Kenneth Moore v. Jeffery McComber, et al.

Summary

The United States District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed Kenneth Moore’s 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition without prejudice for failure to exhaust state judicial remedies. The court rejected Moore’s assertion that exhaustion was futile and held that he had not presented his claims to the California Supreme Court before filing the federal action.

Holdings

1. A state prisoner must exhaust available state judicial remedies by fairly presenting each federal habeas claim to the highest available state court before seeking federal habeas relief. Because petitioner admitted that he had not presented his claims to the California Supreme Court, the petition was not ripe for federal review and had to be dismissed without prejudice.
2. Petitioner's belief that state judges and prosecutors would be biased or that he would not receive a favorable result did not establish futility and did not excuse exhaustion.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the federal habeas petition had to be dismissed because petitioner had not exhausted his state judicial remedies.
2. Whether petitioner's asserted belief that he could not receive a fair and impartial state-court hearing established that exhaustion was futile or otherwise excused.

Disposition

dismissed