Opinion ID: 3030487
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the trial court committed reversible

Text: [sic] in dismissing three jurors for cause who expressed concern about the court’s requirement that they commit to following the court’s instructions on the law without having first heard the instructions? II. Whether the trial court erred in finding racially neutral cause for the prosecutor’s exercise of peremptory challenge to remove the only African- American from the jury? III. Whether the trial court committed fundamental error by allowing the jury to view highly prejudicial videotapes of Appellant’s interrogation and arrest and in failing to grant the subsequent motions for a new trial or the motion for reconsideration? (emphasis added). The only argument at issue in this appeal is question three. Castillo’s statement of that issue and its corresponding argument heading were entirely silent as to any federal due process claim. Castillo neither mentioned in relation to that claim the source of his claimed right, viz., the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause, nor asserted any federal due process violation. Similarly, the argument section of Castillo’s briefing was all but devoid of any language presenting his federal due process argument to the Arizona Court of Appeals. On issue one, Castillo had argued that the trial court violated his Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial by an impartial jury, presumably incorporated against Arizona by the Fourteenth Amendment. On issue two, he claimed a Batson violation under the Fourteenth Amendment. In contrast, on issue three, Castillo focused his argument on whether the trial court should have excluded the videotape because it was prejudicial under AriCASTILLO v. MCFADDEN 2167 zona Rule of Evidence 403 (“Although relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury . . . .”). Nowhere in the argument concerning the videotape, until the penultimate sentence, did Castillo even refer to the U.S. Constitution. Finally, at the end of his argument, Castillo claimed that “[b]ecause this improper evidence was admitted, Appellant was denied a fair trial in violation of the United States and the Arizona Constitutions.” [8] That general appeal to a “fair trial” right, however, failed to exhaust Castillo’s claim. Hiivala, 195 F.3d at 1106. It did not reference, as we require, any specific provision of the U.S. Constitution on which he rested his claim. Lyons, 232 F.3d at 670. Neither did Castillo cite relevant state or federal cases that might have alerted the Arizona court to his claim. Baldwin, 124 S. Ct. at 1351. Two of the three federal cases that he cited, United States v. Hale, 422 U.S. 171 (1975), and Shepard v. United States, 290 U.S. 96 (1933), discussed federal evidentiary rules, not due process principles. See, e.g., Hale, 422 U.S. at 173 (declining to reach any federal constitutional question); Shepard, 290 U.S. at 104 (excluding evidence admitted under the “dying declaration” exception to the hearsay rule of evidence because of the risk of prejudice). The third case that Castillo cited, Grunewald v. United States, 353 U.S. 391 (1957), did not concern the Due Process Clause, but the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Id. at 415. Similarly, none of the state cases relied on by Castillo to support his third point of error involved the express invocation, explanation or discussion of due process standards. E.g., State v. Hughes, 189 Ariz. 62, 938 P.2d 457 (1997) (en banc) (criminal appeal construing the Arizona Rules of Evidence); State v. Miller, 186 Ariz. 314, 921 P.2d 1151 (1996) (criminal appeal discussing waiver and fundamental error under the Arizona Rules of Evidence); State v. McVay, 127 Ariz. 450, 622 P.2d 9 (1980) (criminal appeal construing the Arizona Rules of Evidence); State v. Williams, 111 Ariz. 511, 533 2168 CASTILLO v. MCFADDEN P.2d 1146 (1979) (criminal appeal reviewing admissibility of evidence); Maxwell v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., 143 Ariz. 205, 693 P.2d 348 (App. 1984) (civil appeal applying doctrine of fundamental error); Hinson v. Phoenix Pie Co., 3 Ariz. App. 523, 416 P.2d 202 (App. 1966) (civil appeal construing the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure). Citation of irrelevant federal or state cases does not provide a state court with a “ ‘fair opportunity’ to apply controlling legal principles to the facts bearing upon his constitutional claim.” Kelly, 315 F.3d at 1066. Sandgathe v. Maass, 314 F.3d 371 (9th Cir. 2002), is not to the contrary. In that case, an Oregon post-conviction trial court expressly decided that Sandgathe was “not denied any right guaranteed . . . under the United States Constitution. . . .” Id. at 376-77. The Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed without any opinion. Id. at 375. Noting the Supreme Court’s presumption that “where there has been one reasoned state judgment rejecting a federal claim, later unexplained orders upholding that judgment or rejecting the same claim rest upon the same ground,” Ylst v. Nunnemaker, 501 U.S. 797, 803 (1991), we concluded that, “in light of the [post-conviction trial court’s] prior decision,” the Oregon Court of Appeals’ summary affirmance also reached the merits of Sandgathe’s federal claim. Id. at 378 & n.4. Thus, the Ylst presumption meant Sandgathe had adequately presented his federal claim to the Oregon Court of Appeals and thereby exhausted it, notwithstanding his otherwise confused appellate briefing and reliance on “inapposite federal citations.” Id. at 378. Sandgathe so held because the “post-conviction trial court explicitly ruled on the federal constitutional issues and there is no indication that the Court of Appeals did not . . . .”4 Id. 4 Although we need not resolve the issue here, we question whether Sandgathe’s approach to exhaustion of state court remedies has survived the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Baldwin. As previously noted, Baldwin disclaimed our circuit’s approach to exhaustion that had effectively required a state appellate court to review