Emanuel M. Sistrunk v. Nicholas Armenakis

This is an appeal from the denial of a petition for writ of habeas corpus .challenging petitioner Emanuel Sistrunk’s state court conviction for rape. We must decide whether Sistrunk has made a sufficient showing of his actual innocence to pass through the Schlup gateway. We conclude that he has not; therefore, we affirm the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

Sistrunk was convicted in Oregon state court in 1986 for the rape of an eleven-year-old girl. The victim testified that she knew Sistrunk, who had assaulted her once before and threatened to kill her family if she told. When she saw him shortly after school got out on the day in question, she tried to run away, but he caught up with her, grabbed her by the arm and took her into a garage, where he laid his coat on a square oil pan on the floor and proceeded to rape her. Sistrunk then slapped the victim on the face with a five-dollar bill, showed her back to school, and warned that he would kill her and her family if she told anyone. The victim bought some flowers for her mother with the five dollars she had been given, took the after-school activity bus home, and eventually told her mother what had happened. Two days…