Source: http://openjurist.org/419/f3d/365/brown-v-dretke
Timestamp: 2014-08-21 02:29:28
Document Index: 470329436

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2253', '§ 2254', '§ 2253', '§ 2253', '§ 2253', '§ 2254', '§ 2254', '§ 2254', '§ 2254', '§ 2254', '§ 2254']

419 F3d 365 Brown v. Dretke | OpenJurist
419 F. 3d 365 - Brown v. Dretke	Home419 f3d 365 brown v. dretke
419 F3d 365 Brown v. Dretke 419 F.3d 365
Mauriceo Mashawn BROWN, Petitioner-Appellant,v.Douglas DRETKE, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division, Respondent-Appellee.
No. 04-70054.
Anne More Burnham, Law Offices of Anne Burnham, San Antonio, TX, Jani J. Maselli, Houston, TX, for Brown.
Tomee Morgan Carden Crocker, Austin, TX, for Dretke.
Petitioner Mauriceo Mashawn Brown was convicted in Texas state court of capital murder and sentenced to death. Subsequently, Brown filed a petition for habeas corpus relief in a federal district court, which denied the petition and declined to issue a certificate of appealability ("COA") on any issue. Brown now requests this court to grant a COA pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2). For the reasons that follow, Petitioner's Application for a Certificate of Appealability is denied.
On August 15, 1996, Brown, Kenneth Foster, DeWayne Dillard, and Julius Steen perpetrated a series of armed robberies which ultimately led to the fatal shooting of Michael LaHood, Jr. According to evidence presented at trial, the four men had been together, smoking marijuana, and driving around San Antonio in a vehicle driven by Foster. In the early morning hours of August 15, Brown suggested, and the others agreed, to look for individuals to rob. After they robbed four individuals in two separate incidents, Foster began following a pair of vehicles that ultimately stopped at the LaHood residence. Foster had begun to turn the car around to exit the unfamiliar neighborhood, when Mary Patrick exited one of the two vehicles Foster had been following and confronted the occupants of the vehicle that had been following her. After the brief confrontation, Patrick and Michael LaHood, who had been driving the second followed vehicle, began walking toward the entrance to the LaHood residence. Brown subsequently exited the car and walked up to LaHood with a gun in hand. According to Patrick, Brown demanded LaHood's keys, pointed the gun at LaHood's face, and shot. LaHood died as a result.
A jury subsequently found Brown and Foster guilty of capital murder and sentenced Brown to death. Brown appealed his conviction to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which affirmed the judgment of the trial court. In December of 1998, Brown filed an application for state habeas corpus relief. After a lengthy evidentiary hearing, the state habeas court denied relief. Brown then filed a petition for habeas corpus relief in federal district court. The district court denied relief and declined to issue a COA.
Brown now asks this Court to grant a COA and raises several grounds for relief: (1) the trial court's failure to sever Brown's trial from that of his co-defendant (Grounds 1 and 6); (2) his trial counsel's ineffective assistance (Grounds 2 and 3); (3) the trial court's limitation of cross-examination of prosecution witness Mary Patrick (Ground 4); (4) the trial court's admission of unadjudicated criminal conduct during the punishment phase of trial (Ground 5); and (5) the adjudication of his state habeas application by a judge who did not preside over the trial or a portion of the state habeas hearing (Ground 7).
II. STANDARD FOR GRANTING A CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY
Brown filed his § 2254 petition for a writ of habeas corpus after the effective date of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act ("AEDPA"). The petition, therefore, is subject to the requirements, restrictions, and standards imposed by AEDPA. See Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 336, 117 S.Ct. 2059, 138 L.Ed.2d 481 (1997).
Under AEDPA, a petitioner must obtain a COA before he can appeal the district court's denial of habeas relief. See 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c); see also Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 336, 123 S.Ct. 1029, 154 L.Ed.2d 931 (2003) ("[U]ntil a COA has been issued federal courts of appeals lack jurisdiction to rule on the merits of appeals from habeas petitioners.").
