1The Hon. Rodney S. Webb, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the

District of North Dakota, sitting by designation.

2The Hon. Carol E. Jackson, United States District Judge for the Eastern District

of Missouri, adopting the Report and Recommendation of the Hon. Frederick R.

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

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No. 98-2198EM

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Sidney C. Roberts, *

*

Appellant, *

* On Appeal from the United

v. * States District Court

* for the Eastern District 

* of Missouri.

Paul K. Delo, *

*

Appellee. *

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Submitted: December 17, 1999

Filed: March 2, 2000

___________

Before RICHARD S. ARNOLD and LOKEN, Circuit Judges, and WEBB,1 District

Judge.

___________

RICHARD S. ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

The defendant, Sidney Roberts, appeals from the denial of his petition for a writ

of habeas corpus. Although the District Court2 denied Roberts's petition, it granted a
Buckles, United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri.

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certificate of appealability on two issues: (1) whether the prosecutor's comments

during closing argument denied him due process; and (2) whether his counsel on direct

appeal provided ineffective assistance. We affirm.

I.

The defendant was convicted, by jury, of first-degree murder and armed criminal

action. We state the facts in the light most favorable to the verdict. In September of

1988, on a St. Louis street outside a liquor store, the defendant and David Walters got

into a fight with Timothy Booker. At some point after the fight began, Booker broke

away from the defendant and Walters and ran into the liquor store. The defendant and

Walters followed Booker into the store and began hitting Booker again. One of the

liquor-store clerks insisted that they all leave the store.

Outside again, the defendant and Walters continued to beat Booker, kicking him

after he had fallen on the ground. At some point, the defendant left and picked up an

empty beer bottle from a vacant lot next to the liquor store. The defendant then came

back and broke the bottle over Booker's head. Walters produced a pistol, and started

to beat Booker with it. The defendant took the pistol from Walters, and pointed it at

Booker's head. Although initially the gun did not fire, the defendant continued to pull

the trigger. Two shots fired into Booker's chest. The defendant and Walters fled the

scene. A few minutes later they returned, and saw that Booker was not dead. The

defendant pulled a jacket over Booker's head, and the two men again left. Booker later

died.

Several witnesses saw various parts of this scene. David Patton could see the

street from his upstairs-bedroom window. He saw the altercation, except for the

portions which took place inside the liquor store. Angela Brooks, David Patton's
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cousin, also watched from the upstairs-bedroom window. After the defendant and

Walters left the scene the second time, Patton and Brooks went to see if they could help

Booker. Both testified at the trial. Nathaniel Cooper and Carron Gatling, liquor-store

employees, saw all three men enter and leave the liquor store. They also testified, and

identified the defendant, at trial. The defendant himself at trial admitted to being

present and participating in the beating, but denied that he fired the gunshots that killed

Booker.

The jury convicted the defendant of first-degree murder and armed criminal

action. After both a direct appeal and a motion for post-conviction relief, the Missouri

Court of Appeals affirmed the defendant's conviction. State v. Roberts, 838 S.W.2d

126 (Mo. App. 1992). The defendant then filed this petition for a writ of habeas

corpus. 

II.

The first question presented is whether remarks made by the prosecutor at the

defendant's trial were so egregious as to deny the defendant due process of law. First,

the prosecutor personally evaluated the credibility of the defendant, telling the jury that

the defendant was "one of the coolest, most collected liars I've seen in five years of

prosecuting." At that point, defense counsel objected, and the Court sustained the

objection. Defense counsel moved for a mistrial, which the Court denied. Then, the

prosecutor continued by improperly appealing to the sympathy of the jury. He asked

the jury to consider the victim's family (there was no evidence Booker had a family),

and what the victim's last thoughts were before he died. Defense counsel made two

more objections, one of which was sustained, and one of which was overruled. The

Court stated: "Counsel, this is argument, this is not evidence, and the jury's been

instructed that way and have been told about four times in addition to that. You may

proceed." Defense counsel made no request for an additional jury instruction directing

the jury to disregard the prosecutor's statement, nor was any such instruction given.
3The findings by the Missouri Court of Appeals, which we presume to be correct,

demonstrate this to be the case: "Three eyewitnesses saw defendant beat Mr. Booker

before he was shot, in an area that was 'lit up . . . like it was daytime.' One of these

witnesses . . . was five to six feet away from the scene; the other two . . . were twenty

to thirty feet away. All three witnesses saw defendant repeatedly punch the victim and

break a bottle over his head before the shooting. Mr. Patton and Ms. Brooks saw a gun

in defendant's hand pointed at the victim, heard the gun misfire three times, then heard

two shots and saw the victim fall to the ground. This evidence shows 'deliberation.'

