Milton Ventura v. Hoyt C. Cupp, Superintendent, Oregon State Penitentiary

This is an appeal from the denial of a petition for habeas corpus. It nicely illustrates certain difficulties with the exhaustion of state remedies requirement.

Federal law requires exhaustion of all state remedies. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)-(c) (1976); Rose v. Lundy, 455 U.S. 509, 102 S.Ct. 1198, 1201-02, 71 L.Ed.2d 379 (1982). Remedies that appear not to have been exhausted, such as the appeal of a conviction to the state’s highest court, see Cartwright v. Cupp, 650 F.2d 1103, 1104 (9th Cir. 1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 1023, 102 S.Ct. 1722, 72 L.Ed.2d 142 (1982), may in fact not have been…