McDowell v. Lemke

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s habeas petition challenging his murder and carjacking conviction on grounds that means used to identify him as culprit, including presentation of photo arrays, were fatally flawed, where record showed that defendant had procedurally defaulted said claim by failing to adequately raise them in state courts. Defendant raised only sentencing issues on direct appeal, and his single sentence reference in his post-conviction petition to claim that computer-generated photo presented to eye-witness was unduly suggestive, without citation to case law or constitutional clauses, did not alert state court to federal, constitutional nature of instant due process claim. Fact that Illinois Appellate Court made factual finding that denied defendant’s claim that photographic identifications were suggestive did not demonstrate that said court made ruling on merits of instant due process claim, where said court did not address said finding in context of due process claim. Also, defendant’s affidavit asserting that detective had committed misfeasance in his case and in cases of other individuals was insufficient to establish defendant’s actual innocence to charges, so as to excuse defendant’s procedural default.