Opinion ID: 544252
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Propriety of Federal Habeas Review

Text: 24 When the state court has refused to reach the merits of the petitioner's claim on the ground that there was a procedural default under state law, the federal habeas court is generally barred from reaching the merits unless the petitioner can show cause for the default and prejudice from the error. Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497. Where, however, the state court has elected to disregard the procedural default and to decide the claim on its merits, the federal court should likewise decide the claim on its merits. County Court of Ulster v. Allen, 442 U.S. 140, 154, 99 S.Ct. 2213, 2223, 60 L.Ed.2d 777 (1979). The first question we confront in the present appeal is whether the Vermont court's application of its plain-error rule constituted a sufficient consideration of the merits of the claim to remove the case from the procedural-default rule of Wainwright v. Sykes. 25 A case can be made for the proposition that any ruling that there has been no plain error is a decision on the merits of the claim, for typically the plain-error doctrine is used to consider a claim as to which there has been a procedural oversight only when the claim has merit. See United States v. Young, 470 U.S. 1, 17 n. 14, 105 S.Ct. 1038, 1047 n. 14, 84 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985) (federal courts have consistently interpreted the plain-error doctrine as requiring an appellate court to find that the claimed error not only seriously affected 'substantial rights,' but that it had an unfair prejudicial impact on the jury's deliberations); see generally 3A C. Wright, Federal Practice and Procedure Sec. 856, at 344 (2d ed. 1982). Thus, in circumstances similar to those here, the Ninth Circuit has stated that a state appellate court reviewing for plain error reaches the merits of a petitioner's claim. Walker v. Endell, 850 F.2d 470, 474 (9th Cir.1987), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 926, 109 S.Ct. 309, 102 L.Ed.2d 328 (1988). The Walker court concluded that because [i]n reaching its conclusion that there was no plain error, the [state] court conducted a review on the merits, it effectively lifted the state's procedural bar to [federal] review. Id. at 474-75. 26 On the other hand, the Supreme Court's recent decision in Osborne v. Ohio, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 1691, 109 L.Ed.2d 98 (1990), suggests that a state court's plain-error analysis does not, in and of itself, amount to a sufficient exploration of the merits to authorize a federal habeas court to reach the merits. In Osborne, which involved a conviction for violation of an Ohio child-pornography statute, Osborne challenged his conviction on the ground, inter alia, that the trial court had failed to instruct the jury on the element of scienter. The state appellate court ruled, in rejecting a challenge to the constitutionality of the statute, that some proof of scienter was required. See State v. Young, 37 Ohio St.3d 249, 252-53, 525 N.E.2d 1363, 1368-69 (1988), aff'd in part and rev'd in part sub nom. Osborne v. Ohio, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 1691, 109 L.Ed.2d 98 (1990). It rejected Osborne's challenge to the omission of that element from the jury charge, however, on the ground that Osborne had neither requested that the jury be charged on scienter nor objected to the omission, and that the omission was not plain error. See id. at 254, 525 N.E.2d at 1369-70. In making its procedural ruling, the Young court stated that 27 [w]here a party complaining of error could have called, but did not call, the error to the trial court's attention at a timely juncture, the error is waived.... In such a case, the alleged error may warrant reversal only if it rose to the level of plain error and prejudiced appellant.... 28 In concluding that the omission of the element of recklessness herein does not constitute plain error, we find support in [State v. Adams, 62 Ohio St.2d 151, 404 N.E.2d 144 (1980) ]. There, the essential element of recklessness was also omitted from the jury charge without a defense objection. This court held that this omission did not per se constitute plain error. Id. at paragraph two of the syllabus. A case-by-case approach was adopted, in which the record of the case is reviewed to determine whether a manifest miscarriage of justice will result if the conviction is permitted to stand. 