Coleman v. Hardy

• Decision Date: 07 February 2011
• Docket Number: No. 08-3537,08-3537
• Citation: 628 F.3d 314
• Parties: Maurice COLEMAN, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Marcus HARDY, Warden, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

628 F.3d 314 Maurice COLEMAN, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Marcus HARDY, Warden,^* Respondent-Appellee. No. 08-3537. United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit. Argued Nov. 30, 2009. Decided Nov. 19, 2010. As Amended on Denieal of Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Feb. 7, 2011.

Steven Shobat, Chicago, IL, for Petitioner-Appellant.

Drew Meyer, Office of the Attorney General, Chicago, IL, for Respondent-Appellee.

Before KANNE, ROVNER, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge.

In 1983, Maurice Coleman was convicted of the murder and armed robbery of Terrell Jackson. The sole evidence in the trial against him was the eyewitness testimony of Jackson's brother and stepdaughter, who were present in the home on the day of the murder. Coleman sought habeas corpus relief from his sentence, claiming that he was deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel. He also requested an evidentiary hearing to allow the court to make factual findings and credibility determinations regarding his claims of actual innocence and ineffective assistance of counsel. The district court denied Coleman's habeas petition and his request for an evidentiary hearing. Because we cannot meaningfully review Coleman's habeas petition without more information regarding the content of potential witnesses' testimony, we remand to the district court for an evidentiary hearing as to his claim of actual innocence.

I. BACKGROUND¹

A. The Crime and Investigation

On August 2, 1981, Chicago police were called to a house in response to a report of a homicide. The victim, TerrellJackson, was found in a second floor bedroom with multiple gunshot wounds. Arlander Adamson, Jackson's brother, and Gwen Thomas, Jackson's stepdaughter, both claimed to have witnessed the crime. According to the police report and Adamson's testimony at trial, Adamson had been watching television on the first floor when two men entered the house from behind with guns pointed at him. They forced Adamson to lie down and then tied his hands behind his back and gagged him. The men then forced Adamson up the stairs to the bedroom where Jackson was sleeping. They forced Adamson to lie down on the floor face down, next to his sleeping brother. Jackson woke up as the men slapped him and shouted "where's the money, where's it at?" and then shot him multiple times.

One of the men then went to the room where Thomas was watching television with her week-old baby. She was led to Jackson's room, where the men forced her to help them look for the money. The room was ransacked but no money was found. One gold chain with a round medallion bearing the initials "T.J." in diamonds and a ring also bearing the initials "T.J." in diamonds were allegedly taken in the invasion. The men then allegedly tied up Thomas and left. Adamson and Thomas untied each other and called the police. Adamson and Thomas gave a general description of the perpetrators to the police. The first man was described as a black male, 25-30 years old, 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet tall, 140-150 pounds, black hair, light complexion, a possible small mustache, and wearing a blue track suit jacket with white stripes on the arms and blue jeans. The second man was described as a black male, 23-26 years old, 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall, medium build, black hair, dark brown skin, mustache and beard wearing a dark baseball-type cap and blue jeans.

Thomas called her cousin, Dorothy Davis, after the incident. Davis was on her way to Jackson's house when she was stopped by two men in a blue car. They asked if she was going to Jackson's, she denied she was, and they continued on their way. She gave a description of the males similar to that given by Adamson and Thomas.

Police also interviewed witnesses David and Tracey Wilkins, who lived next door to Jackson. At the time of the incident, David said he saw two black males sitting on the rear porch of Jackson's home. The two males left and returned several times during the one-and-a-half-hour period before the victim was shot. One male ran across to the laundromat and then returned. David's brother, Tracey, had been at the laundromat across the street, where he saw a black male come into the laundromat and use the phone. Approximately 45 minutes later, he saw two males running in the street (he assumed they were running because of the rain). The police report states that both brothers gave descriptions of the males similar to those given by Adamson and Thomas.

Several weeks later, on August 19, 1981, Thomas and Adamson separately picked Coleman out of a police lineup. David Wilkins also viewed the lineup but did not identify Coleman or anyone else as theperpetrator. At a police interview that day, Coleman told police he was not sure what he was doing on the day of the murder but that he was probably at his girlfriend's house or home alone. He denied any involvement in the murder.

