Gennero Galtieri v. Louie L. Wainwright, Director, Division of Corrections, John Matera v. Louie L. Wainwright, Director, Division of Corrections

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

The exhaustion of state remedies is a doctrine, grounded on notions of comity, that requires a state prisoner to present his claim of constitutional error to the state court system prior to petitioning for federal habeas corpus relief. The rule in this circuit is that a federal district court generally must dismiss, without prejudice, a state prisoner’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus that contains a mixture of exhausted and unexhausted claims. Strong policy considerations require us to adhere to our rule that petitioners present all their claims to the state court…