Phillip Lewis Lindquist v. Darrol Gardner, Warden, Idaho State Correctional Institution

On appeal from dismissal of appellant’s petition for writ of habeas corpus, the issue is whether he exhausted his state judicial remedies by presenting his claim to the Idaho Supreme Court in an original habeas proceeding. We conclude that the district court was correct in determining that he failed to exhaust.

FACTS

In 1976, a jury convicted pro se appellant Phillip Lindquist of first degree murder in Idaho state court. The trial court sentenced him to death under Idaho’s mandatory death penalty statute, Idaho Code § 18-4004 . On appeal, the Idaho Supreme Court found section 18-4004 unconstitutional and remanded for resentencing.

The trial court resentenced Lindquist to a 30-year determinate sentence under Idaho Code § 19 -2513A. Following a second appeal, the Idaho Supreme Court again remanded for resentencing on the ground that section 19-2513A was enacted after Lindquist’s 1976 conviction and did not apply retroactively.

In January 1981, the trial court resentenced Lindquist to a term of “not less than ten years, not more than life.” Lindquist did not directly appeal the sentence. Nor did he challenge the sentence under Idaho’s Uniform Post-Conviction Procedure Act, Idaho…