of custody records and any other discovery related to the evidence and its handling." (D.I. 15 at 35) Having determined that the instant Petition does not warrant relief under § 2254(d)(1) and (2), the Court will deny Petitioner's request for an evidentiary hearing and additional discovery. See Schriro v. Landrigan, 550 U.S. 465, 474 (2007) ("Because the deferential standards prescribed by § 2254 control whether to grant habeas relief, a federal court must take into those standards in deciding whether an evidentiary hearing is appropriate.").

V. CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY

A district court issuing a final order denying a § 2254 petition must also decide whether to issue a certificate of appealability. See 3d Cir. L.A.R. 22.2 (2011). A certificate of appealability is appropriate when a petitioner makes a "substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right" by demonstrating "that reasonable jurists would find the district court's assessment of the constitutional claims debatable or wrong." 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2); Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484 (2000).

The Court has concluded that Petitioner's habeas claims do not warrant relief. In the Court's view, reasonable jurists would not find this conclusion to be debatable. Accordingly, the Court declines to issue a certificate of appealability.

VI. CONCLUSION

For the reasons discussed, Petitioner's Application For A Writ Of Habeas Corpus Pursuant To 28 U.S.C. § 2254 is DENIED without an evidentiary hearing. An appropriate Order will be entered.