Thames v. Chapman

FILED
United States Court of Appeals
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit
TENTH CIRCUIT May 2, 2012
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
Clerk of Court
DOUGLAS THAMES, JR.,
Petitioner–Appellant,
v.
No. 11-1533
ARVIL CHAPMAN; JOHN SUTHERS, (D.C. No. 1:11-CV-00436-LTB)
The Attorney General of The State of (D. Colo.)
Colorado,
Respondents–Appellees.
ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY*
Before LUCERO, O’BRIEN, and MATHESON, Circuit Judges.
Douglas Thames requests a certificate of appealability (“COA”) to appeal the
dismissal of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition. We deny a COA and dismiss the
appeal.
*
This order is not binding precedent except under the doctrines of law of the case,
res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value
consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.
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I
Thames was convicted in Colorado state court of first-degree murder. The
Colorado Court of Appeals subsequently affirmed his conviction on direct appeal, and the
Colorado Supreme Court denied certiorari on May 17, 1999. On December 23, 1999,
Thames filed a petition for state post-conviction relief. Following several supplemental
post-conviction motions and the appointment of counsel, the state court denied relief.
That ruling was affirmed on appeal. The Colorado Supreme Court denied certiorari for
the post-conviction petition on January 19, 2010.
On February 22, 2011, Thames filed a motion seeking to extend the deadline for
filing a § 2254 petition. He filed his actual § 2254 petition on March 31, 2011. In a pre-
answer response, respondents Arvil Chapman and John Suthers argued that the petition
was time-barred. Thames countered that his petition should be entitled to equitable
tolling of the limitations period because he is actually innocent. After ordering additional
briefing on the issue of actual innocence, the district court dismissed Thames’ habeas
petition as untimely.
II
Thames may not appeal the district court’s denial of habeas relief under § 2254
without a COA. § 2253(c)(1). We will issue a COA only if Thames can show “that
reasonable jurists could debate whether (or, for that matter, agree that) the petition should
have been resolved in a different manner or that the issues presented were adequate to
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deserve encouragement to proceed further.” Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484
(2000) (quotations omitted).
Section 2254 petitions generally must be filed within one year from the date a
conviction becomes final. See § 2244(d)(1)(A). However, the “time during which a
properly filed application for State post-conviction or other collateral review” does not
count toward the limitations period. § 2244(d)(2). Thames’ conviction became final on
August 16, 1999, when the deadline to file a petition for certiorari to the United States
Supreme Court expired. See Locke v. Saffle, 237 F.3d 1269, 1273 (10th Cir. 2001). The
clock then ran for 129 days before Thames sought state post-conviction relief. Those
post-convictions proceedings tolled the limitations period until January 19, 2010, when
relief was denied. Thames’ limitations period expired 236 days later, on September 13,
2010. His first federal court filing was made on February 22, 2011, several months late.
Thames argues that he is entitled to equitable tolling of the limitations period
because he is actually innocent of his crime of conviction. “[A] sufficiently supported
claim of actual innocence creates an exception to procedural barriers for bringing
constitutional claims, regardless of whether the petitioner demonstrated cause for the
failure to bring these claims forward earlier.” Lopez v. Trani, 628 F.3d 1228, 1230 (10th
Cir. 2010). A petitioner claiming actual innocence must “support his allegations of
constitutional error with new reliable evidence – whether it be exculpatory scientific
evidence, trustworthy eyewitness accounts, or critical physical evidence – that was not
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presented at trial.” Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298, 324 (1995). And in light of this
evidence, the petitioner “must show that it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror
would have found petitioner guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. at 327.
We agree with the district court that Thames has not cleared this high hurdle.
Thames relies primarily on two claims to support his assertion of actual innocence. First,
he argues that his DNA sample was mislabeled and switched with that of another suspect.
He points to a letter sent from the FBI to local investigators in 1990 that excluded seven
potential suspects, listed in the letter as specimens “K1” through “K7.” In 1992, the FBI
sent a supplemental letter ruling out two additional individuals, denominated as “K8” and
“K9.” In 1995, investigators obtained a blood sample from Thames and the FBI
concluded it matched the DNA profile of a sample found at the crime scene. In reporting
this conclusion, the FBI referred to Thames’ sample as “K8” despite its use of that
signifier for a different suspect in the supplemental 1992 letter.
These letters do not show that the FBI switched Thames’ blood sample with that
of another suspect or that Thames is actually innocent. As the district court explained,
Thames’ theory does not withstand scrutiny. The FBI excluded the two individuals
referenced in the 1992 letter. Had Thames’ sample been switched with one of those
individuals when his sample was tested several years later, the test would not have shown
a match. The FBI did not have Thames’ sample when it excluded the two individuals in
1992. Accordingly, it cannot be the case that Thames would have been excluded at that
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time but for a lab error. In any event, the FBI was only one of three laboratories that
independently matched Thames’ DNA profile to evidence found at the scene of the
crime. Thames does not challenge the results of DNA testing conducted by the Colorado
Bureau of Investigation or Cellmark Laboratories, which produced results inconsistent
with his swapped samples theory.
In addition to his claims regarding DNA, Thames argues that investigators
falsified evidence. He points to a search warrant affidavit drafted in 1989 that states
samples gathered from the crime scene indicated the perpetrator had a blood type of O,
non-secretor. A 1995 narrative report also references “no secretor” test results. The
evidence submitted at trial, however, uniformly indicated that these samples were O type,
secretor—consistent with Thames’ blood type. We agree with the district court that these
two scattered references are most likely simple errors. As noted above, substantial DNA
evidence conducted by several different laboratories implicated Thames as the
perpetrator. Thames’ theory that local law enforcement officials conspired with
individuals at three different laboratories to falsify evidence is not compelled by the
evidence he has submitted.
Thames also argues generally that police mishandled evidence, failed to properly
document chain of custody, and committed perjury. However, none of his assertions
satisfy the actual innocence standard. Thames has not produced evidence that would
compel any reasonable jurist to conclude that he is actually innocent. See Schlup, 513
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U.S. at 324. Accordingly, the district court’s dismissal of his habeas petition as time-
barred was proper.
III
For the foregoing reasons, we DENY Thames’ request for a COA and DISMISS
the appeal. We GRANT his motion to proceed in forma pauperis.
Entered for the Court
Carlos F. Lucero
Circuit Judge
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