Opinion ID: 202832
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the competence claim

Text: The petitioner's flagship claim is that the district court erred in determining that she was competent to stand trial in the state court. The Commonwealth attempts to head off any substantive consideration of this claim through the interposition of nonexhaustion and procedural default defenses. Because we may affirm the district court's denial of habeas relief on any ground made manifest by the record, see, e.g., United States v. Cabrera-Polo, 376 F.3d 29, 31 (1st Cir.2004); InterGen N.V. v. Grina, 344 F.3d 134, 141 (1st Cir.2003), we start with this initiative.
Principles of comity and federalism push in favor of giving state courts, without premature federal interference, a meaningful opportunity to consider, and if necessary to correct, claims of legal error in state criminal prosecutions. See Vasquez v. Hillery, 474 U.S. 254, 257, 106 S.Ct. 617, 88 L.Ed.2d 598 (1986). Consequently, federal courts are, in most instances, barred from granting habeas relief on a particular claim unless the petitioner has exhausted the remedies available to her in state court with respect to that claim. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(1)(A); see also Jackson v. Coalter, 337 F.3d 74, 85-86 (1st Cir.2003). But exhaustion is a prudential principle rather than a jurisdictional limitation, so a state may waive the defense of nonexhaustion. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(3); see also Granberry v. Greer, 481 U.S. 129, 131, 107 S.Ct. 1671, 95 L.Ed.2d 119 (1987); Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 684, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). The district court expressed grave doubt that the petitioner's competence claim had been exhausted in the state courts. It determined, however, that the Commonwealth had waived this defense. The court based that determination on the sequence of events described below. Shortly after the petitioner docketed her habeas petition, the Commonwealth moved to dismiss the competence claim (among others) as unexhausted. The petitioner opposed the motion. In support of her opposition, she tendered various briefs that she had filed with the SJC. After mulling her response, the Commonwealth moved to withdraw its motion to dismiss. The withdrawal motion stated in pertinent part: Having reviewed the[] materials, undersigned counsel believes that the petitioner is correct in her assertion that [the] claims presented in Grounds one through three of her petition have been exhausted. This concession encompassed the competence claim (ground one in the habeas petition). It is hornbook law that waivers of exhaustion will not lightly be inferred but, rather, must be clear and explicit. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(3) (mandating that state must expressly waive exhaustion); Mercadel v. Cain, 179 F.3d 271, 276 (5th Cir. 1999) (finding implicit waiver of exhaustion not determinative because waiver must be express). The waiver here satisfies that rigorous standard; it was unmistakably clear. Notwithstanding the clarity of the language that it employed, the Commonwealth now suggests that it did not really waive its nonexhaustion defense. It tries to justify this tergiversation by pointing out that the petitioner refined her competence claim at a later date (when she served a memorandum of law in support of her habeas petition). Had it been apprised of the exact dimensions of the competence claim that was embedded in ground one of the petition, the Commonwealth protests, it never would have agreed that the claim was exhausted. The district court rejected this suggestion. It ruled that the Commonwealth, which was on notice from the commencement of the habeas proceedings that the petitioner was raising a competence claim, had knowingly and voluntarily abandoned the exhaustion defense. We agree with this assessment. The habeas petition states, as its first ground for relief, that the petitioner's conviction was obtained at trial where petitioner was unable to meaningfully consult and communicate effectively with counsel. This language echoes a familiar formulation of the test for competence to stand trial. See Cooper v. Oklahoma, 517 U.S. 348, 368, 116 S.Ct. 1373, 134 L.Ed.2d 498 (1996) (emphasizing that a critical component of competence is the ability to communicate effectively with defense counsel); Dusky v. United States, 362 U.S. 402, 402, 80 S.Ct. 788, 4 L.Ed.2d 824 (1960) (per curiam) (defining competence in part as the present ability to consult with [a] lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding). It put the Commonwealth squarely on notice that the petitioner was asserting a competence claim  and the Commonwealth proceeded unreservedly to waive nonexhaustion as a defense to that claim. That was game, set, and match. Waiver typically is thought to be the voluntary relinquishment of a known right. See United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 733, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993). It is no secret that waivers are strong medicine, not casually to be dispensed. A party who chooses to waive a defense surrenders that defense as to the claim asserted and any claim fairly encompassed within it. Cf. New York v. AMRO Realty Corp., 936 F.2d 1420, 1430 & n. 10 (2d Cir.1991) (holding that in waiving a late-notice defense, insurer waived that defense as to any claim arising out of the occurrence in question). In other words, the waiver extends to the claim stated and any variants of the claim that are readily ascertainable from the language of the