The COA determination under § 2253(c) requires an overview of the claims in the habeas petition and a general assessment of their merits. We look to the District Court's application of AEDPA to petitioner's constitutional claims and ask whether that resolution was debatable amongst jurists of reason. This threshold inquiry does not require full consideration of the factual or legal bases adduced in support of the claims. In fact, the statute forbids it.
Miller-El, 537 U.S. at 336, 123 S.Ct. 1029.
A COA will be granted only if the petitioner makes "a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right." 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2). "A petitioner satisfies this standard by demonstrating that jurists of reason could disagree with the district court's resolution of his constitutional claims or that jurists could conclude the issues presented are adequate to deserve encouragement to proceed further." Miller-El, 537 U.S. at 327, 123 S.Ct. 1029. Where the district court has denied claims on procedural grounds, a COA should issue only if it is demonstrated that "jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the petition states a valid claim of a denial of a constitutional right and that jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the district court was correct in its procedural ruling." Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484, 120 S.Ct. 1595, 146 L.Ed.2d 542 (2000). "The question is the debatability of the underlying constitutional claim, not the resolution of that debate." Miller-El, 537 U.S. at 342, 123 S.Ct. 1029. "Indeed, a claim can be debatable even though every jurist of reason might agree, after the COA has been granted and the case has received full consideration, that petitioner will not prevail." Id. at 338, 123 S.Ct. 1029. Moreover, "[b]ecause the present case involves the death penalty, any doubts as to whether a COA should issue must be resolved in [petitioner's] favor." Hernandez v. Johnson, 213 F.3d 243, 248 (5th Cir.2000).
We further note that when reviewing the district court's assessment, we must be mindful of the deferential standard of review of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). Under § 2254(d), a federal court cannot grant habeas corpus relief with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in state court proceedings unless the adjudication of that claim either (1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States, or (2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the state court proceeding. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). With respect to the review of factual findings, AEDPA significantly restricts the scope of federal habeas review. Factual findings are presumed to be correct, and a petitioner has the burden of rebutting this presumption with clear and convincing evidence. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1).
A. Non-Severance of Brown's Jury Trial
In his first and sixth grounds for relief, Brown contends that the trial court erred in refusing to sever Brown's trial from that of his co-defendant, Kenneth Foster. This, according to Brown, resulted in (1) the jury being unable to render an individualized sentencing determination in violation of the Eighth Amendment and (2) a violation of his Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against him.
The district court found that Brown had failed to exhaust these claims before the state court and declined relief. As discussed below, the district court's ultimate resolution was one which reasonable jurists could not debate.
Before seeking federal habeas relief, a state prisoner must exhaust available state remedies. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(1). The exhaustion requirement is not met if the petitioner presents legal theories or factual claims in his federal habeas petition that were not asserted in his state application. Brown v. Estelle, 701 F.2d 494, 495 (5th Cir.1983). Also, the petitioner must have reasonably alerted the state courts to the federal nature of the claim. Wilder v. Cockrell, 274 F.3d 255, 260 (5th Cir.2001); Anderson v. Harless, 459 U.S. 4, 6-7, 103 S.Ct. 276, 74 L.Ed.2d 3 (1982).
1. Sixth Amendment Severance Claim
We first address Brown's Sixth Amendment claim and conclude that it was not properly exhausted in state court. While Brown did assert a similar claim in his state habeas proceeding, that claim was based entirely on Article 36.09 of the Texas Rules of Criminal Procedure. Brown did not mention the Sixth Amendment. Neither did Brown discuss any federal case law in support of his complaint. See Harless, 459 U.S. at 6, 103 S.Ct. 276 ("It is not enough that . . . a somewhat similar state-law claim was made."). Thus, the state court was not reasonably alerted to the possibility that petitioner wished to assert a Sixth Amendment complaint regarding the trial court's failure to sever, and Brown's current Sixth Amendment claim was unexhausted in state court. Reasonable minds could not debate that, under AEDPA, the district court was correct in declining to grant federal habeas relief on Brown's claim. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(1)(A).
2. Eighth Amendment Severance Claim
We now turn to Brown's Eighth Amendment-based