Cite as: 526 U. S. 838 (1999)
Stevens, J., dissenting
exhaustion. It states that respondent has not exhausted his claims because he had " 'the right . . . to raise' [his] claims through a petition for discretionary review in the [Illinois Supreme Court]." Ante, at 845 (quoting 28 U. S. C. § 2254(c)). The Court adds to this that "the creation of a discretionary review system does not, without more, make review in the Illinois Supreme Court unavailable." Ante, at 848. But, as the Court acknowledges almost immediately thereafter, the fact that "the time for filing [a petition to that court] has long passed" most assuredly makes such review unavailable in this case. Ibid. The Court then resolves this case's core issue in a single sentence and two citations: "Thus, Boerckel's failure to present three of his federal habeas claims to the Illinois Supreme Court in a timely fashion has resulted in a procedural default of those claims. Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U. S., at 731-732; Engle v. Isaac, 456 U. S. 107, 125-126, n. 28 (1982)." Ibid.
I disagree that respondent has procedurally defaulted these three claims, and neither Engle nor Coleman suggests otherwise. The question we must ask is whether respondent has given the State a fair opportunity to pass on these claims. This Court has explained that the best way to determine the answer to this question is to "respect . . . state procedural rules" and to inquire whether the State has denied (or would deny) relief to the prisoner based on his failure to abide by any such rule. Coleman, 501 U. S., at 751. See also Engle, 456 U. S., at 129 (federal courts should avoid "undercutting the State's ability to enforce its procedural rules"). Thus, we held in Engle that a prisoner defaults a claim by failing to follow a state rule requiring that it be raised at trial or on direct appeal. The Court in Coleman felt so strongly about "the important interests served by state procedural rules at every stage of the judicial process and the harm to the States that results when federal courts ignore these rules," 501 U. S., at 749, that it imposed procedural default on a death-row inmate for filing his appellate
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