petition or complaint. The waiving party cannot play the ostrich, burying its head in the sand and struthiously ignoring that which ought to be obvious. The competence claim pursued by the petitioner was well within the compass of the language contained in ground one of the habeas petition. The fact that the Commonwealth came to regret its waiver is not a sufficient reason to allow rescission of the waiver. See, e.g., Dorsey v. Chapman, 262 F.3d 1181, 1187 (11th Cir.2001) (declining to allow the state to resurrect exhaustion defense when it had expressly declined to raise the defense in the district court, even though the state claimed that its earlier declination was based on a mistaken belief); Bledsue v. Johnson, 188 F.3d 250, 254 (5th Cir.1999) (finding that state had waived nonexhaustion defense by admitting in its original answer that the petitioner had exhausted state remedies). Nor is the fact that the labeling of the claim changed over time sufficient to warrant rescission of the waiver; to the extent that the claim was vague or not specifically identified in haec verba as a competence claim, it was incumbent upon the waiving party to use caution in the exercise of the waiver. Cf. In re Cargill, Inc., 66 F.3d 1256, 1261 (1st Cir.1995) (declining to allow retraction of waiver and noting that litigants ordinarily are bound by their attorneys' tactical judgments). Regardless of the absence of a label, the allegations pointed unerringly to the issue of competency. We conclude, therefore, that because the Commonwealth was on clear notice of the petitioner's assertion of the competence claim, its express and unqualified waiver of the nonexhaustion defense was effective as to the later iteration of that claim. The Commonwealth's defense of procedural default, initially raised in this court, is too little and too late. A habeas claim is procedurally defaulted in either of two situations. First, a claim is procedurally defaulted if the state court has denied relief on that claim on independent and adequate state procedural grounds. See Lambrix v. Singletary, 520 U.S. 518, 522-23, 117 S.Ct. 1517, 137 L.Ed.2d 771 (1997). Second, a claim is procedurally defaulted if it was not presented to the state courts and it is clear that those courts would have held the claim procedurally barred. See Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U.S. 722, 735 n. 1, 111 S.Ct. 2546, 115 L.Ed.2d 640 (1991); Perruquet v. Briley, 390 F.3d 505, 514 (7th Cir. 2004). The habeas respondent (here, the Commonwealth) bears the burden not only of asserting that a default occurred, but also of persuading the court that the factual and legal prerequisites of a default . . . are present. 2 Hertz & Liebman, supra § 26.2a, at 1265 n. 5. We assume that, as a matter of discretion, we may consider the Commonwealth's belated assertion of the defense of procedural default. See Brewer v. Marshall, 119 F.3d 993, 999 (1st Cir.1997) (noting that a federal court has discretionary authority to consider a belatedly raised procedural default defense or even to raise procedural default sua sponte). Because no state court has ruled on the petitioner's competence claim, the Commonwealth's position necessarily hinges on the second branch of the procedural default defense. It cannot satisfy that standard. In this case, exhaustion and procedural default are not completely separate matters. This imbrication is quite important; in expressly waiving the nonexhaustion defense, the Commonwealth lost the concomitant right, in the procedural default context, to assert that the claim was not presented to the state courts. See Bledsue, 188 F.3d at 254 (concluding that the state had waived this form of procedural default defense when it admitted that the habeas petitioner had exhausted his state remedies). Beyond the waiver, the Commonwealth has not shown that the competence claim, if presented today in the state courts, would be procedurally barred. It offhandedly references a state procedural rule in support of its procedural default defense  but that rule cannot carry the weight that the Commonwealth places on it. The rule provides in part that grounds not raised in an original motion for a new trial are waived unless the judge in the exercise of discretion permits them to be raised in a subsequent motion. Mass. R.Crim. P. 30(c)(2). Along this line, the SJC has indicated that, in extraordinary cases, a motions justice may invoke Rule 30(c)(2) to consider new issues even after an appeal has been decided. Commonwealth v. Harrington, 379 Mass. 446, 399 N.E.2d 475, 478 (1980). The second branch of the procedural default defense depends on a high degree of confidence that the state court, if asked to adjudicate the claim, would declare it to be procedurally defaulted. See Cassett v. Stewart, 406 F.3d 614, 622-23 (9th Cir. 2005). This is as it should be: a federal court always must be chary about reaching a conclusion, based upon a speculative analysis of what a state court might do, that a particular claim is procedurally foreclosed. See, e.g., Banks v. Horn, 126 F.3d 206, 212-13 (3d Cir.1997). We apply those principles here. Given the divers possibilities that attend this situation, we are uncertain what procedural course the state trial court would take if asked to rule on the competence claim. That uncertainty dooms the procedural default defense. Id. at 213. Of course, our double-barreled conclusion that the Commonwealth waived its nonexhaustion defense and that it cannot mount a successful procedural default defense does not compel us to adjudicate the competence claim on the merits. A federal court may choose, in its sound