Larry Howard v. Samuel A. Lewis, Director of Arizona State Prison Robert Corbin, Arizona Attorney General

In this case, we must decide whether the district court properly dismissed appellant Howard’s successive habeas petition on the ground that a prior judgment denying relief on the identical claims was final. Howard argues that the dismissal of his prior habeas petition on the ground of state procedural default was not a determination “on the merits,” and, thus, his present petition should not be barred.

We hold that, in general, a dismissal of a federal habeas petition on the ground of state procedural default is a determination “on the merits” for purposes of the successive petition analysis in Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1 , 83 S.Ct. 1068 , 10 L.Ed.2d 148 (1963). However, for the reasons stated below, we remand this matter to the district court to determine whether the unique circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Howard’s prior petition warrant a finding that the determination of his prior petition was not “on the merits” for purposes of the Sanders analysis.

BACKGROUND

In July 1980, Petitioner-Appellant Larry Howard was tried and convicted in an Arizona state court of five criminal counts: three counts of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer; one count…