Opinion ID: 796729
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Meyers' Performance was Deficient

Text: 62 Even if the California Court of Appeal reasonably understood Meyers to have made a tactical decision to waive the privilege, the state court unreasonably applied the Strickland standard in finding the tactic to be reasonable. By waiving Edwards' marital privilege and exposing him to the devastating impact of a confession for little testimony of value in return, Meyers acted outside the bounds of professional competence. Indeed, the calculus was so one-sided as to reinforce the conclusion that Meyers acted out of ignorance. 63 In Strickland, the Supreme Court held that to prevail on an ineffective assistance claim, a petitioner must show that counsel's performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the `counsel' guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052. As the district court properly recognized, the Supreme Court and this circuit have compared the risks and benefits associated with a lawyer's tactical decisions. See, e.g., Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 168, 186, 106 S.Ct. 2464, 91 L.Ed.2d 144 (1986); Mak v. Blodgett, 970 F.2d 614, 619 (9th Cir.1992). If we apply that kind of analysis to Meyers' decision to waive the privilege, the ledger is decidedly one-sided against waiver. By waiving Edwards' marital privilege, Meyers opened the door to testimony from Gaines. Meyers knew that Gaines was openly hostile to Edwards and had told police that he had confessed the murder to her. Not only did Gaines tell the police about his confession, but she told them that he's crazy, she feared him and he had threatened her. Indeed, it was Gaines who, five years after the murder, tipped off the police that her husband was the murderer. Meyers knew that Gaines was firmly in the prosecution's camp. Balanced against this near-certain and near-dispositive evidence, there was little for Edwards to gain from Gaines' testimony. 64 The majority speculates that Meyers waived the privilege so that the jury would not be left to wonder whether Edwards attempted to explain his behavior — such as pacing the apartment with a shotgun and washing his hands — to his wife. (Op. at 1128.) But Edwards had already explained his behavior to the jury — without waiving the marital privilege — simply by testifying that Melton had threatened both him and his wife, and by describing his attempt to clean up his dog's mess. The additional question of whether Edwards tried to explain those actions to his wife concerns a minor detail that pales in importance to Gaines' revelation of Edwards' confession. 65 Similarly, the majority states that without waiver, there was no innocent explanation for [Gaines'] decision to accompany him on their cross-country trek. (Op. at 1128.) That assertion is perplexing; Edwards testified that Melton had threatened both Edwards and Gaines without waiving the privilege. Such testimony did not require delving into confidential communications between Edwards and Gaines and provided reason enough to explain why Gaines accompanied Edwards when he fled from the state. The only benefit Edwards could have hoped to receive from waiving the privilege was showing that Gaines knew she too had been threatened by the victim's cousin. Once again, we are not persuaded that it was reasonable for Meyers to seek the minimal benefit accorded by this additional fact in exchange for the near-certain revelation of a murder confession. 66 Nor was Meyers' waiver of Edwards' privilege reasonable even assuming there was a non-frivolous argument that waiver should be limited to conversations that occurred on July 18, the night after Edwards confessed to his wife. (Op. at 1128-29.) That the scope of waiver was unsettled under California law at the time only bolsters my conviction that Meyers' decision to waive was unreasonable. In light of the considerable risk posed by Gaines' testimony, Meyers should not have plowed blindly into protected communications without first attempting to clarify the effect of waiver through a motion in limine. 4 67 The majority excuses Meyers' decision to waive the privilege by recalling the adage, desperate times call for desperate measures. (Op. at 1128.) As a preliminary matter, characterizing Edwards' case as desperate is misleading. All of the evidence linking Edwards to the crime was circumstantial. Although the victim's cousin, Tyrone Melton, testified that Edwards told him, And I'll fuck you up too, Melton's testimony was ambiguous and weak in comparison to what Gaines would have to say. On cross-examination, Melton's credibility was undermined when he admitted that he personally desired to see Edwards convicted. The defense also brought out that when Melton signed a police statement less than two weeks after the murder, he recounted his phone conversation with Edwards and left out any reference to Edwards' alleged self-incriminating statement. At that time — when the conversation with Edwards was freshest in his mind — Melton told the police only that Edwards had denied knowing about the murder of Thomas or who had committed it. 68 Moreover, the majority's desperate times thesis does not excuse ineffective assistance of counsel. As Strickland established, even in desperate times, there are discernible limits on counsel's justification for taking unwarranted risks. The decision to waive Edwards' marital privilege falls outside those limits. When the ultimate balance is calculated, the cost of waiving Edwards' marital privilege overwhelmingly out-weighs any benefit to Edwards. By waiving Edwards' marital privilege rights, Meyers provided ineffective assistance and the California Court of Appeal was objectively unreasonable in finding otherwise. 69