Supreme Court Decision Syllabus (scotus)

Send us a textRivers v. GuerreroPetitioner Danny Rivers was convicted in Texas state court of continuous sexual abuse of a child and related charges. After unsuccessfully seeking direct appeal and state habeas relief, Rivers filed his first federal habeas petition under 28 U. S. C. §2254 in August 2017, asserting claims of prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, and other constitutional violations. The District Court denied the petition in September 2018, and Rivers appealed to the Fifth Circuit, which granted a certificate of appealability on his ineffective-assistance claim in July 2020. While his appeal was pending, Rivers obtained his trial counsel’s client file, which contained a state investigator’s report that he believed was exculpatory. After the Fifth Circuit denied his request to supplement the record on appeal, Rivers filed a second §2254 petition in the District Court based on this newly discovered evidence. The District Court classified this second-in-time filing as a “secon