discretion, to reject a state's waiver of either nonexhaustion or procedural default. See Granberry, 481 U.S. at 134-35, 107 S.Ct. 1671; Earhart v. Johnson, 132 F.3d 1062, 1065 (5th Cir.1998); cf. Oakes v. United States, 400 F.3d 92, 97 (1st Cir. 2005) (holding, in a federal prisoner's habeas case under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, that the district court may raise the question of procedural default even if that defense was waived by the government). In exercising this discretion, concerns of comity, federalism, and judicial economy weigh heavily in the balance. See Granberry, 481 U.S. at 134-35, 107 S.Ct. 1671 (directing courts of appeals to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether valid interests would be served by returning the case to state court). Here, we see no reason to turn a blind eye to the Commonwealth's waiver. Whatever the extent of the state court's opportunity to adjudicate the competence claim  a matter as to which the parties vehemently disagree  that court did evaluate the factual basis upon which the competence claim is premised. With that in mind, it is difficult to imagine how the interests of comity will be disserved by permitting a federal court, taking cognizance of those factual findings, to resolve the competence claim on its merits. To cinch matters, the interests of judicial economy also will be served by putting the competence claim to rest here and now. The district court has held an extensive evidentiary hearing, and there is no way to unring the bell. To say more on this issue would be to paint the lily. [7] For the reasons elucidated above, we hold the Commonwealth to its express waiver of exhaustion, reject its belated attempt to interpose a defense of procedural default, and proceed to evaluate the merits of the petitioner's competence claim.
It is common ground that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from prosecuting those who are not competent to stand trial. See, e.g., Medina v. California, 505 U.S. 437, 439, 112 S.Ct. 2572, 120 L.Ed.2d 353 (1992). The test for competence is uncontroversial; the accused, before and during the trial, must have sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and must possess a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him. Dusky, 362 U.S. at 402, 80 S.Ct. 788; see United States v. Pellerito, 878 F.2d 1535, 1544 (1st Cir.1989). The petitioner in this case makes a different kind of competency claim. She does not impugn her capacity to have understood the nature and import of the proceedings against her and to have communicated with her counsel on most subjects. She claims instead that the competence standard was infringed by her inability to communicate the facts touching upon her abuse to her lawyers. The state court motions justice questioned her overall credibility. The district court took a more empathetic view, finding that severe and pervasive abuse had occurred. But that court, too, rejected the petitioner's claim, concluding that she had retained the ability to communicate the abuse to her lawyers in the months leading up to the trial. Taking the full sweep of the evidentiary record into account, see supra Part III, we focus on the district court's factual findings (rather than those of the state court). That focus, combined with the absence of a state court decision on the competence claim, alters the normal AEDPA standard of review and makes this case procedurally more like a direct criminal appeal. Thus, we will uphold the district court's determination of competence made after an evidentiary hearing unless that determination is clearly erroneous. See United States v. Santos, 131 F.3d 16, 20 (1st Cir.1997). That standard is quite deferential; a finding of fact is clearly erroneous only when, upon a thorough assessment of the record, the reviewing court is left with an abiding conviction that a mistake has been made. United States v. U.S. Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948); Ferrara v. United States, 456 F.3d 278, 287 (1st Cir. 2006). Given the independent factfinding that took place here and the intensely fact-based nature of competency inquiries, see Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S. 162, 180, 95 S.Ct. 896, 43 L.Ed.2d 103 (1975), we see no reason to deviate from this deferential standard of review. See supra Part II. Of course, an assertion of legal error still engenders de novo review. See United States v. Wiggin, 429 F.3d 31, 37 (1st Cir.2005). Here, however, neither party suggests that the district court applied an incorrect legal standard in adjudicating the issue of competence. Consequently, we train the lens of our inquiry on two matters: the district court's factual findings and the question of whether those findings supported its ultimate conclusion. At the end of the federal evidentiary hearing, the district court credited large portions of the petitioner's testimony and found that she had been subject to severe and pervasive abuse prior to her pretrial incarceration. The court also found that some emotional abuse had continued during her immurement. Notwithstanding these (favorable) findings, the court concluded that the petitioner had been able, throughout the pretrial period and the trial itself, to communicate the abuse to her lawyers, but had made an affirmative decision not to broach that topic. In the court's view, the petitioner, at the relevant times, was not incapable of choice. Indeed, the petitioner had a sufficient and then present ability to consult with her attorneys with a reasonable degree of rational understanding. Therefore, she was competent to stand