a lower court’s decision CASTILLO v. MCFADDEN 2169 Here, Castillo cannot claim the benefit of the Ylst presumption. Unlike in Sandgathe, the Arizona Court of Appeals addressed each of the issues Castillo briefed and argued and issued its own reasoned state judgment. It rejected on state law grounds Castillo’s argument concerning the admission of his videotaped interrogation; it was silent as to any federal issue. Castillo had to alert the reviewing court to either the particular federal constitutional provisions or relevant federal cases upon which he relied. Lyons, 232 F.3d at 270. But he cannot raise Arizona evidentiary claims, cite cases dealing with the admission of evidence, mention the words “fair trial” and then reasonably expect the Arizona Court of Appeals to understand that he is complaining of anything other than evidentiary errors. [9] The conclusion of Castillo’s brief did no better in fairly presenting a federal due process claim to the Arizona Court of Appeals. The brief’s parting sentence asserted that “[t]he gross violations of Appellant’s Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights requires [sic] that his convictions and sentences be reversed and that he be granted a new trial consistent with due process of law.” This conclusory, scattershot citation of federal constitutional provisions, divorced from any articulated federal legal theory, was the first time Castillo’s brief used the words “due process” or “Fifth Amendment.”5 for federal issues. 124 S. Ct. at 1351. Baldwin held that the availability of a lower court opinion addressing a federal issue — an issue not otherwise presented within the four corners of a petitioner’s state appellate briefing — did not “fairly present” a federal claim to a state court such that the claim would be exhausted. Id. Sandgathe, however, looked to the lower court decision and presumed that the Oregon Court of Appeals had affirmed on the same federal grounds. 314 F.3d at 378. It did not limit the exhaustion inquiry to whether Sandgathe had presented his federal claim in the four corners of his state court appellate briefing. 5 Castillo’s citation of the Fifth Amendment was, of course, incorrect. The Fifth Amendment prohibits the federal government from depriving persons of due process, while the Fourteenth Amendment explicitly prohibits deprivations without due process by the several States: “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” U.S. Const. amend. XIV (emphasis added). 2170 CASTILLO v. MCFADDEN Castillo, therefore, left the Arizona Court of Appeals to puzzle over how the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments might relate to his three foregoing claims. Even if counselcrafted briefing merited our liberal construction, the Arizona Court of Appeals would have had to infer that because the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments likely related to Castillo’s impartial jury claim and because the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause likely related to his Batson claim, by implication, the Fifth Amendment (or, more accurately, the Fourteenth Amendment) would have had to relate to his denial of a fair trial as a result of the admission of the videotape. Such a process of elimination with a dose of charitable construction amounts to a good deal more than “a slight inferential step.” Dissent at 2176 n.5. After all, Castillo’s general reference to the Fourteenth Amendment in his conclusion might have referred to either his impartial jury or his Batson claims. Referring to the Fourteenth Amendment in relation to these other claims does not exhaust his separate assertion that the trial court violated his federal due process rights by admitting the videotape. Baldwin, 124 S. Ct. at 1351. Exhaustion demands more than drive-by citation, detached from any articulation of an underlying federal legal theory. [10] Nor could Castillo exhaust his federal due process argument by asserting that the trial court committed “fundamental error” by admitting the videotaped interrogation. “Fundamental error,” a matter of Arizona law, is “an appellate mechanism for considering and ruling on issues which were not presented to the trial court,” Villafuerte v. Lewis, 75 F.3d 1330, 1335 (9th Cir. 1996), analogous to “plain error” review in federal court. The Arizona doctrine preserves for appeal issues that “may be so important that overriding considerations concerning the integrity of the system will excuse a party’s failure to raise the issue in the trial court.” State v. Gendron, 812 P.2d 626, 628 (Ariz. 1991). Although the Arizona Supreme Court has noted that fundamental error “usually, if not always, involves the loss of federal constitutional rights,” id., Castillo’s mere assertion of fundamental error CASTILLO v. MCFADDEN 2171 does not mean he asserted a federal constitutional claim; claims subject to fundamental error review may consist entirely of assertions under Arizona law. See Johnson v. Lewis, 929 F.2d 460, 462 (9th Cir. 1991) (holding that when neither the petitioner’s state court briefs nor the state court’s decision made any reference to any federal constitutional claim or cited any federal constitutional cases, the lack of fundamental error found by the state court was a lack of fundamental error under Arizona’s state constitution). Thus, an argument of “fundamental error” under Arizona law does not equate to raising a federal constitutional argument. [11] Moreover, Castillo could not have expected an Arizona “fundamental error” claim to alert the Court of Appeals to the particular federal claim he now advances. Appellate counsel assert “fundamental error” when trial counsel failed to object properly at trial. Villafuerte, 75 F.3d at 1335. Here, Castillo repeatedly objected to the videotape’s admission in the trial court on federal constitutional grounds. Accordingly, he preserved his right to appeal that issue; he had no need to argue that the videotape’s admission was “fundamental error.” If anything, the claim of “fundamental error” would have directed the Court of Appeals to consider an issue not raised or otherwise preserved below.