Moore v. Luebbers

• Decision Date: 13 April 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-2725,00-2725
• Citation: 262 F.3d 757
• Parties: (8th Cir. 2001) CHARLES Q. MOORE, APPELLANT, v. AL LUEBBERS, SUPERINTENDENT, APPELLEE. Submitted:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 757

262 F.3d 757 (8th Cir. 2001)

CHARLES Q. MOORE, APPELLANT, v. AL LUEBBERS, SUPERINTENDENT, APPELLEE.

No. 00-2725

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

Submitted: April 13, 2001

Filed: August 20, 2001

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

Before Wollman, Chief Judge, Hansen and Murphy, Circuit Judges.

Hansen, Circuit Judge.

Charles Moore appeals the district court's denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

A Missouri state court jury convicted Moore of two counts of first degree murder and two counts of armed criminal action. The state trial court sentenced Moore to two concurrent life sentences for the murder convictions and two concurrent life sentences for the armed criminal action convictions. Moore appealed to the Missouri Court of Appeals, which affirmed his convictions and sentences. State v. Moore, 949 S.W.2d 629 (Mo. Ct. App. 1997). Moore did not seek to transfer his case for discretionary review by the Supreme Court of Missouri. The state trial court then denied his motion for post-conviction relief, and the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment. Again, Moore did not file a motion to transfer seeking discretionary review by the Supreme Court of Missouri. Instead, he filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court, alleging a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254.

Subsequent to Moore's filing of his federal habeas petition, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the exhaustion doctrine requires a state prisoner to file for any available discretionary review in the state's highest court prior to filing for federal habeas relief. O'Sullivan v. Boerckel, 526 U.S. 838, 847-48 (1999). Relying on O'Sullivan, the district court dismissed Moore's habeas corpus petition with prejudice, concluding that his failure to seek discretionary review by the Supreme Court of Missouri amounted to a procedural default because the time for seeking such review had passed. The district court also concluded that Moore had failed to allege grounds sufficient to constitute cause and prejudice or actual innocence to overcome the default.

The district court granted a certificate of appealability on the question of whether the holding of the Supreme Court's O'Sullivan opinion should apply to bar review of Moore's claim for habeas relief. We have considered Moore's arguments and...