In Rivers v. U.S., No. 03-11734 (July 14, 2005), the Court (Anderson, Barkett, Wilson), following a remand from the Supreme Court for further consideration of its denial of habeas relief in light of Johnson v. U.S., 125 S.Ct. 1571 (2005), reaffirmed its prior decision.
The Court recognized that Johnson had undermined some of the prior basis for its denial of habeas relief under the AEDPA statute of limitations. The Court noted, however, that Johnson required habeas petitioners who challenged their sentence on the basis of a vacatur of a state conviction had to show "due diligence" in obtaining the vacatur. Here, Rivers did not seek vacatur of his prior state conviction until more than four years after entry of the federal sentence which had been enhanced on the basis of this (now-vacated) prior state conviction. This precluded him from obtaining federal habeas relief.
