Court Opinion

ID: 9496814
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:35:48.643637+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:48.658495
License: Public Domain

BRUNETTI, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I dissent because Wang’s statements do not bear sufficient indicia of reliability, and the California trial court’s exclusion of these statements as inadmissible hearsay did not deny Chia his due process rights under Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973).
*1009Having asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Wang was unavailable to serve as a witness in Chia’s trial. Thus, Chia sought to introduce hearsay statements made by Wang to the police, that were exculpatory in nature, as declarations against penal interest.1 See Cal. Evid.Code § 1280 (West 1999). The trial court determined that Wang’s statements did not fall within this hearsay exception, and that the exclusion of the statements did not deprive Chia of his due process rights under Chambers. In order to determine whether exclusion of the hearsay statements rendered Chia’s trial fundamentally unfair under Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, we must examine the statements themselves.
Co-conspirator Wang was first interviewed by the police on February 5, 1988 in the hospital emergency room prior to his undergoing surgery. Before receiving Wang’s statements, the police informed Wang that he was badly injured and could possibly die from his several gunshot wounds during surgery. Wang stated that on February 1, 1988 he had entered into an agreement with Kow and Chen to steal $60,000 from some drug dealers. Wang admitted to shooting one of the agents and said that he did not know of anyone else involved in the actual shooting other than himself, Kow, and Chen.
A second statement was taken from Wang at 3:30 p.m. on February 5, 1988, after Wang survived the surgery. Wang told a Pasadena police officer that he, Kow, and Chen planned to rob and murder the “drug dealers.” He detailed the shooting of the men in the Volvo (e.g. Kow shot Agent Montoya and grabbed the money bag and Wang shot Agents Seema and Martinez) and the attempt by Kow, Chen, and himself to escape in the Nissan. He described their eventual capture. He did not mention Chia at this time.
Due to a malfunction in the tape recorder during the second interview, a third interview was conducted on the evening of February 5, 1988. Wang provided a similar confession to that obtained in the second interview. During the third interview, however, Wang was also asked about the black Mitsubishi seen by the police. Wang explained that the Mitsubishi belonged to his friend Michael Chia. Wang said that he told Chia about the plan, and that Chia warned him against involvement because Chen and Kow might betray him.
The fourth and most detailed statement made by Wang came on February 7, 1988, when Wang was interviewed by an FBI agent. Wang stated that Kow asked him a week before the incident to help him rob and kill the “drug dealers.” Wang again said that he told his friend Chia about the plan and that Chia warned him against involvement because Kow and Chen could not be trusted. Chia nevertheless drove Wang in Chia’s Mitsubishi to and from Kow’s apartment on the night of February 4 so that Wang could deliver a gun and ammunition and to finalize the plans for the robbery/murders. Chia and Wang later went to dinner at the 8000 Club and stayed the night at a friend’s house. The next morning, Chia was at Kow’s apartment. *1010Chen drove Kow and Wang to Tiny Nay-lor’s.' While acting as a look out in the restaurant parking lot, Wang saw Chia in the Mitsubishi driving around the lot. Wang explained that Chia was watching out for him and again told Wang not to do it. Wang told Chia to go home, but Chia stayed to watch out for Wang. Wang then recounted details of the robbery, escape, and capture.
The California Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s determination that the four statements did not fall within the statement against penal interest provision of Cal. Evid.Code § 1230. Under California law, “a declaration against penal interest [is] admissible under Evidence Code section 1230 only as to those statements which are specifically disserving to the interests of the declarant. No collateral assertions can be permitted.” People v. Garcia, 115 Cal.App.3d 85, 105, 171 Cal.Rptr. 169 (Cal.Ct.App.1981) (internal citation omitted). The California Court of Appeal found that Chia was not interested in the admission of the portions of Wang’s statements which specifically disserved Wang’s interests (such as Wang’s statements regarding his own involvement in the robbery and shooting of the DEA agents). Rather, Chia sought only to use Wang’s collateral assertions that Chia was not involved in the actual shooting and that Chia tried to dissuade Wang from participating in the enterprise at all. Therefore, according to the appeal court, Wang’s statements were properly excluded. The California Supreme Court affirmed without comment.
