Opinion ID: 788211
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: State court findings of fact

Text: 56 The nontestimonial diary of an unavailable declarant may be admitted into evidence over a Confrontation Clause objection if a close examination of the diary itself and the circumstances surrounding its creation indicates that the diary contains particularized guarantees of trustworthiness. See Taylor v. Hannigan, 1998 WL 239640, at  7-8 (D.Kan., 1998) (admission of a murder victim's personal notebook did not violate the Confrontation Clause where the declarant did not create the notebook in anticipation of litigation and did not make self-serving, frivolous, or scornful declarations, and nothing in the record indicated that the statements were made in bad faith or with any incentive to falsify or distort); United States v. Sheets, 125 F.R.D. 172, 177-79 (D.Utah, 1989) (admission of a diary written by the defendant's deceased wife did not violate the Confrontation Clause where the declarant wrote an entry every day in her own hand, the entries did not appear to be frivolous, and there was no reason for the declarant to lie to herself or make false, negative statements in her diary); United States v. Treff, 924 F.2d 975, 982-83 (8th Cir.1991) (admission of a diary against a federal criminal defendant was not an abuse of discretion under the residual hearsay exception now codified at Federal Rule of Evidence 807; even though the declarant's attorney had advised the declarant to begin keeping the diary in anticipation of litigation, the diary contained circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness). 57 The district court held that the California Court of Appeal's findings of fact were unreasonable under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2). The district court held that the trial court's finding that Mary was not biased—a finding upheld by the Court of Appeal—was an unreasonable finding of fact because there was  every indication that Mary was biased against petitioner. Parle, 2002 WL 2012639, at  (emphasis in the original). Mary described petitioner as a beast in her diary and blamed him for ruining her life. But she did so because of the physical and mental abuse she suffered at his hands. The district court's reasoning is circular in holding that Mary's statements about petitioner's abuse are not trustworthy because Mary was biased against petitioner on account of this very abuse. To sustain the district court's analysis, we would have to hold that any victim's description of abuse is biased. 58 The California evidence statute does not support the district court's interpretation of bias. Section 1370 asks [w]hether the declarant has a bias or motive for fabricating the statement, and the extent of any bias or motive. Cal. Evid.Code § 1370(b) (emphasis added). 59 Neither the diary itself nor the circumstances surrounding its creation suggests that Mary had a motive to fabricate descriptions of abuse in her diary. Far from being frivolous, Mary's diary reads as a very honest account of her life in the months leading up to her killing. Her tone is frank and sincere. In places she writes that she still loved petitioner and hoped things would work out with their relationship. In other places she even admits her own wrongdoing, confessing that she falsely accused, deliberately provoked, and physically abused petitioner—one time by stabbing him with a letter opener. The diary contains statements that Mary would not be likely to want anyone else to read: statements that are personally damaging and that reveal the most intimate details of her relationship with petitioner. There was nothing unreasonable about the state court's determination that Mary lacked a motive to falsify her own diary. 60 Petitioner argues that Mary wrote the diary in anticipation of a divorce and a possible custody dispute. Nothing in the record supports the assertion that Mary wrote the diary in order to use it later in litigation. Mary did not appear to have such a sophisticated understanding of the law of evidence. Had she lived, Mary could have testified about the abuse herself. 61 Finally, the district court held unreasonable the Court of Appeal's supposed finding that diaries (in general) are inherently trustworthy because they reflect a `regular process of recording the events' of one's life. Parle, 2002 WL 2012639, at . But in fact, the Court of Appeal found that  Mary's diary entries were made as part of her regular process of recording the events in her life. Cal. Ct.App. Op. at 50 (emphasis added). Rather than addressing diaries (in general), the state court evaluated the particular circumstances surrounding the creation of Mary's diary. Mary's son testified that she had regularly kept a diary at many points during her life. While some of her entries describe petitioner's abuse of her, most of them describe other parts of her life. For example, Mary writes about her relationship with her father, his health problems, and her son's medication regime. Many entries simply recount what she did that day. It was entirely reasonable for the state court to find that Mary's diary was trustworthy because she kept it regularly and in it recorded the everyday experiences of her life. And the trial court's admission into evidence of the entire diary minimized the possibility that the jury would view certain passages outside their proper context. 5 62 We conclude that the admission into evidence of Mary's diary was neither contrary to, nor involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law as determined by the Supreme Court. Further, none of the factual findings made in connection with the admission of the diary entries were unreasonable. We therefore vacate the district court's grant of relief on Confrontation Clause grounds. 63