Case v. Hatch

TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judge.

In this appeal we consider our gate-keeping role for second or successive habe-as petitions under 28 U.S.C. § 2244. We conclude that petitioner Carl Case has not met the legal requirements for challenging his conviction, and therefore reverse the district court’s conditional grant of habeas relief.

This appeal arises from a crime committed over thirty years ago — the rape and murder of a teenager near an isolated dam outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Several young men were convicted of the crime, including Case. Those convictions were upheld by the state courts in New…