29 State v. Young, 37 Ohio St.3d at 254, 525 N.E.2d at 1369-70. The Young court then reviewed the trial evidence in some detail, and concluded that 30 [g]iven this state of the record, we have no difficulty finding that the jury would have believed, beyond a reasonable doubt, that appellant was aware of the nature of the photographs in his possession. Accordingly, appellant would still have been convicted if a proper instruction on recklessness had been given, and his conviction must stand. State v. Underwood (1983), 3 Ohio St.3d 12, 3 OBR 360, 444 N.E.2d 1332, syllabus. 31 State v. Young, 37 Ohio St.3d at 254, 525 N.E.2d at 1370. 32 On appeal to the United States Supreme Court, Osborne pursued his contention that the trial court had erroneously failed to instruct the jury on the issue of scienter. The Supreme Court, though reversing on other grounds, declined to consider this contention because it had not been timely raised at trial and the Young court had found the contention waived. Thus, having noted that the state court found the omission did not amount to plain error, Osborne v. Ohio, 110 S.Ct. at 1695, and that the state court's waiver discussion cited only Ohio law, id. at 1703, the Supreme Court stated, 33 We have no difficulty agreeing with the State that Osborne's counsel's failure to urge that the court instruct the jury on scienter constitutes an independent and adequate state law ground preventing us from reaching Osborne's due process contention on that point. 34 Id. The implication of Osborne, therefore, appears to be that even if the state court has addressed the questions of (a) whether there was error, and (b) whether the error was prejudicial, if these questions were answered in the context of plain-error analysis, the decision was not sufficiently a ruling on the merits to authorize the federal court to reach the merits. 35 Such a conclusion does not, however, end our inquiry, for in order to preclude federal review on the ground of procedural default, the state court's waiver ruling must have rested on a state ground that is independent of federal law. See, e.g., id.; Harris v. Reed, 489 U.S. 255, 109 S.Ct. 1038, 1043, 103 L.Ed.2d 308 (1989); Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 68, 105 S.Ct. 1087, 84 L.Ed.2d 53 (1985). In Ake, the Court considered a state waiver rule that was applicable only to nonfundamental claims. In arguing before the Supreme Court, the state conceded that state law considered federal constitutional errors to be fundamental. The Court concluded that application of the state waiver rule thus required an analysis of federal law and hence was not sufficiently independent of federal law to bar a federal court's reaching the merits of the claim: 36 [W]here the non-Federal ground is so interwoven with the other as not to be an independent matter, or is not of sufficient breadth to sustain the judgment without any decision of the other, our jurisdiction is plain.... In such a case, the federal-law holding is integral to the state court's disposition of the matter.... In this case, the additional holding of the state court--that the constitutional challenge presented here was waived--depends on the court's federal-law ruling and consequently does not present an independent state ground for the decision rendered. 37 Id. at 75, 105 S.Ct. at 1092 (quoting Enterprise Irrigation District v. Farmers Mutual Canal Co., 243 U.S. 157, 164, 37 S.Ct. 318, 321, 61 L.Ed. 644 (1917)); see also Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 1042, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 3477, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201 (1983) (state ground not independent when it fairly appears that the state court rested its decision primarily on federal law). 38 In the present case, we conclude that the Vermont Supreme Court's ruling, unlike the Young decision construed in Osborne, was not independent of federal law. In its plain-error analysis, the Vermont Supreme Court, though it cited a number of state cases, also twice cited and twice quoted Henderson v. Kibbe, 431 U.S. 145, 97 S.Ct. 1730, the United States Supreme Court's due process decision, for the proposition that an incomplete jury instruction, as contrasted with an instruction that includes an erroneous statement, is unlikely to require reversal when there has been no objection. Kibbe was the only case mentioned that dealt with an instruction that did not contain affirmatively wrong statements. And it appears that the Vermont court used Kibbe to interpret the requirements of due process. 39 In the circumstances, we do not view the Vermont Supreme Court's plain-error analysis as one that was independent of federal constitutional law. We conclude, therefore, that the district court should have reached the merits of Roy's claim.