Opinion ID: 174346
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Petitioners' Vagueness Challenges Lack Merit

Text: We have no difficulty concluding that Mannix and Archer were both on notice that their conductshooting into an enclosed space when each petitioner knew people were insidewas criminal. Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 108, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972). It cannot be said that the depraved indifference murder statute, as interpreted at the relevant time, could trap the innocent by not providing fair warning. Id. And, it certainly cannot be said that there was any risk that either man was unaware that his conduct was proscribed, such that their vagueness challenges would survive as-applied review. See Vill. of Hoffman Estates, 455 U.S. at 495, 102 S.Ct. 1186; accord Nadi, 996 F.2d at 550. Through the time petitioners' convictions became final, New York courts consistently held that firing into a crowd or enclosed space is a quintessential case of depraved indifference murder. See People v. Suarez, 6 N.Y.3d 202, 214, 811 N.Y.S.2d 267, 844 N.E.2d 721 (2005) (observing that [q]uintessential examples of depraved indifference murder include firing into a crowd (citing People v. Jernatowski, 238 N.Y. 188, 192, 144 N.E. 497 (1924) (upholding depraved indifference murder conviction where defendant fired two or more shots into the house where he knew there were human beings))); accord Payne, 3 N.Y.3d at 271, 786 N.Y.S.2d 116, 819 N.E.2d 634; People v. Gonzalez, 1 N.Y.3d 464, 467, 775 N.Y.S.2d 224, 807 N.E.2d 273 (2004); see also People v. Brown, 173 A.D.2d 318, 575 N.Y.S.2d 460, 460 (1st Dep't 1991) (upholding depraved indifference murder conviction where defendant fired shot through closed door). Relying on two decisions from the Southern District of New York, Mannix and Archer argue that the depraved indifference murder statute, as applied to them, encouraged arbitrary enforcement because their conduct was indistinguishable from conduct proscribed by the reckless manslaughter statute. See St. Helen, 2003 WL 25719647, at ; Jones, 2002 WL 33985141, at . At the outset, we reject the premise of petitioners' argument. Under Register, depraved indifference murder was defined as distinct from, and requiring an element in addition to, the lesser included offense of reckless manslaughter. See Sanchez, 98 N.Y.2d at 380, 748 N.Y.S.2d 312, 777 N.E.2d 204 ( Register requires a significantly heightened recklessness, distinguishing it from manslaughter ....); see also Payne, 3 N.Y.3d at 271, 786 N.Y.S.2d 116, 819 N.E.2d 634 ([T]he reckless conduct must be `so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so devoid of regard for the life or lives of others, and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes the death of another.' (quoting Gonzalez, 1 N.Y.3d at 469, 775 N.Y.S.2d 224, 807 N.E.2d 273)); Register, 60 N.Y.2d at 276, 469 N.Y.S.2d 599, 457 N.E.2d 704 (holding that the depraved mind murder statute requires in addition [to reckless manslaughter] not only that the conduct which results in death present a grave risk of death but that it also occur `[u]nder circumstances evincing a depraved indifference to human life' and construing the latter as an additional requirement (second alteration in original) (quoting N.Y. Penal Law § 125.25(2))). [I]t is not the province of a federal habeas court to reexamine state-court determinations on state-law questions. Estelle v. McGuire, 502 U.S. 62, 67-68, 112 S.Ct. 475, 116 L.Ed.2d 385 (1991). [S]tate courts are the ultimate expositors of state law. Mullaney v. Wilbur, 421 U.S. 684, 691, 95 S.Ct. 1881, 44 L.Ed.2d 508 (1975). As we are bound by the New York Court of Appeals' construction of state law at the time petitioners' convictions became final, we conclude that the depraved indifference murder and reckless manslaughter statutes define distinct offenses. Even if Mannix and Archer were right that they could have properly been convicted under either statute, their vagueness claims would still fail. As the district courts correctly recognized, no clearly established constitutional prohibition of statutory vagueness is violated when two statutes proscribe the same conduct and a defendant is charged under the one subjecting him to greater punishment. Quite to the contrary, the Supreme Court has held that even if two statutes overlap and have identical standards of proof, this, in and of itself, would not render them void for vagueness. Batchelder, 442 U.S. at 124, 99 S.Ct. 2198. Rather, when an act violates more than one criminal statute, the [g]overnment may prosecute under either so long as it does not discriminate against any class of defendants, an equal protection, not due process, concern. Id. at 123-24, 99 S.Ct. 2198. Petitioners raise no such discrimination claim here. Thus, we conclude that their vagueness arguments are foreclosed by Batchelder 's clear holding that a defendant has no constitutional right to elect which of two applicable... statutes shall be the basis of his indictment and prosecution. Id. at 125, 99 S.Ct. 2198; see also United States v. Carmel, 548 F.3d 571, 579 (7th Cir.2008) (stating that Congress may lawfully punish the same action under two separate statutes without running afoul of the Due Process Clause); United States v. Malik, 385 F.3d 758, 760 (7th Cir.2004) (concluding that [w]hen the same acts violate multiple laws, the prosecutor is free to choose the one with the highest sentence). [13] Petitioners nevertheless submit that when the New York Court of Appeals overruled Register, and declared depraved indifference to be a culpable mental state in Feingold, the court conceded that the interpretation of the depraved indifference murder statute was unconstitutionally vague at the time their convictions were finalized. As applied to these habeas petitioners, the change in the interpretation of the statute warrants no such conclusion. Indeed, this change which does not apply retroactively, see Henry, 578 F.3d at 139-41neither diminished the notice given to petitioners that their conduct was proscribed by New York law nor authorized arbitrary enforcement of the depraved indifference statute, see generally Farrell, 449 F.3d at 484-85. Moreover, although we are of the view that the meaning of New York's depraved indifference murder statute was clear at the relevant time, it is also true that some ambiguity in a statute's meaning is constitutionally tolerable. United States v. Chestaro, 197 F.3d 600, 605 (2d Cir.1999); accord Grayned, 408 U.S. at 110, 92 S.Ct. 2294 (declining to require mathematical certainty or meticulous specificity for statutes to survive vagueness review). Even if we were to consider petitioners' conduct under the law as it now stands, a rational jury could reasonably have found each man guilty of depraved indifference murder. Shooting into an enclosed spacewhether a small bathroom or a carknowing that people are inside, is conduct that evinces a mental state of depraved indifference to human life. Feingold, 7 N.Y.3d at 294, 819 N.Y.S.2d 691, 852 N.E.2d 1163; see also Register, 60 N.Y.2d at 282, 469 N.Y.S.2d 599, 457 N.E.2d 704 (Jasen, J., dissenting). Accordingly, we hold that the state courts did not unreasonably apply federal law in concluding (1) that, at the time their convictions became final, petitioners Mannix and Archer were on notice that their shootings were proscribed by law; and (2) that the depraved indifference murder statute did not encourage arbitrary enforcement. Petitioners have failed to identify any principle of clearly established federal law suggesting that New York's depraved indifference murder statute was void for vagueness as applied to their cases. To the contrary, Batchelder compels the conclusion that the state's decision to charge petitioners for depraved indifference murder, rather than only reckless manslaughter, does not warrant habeas relief.