United States Eighth Circuit

District court's grant of plaintiff's petition for habeas relief is reversed where: 1) the district court erred in its treatment of plaintiff's prosecutorial misconduct claim as a matter of exhaustion, as the Nebraska Supreme Court specifically addressed the claim and determined it was defaulted because it had not been raised in plaintiff's first habeas; 2) plaintiff did not overcome the state procedural default finding as he did not establish the ruling resulted from an exorbitant application of an otherwise sound rule, or establish cause or prejudice; 3) court properly denied plaintiff's Sixth Amendment claim that his trial counsel's closing arguments amounted to a denial of his right to counsel; and 4) court properly rejected plaintiff's claim that the state court improperly admitted evidence.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/23/2009
• Published 04/23/2009

Judges

• WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge., Before WOLLMAN, BYE, and RILEY, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• James Kirk Brown, AAG, argued, Lincoln, NE, for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Jennifer L. Gilg, AFPD, argued, Karen Marie Shanahan, AFPD, on the brief, Omaha, NE, for appellee.