Jennifer Henderson v. Deborah K. Johnson, Warden ( 2013 )


Menu:
  •                      FOR PUBLICATION
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
    FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
    JENNIFER LYNN HENDERSON ,                         No. 11-55249
    Petitioner-Appellant,
    D.C. No.
    v.                           8:11-cv-00128-
    PSG-RZ
    DEBORAH K. JOHNSON , Warden,
    Respondent-Appellee.
    ORDER AND
    OPINION
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the Central District of California
    Philip S. Gutierrez, District Judge, Presiding
    Argued and Submitted
    November 8, 2012—Pasadena, California
    Filed January 3, 2013
    Before: Myron H. Bright,* Susan P. Graber,
    and Sandra S. Ikuta, Circuit Judges.
    Order;
    Per Curiam Opinion
    *
    The Honorable Myron H. Bright, Senior Circuit Judge for the United
    States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, sitting by designation.
    2                    HENDERSON V . JOHNSON
    SUMMARY**
    Habeas Corpus
    The panel reversed the district court’s summary dismissal,
    without leave to amend, of a mixed 
    28 U.S.C. § 2254
     habeas
    corpus petition for failure to exhaust state remedies, and
    remanded for consideration of all exhausted claims.
    The panel held that the district court erred as a matter of
    law by dismissing the petition pursuant to Sherwood v.
    Tomkins, 
    716 F.2d 632
     (9th Cir. 1983) (holding that district
    court may not adjudicate federal habeas petition while
    petitioner’s direct state appeal is pending). The panel
    explained that Sherwood does not undermine precedent
    requiring district courts to first grant leave to amend and, if
    requested, to consider a petitioner’s eligibility for a stay
    under either Rhines v. Weber, 
    544 U.S. 269
     (2005) (stay of
    entire petition), or Kelly v. Small, 
    315 F.3d 1063
     (9th Cir.
    2003) (stay of exhausted claims only). Moreover, given the
    parties’ agreement that the state courts have now considered
    and rejected all of Henderson’s claims, the panel held that all
    claims in the federal petition should be allowed to proceed.
    COUNSEL
    Fay Arfa, Fay Arfa, a Law Corporation, Los Angeles,
    California, for Petitioner-Appellant.
    **
    This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has
    been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader.
    HENDERSON V . JOHNSON                     3
    William M. Wood, Supervising Deputy Attorney General,
    San Diego, California, for Respondent-Appellee.
    ORDER
    The request to publish the unpublished memorandum
    disposition is GRANTED. The memorandum disposition
    filed December 13, 2012, is redesignated as a per curiam
    opinion with modifications.
    OPINION
    PER CURIAM:
    Jennifer Lynn Henderson, who is currently serving two
    consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole,
    appeals from the district court’s summary dismissal of her
    habeas petition for failure to exhaust state remedies. We
    conclude that the district court erred in dismissing
    Henderson’s petition without offering her leave to amend.
    We reverse and remand for the consideration of all exhausted
    claims.
    Henderson was convicted of two counts of murder in
    April 2007. The convictions became final in 2009 after a
    California Court of Appeal affirmed the convictions and
    denied a petition for rehearing, and the California Supreme
    Court denied review. Henderson filed a habeas petition in
    state court in January 2011, which was later dismissed as
    untimely. Henderson also filed a timely federal habeas
    petition in January 2011, several days after her state habeas
    filing. Henderson’s federal petition was “mixed,” that is, it
    4                  HENDERSON V . JOHNSON
    contained then-unexhausted claims raised in Henderson’s
    concurrent state petition, as well as several claims that
    Henderson had previously exhausted.