The majority has correctly identified a rule of clearly established federal law which allows hearsay statements agáinst interest to be admitted into evidence when the statements bear “persuasive assurances of trustworthiness” and are crucial to the defense. Chambers, 410 U.S. at 302, 93 S.Ct. 1038. Exclusion of such statements may rise to the level of a due process violation. Id. Once a clearly established federal law has been identified, we must determine whether the state court’s ruling was “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of’ the established law. Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63, 73, 123 S.Ct. 1166, 155 L.Ed.2d 144 (2003). A decision is “contrary to” clearly established federal law if the court “confronts a set of facts that are materially indistinguishable” from a Supreme Court decision, but nonetheless reaches a different result. Id. The final part of An-drade ’s second prong is whether the lower court identified the correct governing legal principle, but unreasonably applied it to this case. Id. at 75, 123 S.Ct. 1166. The Supreme Court held that the lower court’s application of the clearly established law must be “objectively unreasonable,” not merely incorrect or erroneous. Id.
The majority has concluded that the district court’s “decision to exclude reliable material evidence ... constitutes an objectively unreasonable application” of the Chambers rule of law. See p. 999. I disagree, because neither prong of the An-drade test, which would warrant granting Chia’s petition for habeas corpus, has been satisfied. It is true that hearsay rules “may not be applied mechanistically to defeat the ends of justice.” Chambers, 410 U.S. at 302, 93 S.Ct. 1038. However, the facts of this case are not “materially indistinguishable” (Andrade, 538 U.S. at 73, 123 S.Ct. 1166) from Chambers, and, therefore, the district court’s exclusion of Wang’s statements was not contrary to the Chambers rule of law. Second, the district court’s decision to exclude the statements is not an objectively unreasonable application of the Chambers rule because Wang’s statements lacked sufficient evidence of reliability and were not corroborated.
*1011There are fundamental differences between Wang’s hearsay statements and the statements excluded in Chambers, and the majority has failed to explain why this case should not be distinguished. Chambers was tried and convicted of the murder of a policeman in Mississippi, although, shortly after the crime, a third-party, Gable McDonald, had confessed to three friends on separate occasions that he killed the officer and he later made a sworn confession to the crime. Chambers, 410 U.S. 284, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297. Chambers’ defense centered on showing that McDonald had killed the police officer. Id. at 289, 93 S.Ct. 1038. The state court refused to allow Chambers to treat McDonald, called by the defense, as an adverse witness once he repudiated his sworn confession on the stand. Id. at 291, 93 S.Ct. 1038. Mississippi’s common-law rule prohibits impeaching one’s own witness. Id. at 295, 93 S.Ct. 1038. The court also rejected Chambers’ attempt to introduce the testimony of three witnesses, to whom McDonald had admitted shooting the officer, on the grounds that the proffered testimony was hearsay. Id. at 292-93, 93 S.Ct. 1038. Under its antiquated rules of evidence, Mississippi recognized statements against pecuniary interest, but not statements against penal interest, as an exception to the hearsay rule. Id. at 299, 93 S.Ct. 1038. Observing that Chambers’ defense was “far less persuasive” than it might have been had he been allowed to admit testimony from other sources about McDonald’s confessions, the Supreme Court noted that, because McDonald confessed spontaneously to friends shortly after the crime and his statements were corroborated through other evidence (e.g., McDonald’s sworn confession; the testimony of an eyewitness to the shooting; the testimony that McDonald was seen with a gun immediately after the shooting; and proof of McDonald’s prior ownership of a .22 caliber revolver and subsequent purchase of a new weapon), the hearsay statements “provided considerable assurance of their reliability.” Id. at 294, 300, 93 S.Ct. 1038. The Court overturned the state trial court’s decision, holding that to deny Chambers the opportunity to treat McDonald as an adverse witness after he repudiated his confession on the stand at Chambers’ trial and to exclude as hearsay the testimony of McDonald’s three friends, to whom he confessed, deprived Chambers of a fair trial guaranteed by due process. Id. at 302, 93 S.Ct. 1038.
