Opinion ID: 1199736
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: whether counsel's conduct prejudiced moore

Text: Even if Moore's counsel was ineffective, Moore is only entitled to habeas relief if he can demonstrate that he has suffered prejudice as a result. Unlike the majority, however, I do not believe that Moore has demonstrated prejudice. To demonstrate prejudice under Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052, a petitioner must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Id. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. In Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 57-59, 106 S.Ct. 366, 88 L.Ed.2d 203 (1985), the Supreme Court applied Strickland 's prejudice requirement [i]n the context of guilty pleas and held that the relevant question is whether counsel's constitutionally ineffective performance affected the outcome of the plea process. In other words, in order to satisfy the `prejudice' requirement, the defendant must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's errors, he would not have pleaded guilty and would have insisted on going to trial. Id. at 58-59, 106 S.Ct. 366. A. The Evidence Against Moore A straightforward application of the Hill standard demonstrates that Moore cannot establish that he has suffered any prejudice. [10] This conclusion flows from two simple facts: First, the state could have called Raymond and Ziegler to testify that Moore confessed his role in the kidnapping and slaying of Kenneth Rogers. We do not need to fret much about what Raymond Moore would have testified had he been called at trial, as the majority does, see Maj. Op. at 1134-35; id. at 1146-47 (suggesting Raymond and Ziegler would undoubtedly be reluctant to do unnecessary harm to [Moore's] case); id. at 1148 ([I]t is far from clear what[Raymond and Ziegler] would have said or to what extent their testimony would have been persuasive to a jury....); id. at 1148 (Critically, the state court made no findings as to the contents of what Moore had told Raymond or Ziegler or what details they might have been able to recount at trial.), because the record contains Raymond's testimony at the state court post-conviction evidentiary hearing. In it, Raymond confirms that, before he took his brothers to the police station where their confessions were recorded, Moore confessed to him the details of what happened. Here is how Raymond described it, under oath, to the state court: [W]hen [Roy Salyer] got back from Texas and discovered [that Rogers had burglarized Salyer's home, Salyer] showed up over at Lonnie [Woolhiser's] house where Randy [Moore] was that morning and ... there was a couple cases of beer and started drinking and basically, to my understanding ... instigated them into going up and, as they put it, spanking their other friend because friends do not rob friends. And in the process of this, I guess, to make an example and put some scare into Mr. Rogers so he did not do this thing again, they had blindfolded him to duct taped him and put him in the trunk of the car and took him out to a place that's a little remote, not a lot. The gentleman was a large size guy and didn't walk much and stuff. And their intent was to leave him there and make him walk home, you know, after he freed himself. This here, of course, is the kidnapping that's involved in this case because they took him somewhere against his will.... [D]uring this period of time, Lonnie who is a little rowdier  he's a good boy but he's just a little rowdy. He'll fight at the drop of a hat. He had in his possession a .22 magnum pistol in which Mr. Rogers had given to him previously  given or traded, I'm not sure which. And Randy, while they were pushing Mr. Rogers up the hill, kind of muddy, it's during the winter and we have a lot of red mud down there, Randy had taken the revolver from Lonnie and at the time he had taken it, Mr. Rogers had slipped backwards on the mud and the gun discharged. I'm not sure of all the exact details because this is basically hearsay. It's what was stated in court and it's what they had basically told me after the incident, too, before I took them in, or on the way in. (emphasis added). The majority thus is disingenuous in stating that [t]he state court found only that Moore had `confessed' to Raymond and Ziegler but did not make specific findings concerning the content of that confession, Maj. Op. at 1134, particularly because trial counsel's affidavitwhich the state court creditedstated that Moore had made a full confession to his brother and to Ms. Ziegler. The record clearly showed that Raymond, at least, knew what happened because Moore told him about the details. With this testimony, the state court reasonably concluded that any failure on the part of trial counsel would not have resulted in prejudice to Moore. Trial counsel, the state court, and the district court all recognized that Raymond could have testified about what Moore told him concerning the murder. In its selective treatment of the record, the majority irresponsibly ignores this testimony. Second, even without his confession to Raymond and Ziegler, the state's case against Moore would likely have been airtight. I emphasize that the case would likely have been airtight because counsel had to judge the strength of the state's case before the state put it on. Nevertheless, as I show, the case for felony murder was not a difficult one at all. Under section 163.115 of the Oregon Revised Statutes, Rogers's killing was a felony murder if it [was] committed by a person, . . . who commit[ted] or attempt[ed] to commit [kidnapping or assault] and [the death occurred] in the course of and in furtherance of the crime the person [was] committing or attempting to commit. It is undisputed that Moore, Salyer, and Woolhiser went to Rogers's home, that Rogers was beaten, that he was bound with duct tape, and that he was thrown into the trunk of the car they had borrowed, driven to a remote location, and shot in the