Opinion ID: 852583
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Burden of Proof and Standard of Proof of Prejudice from Failure To Object to Inherently Prejudicial Practices

Text: We turn now to the issues of burden of proof and standard of proof of prejudice from failure to object to the belt.
Strickland established that prejudice from substandard performance of counsel requires a showing by the petitioner that there was a reasonable probability of a different result if counsel had met professional norms. We sometimes express the standard for prejudice from the failure to object as requiring a reasonable probability that the objection would have been sustained. See, e.g., Wrinkles, 749 N.E.2d at 1192 (citing Timberlake, 690 N.E.2d at 259). The standard is more precisely stated as prejudicial failure to raise an objection that the trial court would have been required to sustain. Otherwise stated, if the trial court overruled the objection, it would have committed error, and the error would have had a prejudicial effect. See, e.g., Spinks v. McBride, 858 F.Supp. 865, 877 (N.D.Ind.1994) (In order to establish ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to object, it must be shown that the trial court would have been required to sustain the objection had it been made. (citing Hill v. State, 442 N.E.2d 1049 (Ind.1982))); Kimble v. State, 451 N.E.2d 302, 306 (Ind. 1983) (Before trial counsel's failure to enter an objection may be regarded as ineffective representation, the petitioner must show that had a proper objection been made, the trial court would have had no choice but to sustain it.). In most cases there is no practical difference between these two formulations.
Wrinkles, like Stephenson, asserted that trial counsel were ineffective for not objecting to the court's ordering him to wear a stun belt at trial. Wrinkles contended that there was no reason to require restraint. Wrinkles, 749 N.E.2d at 1192. We recognized that a defendant has the right to appear before a jury unrestrained unless restraint is necessary for a trial without incident. Id. at 1193 (citing Bivins v. State, 642 N.E.2d 928, 936 (Ind. 1994)). We also acknowledged that this right springs from the basic principle of American jurisprudence that a person accused of a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and that in order for the presumption to be effective, a defendant must appear unrestrained to avoid the appearance that guilt was a foregone conclusion. Id. We reiterated that the reasons for requiring a defendant to be restrained before a jury must be placed on the trial record. Id. (citing Roche v. State, 690 N.E.2d 1115, 1123 (Ind.1997); Coates v. State, 487 N.E.2d 167, 169 (Ind.Ct.App.1985), overruled on other grounds by Hahn v. State, 533 N.E.2d 618 (Ind.Ct.App.1989)). Deck has now made clear that the Fourteenth Amendment imposes the same requirement. The majority in Wrinkles acknowledged that a policy requiring all defendants to wear restraints would not likely withstand appellate scrutiny if the issue were presented. 749 N.E.2d at 1195. We nonetheless held in Wrinkles that counsel's failure to object to the stun belt's use did not constitute ineffective assistance in that case. We based that ruling on a lack of prejudice, without addressing whether counsel's performance was substandard. Id. at 1195, 1196. The reason for that holding was that the trial court's policy dictated use of restraint and any objection to the belt would not have prevailed. Id. The failure to require an individualized determination was not asserted as a ground of ineffective assistance in Wrinkles. We agree with the State that Stephenson's case presents many similarities to Wrinkles. The two are not identical, however, because this record shows no inflexible policy of the trial court. Trial counsel Long testified that in his experience, the trial judge typically deferred to the sheriff's security decisions. The sheriff, in turn, cited concerns in transporting defendants from jail to the courtroom as the basis for requiring restraint. These concerns did not seem to relate directly to use of the belt at trial as opposed to its use in transit, but that issue was not explored at the post-conviction hearing. [4] The officers in charge of security at the trial testified that they had no knowledge of any incidents that would demonstrate a need for Stephenson to wear a stun belt. Sheriff Bruce Hargrave; Charlie McCracken, the sergeant in charge of security at Stephenson's trial; Jerry Ash, the deputy of security; police officer Robert Irvin; and Jonetta Baker, jail commander for the Warrick County Police Department, all testified at post-conviction that to their knowledge Stephenson posed no security threat and had exhibited no behavior that would demonstrate a specific need for a restraining device at trial. There was also extensive post-conviction testimony from the sheriff's office and others that Stephenson conducted himself as a gentleman throughout the arrest and trial. He had turned himself in in response to reports that law enforcement was looking for him in connection with the murders and made no effort to escape either before or during trial. From the sheriff's testimony, it appears that no one gave careful consideration to the need for any restraint while Stephenson was in the courtroom at his trial. Rather, the need was assumed, and the only concern voiced by the sheriff was whether the jury would see the restraint. Although the record shows that the trial judge followed the recommendation of the sheriff, it does not indicate that either had an inflexible policy of requiring restraint, or, if so, to what cases it applied.
