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666 F.3d 910

Docket No. 11-30937.

In re Gentras

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided Jan. 4, 2012.

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 2012-01-04

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently January 2023

1 federal appellate ·

1 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“Infirmities in state postconviction proceedings are not grounds for relief under § 2254.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Gilkers v. Vannoy

Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)

Relies on Moore v. Dretke

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 2012-01-04

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Aaron Gentras, Angie, LA, pro se.

¶2Before JONES, Chief Judge, and HIGGINBOTHAM and SMITH, Circuit Judges.

¶3PER CURIAM:

¶4Aaron Gentras, Louisiana prisoner # 129938, has requested authorization to file a second 28 U.S.C. § 2254 application in federal district court. Gentras was convicted of cocaine possession and was sen*911tenced to 50 years of imprisonment at hard labor without the benefit of probation or suspension of sentence. He seeks to argue that his constitutional rights were violated when the Louisiana Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal used flawed procedures to review his state petitions for postconviction review. He also wishes to challenge the ruling by the Louisiana Supreme Court, made after his first § 2254 application was decided, transferring his case to the state Fifth Circuit for review by a panel of that court. Finally, he suggests that he wants to reurge the claims he raised in his first § 2254 application. He seeks to raise these claims now based on new facts regarding purportedly improper procedures the state Fifth Circuit used to decide pro se postconviction petitions and the remedial procedures the Louisiana Supreme Court adopted in response.

¶5Infirmities in state postconviction proceedings are not grounds for relief under § 2254. See Moore v. Dretke, 369 F.3d 844, 846 (5th Cir.2004). Thus, none of Gentras’s proposed challenges to the Louisiana courts’ procedures for addressing postconviction petitions states a claim that is cognizable on federal habeas review. Additionally, to the extent that Gentras wishes to raise the same claims that he brought in his previous § 2254 application, he may not do so. See § 2244(b)(1).

¶6Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED that Gentras’s motion for authorization to file a successive § 2254 application is DENIED.

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