No. 19-1943 ___________________________

Zachariah Marcyniuk

Plaintiff - Appellant

v.

Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction 1

Defendant - Appellee ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Pine Bluff ____________

Submitted: December 15, 2021 Filed: July 8, 2022 ____________ Before LOKEN, SHEPHERD, and STRAS, Circuit Judges. ____________ SHEPHERD, Circuit Judge.

1 We note that Payne’s official title is Director of the Arkansas Division of Correction. The Director of the Arkansas Division of Correction works under the direction of the Arkansas Board of Corrections and the Arkansas Department of Corrections Secretary. For the sake of continuity, however, we adopt the phrasing of the district court: Director, Arkansas Department of Correction. After an Arkansas jury convicted him of capital murder and sentenced him to death, Zachariah Marcyniuk petitioned the district court 2 for a writ of habeas corpus in part on the basis that an off-the-record jury selection procedure violated his constitutional rights. Without holding an evidentiary hearing, the district court dismissed Marcyniuk’s petition with prejudice. We granted a certificate of appealability as to whether the district court prematurely dismissed Marcyniuk’s claims that the pretrial jury selection procedure violated his right to be present, right to a public trial, and right to an appeal and that his trial counsel was ineffective for participating in the procedure. Having jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253(a), we affirm.

I.

Marcyniuk began a romantic relationship with Katherine Wood in 2006, when they were both students at the University of Arkansas. After Wood ended the relationship in February 2008, Marcyniuk exhibited obsessive and harassing behavior towards Wood. In the early morning hours of March 9, 2008, Marcyniuk went to Wood’s apartment in Fayetteville, Arkansas. After noticing that Wood was not home, Marcyniuk entered her apartment through a bedroom window. Though Marcyniuk testified that his intent was to return a cell phone that he had stolen from Wood, he did not have the cell phone with him when he entered Wood’s apartment. Marcyniuk went through Wood’s belongings and accessed her laptop four times looking for evidence that she had a new boyfriend before eventually falling asleep in a chair. When Wood returned home hours later, Marcyniuk met her at the front door, dragged her into her apartment, and stabbed her to death with a knife. At trial, Marcyniuk testified that “[w]e were just kind of wrestling and there was a knife” and that he remembered “getting up and there was blood everywhere.” See Marcyniuk v. State (Marcyniuk II), 436 S.W.3d 122, 125 (Ark. 2014). After leaving Wood’s apartment, Marcyniuk returned to his home, where he placed his bloody clothes and

2 The Honorable James M. Moody, Jr., United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas. -2- the knife in a bag and picked up his dog before driving to his mother’s house. Marcyniuk’s parents thereafter contacted law enforcement “because they were concerned for [Wood] after [Marcyniuk] showed up . . . in a disheveled, frantic state asking [his mother] to take care of his dog and stating that he thought he had hurt [Wood].” Marcyniuk v. State (Marcyniuk I), 373 S.W.3d 243, 247 (Ark. 2010). Marcyniuk then drove west into Oklahoma, disposing of the knife somewhere alon