Alley v. Bell

• Citation: 307 F.3d 380
• Decision Date: 03 October 2002
• Docket Number: No. 99-6659.,99-6659.
• Parties: Sedley ALLEY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Ricky BELL, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

307 F.3d 380

Sedley ALLEY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Ricky BELL, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 99-6659.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: July 30, 2002.

Decided and Filed: October 3, 2002.

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Robert L. Hutton (briefed), Glankler & Brown, Memphis, TN, Paul R. Bottei (argued and briefed), Federal Public Defender's Office, Nashville, TN, for Petitioner-Appellant.

Joseph F. Whalen, III (argued and briefed), Asst. Atty. Gen., Office of the Attorney General, Nashville, TN, for Respondent-Appellee.

Before RYAN, BOGGS, and BATCHELDER, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

BOGGS, Circuit Judge.

Petitioner Sedley Alley was convicted of the 1985 kidnapping, rape, and murder of United States Marine Corps Lance Corporal Suzanne Marie Collins and was sentenced to death. His conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal, and Alley was denied relief in state post-conviction proceedings. Alley's petition for federal habeas relief, filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, was denied by the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee in an exhaustive and well-reasoned opinion. For the reasons herein, we affirm the district court's denial of Alley's petition.

I

Alley, a civilian married to a military person, abducted nineteen-year old Lance Corporal Collins while she was jogging near Millington Naval Base in Millington, Tennessee late in the evening of July 11, 1985. He attacked and murdered her and left her body in a field.

Two marines jogging near where Collins was abducted heard Collins scream and ran toward the sound. However, before they reached the scene, they saw Alley's car drive off. They reported to base security and accompanied officers on a tour of the base, looking for the car they had seen. Unsuccessful, they returned to their barracks.

Soon after returning to their quarters, however, the marines were called back to the security office, where they identified Alley's car, which had been stopped by officers. Alley and his wife gave statements to the base security personnel accounting for their whereabouts. The security personnel were satisfied with Alley's story, and Alley and his wife returned to their on-base housing.

Collins's body was found a few hours later, and Alley was immediately arrested by military police. He voluntarily gave a statement to the police, admitting to having killed Collins but giving a substantially false — and considerably more humane — account of the circumstances of the killing.

Alley was convicted on March 18, 1987 of murder in the first degree and was sentenced to death. He was also convicted of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated rape, for which he received consecutive forty-year sentences. The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed Alley's conviction and sentence on direct appeal. State v. Alley, 776 S.W.2d 506, 508-10, 519 (Tenn. 1989).

Alley filed a state petition for post-conviction relief, alleging numerous grounds, including several claims of judicial bias, challenges to the trial court's evidentiary rulings, and claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. The judge who presided over Alley's trial held several hearings on the petition before denying it. On appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals vacated the denial and, in response to Alley's claims of judicial bias, remanded the case for an evidentiary hearing before a different trial judge. Alley v. State, 882 S.W.2d 810, 823 (Tenn.Crim.App.1994).

Another trial judge undertook an evidentiary hearing, and then denied Alley's petition. Alley v. State, No. P-8040, slip op. (Shelby County Crim. Ct. Aug. 31, 1995). This disposition was affirmed by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Tennessee Supreme Court denied Alley permission to appeal. Alley v. State, 958 S.W.2d 138 (Tenn.Crim.App.1997), permission to appeal denied, (Tenn. Sept. 29, 1997).

Alley filed the present petition for habeas corpus in district court, and the court denied Alley relief. Alley v. Bell, 101 F.Supp.2d 588, 604-06, 666 (W.D.Tenn. 2000). Thereafter, this court granted him a certificate of appealability on the following five issues: (1) whether Alley was denied due process because he was tried by a biased judge; (2) whether ex parte contacts between the judge and jurors in Alley's case violated his constitutional rights; (3) whether, at the guilt phase, Alley was denied his right to present a full defense through the unconstitutional exclusion of proof that he suffers from multiple personality disorder; (4) whether, at the sentencing phase, Alley was denied his right to receive consideration of mitigating evidence when the trial court excluded the same multiple personality disorder evidence; and (5) whether Alley received constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel.

