Opinion ID: 812005
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: merits of petition

Text: The State first argues on appeal that the district court committed clear error in finding that Mr. Clayton had asked his attorney Mr. Hoch to file an appeal from his guilty plea. Because Mr. Clayton’s habeas claim was not decided on the merits in the state court proceedings, we exercise our “independent judgment” and “review the federal district court’s conclusions of law de novo.” McCracken v. Gibson, 268 F.3d 970, 975 (10th Cir. 2001). We review the court’s factual determinations for clear error. Id.; see also Welch v. Workman, 639 F.3d 980, 992 (10th Cir. 2011). In Oklahoma, if a defendant’s conviction is based on a guilty plea, he may pursue an appeal to the OCCA only by a petition for a writ of certiorari. Hickman v. Spears, 160 F.3d 1269, 1271 (10th Cir. 1998) (citing Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 22 § 1051). First, however, the defendant must file an application in the trial court to withdraw his plea within ten days of the judgment and sentence, with a request -11- for an evidentiary hearing. Okla. R. Crim. App. 4.2(A); see also Hickman, 160 F.3d at 1271. The court must hold an evidentiary hearing and rule on the application to withdraw the plea within thirty days from the date the application was filed. Okla. R. Crim. App. 4.2(B). “The application to withdraw guilty plea and the evidentiary hearing are both necessary and critical steps in securing this appeal . . . .” Randall v. State, 861 P.2d 314, 316 (Okla. Crim. App. 1993). If the trial court denies the motion to withdraw, the defendant may then appeal by way of a petition for writ of certiorari. See Okla. Stat. Ann. tit. 22 § 1051(a); Okla. R. Crim. App. 4.2(D). Although referred to as a certiorari appeal, “Oklahoma has always treated this appeal as an appeal of right.” Randall, 861 P.2d at 316. Accordingly, defendants are entitled to effective assistance of counsel during the period available for appeal from the conviction. Hickman, 160 F.3d at 1273; see also Evitts v. Lucey, 469 U.S. 387, 396 (1985). By the same token, “because appeals are a part of the criminal process, a defendant is denied effective assistance of counsel if he asks his lawyer to perfect an appeal and the lawyer fails to do so by failing to file a brief, a statement of appeal, or otherwise.” Abels v. Kaiser, 913 F.2d 821, 823 (10th Cir. 1990) (internal citations omitted); see also Roe v. Flores-Ortega, 528 U.S. 470, 477 (2000) (“[A] lawyer who disregards specific instructions from the defendant to file a notice of appeal acts in a manner that is professionally unreasonable.”). If -12- counsel does not “file a requested appeal, a defendant is entitled to [a new] appeal without showing that his appeal would likely have had merit.” Flores-Ortega, 528 U.S. at 477 (quoting Peguero v. United States, 526 U.S. 23, 28 (1969)) (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted). The district court, by adopting the magistrate judge’s findings and recommendations, found the State had not refuted Mr. Clayton’s evidence that his attorney failed to comply with his request to file an appeal. Ample evidence supports the district court’s finding. Mr. Clayton provided testimony regarding his multiple requests that Mr. Hoch file an appeal and his repeated but fruitless attempts to contact Mr. Hoch during the ten-day window for filing an application to withdraw the guilty plea, a precursor to an appeal. Mr. Clayton’s testimony was corroborated by jail telephone records showing twenty-two attempted calls to Mr. Hoch during this ten-day period and a jail mail record showing that Mr. Clayton mailed Mr. Hoch a letter during the same period. Other witnesses testified of their own unsuccessful efforts to contact Mr. Hoch on Mr. Clayton’s behalf to seek an appeal. The State asks us to disregard Mr. Clayton’s evidence, including his testimony and the letter to Mr. Hoch, for credibility reasons. It claims “any reliance on the credibility of the Petitioner, who once again wants out of a plea deal and has multiple felonies is clearly erroneous.” Aplt. Br. at 18. There is no merit to this argument. “We must defer to the district court’s credibility -13- determinations.” Romano v. Gibson, 239 F.3d 1156, 1173 (10th Cir. 2001). And here, where Mr. Clayton’s testimony was corroborated by jail records and the testimonies of an attorney and a pastor, the district court’s finding that he asked his attorney to file an appeal cannot be clearly erroneous. See Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 575 (1985) (“[W]hen a trial judge’s finding is based on his decision to credit the testimony of one of two or more witnesses, each of whom has told a coherent and facially plausible story that is not contradicted by extrinsic evidence, that finding, if not internally inconsistent, can virtually never be clear error.”). Evidence relied upon by the State does not persuade us otherwise. The State points to the transcript of Mr. Clayton’s plea hearing, when Mr. Clayton testified he was satisfied with his counsel’s representation. But Mr. Clayton’s testimony during the plea hearing does not bear upon whether he subsequently asked his attorney to appeal, or to file an application to withdraw the plea, for reasons that became apparent only after the hearing. For a similar reason, Mr. Hoch’s affidavit does not render the district court’s finding clearly erroneous. As the magistrate judge noted, Mr. Hoch’s affidavit failed to address the unanswered calls to his office and unreturned messages from Mr. Clayton’s surrogates. The district court’s determination that Mr. Clayton asked his attorney to file an appeal on his behalf is “‘plausible in light of the record viewed in its entirety,’” Amadeo v. Zant, 486 U.S. 214, 223 (1988) (quoting Anderson, 470 -14- U.S. at 573-74), and therefore cannot be clearly erroneous. Mr. Clayton received ineffective assistance of counsel when his attorney disregarded his request to appeal. Flores-Ortega, 528 U.S. at 477.