842
Opinion of the Court
of his claims. No. 94-3258 (CD Ill., Oct. 28, 1996), pp. 14-15. After rejecting Boerckel's remaining claims for relief, the District Court denied his habeas petition. Id., at 18.
On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit considered one question, namely, whether Boerckel had procedurally defaulted the first three claims in his habeas petition (whether he knowingly and intelligently waived his Miranda rights, whether his confession was voluntary, and whether the evidence was sufficient to support a verdict) by failing to raise those claims in his petition for leave to appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court. The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of the District Court denying Boerckel's habeas petition and remanded for further proceedings. 135 F. 3d 1194 (1998). The court concluded that Boerckel was not required to present his claims in a petition for discretionary review to the Illinois Supreme Court to satisfy the exhaustion requirement. Id., at 1199-1202. Thus, according to the Court of Appeals, Boerckel had not procedurally defaulted those claims. Id., at 1202.
We granted certiorari to resolve a conflict in the Courts of Appeals on this issue. 525 U. S. 999 (1998). Compare e. g., Richardson v. Procunier, 762 F. 2d 429 (CA5 1985) (must file petition for discretionary review), with Dolny v. Erickson, 32 F. 3d 381 (CA8 1994) (petition for discretionary review not required), cert. denied, 513 U. S. 1111 (1995).
II
Before a federal court may grant habeas relief to a state prisoner, the prisoner must exhaust his remedies in state court. In other words, the state prisoner must give the state courts an opportunity to act on his claims before he presents those claims to a federal court in a habeas petition. The exhaustion doctrine, first announced in Ex parte Royall, 117 U. S. 241 (1886), is now codified at 28 U. S. C. § 2254(b)(1) (1994 ed., Supp. III). This doctrine, however, raises a recurring question: What state remedies must a habeas peti-
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