Adams v. Aiken, 91-4000

Decision Date19 May 1992
Docket NumberNo. 91-4000,91-4000
Citation965 F.2d 1306
PartiesSylvester Lewis ADAMS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. James AIKEN, Warden, Central Correctional Institution, Respondent-Appellee.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

David Isaac Bruck, Columbia, S.C., argued, for petitioner-appellant.

Donald John Zelenka, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen., Columbia, S.C., argued, for respondent-appellee.

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

OPINION

BUTZNER, Senior Circuit Judge:

Sylvester Lewis Adams appeals the denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus. We affirm the district court's judgment.

I

Adams was arrested and charged with the kidnapping and murder of Bryan Chambers, housebreaking, and armed robbery. The armed robbery count was dismissed. A jury convicted Adams of the other crimes and sentenced him to death. The South Carolina Supreme Court reversed and remanded for a new trial because of evidentiary and procedural errors. State v. Adams, 277 S.C. 115, 283 S.E.2d 582 (1981).

On remand, a second jury convicted Adams and sentenced him to death. The South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed this conviction in State v. Adams, 279 S.C. 228, 306 S.E.2d 208, cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1023, 104 S.Ct. 558, 78 L.Ed.2d 730 (1983). Adams sought and was denied postconviction relief in the state circuit court. The South Carolina and United States Supreme Courts denied certiorari. Adams v. Aiken, 476 U.S. 1109, 106 S.Ct. 1958, 90 L.Ed.2d 366 (1986).

Adams filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in June, 1986, alleging numerous errors in his trial. After an evidentiary hearing on the issue of Adams's mental competency, the United States magistrate recommended denial of the petition. The district court adopted the magistrate's report and recommendation, and this appeal followed.

The Supreme Court of South Carolina summarized the evidence as follows:

On October 17, 1979, at approximately 3:00 p.m., Bryan Chambers, a sixteen year old with a slight learning disability, was taken from his home and strangled to death in a wooded area directly behind the house. Shortly thereafter, Bryan's mother received a phone call. The only words she could make out were "boy ... place ... money...."

Bryan's mother hung up on the caller not knowing at that time that her son was missing.

The evidence introduced at the trial relating to the abduction is as follows:

1) Forced entry into the house through the rear door with the use of a tire tool (or jack handle).

2) A piece of tablecloth was torn from the dining room table and used to hold a sock in the victim's mouth.

3) Venetian blind cord, removed from the house, was used to bind his feet once he had been forced into the wooded area behind the house.

4) The strangulation was caused by placing a stick in the tablecloth (pulled down around his neck) and tightening it in the fashion of a tourniquet.

5) A butcher knife was missing from the victim's home and there was a deep cut above one of his ears consistent with a blow from such a knife.

James Jeter was a key state's witness. His testimony may be abbreviated as follows: The defendant (Adams) rode a bicycle into Jeter's backyard where he was raking leaves. Adams had a tire tool, a gun and a pair of gloves in his possession. Adams told Jeter he was going to break into the house next door to steal money.

After entering the house, Adams attempted to solicit Jeter's aid in removing a safe he had allegedly found there. Jeter refused. Adams then stated he would await Bryan's return home from school to get the combination.

Jeter spoke with Bryan in Bryan's front yard when he returned home a few minutes later. He did not warn Bryan that Adams was inside because he was afraid.

A short time later, Jeter saw Adams lead Bryan into the woods with something white tied around Bryan's neck. He appeared to be resisting Adams.

A search for Bryan was conducted by Jeter's father and Bryan's father (A.C. Mitchell) in the early evening. Jeter became concerned about his friend and asked Adams where he was. Adams told him Bryan was tied up in an abandoned house and he would be released when Bryan's parents gave him (Adams) some money. He also told Jeter he had attempted a ransom call but Bryan's mother had hung up on him before he could tell her where to deliver the money.

Bryan's body was found covered with brush by rescue workers the following day. The next day (two days after the killing), Jeter told the police for the first time that he knew about the incident.

A.C. Mitchell testified that on the evening of his son's death, when he and a neighbor were searching for Bryan with the aid of Bryan's small dog (which had been found trapped inside the washing machine of the boy's home), Adams had frightened them away from the area where Bryan's body was later found by appearing with his pit bulldog allegedly to aid in the search.

