Beltran v. Cockrell
| Decision Date | 27 June 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 00-41103.,00-41103. |
| Citation | 294 F.3d 730 |
| Parties | Noe BELTRAN, Petitioner-Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. Janie COCKRELL, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Respondent-Appellant-Cross-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Randy Schaffer (argued), Schaffer & Henley, Houston, TX, for Beltran.
Karyl Krug, Asst. Atty. Gen. (argued), Austin, TX, for Cockrell.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Before HIGGINBOTHAM and CLEMENT, Circuit Judges.*
Petitioner-appellee Noe Beltran challenges the district court's denial of his ineffective assistance of counsel claim. Respondent-appellant challenges the district court's grant of petitioner's habeas petition on the grounds that the prosecution knowingly failed to correct false testimony. We grant habeas relief, but rest the affirmation on Beltran's ineffective assistance of counsel claim. The prosecution skirted a line from which it should steer clear in the future. However, because we grant the petition on ineffective assistance of counsel grounds, we do not have to affirm the false testimony claim. The latter is potentially complicated here by a dispute over whether or not the prosecution believed that the concerned testimony was false and the defense counsel's repeated objections to the prosecution's attempts to admit the photo spread central to the claims and to mention Beltran's co-defendant.
On the afternoon of March 4, 1981, a murder and robbery occurred at the Disco de Oro Tortilla Factory in Brownsville, TX. Owners and operators Enrique and Carmen Arechiga, their seventeen-year-old son Valentin, and employees Guadalupe Benavides and Maria Ybarra were in the tortillaria at the time of the incident. Upon entering, the robber pointed a derringer pistol owned by Beltran's co-defendant Ruben Plata at Valentin, who was standing near the cash register. Valentin immediately gave the intruder an unspecified amount of money. Carmen approached the register. While she was handing over more money, the robber fired the derringer, killing her. Fleeing the scene, the robber jumped into the passenger side of a red sports car, also owned by Plata, that had pulled into the adjacent alley right before the robbery.
Neighbor Guadalupe Rodriguez testified that after hearing a noise from the tortillaria she looked out of her window and saw the intruder leave the tortillaria and run towards the sports car. After the murder, Valentin and Benavides ran into the alley and saw the red sports car. Valentin had also seen the sports car pull into the alley right before the intruder entered the tortillaria. Valentin drove around with the police right after the robbery-murder; they found the car outside of Plata's apartment. Police officers determined that Plata owned the car.
On the day of the incident, the police made a composite drawing of the assailant with a tattoo of the initials "LX" or "LT" on his upper left arm and forearm. The police also compiled a photo spread including a picture of Plata, which they showed to Valentin, Benavides, and Ybarra that same day. This photo spread, State's Exhibit 10, was never admitted at trial. Valentin chose Plata in the photo spread but qualified his choice by stating that he could not make a definite identification without seeing a better picture of Plata. When he was later shown a spread without a photo of Plata, Valentin requested to see Plata's photo again, stating that it was the only one that resembled the robber. Benavides thought Plata looked like the robber but was not certain; he stated that the robber had longer hair than Plata did in the photo and that he would like to see a more recent photo of Plata. Ybarra's response to the photo spread was similar to that of Benavides.
Then-District Attorney Reynaldo Cantu prepared an affidavit requesting a warrant to arrest Plata and his brother Luis Plata and to search the car. Evidence supporting probable cause was that four hours before the murder Plata committed an aggravated assault with a derringer at a motel, the murder weapon was a derringer, three witnesses tentatively identified Plata as the murderer, Plata's car left the scene of the crime, and the Plata brothers were seen together in the car fifteen minutes after the murder. Officer Victor Rodriguez swore to the affidavit on March 4, 1981.
