Percy Hutton v. Charlotte Jenkins

704 F. App'x 584

Opinions

PER CURIAM.

This death-penalty case comes back to our court on remand after the Supreme Court’s decision in Jenkins v. Hutton, — U.S. —, 137 S.Ct. 1769, 198 L.Ed.2d 415 (2017). There the Court reversed this panel’s conditional grant of Hutton’s habeas petition, holding that we improperly applied the fundamental-miscarriage-óf-jus-tice exception to procedural default when we granted relief on Hutton’s jury-instruction claim. See id. at 1771-73. Because that exception does not apply and because, for the reasons given in our previous opinion, Hutton has not otherwise shown a valid basis for excusing the procedural default, Hutton v. Mitchell, 839 F.3d 486, 500-01 (2016), the district court properly denied his jury-instruction claim as procedurally defaulted. With respect to Hutton’s other claims of error, we reject them for the reasons given in our prior opinion. See id. at 500-05. We therefore affirm the judgment of the district court denying Hutton’s petition for habeas corpus.