408
Souter, J., dissenting
in the Pennsylvania courts. While the reason might have been that Coss' petition "slipped through the cracks," due to no fault of his own, Tr. of Oral Arg. 4, it might also have been that Coss was responsible for "request[ing] that the matter be brought up for a hearing," id., at 5. But even if Coss cannot be faulted for that lapse, he would not qualify to have his current § 2254 petition reviewed because the 1990 sentence he is challenging was not actually affected by the 1986 convictions.
IV
The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit is therefore reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
Justice Souter, with whom Justice Stevens and Justice Ginsburg join, dissenting.
The error of Daniels v. United States, ante, p. 374, is repeated once more, and I respectfully dissent for reasons set out in my dissenting opinion in that case. There is a further reason to disagree with the majority here.
Although state law theoretically provided a procedure for respondent Coss to challenge his 1986 convictions, the provision has proven to be a mirage; Coss's challenge was filed and answered by the district attorney, only to disappear in the state-court system for almost 14 years, so far. This failure of state process leads the plurality to qualify its general rule against attacking predicates to enhanced sentences, by raising the possibility of such a challenge when the opportunity for attack under provisions of state law, timely invoked, has proven to be imaginary. Ante, at 405. The plurality then goes on to deny Coss the benefit of this exception on the ground that he cannot demonstrate that "the challenged prior conviction . . . adversely affected the sentence that is
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