Opinion ID: 791168
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: State and Federal Proceedings

Text: 8 Mr. Ruvalcaba was charged with first degree murder in the death of Martinez and with the attempted first degree murder of Flores and Sanchez. Before trial, he sought to suppress the confession on the grounds that the police had failed to notify his parents of his arrest, that he did not intelligently waive his right to an attorney after police told him that he did not need one and that officers coerced him into making a statement. The trial court heard testimony from the officers and Mr. Ruvalcaba and denied his suppression motion, 9 basing its determination on the witnesses' credibility. The court found that the officers had substantially complied with the requirements contained in the Juvenile Court Act. The court further found that [Mr. Ruvalcaba] had not been subjected to intense psychological pressures and had voluntarily given his statement after being advised of his constitutional and juvenile rights. 10 R.8, Ex.B (Opinion of Appellate Court of Illinois) at 9. 11 After the denial of his suppression motion, Mr. Ruvalcaba was tried before a jury and relied upon a claim of self-defense. The jury acquitted Mr. Ruvalcaba of the attempted murder of Sanchez, but could not reach a verdict on the other charges. He was tried a second time. The second jury found Mr. Ruvalcaba guilty of the first degree murder of Martinez and the attempted murder of Flores.
12 Mr. Ruvalcaba appealed to the Appellate Court of Illinois; he argued, among other grounds, that his confession was involuntary and that he had been denied due process of law because of prosecutorial misconduct during the assistant state's attorneys' closing arguments. The court affirmed his conviction in an unpublished opinion. R.8, Ex.B. 13
14 The appellate court rejected Mr. Ruvalcaba's contention that the trial court erred in denying the motion to suppress his confession. Mr. Ruvalcaba had sought suppression on the ground that he had been questioned without his parents present and had made a statement under coercion. Considering the totality of the circumstances and taking special care because Mr. Ruvalcaba was a minor, the court noted that certain factors, such as Mr. Ruvalcaba's age, his lack of experience with the criminal justice system, and the alleged threats against his girlfriend and child, supported a determination of involuntariness. 15 On the other hand, the appellate court continued, several factors supported the conclusion that Mr. Ruvalcaba's statement was voluntary. Notably, he had raised the alleged threats for the first time on appeal and never had mentioned the threats in his statement or trial testimony; he had offered no evidence to corroborate his claim to have been psychologically or physically coerced; he had been fed and was allowed to use the restroom, and he said in his statement that he had been treated well by the police; he acknowledged at every stage that he understood his rights; he did not have access to any codefendants' statements when giving his confession and had not argued at trial that he was forced to change his statement to conform with the statements of the other arrestees. Moreover, the appellate court noted certain personal traits of Mr. Ruvalcaba that indicated that his statement had not been involuntary. For example, he was a high school student of at least average apparent intelligence and was an admitted gang member who was presumably streetwise. R.8, Ex.B at 21. 16 The court also noted that, although Mr. Ruvalcaba was detained for up to thirteen hours, he was interrogated only three times, for intervals ranging from only a few seconds to forty-five minutes. The appellate court finally determined that the police had complied with Illinois' Juvenile Court Act by calling a youth officer shortly before Mr. Ruvalcaba arrived at the station and by making a reasonable attempt to notify Mr. Ruvalcaba's parents. 705 ILCS 405/5-405. The appellate court accordingly held that the totality of the circumstances indicated that Mr. Ruvalcaba offered his confession voluntarily. 17
18 The state appellate court also rejected Mr. Ruvalcaba's prosecutorial misconduct claims. Mr. Ruvalcaba had argued that an assistant state's attorney offered an incorrect statement of law by informing the jury that first degree murder required the State to prove only two elements, the mens rea and the actus reus, and by subsuming the third element, lack of justification, into the requirement for second degree murder. Under Illinois law, the substantive offense of first degree murder requires that the State prove that the defendant lacked justification. Mr. Ruvalcaba contended that the prosecutor's misstatements had the effect of placing the burden on him to prove that the killing was justified. 19 The appellate court held that, taken in context, the prosecutor's statements merely describ[ed] the process involved in determining whether defendant was guilty of either first degree murder or second degree murder and did not improperly shift the burden to Mr. Ruvalcaba. R.8, Ex.B at 33. The court held, in the alternative, that the trial court's instructions to the jury, which included the elements and the burden of proof, cured any prejudice resulting from the statements. 20 Mr. Ruvalcaba also argued that an assistant state's attorney's comments in rebuttal shifted the burden of proof by stating that Mr. Ruvalcaba was attempting to put the State's witnesses on trial. The appellate court found this argument unpersuasive because Mr. Ruvalcaba's counsel invited the comments in his own closing statement. 21 The Supreme Court of Illinois denied a petition for leave to appeal.
22 Mr. Ruvalcaba then timely filed a federal petition for habeas corpus. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254. His petition raised four claims of error, only two of which have been appealed to us. 23 First, he submitted that the appellate court's decision was contrary to and an unreasonable application of the Supreme Court's guidance for evaluating juvenile confessions as established in Fare v. Michael C., 442 U.S. 707, 99 S.Ct. 2560, 61 L.Ed.2d 197 (1979), and applied in Hardaway v. Young, 302 F.3d 757 (7th Cir.2002). 24 The district court rejected this argument because neither Fare nor Hardaway established a per se rule of involuntariness in evaluating a minor's confession, but rather held that youth is one factor in a totality of the circumstances analysis. Given this standard, the district court held that the appellate court's analysis was not an unreasonable application of Fare because it adequately considered Mr. Ruvalcaba's age as well as other circumstances. 25 Mr. Ruvalcaba also renewed his claim of prosecutorial misconduct. The district court evaluated the submission that he had raised before the state appellate court and rejected his claim for relief. 26 The district court granted Mr. Ruvalcaba a certificate of appealability on his involuntary confession claim. After Mr. Ruvalcaba filed his appeal, a certificate of appealability was issued for his additional claim of prosecutorial misconduct. II