temple. It is indisputable that Moore, Salyer, and Woolhiser, by virtue of their involvement in the felonies of kidnapping and assault, were guilty of felony murder under Oregon law. It is equally indisputable that Moore had no affirmative defense. Thus, to convict Moore of felony murder, all that the state needed to do was prove that he took part in Rogers's kidnapping and that the murder furthered the kidnapping. This would not have been hard. The state had both Roy Salyer and Lonnie Woolhiser in custody, and both could have been called to testify that Moore took part in the attack. The state court found that Moore and Woolhiser had also confessed to their older brother Raymond Moore as well as to Woolhiser's girlfriend, Debbie Ziegler. [11] Since all of these witnesses were Moore's close relatives or good friends, their testimony would likely have been very credible. And yet this only scratches the surface of the damning testimony available to the prosecution. Before they left for Rogers's residence, Salyer, Moore, and Woolhiser had been drinking with others at Ziegler's residence. Salyer was ranting and raving about how Rogers had broken into his cabin and slashed his tires. This was what prompted the trio to head to Rogers's residenceto confront him about the robbery and to scare him out of ever committing another one. Four witnesses, including Ziegler, observed this entire interaction and then observed the trio drive off to confront Rogersin a car that Salyer had borrowed from another one of the guests. When the trio arrived at Rogers's residence, other people were there. These people witnessed Moore, Woolhiser, and Salyer arrive, and at least one of those people spoke with Woolhiser about what they were doing there. Another was able to identify all three defendants from a photo lineup. These people would also have been able to testify that at this point the car's license plates had been covered over with duct tape. Shortly after the defendants arrived, these people all drove away, leaving Rogers alone with Moore, Woolhiser, and Salyer. [12] There was also highly inculpatory physical evidence in this case. The day before Moore confessed, Salyer led police to the location of the revolver they had used. The police were unable to find it in the dark, but Woolhiser led them back to the same area the next day, at which point they recovered the weapon. When police found the car that the trio had used, they found blood in the trunk, as well as hair. Although the record does not state that either the blood or the hair was ever scientifically tested, a visual inspection of the hair suggested that it may have been the victim's, who had long hair that he wore in a ponytail. So, to summarize, even without Moore's confession to the police, or his confession to Raymond Moore or Debbie Ziegler, or the testimony of his co-defendants, the prosecution had testimony from multiple witnesses, as well as unchallenged statements from Moore, that: (1) An intoxicated Salyer had been ranting and raving about how Rogers had stolen from his cabin and slashed his tires; (2) Moore had left with Salyer and Woolhiser to confront Rogers; (3) the trio arrived at Rogers's residence, and that soon thereafter they were alone with Rogers; and (4) the trio returned from Rogers's residence together. Rogers was found murdered the next day. Woolhiser and Salyer were clearly involved, as they knew where the gun was, and blood and hair were found in the trunk of the car that the trio had borrowed. The police could prove that Moore had lied about what had transpired when he went to Rogers's residence. Add the testimony of Raymond and Ziegler, and the case is airtight. The state's felony murder case against Moore could hardly have been any stronger unless the murderers had brought along a camera crew. All of this evidencethe witnesses, the duct tape, the gun, Moore's confession to otherswere known to Moore and his counsel. They knew what the majority cannot fathomthat the state had a rock-solid case against Moore and his best shot was to strike a plea deal. However, the majority's formal opinion completely fails to consider almost any of this evidence or its implications for the deal Moore struck. See, e.g., Maj. Op. at 1157 (Without the fruits of Moore['s] . . . confession[ ], the prosecution would have had tremendous difficulty meeting the high burden it faced. In view of the weaknesses in the state's case, it is highly unlikely that, in the absence of his own recorded confession, Moore would have pled to felony murder. We thus cannot have any confidence that the outcome would have been the same had counsel filed a motion to suppress.). In parts of the majority's formal opinion as well as its appendix, the majority also criticizes my reading of the record; these criticisms lack force. For example, the majority questions my placing any reliance on the testimony of Salyer and Woolhiser, without any evidence in the record as to the substance or availability of such testimony, or, even more important, its admissibility,  Maj. Op. at 1150-51 (emphasis in original), [13] in contrast to its own reliance on the arguments made by the state on appeal, id. at 1150-51. First, it is Moore, not the state, who bears the burden of establishing that he has suffered prejudice; his failure to address evidence in the record does not entitle us to ignore it in making our decision. It is utterly absurd for us to put on blinders and pretend that obviously damning evidencesuch as the testimony of co-defendants who have pled guiltysimply does not exist. [14] Indeed, Moore himself does not expect us to do so; he specifically addresses the issue of Salyer's testimony in his brief. Second, the record leaves little doubt that Salyer and Woolhiser's testimony would have been admissible, available, and adequate: Both Salyer and Woolhiser were imprisoned by the State of Oregon, so they could easily be produced if necessary. [15] As to the substance of their testimony, even if it were