Adams v. Aiken

• Decision Date: 01 December 1994
• Docket Number: No. 91-4000,91-4000
• Citation: 41 F.3d 175
• Parties: Sylvester Lewis ADAMS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. James AIKEN, Warden, Central Correctional Institution, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 175

41 F.3d 175

63 USLW 2431

Sylvester Lewis ADAMS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. James AIKEN, Warden, Central Correctional Institution Respondent-Appellee.

No. 91-4000.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Submitted July 15, 1994.

Decided Dec. 1, 1994.

David I. Bruck, Columbia, SC, for appellant.

Donald John Zelenka, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen., Columbia, SC, for appellee.

Before WILKINS, Circuit Judge, and BUTZNER and SPROUSE, Senior Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Senior Judge BUTZNER wrote the opinion, in which Judge WILKINS and Senior Judge SPROUSE joined.

OPINION

BUTZNER, Senior Circuit Judge:

The Supreme Court in Adams v. Evatt, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 1365, 128 L.Ed.2d 42 (1994), vacated our judgment in Adams v. Aiken, 965 F.2d 1306 (4th Cir.1992), and remanded the case to us for further consideration in light of Sullivan v. Louisiana, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 2078, 124 L.Ed.2d 182 (1993). After considering the parties' briefs addressing the issues on remand, we affirm the judgment of the district court denying Sylvester Lewis Adams's petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

I

Adams was convicted in a South Carolina court of kidnapping, housebreaking, and murder and sentenced to death. Adams, 965 F.2d at 1309-10, quoted the South Carolina Supreme Court's summary of the facts, and there is no need to repeat the evidence here. See also State v. Adams, 279 S.C. 228, 230-31, 306 S.E.2d 208, 209-10 (1983). The prior state court proceedings are also described in Adams, 965 F.2d at 1309.

In Adams, we held that, tested by Cage v. Louisiana, 498 U.S. 39, 111 S.Ct. 328, 112 L.Ed.2d 339 (1990), the trial court's instruction "diluted the reasonable doubt standard and allowed the jury to find Adams guilty by a measure of proof that failed to meet the requirements of the Due Process Clause." Adams, 965 F.2d at 1311. Nevertheless, we held that the rule announced in Cage was a "new rule" within the meaning of Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989), and could not be applied retroactively on collateral review. Adams, 965 F.2d at 1311-12. Finally, we held that Cage did not fall under an exception to the Teague bar, and we affirmed the district court's denial of the writ. 965 F.2d at 1312.

II

The question in Sullivan was whether a reasonable doubt instruction that was essentially identical to the one held unconstitutional in Cage, 498 U.S. at 41, 111 S.Ct. at 329-30, can be harmless error. Noting that "the Fifth Amendment requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and the Sixth Amendment requirement of a jury verdict are interrelated," the Court reasoned that "the jury verdict required by the Sixth Amendment is a jury verdict of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." Sullivan, --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2081.

The Court then addressed the question whether an error in a reasonable doubt instruction could be harmless error under Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967). Reiterating that the harmless error test is "whether the guilty verdict actually rendered in this trial was surely unattributable to the error," --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2081, the Court concluded that, since no actual finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt can exist in the case of a constitutionally deficient reasonable doubt instruction, harmless error analysis is impossible to perform. --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2082. The Court explained that an instructional error that "consists of a misdescription of the burden of proof ... vitiates all the jury's findings." This leaves a reviewing court to speculate "what a reasonable jury would have done. And when it does that, the wrong entity judge[s] the defendant guilty." --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2082 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).

In addition, the Court noted that denial of the right to a jury verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is a denial of a fundamental procedural right and "unquestionably qualifies as 'structural error.' " --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2083 (quoting Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 111 S.Ct. 1246, 113 L.Ed.2d 302 (1991)).

Consequently, the harmless error doctrine cannot save a constitutionally deficient reasonable doubt instruction. We must now decide whether the principles Sullivan explains apply to the new rule doctrine as well as the harmless error doctrine.

III

Teague prohibits the retroactive application of new rules to cases brought on collateral review. 489 U.S. at 305-10, 109 S.Ct. at 1072-75. Sullivan does not call into question the validity of our determination that the rule announced in Cage was a new rule. In Teague, the Court stated that a case announces a new rule "if the result was not dictated by precedent existing at the time the defendant's conviction became final." 489 U.S. at 301, 109 S.Ct. at 1070. Later, the Court expanded the definition to include any rule that is "susceptible to debate among reasonable minds." Butler v. McKellar, 494 U.S. 407, 415, 110 S.Ct. 1212, 1217, 108 L.Ed.2d 347 (1990).

