A bill to amend title 28, United States Code, to provide that State prisoners and Federal prisoners shall not be denied Federal habeas corpus relief on the ground that such prisoners were previously afforded a full and fair opportunity to litigate their claims.

Requires that no writ of habeas corpus filed on behalf of a person in State custody, or motion attacking sentence on behalf of a person in Federal custody shall be denied because of an earlier failure to assert the claim upon which the writ or motion is based unless the person deliberately and knowingly forwent the opportunity to do so.