Rutherford: Successive Habeas Claims Fail

In In Re Rutherford, No. 06-10784 (Jan. 30, 2006), the Court denied Rutherford’s Application for Permission to File a Successive Habeas Petition. The Court noted that the claims which could be brought in a successive petition were limited by § 2244(b)(2)(A)-(B) of AEDPA. Here, none of Rutherford’s claims could satisfy this statute’s standard. Some had been previously rejected by the Florida Supreme Court, and Rutherford could not show that the facts underlying his claims were such that "no reasonable factfinder would have found [him] guilty." Others relied on cases which were procedurally barred, and which had not been made retroactively applicable by the Supreme Court.