not as complete as their formal confessions to police, Moore was on trial for felony murder, so the state needed to prove precious few details of the day's events to secure a conviction. [16] But the most important point is this: Where we are reviewing the state court's denial of an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, it would be irresponsible for us not to review the record to apprise ourselves of what counsel likely knew. We can only speculate as to what testimony the witnesses actually would have offered had this case actually gone to trial. But it is naive for us to ignore the other evidence in the record. Moore's counsel did not have the benefit of the majority's ipse dixit power; when advising Moore on the plea offer, he had to judge his case on the basis of the evidence he thought the state had and the likelihood of various witnesses testifying. This much is clear: There was more than enough admissible evidence, easily obtainable by the state, to convict Moore of felony murderespecially and most importantly, as the state court recognized, the likely testimony of Raymond Moore and Debbie Ziegler. When we consider that evidence, it is plain that not only was counsel's advice not deficient or prejudicial, it was very good advice. Moore may not have received a lesser sentence than his codefendant who went to trial, but he did avoid a potential death sentence. There is good reason why Strickland requires us to defer to counsel's on-the-ground judgments over the majority's own ` post hoc rationalization.' Maj. Op. at 1143 (quoting Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 526-27, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003)). B. The Majority's Reliance on Fulminante Ultimately, however, the majority opinion rests on the premise that the state court's decision resulted in an unreasonable application of Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 111 S.Ct. 1246, 113 L.Ed.2d 302 (1991), a case, I note once again, that Moore does not even cite. According to the majority,  Fulminante stands for the proposition that the admission of an additional confession ordinarily reinforces and corroborates the others and is therefore prejudicial. Maj. Op. at 1146. Fulminante does no such thing. It did not, as the majority's characterization suggests, adopt a per se rule that the improper admission of a confession is prejudicial; [17] in fact, Fulminante explicitly held that the improper admission of a confession is subject to harmless error analysis. See 499 U.S. at 310, 111 S.Ct. 1246. Nor does the fact that the Supreme Court found that the admission of the confession at issue in Fulminante was prejudicial compel the same result here. The fact that Moore's confession to the police was probative does not make it prejudicial. Indeed, it is fair to say that the formal, tape-recorded confession that Moore gave to police in their interrogation room was probably more probative than Fulminante's confession, which he made to a friend while they were both incarcerated. All of the quotations that the majority pulls from Fulminante to establish the damaging, probative value of a confessionthat [a] confession is like no other evidence, Maj. Op. at 1148 (alteration in original), that a defendant's own confession is probably the most probative and damaging evidence that can be admitted against him, id., that [t]he admissions of a defendant come from the actor himself, the most knowledgeable and unimpeachable source of information about his past conduct, id. are statements that were originally made by the Fulminante Court about confessions like those Moore made to Raymond and Ziegler i.e., those that are made to third parties who then testify about them in court. Thus, Fulminante does not suggest  let alone hold that Moore was prejudiced because his confession to police was not suppressed. In fact, it supports the exact opposite conclusion  that Moore's two confessions to Raymond and Ziegler were already so damaging to his case that the admission of his confession to police would do him no further harm. By the majority's own logic, Moore's confessions to Raymond and Ziegler were like no other evidence and were probably the most probative and damaging evidence . . . against [Moore]. Maj. Op. at 1148. The majority tries to avoid the implications of its own argument by comparing the relative value of Moore's confession to the police with his confession to Raymond and Ziegler. The majority states that Moore's lawyer . . . thought that the taped confession was not prejudicial because Moore had told his brother and his half-brother's girlfriend about the crime. Maj. Op. at 1130. According to the majority, [s]uch a formal confession would, without question, be far more persuasive to a jury than Moore's statements to two lay witnesses. Id. at 1147. The majority concludes that the state courts' determination that the taped confession was harmless was contrary to clearly established Supreme Court law as set forth in Fulminante.  Id. at 1154; see also id. at 1145 ([The state court's] determination that counsel's failure to suppress the formal taped confession was not prejudicial because Moore had previously told his relative and a relative's girlfriend about his participation in the killing of the victim was contrary to clearly established Supreme Court law.). In the majority's mind, the question under Fulminante comes down to determining whether the difference between the weight of Moore's statements to his brother and his half-brother's girlfriend and his formal taped confession to the police is such that the exclusion of the latter undermines our confidence that Moore would have entered into so harsh a plea agreement. Maj. Op. at 1153. This approach misstates the law in at least two ways. First, Fulminante says nothing about determining the relative weight of the two confessions. Rather, it says that harmless error analysis applies to determine whether an erroneously admitted confession is