Whether a trial court's unconstitutional misdescription of the burden of proof in a criminal case violates the Due Process Clause was certainly an open question before Cage. In Victor v. Nebraska, --- U.S. ----, ----, 114 S.Ct. 1239, 1243, 127 L.Ed.2d 583 (1994), the Court noted: "In only one case have we held that a definition of reasonable doubt violated the Due Process Clause." --- U.S. at ----, 114 S.Ct. at 1243. That case, the Court said, was Cage. Victor confirms our holding that Cage announced a new rule.

IV

What Sullivan does cast into doubt is our holding that a Cage error does not qualify for retroactive application under the second Teague exception. This exception provides that "a new rule should be applied retroactively if it requires the observance of those procedures that are implicit in the concept of ordered liberty." 489 U.S. at 311, 109 S.Ct. at 1076 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). The exception is limited to "those new procedures without which the likelihood of an accurate conviction is seriously diminished." 489 U.S. at 313, 109 S.Ct. at 1077. In Sawyer v. Smith, 497 U.S. 227, 110 S.Ct. 2822, 111 L.Ed.2d 193 (1990), the Court emphasized that to qualify under Teague 's second exception a rule "must not only improve accuracy, but also alter our understanding of the bedrock procedural elements essential to the fairness of a proceeding." 497 U.S. at 242, 110 S.Ct. at 2831 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).

In view of these explanations of Teague 's second exception, the question arises whether the remedy for an unconstitutional reasonable doubt instruction should be applied retroactively. The answer is found in Sullivan 's explanation of the crippling effects of such an instruction: "a misdescription of the burden of proof ... vitiates all the jury's findings." --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2082. Without a jury's constitutional finding of guilt, a conviction lacks both "accuracy" and one of the "bedrock procedural elements essential to the fairness of the proceeding." Sawyer, 497 U.S. at 242, 110 S.Ct. at 2831.

Sullivan also describes denial of a right to a jury verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt as a "structural" error. --- U.S. at ---- - ---- and ---- - ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2082-83 and 2083-84 (Rehnquist, C.J., concurring). In the context of harmless error doctrine, the Supreme Court has stated that a criminal trial infected by a structural error "cannot reliably serve its function as a vehicle for determination of guilt or innocence, and no criminal punishment may be regarded as fundamentally fair." Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 310, 111 S.Ct. 1246, 1265, 113 L.Ed.2d 302 (1991) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).

In light of Sullivan, a constitutionally deficient reasonable doubt instruction not only dilutes the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt mandated by In Re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970), but it also prevents a jury verdict of guilty from coming into existence. This failure is a breach of the right to a trial by jury resulting in a lack of accuracy and the denial of a bedrock procedural element essential to fairness. It is also a structural error that deprives a defendant of a fundamentally fair trial. Consequently, the rule that a constitutionally deficient reasonable doubt instruction violates the Due Process Clause satisfies Teague 's second exception. It should be applied retroactively.

V

Originally, we held that the trial court's reasonable doubt instruction in petitioner's case unconstitutionally reduced the government's burden of proof. Adams, 965 F.2d at 1311. Because the Supreme Court's remand order instructs us to reconsider our prior decision in light of Sullivan, Adams claims the Supreme Court wished us only to reconsider our Teague analysis. He protests that we should not disturb our holding that the reasonable doubt instruction in his case was unconstitutional. He points out that after initially denying certiorari, Adams v. Evatt, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 2966, 125 L.Ed.2d 666 (1993), the Court granted rehearing and remanded the case. Adams v. Evatt, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 1365, 128 L.Ed.2d 42 (1994). This occurred after the Court had decided two cases, Victor v. Nebraska and Sandoval v. California, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 1239, 127 L.Ed.2d 583 (1994), that addressed challenges to reasonable doubt instructions. Because the Supreme Court's order of remand did not refer to Victor and Sandoval, Adams draws from the order an inference that the Court implicitly validated our holding that the instruction violated Adams's right to due process.

We are not persuaded by Adams's argument. An inference drawn from the sequence of the Supreme Court's decisions is an inadequate basis on which to rest the conclusion that the Court summarily approved our ruling that the instruction given in...