Court Opinion

ID: 9484407
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:52:51.273792+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:50:13.991274
License: Public Domain

KEARSE, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the judgment. While I agree that Washington did not raise his present argument in his appeal to the state Appellate Division, I would affirm principally because Washington did not adequately preserve the argument by objecting even in the state trial court. Thus, in my view, the procedural default that bars our consideration of Washington’s habeas contentions occurred at the trial level rather than at the appellate level.
Washington’s principal defense at trial was that he had been acting solely as an agent for his friend, Verenda Starks, who had asked him to purchase drugs. Under New York law, “ ‘[one] who acts solely as the agent of the buyer cannot be convicted of the crime of selling narcotics.’ ” People v. Lam Lek Chong, 45 N.Y.2d 64, 73, 407 N.Y.S.2d 674, 679, 379 N.E.2d 200, 205 cert. denied, 439 U.S. 935, 99 S.Ct. 330, 58 L.Ed.2d 331 (1978). “Thus, where there is some reasonable view of the evidence which lends support to the claim that the defendant acted as an instrumentality of the buyer, upon a timely request, the court should instruct the jury on the agency defense.” People v. Feldman, 50 N.Y.2d 500, 503-04, 429 N.Y.S.2d 602, 604, 407 N.E.2d 448, 449 (1980) (per curiam).
Accordingly, the trial court instructed the jury as follows:
The law does not punish a buyer who buys drugs; therefore, one who acts solely in the capacity of an agent of the buyer cannot be convicted under the law pursuant to the Penal Law of the crime of the criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree or with the possession with intent to sell. One who acts solely in the capacity of claiming he is an agent for the buyer, cannot be found guilty of buying.
(Trial Transcript May 12,1987 (“Tr.”), at 83.) The court suggested to the jury factors it might consider and gave it examples of ways in which it might determine whether a person was an agent for a buyer. The court also instructed the jury that the burden was on the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Washington had not acted as the agent of the buyer of the narcotics in question. The court never mentioned Starks by name as the person for whom Washington contended he acted as agent. Washington’s attorney, asked whether he had any objections to the charge or any additions to request, responded in the negative.
After several hours of deliberation, the jury returned to ask for elucidation of the terms “seller,” “buyer,” and “agent.” The court instructed the jury that the terms “seller” and “buyer” had their ordinary meanings (Tr. 95); that “the Prosecution’s contention ... [was] that both Starks and Washington in this case were sellers of heroin to Petro-nella” (Tr. 98); and that “[i]n this case, the buyer, of course, was the undercover police officer, who you learned was Joseph Petro-nella” (Tr. 95). As to the issue of agency, the court stated:
[I]t is the defendant’s position: That he was not a seller of the drugs in this case to Petronella; that he acted as an agent for Petronella, the buyer in this case; that he *1452acted as an agent to accommodate, as a friendly gesture; that — and, in fact, if he was an accommodating party, doing a favor for someone that he had nothing to gain, no benefit to him. It is their position — it is the defense’s position, that therefore he should be relieved of any liability.
(Tr. 98-99 (emphasis added).) Though the language italicized in this supplemental instruction evinced a misunderstanding of Washington’s position, Washington did not offer any correction or ask the court to advise the jury that in fact his position was that he had acted as an agent not for Petronella but for Starks. Rather, Washington’s limited objection to the court’s supplemental instructions was simply as follows:
I don’t have any statements to make in regards to the jury’s questions that I want to make on the record. However, to preserve it, for the record, I would like to state that the defense takes exception to the Court’s statement to the jury that the evidence in this case tends to indicate that Starks was a seller. I would also take exception to the Court’s statement, for the record, that the — to the jury that the prosecution is characterizing Washington as a seller for both of the reasons that the jury may gain — may view the Court as having a predisposition or a decision that each of those things were [sic] true.
(Tr. 99-100.)
In response to this stated objection, the court said it would “balance” its presentation, and it thereupon essentially restated its earlier instruction as to the ways in which the jury could determine whether a person was an agent for a buyer. Again Washington did not inform the court that his position was that he had acted as the agent of Starks, not of Petronella, or ask the court to so instruct the jury.
In sum, though Washington contends in his present habeas corpus petition that the trial court’s instructions were erroneous because they did not permit the jury to consider his contention that Starks rather than Petronella was the buyer for whom Washington acted as an agent, the only objection he made to the trial court was that that court had characterized the prosecution’s contentions and evidence (a) that Washington was a seller, and (b) that Starks was a seller, in a way that suggested that the court had decided “that each of those things were [sic] true.” Thus, not only did Washington fail to make his present argument in his direct appeal to the Appellate Division, he also failed to advise the trial court that this was the gist of his objection. Had the present objection been made to the trial court, the court could easily have corrected its error. '
Since the objection was not made in the trial court, it is unlikely that the state appellate court would have entertained it even if Washington had raised it in his state-court appeal. See N.Y.Crim.Pro.L. § 470.05(2) (McKinney Supp.1993) (defendant normally must object to a jury instruction at trial in order to preserve the issue for appellate review); Taylor v. Harris, 640 F.2d 1, 2 (2d Cir.) (per curiam) (“It is well settled in New York that failure to object to an erroneous charge constitutes a waiver precluding review.”), cert. denied, 452 U.S. 942, 101 S.Ct. 3089, 69 L.Ed.2d 958 (1981); People v. Argibay, 45 N.Y.2d 45, 55, 407 N.Y.S.2d 664, 669, 379 N.E.2d 191, 195 (per curiam), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 930, 99 S.Ct. 317, 58 L.Ed.2d 323 (1978). Accordingly, I agree that the habeas petition was barred by procedural default.