The state court, by excluding Wang’s statements, did not confront “a set of facts that are materially indistinguishable” from Chambers, but nonetheless reach a different result. Andrade, 538 U.S. at 73, 123 S.Ct. 1166. While both cases involved the exclusion of hearsay statements, the facts of Chambers are distinguishable from Chia’s case. Of particular importance in Chambers, each of McDonald’s confessions was made spontaneously to a close acquaintance shortly after the murder had occurred, was corroborated by some other evidence in the case, and was “self-incriminatory and unquestionably against interest,” even while tending to exculpate Chambers. Chambers, 410 U.S. at 300-01, 93 S.Ct. 1038. Wang’s statements were all made to the police during post-arrest interrogation, and only in response to specific questions about the robbery and murders of the DEA agents. Chia did not have corroborating evidence to support Wang’s statements. Finally, while McDonald’s statements tended to both exculpate himself and exonerate Chambers, Wang’s inculpatory statements do not also exculpate Chia. Therefore, the state court did not reach a decision contrary to Chambers.
Next, a writ of habeas corpus may be granted “if the state court identifies the *1012correct governing legal principle ... but unreasonably applies that principle to the facts” of the case before it. Andrade, 538 U.S. at 75, 123 S.Ct. 1166. The majority has held that the state court made an objectively unreasonable application of the Chambers rule to Chia’s case, because Wang’s statements were both reliable and material to his defense. However, Wang’s statements lacked sufficient reliability to be within the hearsay exception of Chambers.
Critical to the outcome in Chambers was the Court’s determination that despite Mississippi’s state evidentiary rules, the hearsay statements involved “were originally made and subsequently offered at trial under circumstances that provided considerable assurance of their reliability.” Id. at 300, 93 S.Ct. 1038 (emphasis added). Wang’s four statements were all made to the police during post-arrest interrogation, and only in response to specific questions regarding the black Mitsubishi and Chia’s involvement, whereas the declarant in Chambers made three independent statements to three different friends. As the state trial court noted, Wang was quite literally caught in the act, and it is not uncommon for someone in Wang’s situation to make statements to protect an arguably less culpable confederate, especially when that confederate is a good friend. Thus, Wang’s statements lack the element of reliability found in McDonald’s spontaneous confessions in Chambers.
Furthermore, unlike in Chambers, there is no evidence to corroborate Wang’s statements regarding Chia’s purported lack of involvement, nor could Wang be impeached about these statements since he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights. Indeed, although corroborating evidence is lacking, the record does reveal Chia’s own admissible statements to the police whereby he acknowledges an agreement- with Wang to act as Wang’s bodyguard, as well as a plan for Chia to hide somewhere near Tiny Naylor’s restaurant to look out for and come to Wang’s aid should Wang give the signal by sticking his arm out of the car.
Finally, while portions of Wang’s statements were undoubtedly self-inculpatory, those sections exculpatory to Chia were not against Wang’s interest and therefore were not as reliable as the inculpatory parts. In LaGrand v. Stewart, 133 F.3d 1253 (9th Cir.1998), we held that the state trial court’s exclusion of hearsay statements of a co-defendant as falling outside of Arizona’s “statement against penal interest” rule, which is identical to Federal Rule of Evidence 804(b)(3), did not violate the defendant’s due process rights. The defendant Karl LaGrand twice confessed to the police that he stabbed the victim, but stated that his co-defendant Walter LaGrand was not present. Id. at 1259. Based on Supreme Court precedent, we determined that “[t]he reliability that attends the inculpatory part of ... [the de-clarant’s] confession does not afford any reliability to that part of the statement that merely exculpates [the defendant].” Id. at 1268. We further explained that
[b]ecause the “statements against penal interest” exception to the hearsay rule is premised upon the inherent reliability of statements that tend to incriminate the declarant, federal courts have concluded that a statement that includes both incriminating declarations and corollary declarations that, taken alone, are not inculpatory of the declarant, must be separated and only that portion that is actually incriminating of the declarant admitted under the exception.