As already explained, Roche found prejudice from failure to object to restraints, and Wrinkles rejected it. Both cases used the Strickland standard of a reasonable probability of a different result. Deck now teaches that prejudice from shackling is governed by the inherently prejudicial standard for constitutional error under Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967). 544 U.S. at 635, 125 S.Ct. 2007. Rather than placing the burden on the defendant-petitioner to show a reasonable probability of a different result, an inherently prejudicial error requires the State to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the error has no effect on the ultimate resolution of the trial. Deck, therefore, establishes a stronger presumption of reversible error from failure to object to shackling than the Seventh Circuit applied in Roche or we applied in Wrinkles. We think, however, that Deck does not relieve the petitioner in post-conviction proceedings from the burden of establishing both the substandard performance and prejudice prongs of an ineffective assistance claim. Before Deck was decided, most claims of ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to object to shackles or jail garb were rejected based on lack of prejudice, even though the court explicitly or implicitly assumed substandard performance. We find only one published opinion that has addressed this issue after Deck. [5] The Eleventh Circuit, in Marquard v. Secretary for Department of Corrections, 429 F.3d 1278 (11th Cir.2005), addressed a post-conviction claim of ineffective assistance for failure to object to shackling at the penalty phase of a Florida death penalty case. There was no shackling at the guilt phase, but the defendant appeared in shackles at the penalty phase, and there was no inquiry establishing the necessity of shackles. The trial and direct appeal had occurred before Deck was handed down. In 2002, the Florida Supreme Court denied post-conviction relief. Like most pre- Deck decisions, that ruling addressed the claim of ineffective assistance for failure to object to shackling solely by finding no prejudice. Marquard v. State, 850 So.2d 417, 431 (Fla.2002). The primary issue in federal habeas, therefore, was the retroactivity of Deck's holdings that (1) unnecessary shackling at the penalty phase violated the Fourteenth Amendment and (2) its harmlessness must be established beyond a reasonable doubt. The Eleventh Circuit rejected Marquard's claim of ineffective assistance for three reasons. The first two grounds  Deck is not retroactive and counsel were not ineffective for failure to anticipate Deck's extension of the shackling ban to the penalty phase  do not resolve Stephenson's claim because Stephenson appeared in the stun belt at the guilt phase of his trial. The Eleventh Circuit also offered a third ground. The habeas court concluded that in a direct appeal Deck shifted the burden to the state to prove harmlessness of shackling without a specific-needs inquiry, but Deck did not address, much less alter, the burden and different required prejudice showing on Marquard's IAC shackling claim. Marquard, 429 F.3d at 1313. As a result, the defendant had the burden to establish prejudice under the Strickland standard. The law at the time of Marquard's direct appeal would not have supported either his claim of error for unnecessary shackling at the penalty phase or a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to object to shackling at the penalty phase. It is clear that lack of retroactivity does not bar Stephenson's ineffective assistance claim at the guilt phase. The novel proposition in Deck was that shackling during the death penalty phase violates the Fourteenth Amendment. At the time of Stephenson's trial, the points relevant to the guilt phase were already established law: unnecessarily shackling at the guilt phase of trial (or at trial in a non-death case) violates the Fourteenth Amendment; jail garb is inherently prejudicial; and the State bears the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that an inherently prejudicial practice had no effect on the determination of guilt or the penalty. In short, the principles set forth in Deck that are relevant to Stephenson's case were all established by earlier precedent. Marquard therefore did not directly address the situation we have before us, where Stephenson's stun belt at the guilt phase required a specific-needs inquiry under the law in place at the time of his trial and direct appeal. We nevertheless think Marquard is correct that Strickland governs the prejudice prong of Stephenson's claim of ineffective assistance for failure to object to shackling.
If the issue of shackling at the guilt phase had been preserved at trial and raised on direct appeal, we would have been compelled to address that claim under the standard of Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), and the burden would have been on the State to establish lack of prejudice beyond a reasonable doubt. But Strickland v. Washington places the burden of establishing prejudice on the petitioner in an ineffective assistance claim. The critical issue is therefore whether Stephenson established a reasonable probability that his counsel's failure to object to Stephenson's stun belt affected the result in either the guilt or penalty phase. The State principally relies on Stevens v. State, 770 N.E.2d 739 (Ind.2002), as establishing lack of prejudice from Stephenson wearing the belt at trial. That case, however, is inapplicable here because at least several of Stephenson's jurors were aware of the belt. In Stevens, we found no ineffective assistance for counsel's failure to object to the defendant's wearing a stun belt. The defendant had conceded that none of the jurors were aware that he was wearing the stun belt but argued that their perception of him was affected by his behavior and appearance as a result of the restraint. Id. at 757. The defendant argued that he appeared withdrawn, subdued, and unusually silent, which may have influenced [the jury] to recommend the death penalty. Id. Applying a pre- Deck standard of review, we affirmed the post-conviction court's finding that under the facts of that case the outcome would not have been different if there had been an objection. Id. In French v. State, supra , we held that a defendant who wore handcuffs, shackles, and jail clothing at his habitual offender proceeding could not show he was prejudiced by counsel's failure to object because it seem[ed] clear that the result of the proceeding was not affected by counsel's performance. 