Nguyen v. Curry, No. 11-56792 (9th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CasePetitioner appealed the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. 2254. The district court denied two of petitioner's claims as procedurally defaulted. At issue was whether Martinez v. Ryan applied to the failure to raise not only a claim of trial-counsel ineffective assistance of counsel, but also a claim of appellate-counsel ineffective assistance of counsel. Concluding that it did, the court remanded to allow the district court to determine in the first instance whether petitioner's state-court procedural default should be excused under Martinez.
Court Description: Habeas Corpus. The panel reversed the district court’s denial of a 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition and remanded for consideration in light of the Supreme Court’s intervening decision in Martinez v. Ryan, 132 S. Ct. 1309 (2012). After his direct appeal concluded and counsel withdrew from the case, petitioner filed a pro se § 2254 petition that included a procedurally defaulted Double Jeopardy claim. The district court stayed and abeyed proceedings to allow petitioner to exhaust this claim in state court, as well as a claim that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise the Double Jeopardy claim. The state court denied the state habeas petition as untimely, and petitioner filed an amended § 2254 petition raising both procedurally defaulted claims. The panel held that Martinez applies to ineffective assistance of appellate counsel as well as trial counsel. The panel further held that petitioner’s ineffective assistance of appellate counsel claim related back to the original § 2254 petition and was therefore timely. The panel remanded for the district court to consider in the first instance whether the procedural default of either claim may be excused under Martinez.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.