Id. at 1267-68 (citing Williamson v. United States, 512 U.S. 594, 599-600, 114 S.Ct. 2431, 129 L.Ed.2d 476 (1994) (noting that judges in federal courts must separate the *1013incriminatory portions of statements from other portions for purposes of Rule 804(b)(3) because”[t]he fact that a person is making a broadly self-inculpatory confession does not make more credible the confession’s non-selfinculpatory parts”); Carson v. Peters, 42 F.3d 384, 386 (7th Cir.1994) (“Portions of inculpatory statements that pose no risk to the declarants are not particularly reliable; they are just garden variety hearsay.”); United States v. Porter, 881 F.2d 878, 882-883 (10th Cir.1989) (if a statement exculpatory to the accused is severable from the statement inculpatory to the declarant, each statement must be separately analyzed under Rule 804(b)(3)); United States v. Lilley, 581 F.2d 182, 188 (8th Cir.1978) (“To the extent that a statement is not against the declarant’s interest, the guaranty of trustworthiness does not exist and that portion of the statement should be excluded.”)).
Since we are deciding whether the exclusion of Wang’s statements violated Chia’s federal due process rights, our decision in LaGrand v. Stewart, and the cases to which it cites, are particularly helpful on the question of reliability. They imply that excluding the exculpatory portions of a confession do not raise due process concerns because those portions are inherently unreliable. Both the state trial court and California Court of Appeal recognized as much, noting that Chia was only interested in introducing the exculpatory portions of Wang’s statements. Indeed, this is not a case where the exculpatory and inculpatory portions are intertwined in a seamless and unseverable confession. A review of the statements reveals that each was made in the course of question:and-answer style police interrogation where the direction of the questions continually and abruptly shifted from one topic to the next. For example, in Wang’s third statement, before mentioning Chia’s name, he admitted that he shot a DEA agent and that he and Kow had planned the transaction to rob the “drug .dealers” from the very beginning. It is both simple and necessary to identify and separate the reliable inculpatory portions of the statement from those that merely exonerate Chia and do not have the same indicia of reliability. Furthermore, even if Chia also sought to admit the self-inculpatory portions, those parts would have been of questionable benefit to Chia. Unlike Chambers, where only one person could have shot the police officer, our case deals with accomplice and conspiracy behavior. Wang’s confession in no way exonerates anyone else.
The factors set forth in Miller v. Stagner, 757 F.2d 988, 994 (9th Cir.1985), upon which the majority relies, do not support Chia’s due process claim. Wang’s statements are, at best, minimally reliable, and hence their exclusion did not render the trial fundamentally unfair. Because the statements are not sufficiently reliable, and do not fall within the hearsay exception, the are not probative to Chia’s case. Chia has pointed to nothing in the record that requires this court to disregard the state court’s findings, nor has he demonstrated that Wang’s statements were otherwise reliable. Because Wang’s statements demonstrate that Chia knew of the plan to rob and murder beforehand, the slight value of Wang’s testimony to Chia’s defense did not outweigh the state’s interest in excluding the evidence. Chia’s due process rights were not violated by the exclusion of Wang’s, hearsay statements. See Galindo v. Ylst, 971 F.2d 1427, 1429 (9th Cir.1992).
Again, this court’s role is to decide whether the state trial court’s exclusion of Wang’s hearsay statements was an objectively unreasonable application of clearly established federal law as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court. Andrade, 538 U.S. at 75, 123 S.Ct. 1166. *1014Andrade makes clear that an objectively unreasonable application of federal law is different from an incorrect or erroneous application of federal law. Id. (internal citations omitted). The trial court held an evidentiary hearing and heard arguments on the admissibility of the hearsay statements, in which it determined that the statements fell outside of § 1230 of the California Evidence Code for the same reason that exclusion of the statements do not implicate due process concerns under Chambers — the exculpatory statements lacked any indicia of reliability. I am not left with a firm conviction that the trial court’s decision was not objectively unreasonable.
I would affirm the district court’s decision dismissing Chia’s petition for habeas corpus.

. Section 1230 provides:
Evidence of a statement by a declarant having sufficient knowledge of the subject is not made inadmissible by the hearsay rule if the declarant is unavailable as a witness and the statement, when made, was so far contrary to the declarant’s pecuniary or proprietary interest, or so far subjected him to the risk of civil or criminal liability, or so far tended to render invalid a claim by him against another or created such a risk of making him an object of hatred, ridicule, or social disgrace in the community, that a reasonable man in his position would not have made the statement unless he believed it to be true.