778 N.E.2d 816, 826. The issue in the habitual offender proceeding was whether the defendant had two prior felony convictions. He had already been convicted by the same jury of the underlying offenses, so it was no surprise that he was incarcerated. Moreover, as to the only issue  his two prior convictions  the evidence was clear. Id. at 826. Unlike French, Stephenson's failure to prove a reasonable probability of a different result does not rest on essentially indisputable evidence that establishes the merits of his conviction and sentence. [6] Rather, Stephenson has shown no prejudice because he has not shown a reasonable probability that an objection, if made, would have been successful in the trial court, or would have produced the basis for a successful appeal. Stephenson contends that wearing the stun belt interfered with his right to communicate with counsel and participate in his own defense. The arguments of the parties and the post-conviction court's findings with respect to the stun belt were focused on this Court's opinion in Wrinkles. The findings with respect to the belt in their entirety were: At the time of the trial of this matter, it was not impermissible for the electronic restraint belt to be worn by Stephenson during the trial. The belt was never activated while on Stephenson, he was not prevented from assisting counsel while wearing the belt, and the same was a suitable and discreet alternative to other methods of restraint for Stephenson while he was on trial on multiple counts, including three counts of murder, in this case. The use of the belt was accepted by Stephenson and his counsel without argument or objection on the record during the trial proceedings. Insofar as ineffective assistance claims were based on the belt, the post-conviction court found: As previously included in other findings of fact, it was the Warrick County Sheriff's Department who obtained and placed the electronic restraint on Stephenson and beneath his clothing. Judge Campbell did not order this to be done, and trial counsel did not argue or object to this restraint, as compared to other forms of restraint which may have been required otherwise. At the time the Defendant was required to wear the electronic restraint, he was on trial for triple murder, and facing a death penalty request by the State of Indiana. The law had not yet ruled the use of such devices on a criminal Defendant to be improper or violative of a Defendant's rights. In view of all the circumstances surrounding this case and this Defendant, including the extremely violent nature of the murders committed, the use of the electronic restraint belt was warranted, reasonable and necessary under these circumstances. The post-conviction court concluded that counsel for Defendant was not ineffective because of failure to object to the use by the sheriff of the electronic restraint device on Stephenson during trial. We take these findings and conclusions as a finding that the trial court would have overruled any objection to the belt that counsel had raised. These three murders were contended by both the defendant and the prosecution to have been related to organized drug activity. The murders appeared to have been premeditated and had characteristics of an assassination. There was testimony that the defendant had threatened to kill a critical witness. Under all these circumstances, the post-conviction court's finding is not clearly erroneous. Indeed, given the state of the law in 1996, we think it plain that the trial judge would have followed the sheriff's recommendation and ordered that the belt be deployed at the guilt phase even if defendant's counsel had objected and required a hearing and findings as to the need for its use. Because at the time shackling at the penalty phase was less controversial, the same result would have obtained at the penalty phase. Given the fact-sensitive nature of that order, under the circumstances the issue would not have presented a persuasive ground for appeal. The standard of review on appeal would have been abuse of discretion. Bivins v. State, 642 N.E.2d 928, 936 (Ind.1994); Evans v. State, 571 N.E.2d 1231, 1238 (Ind.1991). Accordingly, Stephenson has not established a reasonable probability of a different result from counsel's performance with respect to the belt at the guilt phase. C. Appellate Counsel's Failure To Raise an Issue over the Belt Although Stephenson asserts claims of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, the failure to raise any issue of the belt on direct appeal is not among them. Stephenson contends that appellate counsel were unaware of the belt and correctly points out that there is no mention of the belt in the trial record. He claims that had appellate counsel known of the belt's use the issue would have been raised on appeal. We think that this circumstance raises no issue of appellate ineffectiveness. The performance of appellate counsel is not substandard for failure to assert an issue on appeal if the issue is not revealed by the record and there is no evidence suggesting that appellate counsel were otherwise made aware of it. We have observed that the Supreme Court of the United States has never suggested that [appellate] counsel must look outside the record for possible claims of error for the performance to be constitutionally effective. Woods v. State, 701 N.E.2d 1208, 1221 (Ind.1998). We agree with those courts that have refused to impose such a burden on appellate counsel. Id. at 1221-22 (citing Kitt v. Clarke, 931 F.2d 1246, 1249-50 (8th Cir.1991)). Thus, we concluded in Woods that [b]ecause there is no constitutional requirement for appellate counsel to search outside the record for error, an ineffective assistance of appellate counsel claim that is in substance a trial counsel claim requiring extrinsic evidence may be dead on arrival. Id. at 1222. A corollary of this conclusion is that it is incumbent upon trial counsel to communicate to appellate counsel any matters outside the record that are appropriate for direct appeal. If supplementation of the record is required, Indiana procedure allows for it, [7] but we think the performance of trial counsel, not appellate counsel, is the only issue when nothing in the record suggests the issue. In sum, to the extent Stephenson presents a claim for post-conviction relief based on the use of the stun belt at trial, that claim is one of ineffective assistance of trial counsel for failure to object, failure to preserve the issue for appeal, and failure to communicate the circumstance to appellate counsel. All of these omissions lead to the same result: they had no effect on the ultimate result of the trial.