State v. Adams, 279 S.C. at 230-31, 306 S.E.2d at 209-10.

II

Adams first asserts that the jury instruction defining reasonable doubt violated his right to due process by unconstitutionally lowering the state's burden of proof.

The trial judge defined reasonable doubt as follows:

Now I do not mean, ladies and gentlemen, by the term reasonable doubt that it is some whimsical or imaginary doubt. It is not a weak doubt, it is not a slight doubt. It is a substantial doubt, a doubt for which you can give a reason. It is a substantial doubt arising out of the testimony or lack of testimony in the case for which a person honestly seeking to find the truth can give a reason. If you have such a doubt in your mind as to whether or not the State has proven this defendant guilty, you should resolve that doubt in his favor and write a verdict of not guilty and acquit him.

* * * * * *

As I think I've indicated to you reasonable--what reasonable doubt means: I would tell you that the two phrases reasonable doubt and proof to a moral certainty are synonymous and the legal equivalent of each other. These phrases connote, however, a degree of proof distinguished from an absolute certainty. The reasonable doubt that the law gives the accused is not a weak or a slight doubt, but a serious or strong and well- founded doubt as to the truth of the charge.

JA 779-80, 790-91.

In Cage v. Louisiana, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 328, 112 L.Ed.2d 339 (1990), the Supreme Court found that similar jury instructions violated the defendant's due process rights. The instructions in Cage stated that a reasonable doubt

must be such doubt as would give rise to a grave uncertainty, raised in your mind by reasons of the unsatisfactory character of the evidence or lack thereof. A reasonable doubt is not a mere possible doubt. It is an actual substantial doubt. It is a doubt that a reasonable man can seriously entertain. What is required is not an absolute or mathematical certainty, but a moral certainty.

111 S.Ct. at 329 (citing State v. Cage, 554 So.2d 39, 41 (La.1989)) (emphasis supplied by Supreme Court). The Court stated that

the words "substantial" and "grave," as they are commonly understood, suggest a higher degree of doubt than is required for acquittal under the reasonable doubt standard.

When those statements are then considered with the reference to "moral certainty," rather than evidentiary certainty, it becomes clear that a reasonable juror could have interpreted the instruction to allow a finding of guilt based on a degree of proof below that required by the Due Process Clause.

111 S.Ct. at 329-30.

As in Cage, the South Carolina trial court's instructions equated "reasonable doubt" with "moral certainty" and "substantial doubt." Although not using the words "grave uncertainty," the trial court's instruction that the doubt be "serious or strong and well-founded" conveyed the same meaning. Tested by Cage, 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.

Our conclusion that the jury instructions violated Adams's due process rights, however, does not require a new trial. Rather, we must decide whether we can retroactively apply the rule in Cage to Adams.

Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 305-10, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 1072-75, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989), holds that new rules do not apply retroactively to cases brought on collateral review. Adams's conviction was final in 1983 when the Supreme Court denied his petition for certiorari. The Supreme Court decided Cage in 1990. In order to determine whether Cage mandates that Adams receive a new trial, we must therefore decide whether it announces a new rule.

Teague stated that generally "a case announces a new rule when it breaks new ground or imposes a new obligation on the States or the Federal Government" or "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. The Supreme Court elaborated on this definition in Butler v. McKellar, 494 U.S. 407, 110 S.Ct. 1212, 108 L.Ed.2d 347 (1990), in which it explained that even if a court stated the result of a case was controlled by precedent, the case still announced a new rule if the outcome "was susceptible to debate among reasonable minds." 494 U.S. at 415, 110 S.Ct. at 1217. Another articulation of the test is whether a state court considering a claim at the time a conviction became final "would have felt compelled by existing precedent to conclude that the rule ... was required by the Constitution." Saffle v. Parks, 494 U.S. 484, 488, 110 S.Ct. 1257, 1260, 108 L.Ed.2d 415 (1990).

Adams argues that Cage did not articulate a new rule but simply applied the principle announced in In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970). He points out that Winship stressed the vital role of the reasonable doubt standard. See 397 U.S. at 363-64, 90 S.Ct. at...

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