Opinion ID: 222859
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: due process claim withholding material evidence

Text: Woods argues that the prosecution withheld material, exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland . Specifically, Woods argues in two Brady sub-claims [8] that the prosecution withheld evidence concerning: (1) WSPCL's general policy of destroying draft reports, as evidenced by Dr. Brown's conduct in State v. Barfield, No. 48147-9-I, 2003 WL 22121058 (Wash. Ct.App. Sept. 15, 2003), and (2) the full details of how the WSPCL crime lab mishandled the physical evidence in his case, including spillage of Woods's first blood sample. On the first Brady sub-claim, the district court denied Woods's request for an evidentiary hearing and denied habeas relief. The district court ruled that the second sub-claim was procedurally defaulted. We address each sub-claim in turn.
Woods argues that the prosecution had knowledge of WSPCL's DNA testing and review protocol, which included discarding draft reports, and was therefore required under Brady to disclose the lab's review process. Woods bases this contention on Dr. John Brown's conduct detailed in State v. Barfield, 2003 WL 22121058. [9] In Barfield, Dr. Brown tested the DNA from a semen sample retrieved from a rape victim and compared the results to a WSPCL database that included defendant Barfield's DNA. Id. at . He did not identify a match, and created a draft report reflecting that result. Id. Brown's supervisor, Donald MacLaren, independently analyzed the test results and, after reviewing Brown's draft report, noticed that Brown had made an error. Id. After MacLaren brought the error to his attention, Brown discarded the erroneous draft report and prepared a new report reflecting the correct analysis, which indicated the DNA from the semen sample matched Barfield's DNA profile in the WSPCL database. Id. In a pretrial interview with defense counsel, Brown initially denied excluding Barfield in an earlier report, but later admitted that he had performed the first round of analysis incorrectly and had discarded the initial erroneous draft report. Id. Dr. Brown testified at Barfield's rape trial that he had lied to defense counsel because he was embarrassed about making an obvious error. Id. at . In a declaration submitted to the Washington Supreme Court in Woods's PRP proceeding, MacLaren, who also reviewed Dr. Brown's analysis in Woods's case, stated that the review process followed in Barfield  including peer review and discarding erroneous draft reports  was standard procedure at WSPCL. MacLaren declared, however, that out of the thousands of autorads this lab has developed there have been less than ten instances where a resizing was necessitated by the review process. Woods argues that had he known about WSPCL's practices at the time of trial, he would have used the information to impeach Dr. Brown and to challenge the prosecution's DNA evidence by questioning the quality of WSPCL's internal review process. Woods contends that Dr. Brown's misconduct in the Barfield case revealed a longstanding practice of hiding the results of exculpatory tests and that there were indicia in this case that draft reports may have been destroyed. Specifically, Woods points out that WSPCL assured the prosecution that testing would be completed by January 1, 1997, but it was not completed until February 20, 1997. Woods argues that it is reasonable to infer that the delay was due to one or more tests that were never reported to the defense. To prevail on a Brady claim, a defendant must prove that [1] The evidence at issue [is] favorable to the accused, either because it is exculpatory, or because it is impeaching; [2] that evidence [was] suppressed by the State, either willfully or inadvertently; and [3] prejudice ... ensued. Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 281-82, 119 S.Ct. 1936, 144 L.Ed.2d 286 (1999); see Brady, 373 U.S. at 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194. To establish prejudice, a defendant must demonstrate that there is a reasonable probability that the result of the trial would have been different if the suppressed [evidence] had been disclosed to the defense. Strickler, 527 U.S. at 289, 119 S.Ct. 1936 (internal quotation marks omitted). A `reasonable probability' is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome. United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 682, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985). The duty imposed by Brady extends to evidence in the government's possession not known to the prosecutor, but applies only to favorable evidence rising to a material level of importance. Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 438, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995). Moreover, the prosecutor's duty to disclose under Brady is limited to evidence a reasonable prosecutor would perceive at the time as being material and favorable to the defense. Id. at 436-37, 115 S.Ct. 1555. The state supreme court concluded that WSPCL's general practice of peer review and destruction of erroneous draft reports was not exculpatory material in Woods's case, and that the prosecution did not have a duty to disclose the lab's general practices and procedures. This conclusion was not contrary to nor an unreasonable application of Brady under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). The bare fact that the lab subjected DNA test results to peer review and discarded draft reports when peer review turned up an error does not tend to show that an error occurred in Woods's case. We recognize that destruction of a draft report that excluded a defendant as a match with a suspect's DNA would likely violate Brady in light of the report's impeachment value. Although WSPCL may have followed such a practice in those rare instances when its peer review process revealed an erroneous analysis, there is nothing to suggest that the state suppressed an erroneous draft report in Woods's case. Moreover, Dr. Brown's misconduct in Barfield occurred months after Woods's trial concluded, so the prosecution did not possess any information about Brown's actions in Barfield that could have impeached him at Woods's trial. Even if evidence of WSPCL's general practices were not exculpatory, Woods argues that it would be reasonable to infer from Dr. Brown's conduct in Barfield and the delay in obtaining DNA test results in his case that WSPCL conducted tests in his case that were never reported to the defense. Woods contends the state supreme court wrongfully denied him an evidentiary hearing to develop this claim. We construe his argument as a claim that the state court's factfinding process was flawed and was therefore an unreasonable determination of the facts under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2). See Taylor v. Maddox, 366 F.3d 992, 999 (9th Cir.2004) (explaining that § 2254(d)(2) applies to challenges that the process employed by the state court is defective). A state court's fact-finding process is unreasonable under § 2254(d)(2) only when we are satisfied that any appellate court to whom the defect is pointed out would be unreasonable in holding that the state court's factfinding process was adequate. Taylor, 366 F.3d at 1000. Here, there was no defect in the state supreme court's fact-finding process. Although it might have been prudent to provide Woods with the opportunity to develop the facts underlying this aspect of his Brady claim, the state court's decision to deny him a hearing was based on its consideration of the declarations of Dr. Brown and MacLaren that were filed with the Washington Supreme Court. Although neither declaration expressly denied the existence of an erroneous draft report in Woods's case, there is nothing in those declarations or anywhere else in the record to suggest that such a report existed. It was not unreasonable for the Washington Supreme Court to deny Woods's request for a hearing when all he could offer was speculation that an evidentiary hearing might produce testimony or other evidence inconsistent with Dr. Brown and MacLaren's declarations. We further conclude that the Washington Supreme Court did not make an unreasonable determination of the facts under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2) when it found that there was no showing Dr. Brown destroyed evidence in this case. The only evidence before the state court was that MacLaren reviewed Dr. Brown's test results and agreed with them. We agree with the Washington Supreme Court that the record does not show that Dr. Brown intentionally destroyed exculpatory evidence and then lied about it. In re Woods, 114 P.3d at 622. Because the state supreme court's ruling was neither an unreasonable application of federal law nor an unreasonable determination of the facts, 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1)-(2), we affirm the district court's denial of relief on this sub-claim. [10]
Woods alleges that the State failed to disclose the full details of the spillage of his first blood sample at WSPCL's laboratory in Spokane. Woods claims that this evidence would have shown that there was a significant risk that the rape kit swab taken from Jade Moore was contaminated when Woods's blood sample leaked, thus leading to a false positive DNA match. The district court found that Woods did not fairly present this sub-claim to the Washington Supreme Court and ruled that the sub-claim was procedurally barred. We agree. [11] State prisoners seeking a writ of habeas corpus from a federal court must first exhaust their remedies in state court. