Keith Daniel WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Arthur CALDERON, Warden, San Quentin State Prison, Respondent-Appellee

OVERVIEW

Keith Daniel Williams is a California state prisoner who has been sentenced to death. His execution is scheduled for May 3, .1996, at 12:01 a.m. Williams has filed a second federal habeas petition in the district court. The district court relied upon the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, 142 Cong. Rec. H3305-01 (1996) (to be codified at 28 U.S.C. § 2261 ) (Act), and ruled it lacked jurisdiction to hear the second petition without this court granting an order authorizing the filing of the second petition as required by section 2244(b)(3)(A) of the Act. The district court also concluded the Act required dismissal of Williams’s claims.

Alternatively, the district court ruled that if the Act did not apply retroactively to Williams’s case, Williams failed to show cause and prejudice for bringing his successive and abusive claims, and denied his habeas petition.

We hold that the district court had jurisdiction to entertain Williams’s second petition without first obtaining an authorization order from this court under section 2244(b)(3)(A) of the Act, because we treat the entirety of Williams’s second petition filed in the district court as having been…