This matter involves the consolidation of two appeals. In the first appeal (95-1220), Kenneth G. Charron challenges the district court’s
I.
On January 24, 1986, a jury in the City of St. Louis, Missouri, found Charron guilty of forcible rape, burglary in the first degree, and two counts of robbery in the second degree. On direct appeal to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Charron raised three points: First, the trial court did not have jurisdiction to convict him of forcible rape because the indictment only charged him with non-forcible rape. Second, his sentences of life imprisonment on the two robbery counts were in excess of the statutory limit. Third, the trial court erred by permitting his alleged accomplice to appear in court dressed in prison clothing. State v. Charron,
Charron later filed a motion for postconviction relief pursuant to Mo.Ct.R. 27.26,
Charron then filed a federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus raising twelve grounds
Charron later filed a second federal habeas petition attacking the same convictions and sentences outlined above. Charron claimed only one ground for habeas relief in the second petition: that his due process and equal protection rights were being violated because the State of Missouri will not permit him to conduct DNA tests on certain evidence offered by the prosecution at trial. Charron argued that these tests would “prove conclusively petitioner’s innocence.” (No. 94-3661, R. at 7.) The magistrate judge to whom the case had been referred issued a report and recommendation recommending dismissal of this petition because it constituted an abuse of the writ and Charron failed to establish cause and prejudice or actual innocence sufficient to overcome this procedural obstacle. In the alternative, the magistrate judge concluded that Charron has no consti
II.
A Charron’s First Habeas Petition
In his appeal from the district court’s dismissal of his first habeas petition, Charron claims that the district court erred on three bases: (1) applying Coleman v. Thompson,
Charron argues that the magistrate judge erred in concluding that Coleman governed the procedural default analysis. The magistrate judge initially concluded that under Harris v. Reed,
We reject Charron’s claim that Coleman constituted a “new rule” under Teague and accordingly agree with the magistrate judge that Coleman governs the outcome of the procedural default issue. In Teague, the Supreme Court held that a “new rule” which arises after a habeas petitioner’s conviction becomes final may not be applied retroactively on collateral review to invalidate a state court conviction unless the rule falls within two narrowly circumscribed exceptions not relevant here.
It is thus clear from the language of Teag-ue and its progeny that its “new rule” principle applies to rules of constitutional law which the states are required to observe. Coleman, however, did not set forth any new constitutional principle but merely discussed the analysis to be used in determining whether claims have been procedurally defaulted pursuant to an independent and adequate state rule, as well as the standard required to overcome that default. Further, the language from Teague and Caspari indicates that the “new rule” principle applies to claims made by the habeas petitioner, not procedural defenses asserted by the state. Other courts have held that the procedural default rule from Coleman and the related doctrine of abuse of the writ outlined in McCleskey v. Zant,
Charron next argues that the magistrate judge erred by failing to evaluate the effect of the Supreme Court of Missouri’s order
Although Charron cites Byrd v. Delo,
In habeas, if the decision of the last state court to which the petitioner presented his federal claims fairly appeared to rest primarily on resolution of those claims, or to be interwoven with those claims, and did not clearly and expressly rely on an independent and adequate state ground, a federal court may address the petition.
Id. (quoting Coleman,
In this case, the Supreme Court of Missouri denied Charron’s state habeas petition with language identical to that used to deny Byrd’s state habeas petition. Charron’s attempts to distinguish Byrd are unpersuasive. Thus, the magistrate judge committed no error in his evaluation of the Supreme Court of Missouri’s denial of Charron’s state habeas petition in analyzing the procedural default issues.
Charron finally argues that, assuming that his federal habeas claims have been procedurally defaulted, the magistrate judge erred in concluding that he had not provided cause and prejudice sufficient to overcome the default. He claims “cause” on two grounds: (1) ineffectiveness of his direct appeal counsel; and (2) the Missouri Court of Appeals’ refusal to grant his motion for extension of time to file a supplemental brief. He claims that he was prejudiced because his constitutional claims have now been dismissed without being addressed on their merits.
In order for a habeas petitioner to receive federal review of habeas claims that have been proeedurally defaulted in state court, the petitioner must demonstrate cause for the default and actual prejudice. Coleman,
Further, although the “cause” element may be satisfied due to ineffectiveness of direct appeal counsel, Coleman makes clear that this will be found only where counsel was ineffective within the meaning of Strickland v. Washington,
Moreover, even assuming that Charron’s appellate counsel was ineffective, “cause” has still not been established because the “ineffectiveness of appellate counsel may not be asserted as cause to excuse procedural default unless the petitioner has first presented this argument ‘as an independent Sixth Amendment claim to the state courts, if a forum existed to make the argument.’ ” Whitmill,
Along the same lines, we observe that “cause” may include “interference by officials that makes compliance with the State’s procedural rule impracticable....” McCleskey,
Finally, in the district court Charron failed to even assert prejudice to overcome the state procedural default, and here he merely makes the broad assertion that his counsel’s ineffectiveness sufficiently prejudiced him to overcome the default. “To demonstrate prejudice, a petitioner must show that the errors of which he complains “worked to his actual and substantial disadvantage, infecting his entire [hearing] with error of constitutional dimensions.’ ” Jennings v. Purkett,
B. Charron’s Second Habeas Petition
After the district court dismissed Char-ron’s first habeas petition, he filed this second federal habeas petition. In this petition and accompanying motions, Charron requested the court to grant an order permitting DNA testing on evidence within the State’s possession, along with an additional order requiring the State to preserve evidence within its possession. The magistrate judge concluded that this petition was abusive, Charron did not satisfy the cause and prejudice or actual innocence tests, and recommended dismissal with prejudice. The district court adopted this conclusion.
