870
Thomas, J., dissenting
by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Thus, although petitioner did not have preapplication assistance of counsel made available to him under § 848(q)(4)(B), he still could benefit from federally funded legal assistance.
In addition, it seems likely that Congress expected that the States would also shoulder some of the burden of providing preapplication legal assistance to indigent death-sentenced prisoners. Cf. Hill v. Lockhart, 992 F. 2d 801, 803 (CA8 1993) ("A state that has elected to impose the death penalty should provide adequate funding for the procedures it has adopted to properly implement that penalty"). Defendants under a state-imposed sentence of death must exhaust state remedies by presenting their claims in state court prior to coming to federal court. See 28 U. S. C. § 2254(b). See also Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U. S. 722 (1991). Given this exhaustion requirement, it would have been logical for Congress, in drafting § 848(q)(4)(B), to assume that by the time a death-sentenced prisoner reaches federal court, "possible claims and their factual bases" will already have been "researched and identified." Ante, at 855. Indeed, if the claims have not been identified and presented to state courts, a prisoner cannot proceed on federal habeas. See Coleman, supra, at 731 ("This Court has long held that a state prisoner's federal habeas petition should be dismissed if the prisoner has not exhausted available state remedies as to any of his federal claims"). Thus, it would not have been unreasonable for Congress to require prisoners to meet the ordinary requirement for invoking a federal court's habeas jurisdiction—namely, the filing of an adequate application for habeas corpus relief—prior to obtaining an attorney under § 848(q)(4)(B).
II
Had the Court ended its analysis with the ruling that an indigent death-sentenced prisoner is entitled to counsel under § 848(q)(4)(B) prior to filing an application for habeas relief, today's decision would have an impact on federal coffers, but would not expand the power of the federal courts
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