Opinion ID: 3002096
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Trial Court’s Actions Prior to the Verdict

Text: Crockett’s legal challenge focuses upon his right to a fair trial, his right to counsel, and his right to be present during all stages of trial. He cites several Supreme Court cases: Maine v. Moulton, 474 U.S. 159, 176 (1985) (holding that “the Sixth Amendment is violated when the State obtains incriminating statements by knowingly circumventing the accused’s right to have counsel present in a confrontation between the accused and a state agent”); United States v. Wade, 388 U.S. 218, 236-37 (1967) (holding that a defendant was entitled to counsel at a post-indictment lineup); United States v. Gagnon, 470 U.S. 522, 529 (1985) (holding that the “failure by a criminal defendant to invoke his right to be present . . . at a conference which he knows is taking place between the judge and a juror in chambers constitutes a valid waiver of that right”); and Rogers v. United States, 422 U.S. 35, 39-40 (1975) (holding that it was error for the trial judge to answer a jury’s question without giving defendant’s counsel an opportunity to be heard before the trial judge responded). 3 (...continued) Appellate Procedure 10(e) permits us to allow correction or modification of the record on appeal where items were omitted by error or accident. Although we usually decline to supplement the record on appeal, two of the items offered by Crockett are helpful for context—the jurors’ affidavits and the accountability instruction. Therefore, we GRANT his motion to supplement the record with those two items and DENY the motion as to the other nine items. See Ruvalcaba v. Chandler, 416 F.3d 555, 563 n.2 (7th Cir. 2005) (supplementing the record on appeal for a habeas petition). 10 No. 06-4066 The Illinois Appellate Court first noted that it would have been improper for the trial judge to respond to the jury before contacting counsel, and the trial judge appropriately did not do so. This is consistent with the principle set forth by the Supreme Court in Rogers. The court then held that it is not error for a trial judge to fail to respond to a question by the jury if the jury reaches a decision before a response can reasonably be provided. Crockett does not cite a case in which the Supreme Court held the opposite on materially indistinguishable facts to show that this decision was “contrary” to Supreme Court precedent; nor does he show that the decision involved an “unreasonable application” through the appellate court’s unreasonable refusal to extend a rule to a context where it should have applied. Virsnieks, 521 F.3d at 713. In fact, he does not show that the decision was incorrect, let alone “so incorrect that it lies outside of the range of reasonable conclusions.” Jones, 525 F.3d at 503. Therefore, Crockett has not satisfied his burden under AEDPA. See Rizzo, 528 F.3d at 505 (rejecting habeas petition and noting that Rizzo claimed constitutional violations “but stop[ped] short of stating which Supreme Court case provides clearly established precedent for his position”); Lieberman v. Thomas, 505 F.3d 665, 672 (7th Cir. 2007) (“Nowhere in the petition does Lieberman demonstrate how the state appellate court’s opinion conflicts with, or unreasonably applied, relevant Supreme Court precedent . . . .”). Crockett’s factual challenge focuses upon the Illinois Appellate Court’s determination that Crockett failed to show that the trial court unreasonably delayed in informNo. 06-4066 11 ing defense counsel of the note prior to the verdict. Crockett claims that the record shows the trial court did unreasonably delay, and the Illinois Appellate Court’s conclusion to the contrary was unreasonable in light of the evidence. Applying the standard from Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 637 (1993) (holding that an error must have a substantial and injurious effect on the verdict to entitle a petitioner to habeas relief), he claims that the error had a substantial and injurious effect on the jury’s verdict because the juror’s affidavits showed that they accepted his trial testimony, which would very likely have resulted in an acquittal if they had received clarification on the meaning of “abet.” The district court disagreed with Crockett, finding the Illinois Appellate Court’s decision that the trial court did not unreasonably delay was a reasonable determination based on the facts in the record. Factually, we agree with Crockett that the record shows that the trial judge had the telephone number for the defense counsel, the sheriff successfully contacted defense counsel by telephone for the previous jury notes, and defense counsel asserted that they remained available by telephone during the time period of the third question. Crockett argues that this demonstrates “there were means and opportunity to tell defense counsel about the third note . . . . However, they were not told.” The Illinois Appellate Court’s findings of fact did not contradict Crockett’s version of the facts—the court never claimed that defense counsel were unavailable or had been told about the note. However, the court accepted the trial judge’s statement that an attempt to contact counsel was 12 No. 06-4066 made because the trial judge directed the sheriff to call counsel, and Crockett does not provide us with clear and convincing evidence that the judge did not give the sheriff this direction. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1). Armed with that conclusion, the Illinois Appellate Court then assessed whether the delay in responding to the jury was unreasonable. The affidavits of the jurors show that the trial judge received the note from the jury and did not respond for fifteen minutes to one hour. The Illinois Appellate Court cited several cases in which a judge did not respond to a jury’s question: People v. Sims, 519 N.E.2d 921, 935 (Ill. App. Ct. 1987) (holding that it was not reversible error to fail to answer the jury’s question where the trial judge was presiding over closing argu- ments in a co-defendant’s case when the question was asked and the jury reached a result before the judge could confer with the parties); People v. Chandler, 110 A.D.2d 970, 971 (N.Y. App. Div. 1985) (holding that it was not reversible error for a trial court to fail to answer a jury’s question for fifty minutes after which the jury returned a verdict); People v. Hall, 101 A.D.2d 956, 957 (N.Y. App. Div. 1984) (holding that it was reversible error for a trial court to fail to answer a jury’s question on the burden of proof for two hours after which the jury returned a verdict). The court concluded that Crockett did not construct a sufficient record to show the trial judge acted unreason- ably. Crockett notes that to the extent the reasonableness inquiry was based upon a factual determination, the Illinois Appellate Court did not make a finding that the trial court acted reasonably; instead it refused to find that No. 06-4066 13 the trial court acted unreasonably. While this is true, it does not help Crockett in satisfying his burden under AEDPA. The Illinois Appellate Court accepted the facts that Crockett developed on appeal. Its decision was not based upon an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence; rather, its decision was based upon the lack of evidence that would have been used as “factors . . . in determining whether reversible error was committed.” Crockett, 731 N.E.2d at 835. Although initially couched as a factual argument, Crockett later claims that the reasonableness inquiry made by the Illinois Appellate Court was a question of law, but he does not attempt to cite any case that would show an unreasonable application of federal law as established by the Supreme Court. Therefore, his petition fails on this issue. See Lockhart v. Chandler, 446 F.3d 721, 724 (7th Cir. 2006) (“Lockhart failed to point to a relevant Supreme Court case, [and] our own search . . . also failed to locate such a case.”); cf. Burt v. Uchtman, 422 F.3d 557, 566 (7th Cir. 2005) (finding that the Illinois Supreme Court unreasonably applied Supreme Court precedent from Pate v. Robinson in determining that the trial court did not err by accepting a guilty plea without ordering a renewed competency hearing).