ruling constitutes an independent and adequate state rule of decision. Judd, 250 F.3d at 1313. “First, the last state court rendering a judgment in the case must clearly and expressly state that it is relying on state procedural rules to resolve the federal claim without reaching the merits of that claim.” Id. Second, the state court’s decision must rest entirely on state law grounds and not be “intertwined with an interpretation of federal law.” Id. Third, the state procedural rule must be adequate. Id. The adequacy requirement has been interpreted to mean that the rule must be firmly established and regularly followed, that is, not applied in an arbitrary or unprecedented fashion. Id.; see also Ford v. Georgia, 498 U.S. 411, 423-25, 111 S.Ct. 850, 857-58, 112 L.Ed.2d 935 (1991) (<HOLDING>). The Florida circuit court relied on an
holding no retroactive application holding that a statutory amendment characterized by the state as a clarification could not be applied retroactively because the statute as written at the time of the crime was unclear and retroactive application of the statute as amended would result in an increased period of incarceration holding that the state court could not procedurally bar a claim through retroactive application of a rule that did not exist at the time the rule would have applied to the petitioners case holding retroactive application recognizing district court application of the same rule