368
Stevens, J., dissenting
they must present "the substance of a federal habeas corpus claim . . . to the state courts." Ibid.
Today the Court tightens the pleading screws by adding the requirement that the state courts "must surely be alerted to the fact that the prisoners are asserting claims under the United States Constitution." Ante, at 365-366. As support for that proposition the Court cites Picard and Anderson v. Harless, 459 U. S. 4 (1982), but neither case is in point. In the former, the Court pointed out that the claim asserted in state court—that an indictment was invalid under Massachusetts law—was different from the equal protection claim first raised in federal court; in the latter, the Court carefully explained why it concluded that the state-law basis for objecting to a jury instruction differed from the federal rule announced in Sandstrom v. Montana, 442 U. S. 510 (1979). While I disagreed with the view that Harless' federal claim had not been fairly presented to the state courts, see 459 U. S., at 9-12 (dissenting opinion), I surely did not understand the Court's opinion to hold that the exhaustion doctrine includes an exact labeling requirement.
Nor have the Courts of Appeals demonstrated any such understanding of Harless or Picard. To the contrary, the Circuits have analyzed the exhaustion question without rigidly insisting that a prisoner invoke the "talismanic" language of federal law. See Tamapua v. Shimoda, 796 F. 2d 261, 263 (CA9 1986); see also, e. g., Hawkins v. West, 706 F. 2d 437, 439-440 (CA2 1983); Lesko v. Owens, 881 F. 2d 44, 50 (CA3 1989), cert. denied, 493 U. S. 1036 (1990); West v. Wright, 931 F. 2d 262, 266 (CA4 1991), rev'd on other grounds, 505 U. S. 277 (1992); Satter v. Leapley, 977 F. 2d 1259, 1262 (CA8 1992); Bowser v. Boggs, 20 F. 3d 1060, 1063 (CA10), cert. denied, post, p. 926; Nichols v. Sullivan, 867 F. 2d 1250, 1252-1253 (CA10), cert. denied, 490 U. S. 1112
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007