Opinion ID: 613237
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Procedural Default of Brady Claim

Text: The procedural history of Jalowiec's post-conviction relief efforts is convoluted and confused. To the extent Jalowiec's Brady claim is based on the prosecution's failure to disclose the agreement pursuant to which Michael Smith testified, the district court determined that the claim was presented to the state trial court in Jalowiec's Third Amended Petition for Post-conviction Relief (seventh claim for relief). Id. at -33. Observing that the Ohio Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of this claim as an improper successive petition (because the third amended petition succeeded an original petition and two subsequent amendments), the district court held that this ruling represented enforcement of an independent and adequate state procedural bar that foreclosed federal habeas review of the merits. Yet, inasmuch as Jalowiec's motion to strike his original petition and first two amendments was never addressed by the state courtsa point apparently overlooked by the Ohio Court of Appealsthere appears to be no good reason to treat the third amended petition as a successive petition, rather than as a permissible amendment of his original petition. [3] The Ohio courts' enforcement of the procedural bar was therefore, to this extent, erroneous and represents no obstacle to our review of this portion of Jalowiec's Brady claim. See Cone v. Bell, 556 U.S. 449, 129 S.Ct. 1769, 1780-81, 173 L.Ed.2d 701 (2009) (holding that state court application of procedural bar resting on false premise creates no bar to habeas review of merits); Richey v. Bradshaw, 498 F.3d 344, 359-60 (6th Cir.2007) (declining to find procedural default where procedural bar was improperly enforced by state courts); Durr v. Mitchell, 487 F.3d 423, 434-35 (6th Cir.2007) (holding that incorrect application of state procedural bar was not reliance on adequate and independent state rule). We independently review this issue on the merits below. See Part III.A.2(f). To the extent the Brady claim is based on the prosecution's failure to disclose prior statements of Raymond Smith, Danny Smith, Terry Hopkins, Sandra Williams, Lynne Altpater and Tammy Green, the district court held that the claim was never presented to the state courts and is therefore unexhausted and unreviewable in habeas. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b) (making exhaustion of state-court remedies prerequisite to federal habeas relief). Jalowiec contends this ruling is in error. First, he contends that although he did not specifically assert a Brady claim concerning the prosecution's nondisclosure of prior statements by these witnesses in his third amended petition, the petition did include, in his fourteenth claim for relief, allegations of fact implicating undisclosed statements by Raymond Smith, Michael Smith, Sandra Williams and Lynne Altpater. Jalowiec thus impliedly argues that he adequately presented the substance of his Brady claim to the state courts to satisfy the exhaustion requirement. See Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 275-78, 92 S.Ct. 509, 30 L.Ed.2d 438 (1971); Satterlee v. Wolfenbarger, 453 F.3d 362, 365 (6th Cir.2006). Yet, because of the important federal-state comity concerns served by the exhaustion doctrine, a state prisoner is required to present the state courts with the same claim, or a claim substantially equivalent to the claim, urged upon the federal courts. Picard, 404 U.S. at 275-78, 92 S.Ct. 509. Otherwise, the state courts are not given the opportunity to apply the controlling legal principles to the facts bearing on the constitutional claim. Id. Jalowiec's fourteenth claim for relief asserted two different theories of relief, i.e., that the prosecution violated his due process right to a fair trial by suborning perjury, and that his trial counsel's failure to conduct a more thorough pre-trial investigation amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel. Both of these theories of relief implicated prior statements made by prosecution witnesses, but neither gave the state courts the opportunity to apply the legal principles governing Jalowiec's present Brady claim. It is not enough that these different claims implicated some of the same facts that are integral to Jalowiec's Brady claim. See Anderson v. Harless, 459 U.S. 4, 6, 103 S.Ct. 276, 74 L.Ed.2d 3 (1982). It is not enough that the claims actually presented to the state courts were somewhat similar to the Brady claim in some respects. Id. Nor is it enough to say that the Brady ramifications of Jalowiec's arguments were self-evident. Id. at 7, 103 S.Ct. 276. The bottom line is that the state courts were not called upon to apply the legal principles governing the constitutional claim now presented to the federal courts. Accordingly, we find no error in the district court's conclusion that Jalowiec's Brady claim concerning the prosecution's nondisclosure of prior statements by these witnesses was not, by virtue of the claims asserted in the fourteenth claim for relief in his third amended petition, properly exhausted. It follows that because any attempt to now exhaust the Brady claim in the state courts would be dismissed as untimely, the claim is, to this extent, procedurally defaulted. See O'Sullivan v. Boerckel, 526 U.S. 838, 848, 119 S.Ct. 1728, 144 L.Ed.2d 1 (1999) (holding that failure to timely exhaust habeas claim amounts to procedural default). Jalowiec challenges the district court's lack-of-exhaustion ruling on a second basis. To the extent his Brady claim is based on suppressed evidence that remained undisclosed until after the habeas proceedings were commenced, he contends the exhaustion requirement should be excused. Indeed, inasmuch as Jalowiec's failure to timely assert certain bases for his Brady claim is shown to be attributable to the prosecution's wrongful withholding of information, he has causei.e., some objective factor external to the defense excusing his procedural default. Strickler, 527 U.S. at 283-89, 119 S.Ct. 1936; Beuke, 537 F.3d at 634. The Warden does not dispute that materials relevant to Jalowiec's Brady claim were disclosed only during discovery in the district court habeas proceedings. Jalowiec has therefore adequately shown cause. The challenge is to determine which items are relevant to the Brady violations asserted in Claim 20 and whether their non-disclosure is shown to have resulted in such prejudice as to excuse the procedural default. To satisfy the prejudice requirement, Jalowiec must show there is a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different had the materials been timely disclosed to the defense. Strickler, 527 U.S. at 289, 119 S.Ct. 1936. He must show that the withholding of materials worked to his actual and substantial disadvantage, infecting his entire trial with errors of constitutional dimensions. Beuke, 537 F.3d at 634 (quoting Jamison v. Collins, 291 F.3d 380, 388 (6th Cir.2002)). This prejudice inquiry mirrors the Brady materiality analysis implicated by the merits of the claim. Id. We therefore look to the district court's assessment of the merits of Claim 20 as our starting point in determining whether Jalowiec has shown prejudice excusing his procedural default of his claim to the extent it is based on nondisclosure of witness statements. We also look to the district court's assessment of the merits in regard to Jalowiec's claim that the prosecution failed to disclose an agreement pursuant to which Michael Smith testified because that aspect of his claim was not procedurally defaulted.