Moreover, defendant admitted being at the scene and beating the victim. The only

testimony of the eyewitnesses which he contradicted was that he shot the victim." 838

S.W.2d at 132.

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Our task is not to review whether the prosecutor's statements were improper.

Indeed, we have little trouble agreeing that they were. A prosecutor may not express

an opinion implying knowledge of facts unavailable to the jury. Moreover, it is

improper to ask jurors to put themselves in the place of the victim. The Missouri Court

of Appeals strongly condemned these comments, as do we. However, the question we

must decide is whether these remarks fatally infected the entire trial, and deprived the

defendant of fundamental fairness as guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

Clark v. Wood, 823 F.2d 1241, 1251 (8th Cir.), cert denied, 484 U.S. 945 (1987). The

defendant must show that the verdict would probably have been different if the

prosecutor had not made the improper remarks. Mack v. Caspari, 92 F.3d 637, 643

(8th Cir. 1996), cert denied, 520 U.S. 1109 (1997).

After reviewing the remarks in the context of the entire trial, we do not think the

verdict would probably have been different if the prosecutor had not made these

remarks. We are unconvinced that, without these remarks, it is likely that the jury

would not have found the defendant guilty of first-degree murder. Although no

additional jury instruction was requested nor given, the Court did state that the

prosecutor's comments were not evidence, and should not be treated as such.

Moreover, there was overwhelming evidence that the defendant was guilty, and coolly

deliberated on the killing. See Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 168, 182 (1986).3

 
4Defendant's appellate counsel did argue that witness Patton's in-court

identification should have been excluded as impermissibly suggestive. The Missouri

Court of Appeals, observing that the argument was "neither clear nor explicit," 838

S.W.2d at 133, nevertheless gave it plain-error review and rejected it.

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III.

The second question that the District Court certified for appeal is whether the

defendant's counsel on direct appeal provided ineffective assistance, in violation of the

defendant's Sixth Amendment rights. 

The defendant points to several problems with witness identification at trial,

which he argues that his counsel should have raised on direct appeal. First, he argues

that the initial line-up that witness Nathaniel Cooper viewed was unduly suggestive.

Second, he argues that at trial, the prosecutor showed witness Cooper a picture of a

line-up that witness Angela Brooks had seen, but maintained that it was the line-up that

Cooper had viewed. At a later point in the trial, the prosecutor said that the photo was

of the line-up that witness David Patton had viewed. Later, the prosecutor admitted

that he had shown Cooper a photograph of the wrong line-up. Third, the defendant

argues that the photo that the prosecutor identified as the line-up viewed by Angela

Brooks was also the photo of the line-up that witness David Patton had viewed, which

would have been inconsistent. Finally, the defendant argues that witness Patton made

an impermissible in-court identification of the defendant, inasmuch as Patton had

earlier, in an out-of-court identification, identified Walters as the perpetrator. 

The failure of defendant's direct appeal counsel to raise these issues properly4

did not render his assistance ineffective. There were no objections made to any

witnesses' identification at trial. Therefore, none of these issues was preserved for

direct appeal. Under Missouri law, the Missouri Court of Appeals could have

considered these identification issues only for plain error. State v. Walker, 743 S.W.2d
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99, 103 (Mo. App. 1988). Appellate counsel's decision not to focus on these issues

was not unreasonable. It will rarely be ineffective assistance for a lawyer to choose to

omit issues that would receive only plain-error review.

IV.

Therefore, we hold against the defendant on both issues the District Court

certified for appeal. In so doing, we affirm the decision of the District Court.

A true copy.

Attest:

 CLERK, U.S. COURT OF APPEALS, EIGHTH CIRCUIT.