harmless. Fulminante, 499 U.S. at 308, 111 S.Ct. 1246. The Fulminante Court found the admission of the first confession not to be harmless, not because it was more weighty than the second one, but because of a unique relationship between the two confessionsthe veracity of the second was bolstered by the existence of the other. Id. at 298-300, 111 S.Ct. 1246. Here, no such relationship exists. [18] Second, Fulminante concerned the application of harmless error after a trial had taken place, not after a guilty plea had been entered, as here. The question under clearly established Supreme Court precedent is thus not whether we are confident that Moore would have entered into so harsh a plea agreement, Maj. Op. at 1153, an approach that would permit Moore to show that he suffered prejudice if he could have negotiated a better bargain. Instead, the question is whether Moore can show that, but for the failure to file the suppression motion, Moore would not have pled but would have insisted on going to trial. No other standard of prejudice is clearly established Supreme Court law in the guilty plea context. See Hill, 474 U.S. at 58-59, 106 S.Ct. 366. But see Maj. Op. at 1148 ([T]he record falls far short of establishing that the potential testimony of Raymond and Ziegler would have been sufficient to cause Moore to accept so harsh a plea agreement . . . .); id. at 1153 ([W]e are left only with determining whether the difference between the weight of Moore's statements to his brother and his half-brother's girlfriend and his formal taped confession to the police is such that the exclusion of the latter undermines our confidence that Moore would have entered into so harsh a plea agreement.). If we were dealing with a jury verdict, the majority's objection that a confession is probably the most probative and damaging evidence that can be admitted against [Moore] would carry more force because it is impossible to know what credit and weight the jury gave to the confession. Fulminante, 499 U.S. at 292, 111 S.Ct. 1246 (White, J., dissenting) (internal quotations and citations omitted). But we are dealing with a plea bargain here. The question is whether a reasonably competent attorney would have advised Moore differently when faced with this evidence, and, if so, whether that would have led Moore to go to trial instead of pleading guilty. No Supreme Court case permits us to ask whether Moore would have entered into so harsh a plea agreement. Yet even if we assume Fulminante applies, its facts are so different from those presented here that it is absurd to suggest that it supports the proposition that the state court's determination violated clearly established federal law. Fulminante was convicted of murdering his eleven-year-old stepdaughter. He made two confessions: one to Anthony Sarivola, a fellow inmate who befriended him, and another to Donna Sarivola, Anthony's wife. Fulminante had no accomplices, and the physical evidence from the scene and other circumstantial evidence would have been insufficient to convict. Fulminante, 499 U.S. at 297, 111 S.Ct. 1246. Thus, unlike here, where the case against Moore was exceptionally strong even without his confessions, both the trial court and the State recognized that a successful prosecution depended on the jury believing the two confessions.  Id. (emphasis added). The question before the Supreme Court was whether Fulminante was prejudiced by the improper admission of the first confession at trial in light of the properly admitted second confession. The Supreme Court found that Fulminante suffered prejudice because, under the unique circumstances of that case, the jury likely would not believe that the second confession (to Donna Sarivola) had been made if it had not already heard about the first confession (to Anthony Sarivola). See id. at 298-300, 111 S.Ct. 1246. The facts of Fulminante are simply not analogous to those presented here. Moore's confessions do not need the same kind of background explanation that Fulminante's confession to Donna Sarivola required because Raymond and Ziegler were not strangers to Moore in the way that Donna Sarivola was to Fulminante. Under the circumstances, it only made sense that Fulminante would have confessed to her if he had already confessed to her husband. Moore's confessions to Raymond and Ziegler preceded his confession to the police, and the confessions were not linked in the same way that Fulminante's confessions to the two Sarivolas were. [19] Moore confessed to his older brother Raymond because Raymond himself had once been in a similar situation and Moore wanted his advice. Ziegler and Moore were good friends; he was at her house with her before he left to confront Rogers, he returned to her house afterwards, and he was at her house when Rogers's murder was reported in the news. Moreover, Raymond and Ziegler did not have the same incentives to lie that Donna Sarivola did. Also unlike Fulminante, here there was other evidencefor example, the duct tape used to bind Rogers, and the blood and hair found in the trunkto corroborate the details of the testimony that Raymond and Ziegler would have given. [20] Finally, regardless of how Fulminante is read, it certainly does not hold that an attorney who declines to file a motion to suppress the challenged confession in favor of advising his client to take a plea on the basis of the presence of the second confessionwhich the Fulminante Court acknowledged was admissible, see Fulminante, 499 U.S. at 298, 300, 302, 111 S.Ct. 1246 has provided ineffective assistance. I close by returning to a common theme of my dissent. I do not believe that the majority's reading of Fulminante is correct. However, even if I am wrong and the majority is correct, under AEDPA this is not enough to permit us to grant Moore habeas relief. We may only do so if the state court's decision was contrary to any law that was clearly established by the Court in Fulminante. The majority's reading simply does not meet this standard.