trial. The district court's ultimate conclusion is amply supported by the record. The court picked its way carefully through a tangled evidentiary thicket. It took issue with some of the state court's findings, credited much of the petitioner's testimony, and gave credence to her expert's opinion that she had experienced battered woman's syndrome. At the same time, however, the court discounted significant portions of her testimony, including her claims of abuse suffered as a child, her claim that she had attempted to raise the issue of abuse with her attorneys at one point during the state court proceedings, and her various versions of the events that transpired on the day of the murder. In the end, the court found that the petitioner had not proved that an inability to communicate existed at the critical time. The court was fully entitled to accept parts of the testimony of the petitioner and her experts yet reject the ultimate conclusion that they advocated. See Wiggin, 429 F.3d at 37; Santos, 131 F.3d at 20-21; see also United States v. Alicea, 205 F.3d 480, 483 (1st Cir.2000) (explaining that a factfinder has the prerogative to credit some parts of a witness's testimony and disregard other potentially contradictory portions). Certain features of this case reinforce that entitlement. For one thing, the story that the petitioner told at trial in the state court did not jibe with Loring's account but, rather, incriminated him. It seems logical to infer that, had the petitioner been completely under Loring's spell at that time, her testimony would have been more in tune with his. Cf. State v. Kelly, 97 N.J. 178, 478 A.2d 364, 372 (1984) (noting that victims of battered woman's syndrome have a tendency to accept responsibility for the batterer's actions). For another thing, the logistics of the relationship between Loring and the petitioner were dramatically altered from and after their arrests. Both he and she were incarcerated for nearly a year prior to trial. They were housed on separate floors, and neither of them was free to move at will about the jail. The petitioner constructed an elaborate theory of how Loring was able to exert continued dominion over her during this interval and the district court seems to have bought into that theory. Even so, Loring's control over Pike plainly was palliated by their lack of physical proximity. See McMaugh v. State, 612 A.2d 725, 728, 730 (R.I.1992) (deeming continuous contact relevant to the conclusion that battered woman's syndrome rendered defendant unable to communicate her abuse). The district court's ultimate conclusion  that the petitioner, during this period, retained the ability to make a real choice about whether to disclose the details of their relationship to her counsel  seems to us a tacit recognition that Loring's control had abated. Then, too, other straws in the wind pointed to the petitioner's competency to stand trial. For example, the district court heard testimony from one of the petitioner's trial attorneys. This seasoned criminal defense lawyer harbored no doubt about the petitioner's competence at the time of trial. He reported that the petitioner responded alertly and appropriately to questions, testified articulately, and took an active part in her own defense. This testimony was borne out by the transcript of the state court trial and by other evidence of the petitioner's active participation in her defense, including evidence that the petitioner had written letters to her attorneys during her incarceration. The court also heard the testimony of Loring's defense counsel, who described the petitioner, in the relevant time frame, as calm and collected. In addition, the Commonwealth adduced evidence that, as compared to Loring, the petitioner seemed the stronger of the two individuals in th[e] situation that they were both in. Although the petitioner offered explanations to counter many of these items, the district court was in no way bound either to accept those explanations or to ignore the Commonwealth's evidence. In the final analysis, it was wholly within the factfinder's province to resolve these contradictions and to choose among the conflicting inferences that the evidence suggested. See United States v. Gobbi, 471 F.3d 302, 311 (1st Cir.2006); United States v. Ortiz, 966 F.2d 707, 713 (1st Cir.1992). In an attempt to salvage the competence claim, the petitioner cites several cases in which battered woman's syndrome has been the basis for questioning a defendant's competence. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Conaghan, 433 Mass. 105, 740 N.E.2d 956, 960 (2000); McMaugh, 612 A.2d at 732. This is something of a red herring; these cases stand for nothing more than the now-unremarkable proposition that battered woman's syndrome can in certain circumstances render a criminal defendant incompetent. The district court recognized this proposition (as do we) but found it inapplicable in this situation. As we have said, that fact-specific determination was not clearly erroneous. That resolves this aspect of the matter. After hearing extensive testimony  perhaps more than it should have heard, see supra Part III  and carefully reviewing an amplitudinous record, the district court made a factual finding that the petitioner, at and before her trial, had the ability to consult and communicate with her counsel and to assist in her defense. That finding may be arguable, but we have no abiding conviction that it was wrong. The finding is, therefore, entitled to deference. See Ferrara, 456 F.3d at 287; Wiggin, 429 F.3d at 37. It follows that the district court did not err in rejecting the competence claim.