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(1)(A). A petitioner has exhausted his federal claims when he has fully and fairly presented them to the state courts. O'Sullivan v. Boerckel, 526 U.S. 838, 844-45, 119 S.Ct. 1728, 144 L.Ed.2d 1 (1999) (Section 2254(c) requires only that state prisoners give state courts a fair opportunity to act on their claims.). [F]or purposes of exhausting state remedies, a claim for relief in habeas corpus must include reference to a specific federal constitutional guarantee, as well as a statement of the facts that entitle the petitioner to relief. Gray v. Netherland, 518 U.S. 152, 162-63, 116 S.Ct. 2074, 135 L.Ed.2d 457 (1996); see also Davis v. Silva, 511 F.3d 1005, 1009 (9th Cir.2008). Here, Woods presented the state supreme court with both the operative facts and legal theory of his sub-claim that the State withheld evidence of WSPCL's general testing and review protocols, but he did not present facts relating to the breakage of the vial containing his first blood sample at the Spokane lab. Woods argues that, although his PRP never expressly raised a claim about the spillage of his blood sample and the potential for contamination of other evidence, his state court Brady claim alleging the non-disclosure of WSPCL's practice of discarding erroneous draft reports was sufficient to raise the issue of the prosecution's failure to disclose the mishandling of all the evidence related to DNA testing. In his amended PRP, Woods unequivocally stated that his Brady claim related to how WSPCL's general practices related to his case. Woods noted in his PRP that counsel moved to take depositions of Dr. Brown, William Morig, and Donald MacLaren, all of the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab, to determine the specific practices in this case.  (emphasis added). Woods suggests this language was sufficient to put the state supreme court on notice of the second Brady sub-claim he raised in his federal habeas petition. Nowhere in the PRP's Brady section, however, does Woods mention the spillage of the first blood sample. Aside from his request to depose Morig, Woods's only reference in the PRP to the forensic work at WSPCL's Spokane facility stated that Morig received the rape kit swabs, prepared samples from the swabs, and sent the samples to other laboratories to be tested. The Brady claim presented in the PRP focuses entirely on the actions of Dr. Brown, both in the Barfield case and in Woods's case. Yet Dr. Brown had nothing to do with the storage, spillage, and breakage of the vial containing Woods's first blood sample. In fact, Woods does not allege that Dr. Brown even knew that a spillage occurred. As discussed above, Dr. Brown's conduct in the Barfield case does not create a presumption that WSPCL, as an organization, systematically suppressed exculpatory material. We thus fail to see how the Brady claim in Woods's PRP, which spoke only to Dr. Brown's procedures for testing and analysis in the Seattle lab, gave the state supreme court a full and fair opportunity to act on an allegation that the prosecution withheld evidence related to the spillage of a blood sample at WSPCL's Spokane laboratory. Accordingly, we conclude that Woods failed to present the facts underlying his second Brady sub-claim to the Washington Supreme Court, and we affirm the district court's ruling that the sub-claim regarding the spillage of Woods's blood sample is technically exhausted but procedurally barred. Woods contends that the district court nonetheless should have entertained his sub-claim because he established cause for the procedural default and prejudice resulting from his failure to exhaust state remedies. See Banks v. Dretke, 540 U.S. 668, 690-91, 124 S.Ct. 1256, 157 L.Ed.2d 1166 (2004) (holding that petitioner would be entitled to an evidentiary hearing in federal court if he could show cause for his failure to develop the facts in state-court proceedings and actual prejudice resulting from that failure). For a Brady claim, cause and prejudice `parallel two of the three components of the alleged Brady violation itself.' Id. at 691, 124 S.Ct. 1256 (quoting Strickler, 527 U.S. at 282, 119 S.Ct. 1936). A petitioner may establish cause by showing that the prosecution's suppression of evidence was the reason for the petitioner's failure to develop the factual basis of the claim in state court. Id. Prejudice is established by showing that the suppressed evidence is material for Brady purposes. Id. Here, Woods argues that he failed to develop the facts of this sub-claim because the State never disclosed the full details of the spillage of his first blood sample. We agree with the district court that this is insufficient to show that the prosecution's alleged suppression of evidence caused Woods's failure to develop his sub-claim in state court. Notably, the prosecution disclosed before trial that the vial containing Woods's first blood sample had cracked and leaked at the Spokane lab. That disclosure put Woods on notice that other evidence may have been contaminated. Woods does not allege what further exculpatory facts the prosecution possessed but failed to disclose. Moreover, although Woods sought authorization from the Washington Supreme Court to conduct certain discovery, neither his discovery requests nor his request for an evidentiary hearing specifically related to the spillage of the blood sample or the possible contamination of other evidence. His failure to develop the factual basis of his claim, therefore, cannot properly be attributable to the prosecution's failure to disclose relevant evidence. We thus affirm the district court's dismissal of this sub-claim as procedurally defaulted. [12]