Parker v. Tensley

── Parker v. Tensley ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Date: May 29, 2026 Category: General Appellate Case: 26-6000 Document: 18-1 Date Filed: 05/29/2026 Page: 1 FILED United States Court of Appeals UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT May 29, 2026 _________________________________ Christopher M. Wolpert Clerk of Court ALVIN PARKER, Petitioner - Appellant, v. No. 26-6000 (D.C. No. 5:25-CV-00767-D) SCOTT TENSLEY, (W.D. Okla.) Respondent - Appellee. _________________________________ ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY * _________________________________ Before TYMKOVICH, PHILLIPS, and FEDERICO, Circuit Judges. _________________________________ Alvin Parker, a state prisoner proceeding pro se, 1 applies for a certificate of appealability (COA) to appeal the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition for habeas relief. He also moves to proceed in forma pauperis (IFP) on appeal. For the reasons below, we DENY a COA, DENY Parker’s IFP motion, and DISMISS this appeal. * This order is not binding precedent except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1. 1 As a pro se litigant, we construe Parker’s application liberally. See Luo v. Wang, 71 F.4th 1289, 1291 n.1 (10th Cir. 2023). But we do not act as his advocate. Id.  Appellate Case: 26-6000 Document: 18-1 Date Filed: 05/29/2026 Page: 2 I. Background An Oklahoma state jury convicted Parker of second-degree murder in 1990 for killing an off-duty police officer. The state judge sentenced Parker to 199 years in prison. Parker appealed to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA). The OCCA affirmed his conviction and sentence in 1994. Oklahoma enacted the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act (OSA) in 2024, which allows a prisoner to file a “request to apply for resentencing” with his original sentencing court. Okla. Stat. tit. 22 § 1090.5(A). A prisoner convicted of second-degree murder must establish by “clear and convincing evidence” that he meets certain statutory criteria before the court will permit him to apply for resentencing. Id. § 1090.3(D); see also Okla. Stat. tit. 57 § 571(2)(j). Parker filed a request to apply for resentencing under the OSA with the state district court. He claimed that his cousin and the victim (the off-duty officer) “set [him] up” so the officer could “coerce him into becoming a confidential informant” like his cousin. Aplt. Br. at 11. Parker said the alleged scheme caused him to kill the officer so he could escape. He argued that he thus met the parameters of the statute because his “victim was the perpetrator of . . . psychological abuse by . . . a family member” and that “abuse was related to and was a substantial contributing factor in causing [him] to commit the” murder. Okla. Stat. tit. 22 § 1090.3(C), (D). Parker included various documents (e.g., trial transcripts) with his request that he alleged corroborated the abuse. The state district court denied his request. It found Parker was not eligible for resentencing because he failed to show that he met the OSA’s