Funes v. Cain ( 2023 )

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA RIGOBERTO FUNES CIVIL ACTION VERSUS NO. 14-1342 c/w 19-9795 BURL CAIN, WARDEN SECTION “A” O R D E R On May 8, 2020, this Court stayed the petitioner’s consolidated petitions for relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 pending the Supreme Court’s decision in Edwards v. Vannoy, 141 S. Ct. 1547 (2021). The question to be addressed in Edwards was whether the jury- unanimity rule announced in Ramos v. Louisiana, 140 S. Ct. 1390 (2020), applied retroactively on federal collateral review. Ramos had not been decided when Magistrate Judge Wilkinson issued his Report and Recommendation, and relying on then-controlling federal law, he denied relief on the non-unanimous jury issue. In Edwards the Supreme Court held that Ramos does not apply retroactively on federal collateral review. 141 S. Ct. at 1562. Nonetheless, on May 30, 2023, the Court issued an Order allowing the petitioner to supplement his prior objection to the Report and Recommendation in light of the Edwards decision, which again does not apply Ramos retroactively on federal collateral review. The petitioner has not supplemented the earlier-filed objection. Accordingly, the Court, having considered the consolidated petitions, the record, the applicable law, the Report and Recommendation of the United States Magistrate Judge, and the objection to the Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation, hereby approves the Report and Recommendation of the United States Magistrate Judge and adopts it as its opinion in this matter. Therefore, IT IS ORDERED that the consolidated petitions of Rigoberto Funes for issuance of a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 are DENIED and DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE. July 11, 2023 C UN ED $1 AMES ISISTRIGT JUDGE