II

Pursuant to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), Pub.L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214 (1996), a federal court may not grant a writ of habeas corpus with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in state court, unless the state court's adjudication: "(1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or (2) resulted in a decision that was based upon an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).

A state court decision is "contrary to" Supreme Court precedent "if the state court arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by [the Court] on a question of law," or "if the state court confronts facts that are materially indistinguishable from a relevant Supreme Court precedent and arrives at a result opposite to" the Court's decision. Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 405, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). A state court decision involves an "unreasonable application" of clearly established Supreme Court precedent when it correctly identifies the governing legal standard but applies it to the facts of the case before it in an objectively unreasonable manner. Id. at 409-10, 120 S.Ct. 1495.

Federal courts can only consider on habeas review claims that a petitioner has first raised before the state courts. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b); Stanford v. Parker, 266 F.3d 442, 451 (6th Cir.2001) ("Where a petitioner has not fully and fairly presented a federal claim to the state's highest court ..., a federal court ordinarily will not consider the merits of that claim"). Claims not first raised in state court are unexhausted and are ordinarily dismissed without prejudice, in order to permit the petitioner the opportunity to pursue them in state court. Rose v. Lundy, 455 U.S. 509, 518, 520-22, 102 S.Ct. 1198, 71 L.Ed.2d 379 (1982).

However, if an unexhausted claim would be procedurally barred under state law, that claim is procedurally defaulted for purposes of federal habeas review. See Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U.S. 722 752-53, 111 S.Ct. 2546, 115 L.Ed.2d 640 (1991); Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 297-99, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989); Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 87-88, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977); Seymour v. Walker, 224 F.3d 542, 549-50 (6th Cir.2000) ("When a habeas petitioner fails to obtain consideration of a claim by a state court, ... due to the petitioner's failure to raise that claim before the state courts while state-court remedies are still available ..., that claim is procedurally defaulted and may not be considered by the federal court on habeas review."). In order to gain consideration of a claim that is procedurally defaulted, a petitioner must demonstrate cause and prejudice for the failure, or that a miscarriage of justice will result from the lack of review. Wainwright, 433 U.S. at 87, 90-91, 97 S.Ct. 2497; Seymour, 224 F.3d at 550.

These rules apply both to entirely new legal claims and new factual bases for relief; for a claim to be considered exhausted, "the habeas petitioner must have `fairly presented' to the state courts the `substance' of his federal habeas corpus claim." Anderson v. Harless, 459 U.S. 4, 6, 103 S.Ct. 276, 74 L.Ed.2d 3 (1982) (quoting Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 275, 277-78, 92 S.Ct. 509, 30 L.Ed.2d 438 (1971)); see also Wong v. Money, 142 F.3d 313, 322 (6th Cir.1998) ("the doctrine of exhaustion requires that a claim be presented to the state courts under the same theory in which it is later presented in federal court.").

Judicial Bias Claims

Alley's petition for a writ of habeas corpus lists thirteen alleged instances of judicial bias, which he contends entitle him to habeas relief on the ground that he was denied his due process right to a fair trial in a fair tribunal. In denying Alley's petition for habeas relief, the district court helpfully divided these instances into three groups: (1) claims based on alleged conduct during state post-conviction proceedings; (2) claims that Alley raised before the state courts; and (3) claims that Alley failed to raise before the state courts. Alley, 101 F.Supp.2d at 612, 614-18, 634-38. On appeal, Alley only expressly challenges the district court's holding with respect to the third group; however, we will briefly discuss the first two as well.

The due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees a criminal defendant, as any litigant, the right to a fair trial in a fair tribunal. In re Murchison, 349 U.S. 133, 136, 75 S.Ct. 623, 99 L.Ed. 942 (1955). If a habeas court determines that bias by a state judge resulted in a constitutional violation, then the court is required to overturn the state court decision. See Maurino v. Johnson, 210 F.3d 638, 645 (6th Cir.2000) ("Because judicial bias infects the entire trial process it is not subject to harmless error review"). This court has looked to the Supreme Court's decision in Liteky v. United States, 510 U.S. 540, 552, 114 S.Ct. 1147, 127...