“The doctrine of abuse of the writ defines the circumstances in which federal courts decline to entertain a claim presented for the first time in a second or subsequent petition for a writ of habeas corpus.” McCleskey,
In this case, Charron’s DNA claims were not included in his first petition and are abusive under McCleskey. Charron contends that the magistrate judge erred in concluding that his petition was abusive due to the fact that his first federal habeas petition was denied on the basis of procedural default and not on the merits. He argues that based on Hill v. Lockhart,
Charron also contends that he established “cause” due to ineffective assistance of counsel. The counsel to whom Charron refers is his trial counsel; however, it would not be trial counsel’s ineffectiveness that would supply “cause,” but the ineffectiveness of any counsel who assisted Charron in his first habeas petition. Because Charron had no habeas counsel in the district court, there can be no cause attributed. In any event, there is no right to counsel in a habeas proceeding, McCleskey,
Charron further asserts that “cause” is established because at the time he filed his first federal habeas petition he was
Charron finally complains that the district court erred by refusing to permit him to conduct discovery to show “manifest injustice.” Rule 6 of the Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases in the United States District Courts states that “[a] party shall be entitled to invoke the processes of discovery available under the Federal Rules of Procedure if, and to the extent that, the judge in the exercise of his discretion and for good cause shown grants leave to do so, but not otherwise.” After carefully reviewing the record, we conclude that Charron has not offered “good cause” to conduct discovery and accordingly, the district court did not abuse its ample discretion in denying Charron the opportunity to do so.
We have examined Charron’s remaining arguments and sub-arguments and conclude that they are without merit.
III.
For the reasons enumerated above, we affirm the judgments of the district court.
Notes
. The Honorable George F. Gunn, Jr., United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri, adopting the report and recommendation of the Honorable Frederick R. Buckles, United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri.
. The Honorable George F. Gunn, Jr., United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri, adopting the report and recommendation of the Honorable Catherine D. Perry, then United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri, now United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri.
.Effective January 1, 1988, the Supreme Court of Missouri adopted Rule 29.15, which, together with Rule 24.035, repealed and replaced Rule 27.26. Rule 29.15 creates the postconviction relief procedure for felons convicted after a trial. Rule 24.035 is the parallel procedure available to felons convicted after a guilty plea.
. We quote the magistrate judge's summary of Charron's claims:
(1) Petitioner argues that he has been denied access to the state courts to fully litigate his claims of illegal and unconstitutional confinement;
(2) Petitioner argues that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to proceed against him on an information in lieu of an indictment because the indictment was never quashed and the subsequent information changed the prosecution's theory and the charges against the petitioner;
(3) Petitioner argues that he was denied various Fourteenth and Sixth Amendment rights, including the right to a fair trial, when the prosecution was allowed to present evidence that petitioner's co-defendant was actually guilty of the offense charged and the co-defendant was not present for the trial;
(4) Petitioner argues that he was denied a fair trial when the prosecution called petitioner’s co-defendant as a witness even though the prosecution knew that the co-defendant would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights and cause the jury to infer petitioner's guilt;
(5) Petitioner argues:
(a) that the evidence was insufficient to convict him of second degree robbery against victim Winston because it did not show that he had prior knowledge of, agreement with, or intentionally aided in the design of his co-defendant to rob the victim, and
(b) that the verdict directing instruction on the second degree robbery count was improper because:
(i) it did not require the jury to find specific conduct on the part of the petitioner that constituted “aiding,” and
(ii) it asked the jury to find that stolen money was in the possession of the victim, when it was really taken from her purse rather than from her immediate person;
(6) Petitioner argues that his due process and equal protection rights were violated because the verdict directing instruction on the first degree burglary charge did not require the jury to find that petitioner committed the burglary with the intent and purpose of committing rape and robbery, as charged in the original indictment;
(7) Petitioner argues:
(a) that the evidence was insufficient to convict him of second degree robbery against victim Glasscock because it did not show that he had prior knowledge of, agreement with, or intentionally aided in the design of his co-defendant to rob the victim, and
(b) that the verdict directing instruction on Count II (second degree robbery committed against victim Glasscock) was improper because it did not require the jury to find specific conduct on the part of the petitioner that constituted "aiding";
(8) Petitioner argues that the trial court erred in allowing petitioner to be convicted of rape, burglary and two counts of robbery because § 556.041 R.S.Mo. provides limitations on convictions for multiple offenses and multiple punishments for lesser included offenses;
(9) Petitioner argues that the trial court imposed excessive sentences in violation of his Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights;
(10) Petitioner argues that his convictions for rape, second degree robbery, and first degree burglary violate the double jeopardy clause;
(11) Petitioner argues that his rights to equal protection and due process were violated when the trial court failed to give an instruction defining "stealing” as used in its verdict directing instruction on the burglary count; and
(12) Petitioner argues that the trial court erred in overruling his motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of the prosecution’s case in that the evidence was insufficient to convict petitioner of forcible rape.
(Appellant's Addend, at A-8 — A-10)
. In Harris, the Supreme Court stated that "[A] procedural default does not bar consideration of a federal habeas claim on either direct or habeas review unless the last state court rendering a judgment in the case clearly and expressly states that its judgment rests on a state procedural bar.”
. Charron makes no claim of "actual innocence,” see Schlup v. Delo, — U.S. —, —,
. We have carefully reviewed Charron’s pro se supplemental reply brief and conclude that the claims contained therein are without merit.
. In his second habeas petition, Charron himself correctly stated that DNA evidence had been used in a hearing in the United States in People v. Wesley,
. Although he does not do so explicitly, Charron seems at several points to make a claim for "actual innocence” sufficient to overcome the abuse of the writ. See Schlup, -U.S. at -,
