United States Eighth Circuit

In a habeas appeal, the certificate of appealability is vacated and the appeal is dismissed where the issue of whether the trial court should have conducted a competency hearing sua sponte -- on which the district court granted a certificate of appealability -- had never been raised in state court or in the federal habeas petition, and was procedurally defaulted.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/19/2006
• Published 10/19/2006

Judges

• HANSEN, Circuit Judge., Before MURPHY, HANSEN and RILEY, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• William Eugene Langley, Pine Bluff, AR, pro se., John Wesley Hall, Jr. (Court Appointed), John Wesley Hall, Jr., P.C., Little Rock, AR, for Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Joseph Vincent Svoboda, Attorney General's Office, Little Rock, AR, for Appellee.