Glenn Thomas Collins v. Warden Johnny Fitz

Summary

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee dismissed Glenn Thomas Collins’s 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition challenging his 1994 felony-murder convictions. The court held that the claims were untimely under AEDPA, procedurally defaulted, and not excused by a credible claim of actual innocence or an established Brady violation. The court denied pending motions as moot and declined to issue a certificate of appealability.

Holdings

1. Collins's § 2254 petition was untimely because he filed it nearly twenty-four years after the Tennessee Supreme Court denied review of his state post-conviction appeal and did not establish a later factual-predicate date or entitlement to equitable tolling.
2. Collins procedurally defaulted the claims asserted in his federal petition because he did not present those claims to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals under the same theories.
3. Collins did not establish a Brady violation that could provide cause and prejudice to excuse his procedural default.
4. Collins did not present a credible actual-innocence claim sufficient to overcome the untimeliness or procedural default of his habeas claims.
5. A certificate of appealability will not issue because reasonable jurists would not debate the dismissal of the petition as untimely and procedurally defaulted.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Collins's § 2254 petition was barred by the one-year statute of limitations in 28 U.S.C. § 2244(d)(1).
2. Whether Collins's claims were procedurally defaulted because he failed to present them to the Tennessee appellate courts under the same theories asserted in federal court.
3. Whether an alleged Brady violation, equitable tolling, or another exception excused the petition's untimeliness or procedural default.
4. Whether Collins presented a credible actual-innocence claim sufficient to permit review of otherwise untimely or procedurally defaulted claims.
5. Whether a certificate of appealability should issue.

Disposition

dismissed