Coleman v. Lemke

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s habeas petition, after conducting evidentiary hearing and concluding that defendant had failed to establish his actual innocence on murder charge so as to allow Dist. Ct. to consider defendant’s three procedurally defaulted ineffective assistance of counsel claims that formed basis of habeas petition. While defendant presented testimony and statements from three individuals, who asserted that someone else committed murder and that defendant was elsewhere at time of murder, said individuals suffered from credibility and reliability problems. Moreover, defendant’s proffered evidence of actual innocence was insufficient to overcome testimonies of three other individuals, who implicated defendant in murder.