Tony Ray King v. Stanley Payne, Warden

Mr. King filed a petition for habeas corpus relief from his state convictions for first degree murder, felony child abuse, and second-degree arson. Mr. King is serving a life sentence without parole for the murder conviction and two fifteenyear consecutive sentences for his other convictions. The district court denied seven of Mr. King’s ineffective assistance of counsel claims as being procedurally barred, and did not issue a certificate of appealability. Rather than following the review procedure set out in Martinez, the district court did a full merits review of these claims under Strickland when denying them. Mr. King appealed. The Eighth Circuit denied Mr. King a certificate of appealability. Accordingly, the case presents the following question: The question presented is: Does a petitioner need to meet the Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) standard when presenting a defaulted claim under the Martinez-Trevino exception or does he simply need to show that the ground for relief is factually supported and is not “without merit?” -ii-