    The district court summarily dismissed Henderson’s
    federal habeas petition. Citing Sherwood v. Tomkins,
    
    716 F.2d 632
     (9th Cir. 1983), the district court determined
    that “[t]he Sherwood doctrine requires the petition’s
    dismissal” and that “[a] would-be federal habeas petitioner
    generally must await the outcome of any pending state-court
    challenges to his conviction before proceeding in federal
    court.” Henderson filed a motion to reconsider, arguing that
    Sherwood was outdated and inapplicable, and that she was
    entitled to a stay while exhausting her claims in state court or,
    at a minimum, to amend her petition to delete the
    unexhausted claims and proceed.
    The district court reconsidered but again dismissed
    Henderson’s petition, concluding that Sherwood was still
    good law and that “[t]here is no valid reason for this case to
    proceed at the same time as the prior-filed state habeas
    action.” The district court determined that cases regarding
    stay and abeyance of mixed petitions were distinguishable
    and failed to address Henderson’s request for leave to amend.
    Federal courts may not adjudicate mixed habeas petitions,
    that is, those containing both exhausted and unexhausted
    claims. Rose v. Lundy, 
    455 U.S. 509
    , 518–19 (1982).
    However, we have explained that a petitioner who files a
    mixed petition must, at a minimum, be offered leave to
    amend the petition to delete any unexhausted claims and to
    proceed on the exhausted claims. See, e.g., Jefferson v.
    Budge, 
    419 F.3d 1013
    , 1016–17 (9th Cir. 2005) (reversing
    and remanding the dismissal of a mixed habeas petition
    HENDERSON V . JOHNSON                      5
    because the district court failed to offer the petitioner the
    opportunity to amend his petition to abandon the unexhausted
    claims); Kelly v. Small, 
    315 F.3d 1063
    , 1069–70 (9th Cir.
    2003) (reversing the dismissal of a mixed petition and
    remanding “so that the district court can offer Petitioner the
    opportunity to dismiss [the unexhausted] claims and proceed
    to the merits of the others”), overruled in part on other
    grounds by Robbins v. Carey, 
    481 F.3d 1143
     (9th Cir. 2007);
    Anthony v. Cambra, 
    236 F.3d 568
    , 574 (9th Cir. 2000)
    (“[D]istrict courts must provide habeas litigants with the
    opportunity to amend their mixed petitions by striking
    unexhausted claims.”); Jarvis v. Nelson, 
    440 F.2d 13
    , 14 (9th
    Cir. 1971) (per curiam) (“[A] petition for habeas corpus
    should not be dismissed without leave to amend unless it
    appears that no tenable claim for relief can be pleaded were
    such leave granted.”); see also Rhines v. Weber, 
    544 U.S. 269
    , 278 (2005) (concluding that even where a stay was
    inappropriate, at a minimum the district court should allow a
    petitioner to delete the unexhausted claims and proceed with
    the exhausted claims only).
    Sherwood is distinguishable, and the district court erred
    as a matter of law by dismissing Henderson’s petition.
    Sherwood stands for the proposition that a district court may
    not adjudicate a federal habeas petition while a petitioner’s
    direct state appeal is pending. 
    716 F.2d at 634
     (“When, as in
    the present case, an appeal of a state criminal conviction is
    pending, a would-be habeas corpus petitioner must await the
    outcome of his appeal before his state remedies are exhausted
    . . . .”). Although district courts cannot adjudicate mixed
    petitions, Sherwood does not undermine the important
    precedent requiring district courts first to grant leave to
    amend and, if requested, to consider a petitioner’s eligibility
    for a stay under Rhines, 
    544 U.S. at
    275–77 (stay of entire
    6                 HENDERSON V . JOHNSON
    petition), or under Kelly, 
    315 F.3d at
    1070–71 (stay of
    exhausted claims only). The district court erred by failing to
    allow Henderson leave to amend her petition before
    dismissal, and by refusing to address Henderson’s request for
    relief under Rhines or Kelly.
    Moreover, the parties agree that the California courts have
    now considered and rejected all of Henderson’s habeas
    claims. Therefore, her federal habeas petition contains only
    exhausted claims and should be allowed to proceed.
    REVERSED AND REMANDED.