Paul Taylor v. Commissioner of Pennsylvania D

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedAugust 13, 2025
Docket14-9005
StatusPublished

This text of Paul Taylor v. Commissioner of Pennsylvania D (Paul Taylor v. Commissioner of Pennsylvania D) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Paul Taylor v. Commissioner of Pennsylvania D, (3d Cir. 2025).

Opinion

PRECEDENTIAL

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ______________

No. 14-9005 ______________

PAUL GAMBOA TAYLOR, Appellant

v.

COMMISSIONER OF PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; SUPERINTENDENT OF SCI PITTSBURGH; SUPERINTENDENT OF SCI ROCKVIEW ______________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania (D.C. No. 4:04-cv-00553) U.S. District Judge: Honorable Matthew W. Brann ______________

Argued June 25, 2025 ______________

Before: SHWARTZ, KRAUSE, and AMBRO, Circuit Judges. (Filed: August 13, 2025) ______________

Samuel R. Welch [ARGUED] Matthew C. Lawry Federal Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania 601 Walnut Street The Curtis Center, Suite 540 West Philadelphia, PA 19106

Counsel for Appellant

William R. Stoycos [ARGUED] Office of Attorney General of Pennsylvania Appeals & Legal Services Strawberry Square, 16th floor Harrisburg, PA 17120

Counsel for Appellees ______________

OPINION ______________

SHWARTZ, Circuit Judge.

Paul Gamboa Taylor, a Pennsylvania prisoner sentenced to death, appeals the District Court’s order denying his Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(6) motion for relief

2 from the order denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Although Rule 60(b) provides an avenue to challenge a district court’s decision not to hold a hearing, and Taylor’s motion was timely, he fails to demonstrate he was entitled to reopen his habeas proceedings to present evidence not in the state court record and thus is not entitled to Rule 60(b) relief.

I

The relevant facts regarding Taylor’s guilty plea, death sentence, and postconviction proceedings are described at length in our opinion affirming the District Court’s order denying him habeas corpus relief. Taylor v. Horn, 504 F.3d 416, 420-25 (3d Cir. 2007).

In Taylor, we considered and rejected Taylor’s due process claims based on his argument that he was incompetent during his guilty plea and sentencing proceedings. Id. at 435- 38. In so doing, we affirmed the District Court’s decision not to consider expert evidence Taylor gathered in 1999 (the “1999 evidence”) 1 to support his assertion that he had not been competent to plead guilty or waive his rights. Id. at 435-37. As we explained, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), specifically 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(2), prevented the District Court from considering the 1999 evidence as it was not part of the state court record.2 Id. at 435-

1 In our prior decision, we referred to the 1999 evidence as “newly-acquired” or “after-acquired evidence” of incompetence. Taylor, 504 F.3d at 425, 430, 439 n.19. 2 Taylor presented the 1999 evidence for the first time as part of his second state postconviction petition, which was dismissed as untimely. Id. at 435.

3 36, 444. We observed that (1) “[t]he only thing that prevented Taylor from presenting [the 1999 evidence] before the first [state postconviction] court was a lack of diligence,” and (2) Taylor’s postconviction counsel’s alleged ineffectiveness for failing to present the 1999 evidence during the first postconviction proceedings was not a ground for creating “an exception to § 2254(e)(2)’s requirements” to admit new evidence in federal court.3 Id. at 437 & n.17.

We similarly declined to consider the 1999 evidence when reviewing (and ultimately rejecting on the merits) Taylor’s claim that his trial counsel was ineffective for “failing to investigate, prepare, and present evidence of Taylor’s incompetence” at the time of his plea and sentencing, id. at 425, 438-39, because Taylor “already had an evidentiary hearing on [that] issue before the first [state postconviction] court, where he failed to produce” the 1999 evidence, id. at 439 n.19.4

3 We did consider the 1999 evidence to determine whether it would potentially advance his claim that his guilty plea and other waivers were not knowing and voluntary. Id. at 444-46. We concluded that the 1999 evidence “shed[] no new light on whether his plea and other waivers were knowing and voluntary,” so the District Court’s denial of an evidentiary hearing on the knowing and voluntary character of Taylor’s plea or waivers was not an abuse of discretion. Id. at 446. 4 At oral argument, Taylor challenged our observation that he “already had an evidentiary hearing” relating to his claim that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate Taylor’s incompetence. Id. at 438-39 & n.19. Assuming that argument was preserved, he may not use Rule 60(b) to challenge our prior holding, because we are not a district court. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) (providing grounds for