Several days later a photo spread was compiled with Beltran's photo. Enrique, Valentin, Benavides, and Guadalupe Rodriguez all identified Beltran in the photo spread. Beltran was arrested on March 14, 1981. Enrique, Valentin, and Benavides identified Beltran in lineups on the day of his arrest. Enrique, Valentin, and Benavides also made in-court identifications of Beltran as the robber. They all testified to previously identifying appellant in a photo spread and picking him out of a lineup conducted on March 14, 1981. Valentin testified outside of the presence of the jury that the assailant was not in the March 4 photo spread. Before the jury Valentin testified that Beltran was the assailant and that he had previously identified Beltran in the only photo spread that he saw and in a lineup. Enrique admitted that he could not make a positive identification when he initially viewed Beltran in the lineup. Guadalupe Rodriguez tentatively identified Beltran in court explaining that she had only seen the assailant from the side.
At trial, Officer Rodriguez testified for the prosecution that the photo spread with Plata's picture, State's Exhibit 10, was compiled on the day of the robbery-murder to try to identify the assailant. When asked: "Were you able to get an identification on the person in that robbery?", Rodriguez replied, "No, sir." The government then asked: "Did you know the name of the suspect placed in that spread for them to identify?" Lead defense counsel objected to this question on relevancy grounds even though he knew that witnesses had tentatively identified Plata in that spread. The prosecution then tried to introduce into evidence State's Exhibit 10, but lead defense counsel again objected on relevancy grounds. The prosecution's reply to the objection was: Defense counsel's response was: "Your Honor, we could be here forever excluding people that didn't do it."
Admitting the tentative identifications of Plata was further discussed outside of the presence of the jury. Defense counsel vehemently objected several times to the relevancy of questioning Officer Rodriguez about the tentative identifications. The prosecution stated that the discussion was necessary to determine whether Plata or Beltran killed the woman. Defense counsel asserted that the court should "not care what kind of characteristics are shown by photographs of Ruben Plata."
The state's theory at trial was that Beltran committed the murder and Plata drove the getaway car. The state's case depended solely on eyewitness identifications; there was no physical evidence to connect Beltran to the crime.
Beltran was arrested on March 14, 1981, and charged with capital murder. A Texas district court jury found Beltran guilty of capital murder on August 19, 1981, and the court sentenced Beltran to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Beltran's conviction but reformed his sentence to life imprisonment. Beltran's state writ of habeas corpus was denied on October 5, 1994.
On March 7, 1995, Beltran filed a federal habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. An evidentiary hearing was held and final judgment granting habeas relief was entered on January 4, 1999. The court then granted a 59(e) motion by the director. After a second evidentiary hearing in front of a magistrate judge, the district court adopted the report and recommendations of the magistrate and entered an order on September 15, 2000, granting relief on the grounds that the state failed to correct false testimony and denying relief on the ineffective assistance of counsel claim. The director filed a timely notice of appeal, and Beltran cross-appealed to pursue his ineffective assistance claim. Beltran's April 2001 motion to issue a certificate of probable cause is rendered moot by our decision to grant habeas relief on his ineffective assistance of counsel claim.
Since Beltran filed his habeas petition prior to the effective date of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), it does not fall under AEDPA standards. See Green v. Johnson, 160 F.3d 1029, 1035 (5th Cir.1998). We review the federal district court's findings of fact for clear error. See Fairman v. Anderson, 188 F.3d 635, 640 (5th Cir. 1999). The district court's conclusions of law and of mixed law and fact are reviewed de novo. See id.; Nobles v. Johnson, 127 F.3d 409, 423 (5th Cir.1997). As mixed questions of law and fact, Beltran's claims of uncorrected false testimony and ineffective assistance of counsel are reviewed de novo. See Creel v. Johnson, 162 F.3d 385, 391 (5th Cir.1998); Crane v. Johnson, 178 F.3d 309, 312 (5th Cir.1999).
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), set the standard for a finding of ineffective assistance of counsel. A habeas petitioner must "demonstrate both that counsel's performance was deficient and that the deficiency prejudiced the defense." Crane, 178 F.3d at 312 (citing Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052).
The district court adopted the magistrate's report and recommendations denying Beltran's ineffective assistance of counsel claim because of the "strong presumption that counsel's conduct...
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