During the investigation, police talked to a man named Roy Wright two different times. In the first interview, on August 3, 1981, Wright gave the police the following information: he was coordinating a drug deal with Jackson; he had picked up two men (one man he knew as "Rip" and later identified as Coleman, and one man he said he did not know at all) on the night of the murder; while in his car these strangers discussed a past event where they had killed someone; and he dropped them off in front of Jackson's house. During the second interview, on August 18, 1981, Wright also told the police that a few days after the murder, Coleman tried to sell him Jackson's medallion. Wright identified Coleman in a book of photographs.

Before a September 3, 1981 evidentiary hearing, Adamson picked out Joseph Barnes from a photo array and indicated that he thought Barnes might be one of the perpetrators. Barnes was living in Baltimore, Maryland at the time, and was extradited to Chicago. Adamson and Thomas separately identified Barnes as one of the perpetrators in a lineup.

B. The Trial

Coleman and Barnes were tried together, with each represented by separate counsel. The sole evidence against Coleman at trial was Adamson's and Thomas's eyewitness testimony. There was no forensic evidence introduced at trial that tied Coleman to the crime. Coleman called three witnesses in his defense. Dorothy Davis testified about the two black males who had stopped her on her way to Jackson's house. She testified that neither man was Coleman nor Barnes.

Coleman also called two police officers to testify to impeach Thomas's trial testimony. Thomas testified at trial that a chain was pulled off her neck on the day of the murder while she was in her room. Two police officers testified that Thomas did not report a theft on the day of the crime, and that her bedroom was not searched or dusted for fingerprints.

During the trial, Coleman's counsel, Geary Kull, asked for a severance. When asked for reasons why he needed a severance, he asked to speak with the judge ex parte or in camera. The judge refused, and Kull did not publicly state his reasons for desiring a severance because he did not wish to disclose his evidence to the state's attorney. Kull renewed his motion for severance just prior to trial, but the trial judge again refused to have proceedings without the state's attorney present. Kull then asked to "preserve the record" for appeal, by putting a statement of his need for a severance under seal. The judge did not read this statement and denied the motion for a severance.

Co-defendant Barnes advanced an alibi defense by having a woman testify that she was with him at the time of the crime. This defense was disbelieved when the state presented evidence of his past lies during an extradition hearing. Both Barnes and Coleman were convicted by a jury of murder and armed robbery.

C. The New Evidence Discovered Post-Conviction

During Coleman's state post-conviction proceedings, codefendant Barnes submitted an affidavit stating that Coleman had nothing to do with the murder. Barnes stated his co-defendant should have been Roy Wright, and that Jackson was a drug dealer and the murder was a result of adrug deal gone wrong. Through the affidavit, and at an evidentiary hearing, Barnes testified to a detailed sequence of events leading up to the murder. Barnes's trial attorney, James Rhodes, signed an affidavit stating that Barnes had told him, during the trial, that Coleman had nothing to do with the murder. He also said that after the verdict, Barnes expressed dismay that Coleman had been convicted.

An investigator for the defense interviewed Adamson. Adamson admitted that Jackson was a drug dealer, that Wright had been to Jackson's home a couple of times on the day of the murder, and that Wright and Thomas had an intimate relationship. Adamson also acknowledged that the robbers were looking for $10,000 in drug money.

Loretta Cade, Coleman's girlfriend and the mother of his child, signed a statement that Coleman was with her at the time of the shooting. She also claimed that she gave this information to Coleman's trial attorney and advised him that she was willing to testify at the time of trial. Evelynn Cade, Loretta's mother, signed a statement that she called Loretta and Coleman on the day of the shooting at approximately 5:00 or 5:15 p.m. and spoke to Coleman for fifteen minutes. She stated that she specifically remembered the day because it was August 2, and her birthday was August 3. She also stated that she told this to Coleman's attorney at the time and that she had been willing to testify. Evelyn's statement was made in 1999, two days before the order of the state court on Coleman's post-conviction motion asserting innocence. Loretta gave her statement in 2000, a year and a half later.

Coleman challenged his conviction on direct appeal, and filed a state post-conviction petition. The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed his conviction on July 31, 1998, and the Illinois Supreme Court denied leave to appeal...