Court Opinion

ID: 9474249
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:51:54.036827+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:58.998850
License: Public Domain

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I join the judgment and the opinion of the court. However, two of the issues addressed by the court are particularly troublesome, and I write to emphasize why I believe that the court’s disposition of them is a principled one.
The first issue relates to the prosecutor’s questioning of Dean’s sister regarding her retention of an attorney to represent her brother. The prosecutor suggested that it was permissible for the jury to infer that she had retained a lawyer for her brother because she thought he had committed the murders then under investigation. The court relies on the statement of the Wisconsin Supreme Court that the sister’s answers to the prosecutor’s suggestion negated any inference that her action was based on a belief in her brother’s guilt. This statement, holds the court, is a finding of fact which we are obliged to accept under the holding of the Supreme Court in Sumner v. Mata, 449 U.S. 539, 545-47, 101 S.Ct. 764, 768-69, 66 L.Ed.2d 722 (1981).
The line between findings of fact (which we must accept under the mandate of section 2254(d)) and conclusions of law regarding the significance of those facts as tested against a federal constitutional standard (which is clearly the responsibility of the federal court) is, as the Supreme Court has admitted, not always an easy task. See Wainwright v. Witt, — U.S. —, 105 S.Ct. 844, 855, 83 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985); Patton v. Yount, 467 U.S. 1025,104 S.Ct. 2885, 2892 n. 12, 81 L.Ed.2d 847 (1984). The available precedents from the Supreme Court and from this court do not yet present us with a principled distinction capable of easy application to every case. Indeed, absent further guidance — judicial or legislative — the lower federal courts are in danger of developing a caselaw reflecting distinctions more compatible with metaphysics than criminal procedure. Until we receive the necessary guidance, lower federal courts should, in my view, break as little new ground as possible and be especially sensitive to the directions set by the Supreme Court in this delicate allocation of power between federal and state judiciaries in the criminal procedure area. This case does not, however, require that we break any new ground. The existing Supreme Court precedent makes clear that the Supreme Court of Wisconsin’s determination that the prosecutor’s inference had been effectively neutralized by Dean’s sister’s later explanation is worthy of deference by the federal courts. See Marshall v. Lonberger, 459 U.S. 422, 432, 103 S.Ct. 843, 849, 74 L.Ed.2d 646 (1983); Witt, 105 S.Ct. *1246at 853-55; Patton, 104 S.Ct. at 2891-92; Rushen v. Spain, 464 U.S. 114, 104 S.Ct. 453, 78 L.Ed.2d 267 (1983).
While the Wisconsin Supreme Court did not set forth the grounds for its determination, the record does affirmatively demonstrate a solid foundation for such a conclusion. Immediately after responding to the prosecutor’s question, the sister, in response to a question posed by Dean’s counsel, explained that her decision to get a lawyer for her brother was based on a prior discussion with her father about the necessity of consulting with counsel early when a family member was involved in a criminal investigation:
Q: Mrs. Schneider, have you had occasion to see Douglas examined by the police before.
A: I had not observed it but when my father and I had been discussing what happened to Debbie Westenberger one time he said “the greatest mistake I ever made was in allowing a detective to take Douglas away without calling a lawyer first.” That’s why I called an attorney on this case. I knew what happened when he didn’t have an attorney present.
Trial Tr. at 840.
The second issue relates to the court’s holding that the instruction given' in this case is sufficiently different from that at issue in Francis v. Franklin, — U.S. —, 105 S.Ct. 1965, 85 L.Ed.2d 344 (1985). I concur fully in that view. While the court quite frankly admits that the lower courts have yet to receive complete guidance on the scope of Francis, its rationale for not applying its holding in this case is a principled one. Reversal on the authority of Francis would be particularly inappropriate in this case in light of Dean’s defense that he was under the influence of LSD at the time of the alleged offenses. Under the defense theory, Dean would have committed no deliberate act which would have triggered the application of the instruction.
Accordingly, I join the judgment and the opinion of the court.