4 Several years later, Taylor filed a Rule 60(b)(6) motion in the District Court, asserting that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Martinez v. Ryan, 566 U.S. 1 (2012), provides him a basis to reopen his federal habeas proceedings. He argued that the rationale of Martinez applies to his case. Martinez allows a petitioner in federal court to present a procedurally defaulted trial-counsel-ineffectiveness claim that has some merit upon a showing that postconviction counsel was ineffective for failing to raise such a claim. 566 U.S. at 14. Put simply, Martinez focuses on a postconviction counsel’s failure to raise a claim of trial counsel’s ineffectiveness as a basis to excuse a procedural default. Taylor seeks to extend Martinez to allow him to argue that postconviction counsel’s failure to introduce certain evidence excuses him from satisfying the § 2254(e)(2) requirements for presenting the 1999 evidence in support of his trial counsel’s ineffectiveness claim because the failure to present that evidence at the first state postconviction proceedings was due to his postconviction counsel’s ineffectiveness.

The District Court denied Taylor’s motion. It assumed his argument could be pursued under Rule 60(b) but held that: (1) his Rule 60(b) motion was untimely because it was filed one year and one day after Martinez was issued; (2) no extraordinary circumstances, including Martinez, justified reopening the original habeas judgment to conduct a hearing on the 1999 evidence; and (3) Martinez did not provide a basis

relief from a district court’s final judgment, order, or proceeding); see also Seese v. Volkswagenwerk, A.G., 679 F.2d 336, 337 (3d Cir. 1982) (“[A] district court is without jurisdiction to alter the mandate of this court on the basis of matters included or includable in [a] prior appeal.”).

5 for relief because Taylor’s claim of trial counsel ineffectiveness was decided on the merits in earlier proceedings and thus was not procedurally defaulted. Taylor v. Wetzel, No. 4:04-cv-00553, 2014 WL 5242076, *6-15 (M.D. Pa. Oct. 15, 2014). The District Court declined to issue a certificate of appealability (“COA”). Id. at *15.

Taylor appealed, and we granted a COA.5 The appeal was stayed to allow Taylor to present arguments based on new

5 We granted a COA on the following issues:

(1) whether a Rule 60 motion is the proper way to challenge this Court’s “failure to develop” basis for affirming the District Court’s discretionary decision not to hold an evidentiary hearing on the competency-related claims; (2) whether [Taylor] brought his Rule 60 motion within a “reasonable time”; (3) whether Martinez . . .

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Williams v. Taylor
529 U.S. 420 (Supreme Court, 2000)
Holland v. Jackson
542 U.S. 649 (Supreme Court, 2004)
Marvin Kagan v. Caterpillar Tractor Co.
795 F.2d 601 (Seventh Circuit, 1986)
Maples v. Thomas
132 S. Ct. 912 (Supreme Court, 2012)
Martinez v. Ryan
132 S. Ct. 1309 (Supreme Court, 2012)
Gonzalez v. Crosby
545 U.S. 524 (Supreme Court, 2005)
Robert Shuler v. H. Edward Garrett, Jr.
715 F.3d 185 (Sixth Circuit, 2013)
Taylor v. Horn
504 F.3d 416 (Third Circuit, 2007)
Jermont Cox v. Martin Horn
757 F.3d 113 (Third Circuit, 2014)
Eric Norris v. Marilyn Brooks
794 F.3d 401 (Third Circuit, 2015)
Davila v. Davis
582 U.S. 521 (Supreme Court, 2017)
William Bracey v. Superintendent Rockview SCI
986 F.3d 274 (Third Circuit, 2021)
Michael Simko v. United States Steel Corp
992 F.3d 198 (Third Circuit, 2021)
Shinn v. Martinez Ramirez
596 U.S. 366 (Supreme Court, 2022)
Shoop v. Twyford
596 U.S. 811 (Supreme Court, 2022)
Holland v. Florida
177 L. Ed. 2d 130 (Supreme Court, 2010)
Delzona Corp. v. Sacks
265 F.2d 157 (Third Circuit, 1959)
Tyrone Williams v. Superintendent Mahanoy SCI
45 F.4th 713 (Third Circuit, 2022)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Paul Taylor v. Commissioner of Pennsylvania D, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paul-taylor-v-commissioner-of-pennsylvania-d-ca3-2025.