Opinion ID: 203677
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Failure to Challenge Admissibility of Pre-Trial Statements to Civilians and Police

Text: Petitioner further alleges that his counsel provided ineffective assistance in failing to challenge, on voluntariness grounds, the admissibility of Yeboah-Sefah's pre-trial statements to Moore, Moore's mother, and to the police in the immediate aftermath of the crime. [20] Petitioner alleges that the statements to Moore and Hall were involuntary, while the statements to police were also inadmissible because petitioner, due to his mental illness, could not provide a knowing and intelligent waiver of his Miranda rights. Petitioner asserts that counsel's failure to challenge the admission of these statements was prejudicial because the Commonwealth relied on the statements, to show that petitioner could think rationally at the time of the incident, which undermined his insanity defense. The parties dispute whether this claim was adjudicated on the merits so as to give rise to deference under § 2254(d)(1). This is not entirely clear. While the SJC adjudicated petitioner's related argument regarding the trial court's failure to conduct a suppression hearing sua sponte, [21] it did not directly address whether counsel was ineffective in failing to request one. The ineffective assistance claim was however, addressed in a lower state court decision, in which the trial court judge denied petitioner's first new trial motion. [22] While the SJC did, in a footnote, cite to the trial court on this issue, it did not explicitly adopt the trial court's conclusion. See Boateng, 781 N.E.2d. at 1214 n. 5. As our sister circuit has recognized, it is not clear whether an adjudication on the merits by a trial court, which is neither explicitly affirmed on the merits nor explicitly rejected by the appellate court, is sufficient to trigger AEDPA review. DeBerry v. Portuondo, 403 F.3d 57, 68 (2d Cir.2005) (explicitly declining to decide the question). However, as in DeBerry, we need not decide this question on the facts of this case because, even reviewing the claim de novo, we are unable to conclude that trial counsel's failure to challenge the admissibility of petitioner's pre-trial statements satisfies the prejudice prong of Strickland. See Sleeper, 510 F.3d at 39. As for petitioner's claim regarding statements to Moore and Hall, we cannot discern any reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different had defense counsel objected to their admission given the unlikelihood that such objection would have succeeded. Under Massachusetts law, statements to private parties contemporaneous with a criminal act are not subject to voluntariness analysis. See Commonwealth v. LaCava, 438 Mass. 708, 783 N.E.2d 812, 822 n. 12 (2003). As the SJC concluded, it had no trouble deciding that [petitioner's] statements to Moore and her mother occurred during the commission of the crimes. Boateng, 781 N.E.2d at 1214 n. 3 (emphasis added). In light of this opinion, rendered by the ultimate authority on questions of Massachusetts law, it is fair to conclude that any attempt by counsel to object to the admission of the statements made to these private individuals would have been fruitless, and thus, no prejudice resulted from the failure to do so. We are also persuaded that trial counsel's failure to seek suppression of petitioner's statements to the police in the aftermath of the incident did not prejudice the petitioner. At the hearing on petitioner's first new trial motion, trial defense counsel testified in defense of his trial tactics. On the basis of said testimony, the trial court made several factual findings relevant to the instant claim to which, even when reviewing the legal issues de novo, we are nevertheless required to defer. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1) (requiring that a state court's factual finding be presumed to be correct unless the petitioner rebuts this presumption by clear and convincing evidence); accord Demosthenes v. Baal, 495 U.S. 731, 735, 110 S.Ct. 2223, 109 L.Ed.2d 762 (1990) (finding that state court's determinations on the merits of a factual issue are entitled to a presumption of correctness on federal habeas review, and further noting that a state court's conclusion regarding a defendant's competency is entitled to such a presumption). Those findings were as follows: 1. The evidence adduced at the Rule 30 hearings was not persuasive that defendant was incompetent, by reason of his mental condition, voluntarily to utter statements and to waive his Miranda rights. 2. The statements defendant uttered, both with and without Miranda compliance, rationally tended to support his determination, at trial, to pursue the defense that he was not guilty by reason of insanity (NGI). . . . 6. TDC determined that the evidence of defendant's admissions was not harmful to, and, indeed, supported the defense theory of NGI. Accordingly, he did not seek to suppress that evidence or otherwise exclude it from evidence. So too, his determination not to call upon medical professionals to challenge the voluntariness of defendant's admissions was founded upon his view that, were he to succeed in suppressing or diminishing the effect of the admissions, he would most probably accomplish only an erosion of his NGI defense. He wanted some of the statements, such as the threats against Alecia, to come into evidence to bolster the NGI defense; he did not want to reveal certain information about defendant's mental state in advance of trial; and, in any event, he believed that a challenge to voluntariness was, on the facts, unlikely to succeed. In sum, counsel, resolved, as a tactical choice, to support the NGI theory with defendant's admissions and insanity-evocative conduct. Boateng, 2000 WL 1481424 at -3. Based on these findings, as well as our own review of the record, we are persuaded that trial counsel's failure to challenge the admissibility of petitioner's statements to police as either involuntary or obtained through an invalid waiver of his Miranda rights, did not prejudice the petitioner within the meaning of Strickland. First, any attempt by counsel to suppress the statements likely would have failed. Even where Miranda warnings and procedures are adhered to, if petitioner's waiver of his Fifth Amendment privilege was not in fact knowing and intelligent, the subsequently made statements would be subject to suppression. See Dickerson v. United States, 530 U.S. 428, 444, 120 S.Ct. 2326, 147 L.Ed.2d 405 (2000). But [w]hile the fact that a defendant was given Miranda warnings does not `dispense with the voluntariness inquiry,' the cases in which a defendant can make a colorable argument that a self-incriminating statement was `compelled' despite the fact that the law enforcement authorities adhered to the dictates of Miranda are rare. Id. Petitioner here does not claim that the warnings and procedures required by Miranda were breached by the police. Moreover the trial court made a factual finding, entitled to a presumption of correctness under § 2254(e)(1), that the evidence showed petitioner to be sufficiently competent to accomplish a voluntary waiver of his Miranda rights. Boateng, 2000 WL 1481424 at . These facts, along with petitioner's calm demeanor following the incident when the challenged statements were made, and the absence of any evidence of police coercion or intimidation, collectively suggest that it was quite unlikely that counsel would have actually succeeded in suppressing the statements had he endeavored to do so. See United States v. Guerrero, 114 F.3d 332, 338 (1st Cir. 1997) (discussing factors relevant to voluntariness determination). Secondly, although petitioner argues that he was prejudiced by the admission of his statements to police officers, in that the prosecution relied on them to negate his insanity defense, it appears that what was most prejudicial about those statements was not their substance (after all, it was never disputed that petitioner committed the criminal acts), but the calm, rational manner in which he made them. But even if the statements were suppressed, the testimony of police officers as to their observations of petitioner's calm demeanor after the incident would nevertheless likely be admissible and probative on the question of sanity, thereby undermining any claim of prejudice from the admission of the statements themselves. See United States v. LeRoy, 944 F.2d 787 (10th Cir.1991)(lay opinion as to person's sanity is admissible if witness has observed his conduct). Thus, to the extent that petitioner's statements constituted evidence adverse to his insanity defense, we are convinced that they constituted peripheral circumstantial evidence that could not have had a decisive effect on the jury's verdict. Moreover, the trial court's issuance of a humane practice instruction, whereby the jury was specifically instructed to determine independently whether petitioner's statements were voluntary before considering them as evidence of guilt, further reduces the risk of adverse effect from trial counsel's failure to move for the suppression of petitioner's statements to police on voluntariness grounds. [23] As petitioner cannot establish prejudice as required under Strickland, this ineffective assistance claim must fail.