1.   The Supreme Court in recent years has taken steps to trim back the ability of prisoners to file successive habeas petitions.

2.   Gray then filed a federal habeas petition in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

3.   He exhausted his administrative remedies and then filed a federal habeas petition.

4.   In Kuhlmann v. Wilson, the Court examined when a federal court could entertain a successive habeas petition.

5.   In recent years, most habeas petitions for death row inmates have been handled by a state and federally funded resource center.

6.   In this, his second federal habeas petition, he alleged that constitutional error at his trial deprived the jury of critical evidence that would have established his innocence.

7.   It was clear from the opinion that the court wants to avoid having to give substantive review to every death-row habeas petition it receives.

8.   It would require federal courts to render decisions in capital cases on habeas petitions within six months.

9.   Many of those prisoners have already filed at least one habeas petition.

10.   Petitioner filed a second federal habeas petition, again claiming that his trial counsel was ineffective at both the guilt and penalty phases of trial.