Brown v. Palmer

• Decision Date: 14 March 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-1320.,05-1320.
• Citation: 441 F.3d 347
• Parties: Jason BROWN, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Carmen PALMER, Respondent-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

441 F.3d 347

Jason BROWN, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Carmen PALMER, Respondent-Appellant.

No. 05-1320.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: February 2, 2006.

Decided and Filed: March 14, 2006.

ARGUED:

Debra M. Gagliardi, Office of the Attorney General, Criminal Appellate Division, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellant. Robert S. Lewis, Thompson Hine, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee.

ON BRIEF:

Debra M. Gagliardi, Office of the Attorney General, Criminal Appellate Division, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellant. Robert S. Lewis, Jack Kurt Denkewalter, Thompson Hine, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee.

Before: MERRITT, MARTIN, and GILMAN, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge.

Jason Brown was convicted in a Michigan state court of armed robbery and carjacking under an aiding and abetting theory. After exhausting his state-court remedies, he sought a writ of habeas corpus in the federal district court. The district court granted Brown an unconditional writ of habeas corpus on the basis that the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Brown aided and abetted the crimes committed by the unidentified gunman. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

On January 25, 1999, Jerome Campbell drove his 1984 Buick Regal to a BP gas station in Detroit, Michigan at approximately 1:30 a.m. Campbell's friends, William Clemons and Bernard Turner, rode with him. The three men noticed that another man, later determined to be Brown, was parked nearby in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Shortly after arriving, Campbell and Clemons entered the gas station's store while Turner stayed outside to inspect a radiator leak coming from Campbell's Buick. After exiting the store, Campbell and Clemons noticed another man walk out of the store and enter Brown's Monte Carlo. Brown then pulled up to a gas pump. His unidentified passenger promptly exited Brown's car and began walking toward Campbell's Buick.

The unidentified man shouted something to Campbell and Clemons and then pointed a gun at Turner, who was still attending to the radiator leak. As Turner ran away, the gunman fired shots in his direction before jumping into Campbell's Buick and driving off. According to Campbell, Brown stared at the victims from his car while the gunman fired the shots and drove Campbell's Buick away from the gas station. Campbell testified that Brown then attempted to drive off himself, but that his tires skidded in the snow.

After the gunman left, Campbell ran over to Brown's car and punched Brown in the face through the open driver's-side window. Brown protested, claiming that he had met the gunman just minutes before the carjacking, when Brown offered to give him a ride. Campbell, with the help of Clemons, proceeded to pull Brown out of his car, leave him in the parking lot, and drive Brown's Monte Carlo to the police station to file a report. Brown eventually received a ride home from a passing motorist, and he never attempted to retrieve his Monte Carlo from the police station.

After determining that Brown was the owner of the Monte Carlo driven to the police station by Campbell and Clemons, the Detroit police arrested Brown. The gunman was never located. Brown was charged as an aider and abettor to armed robbery, carjacking, and attempted murder. Although the state trial court initially dismissed the case for lack of sufficient evidence to support a conviction, the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed and reinstated the charges. At trial, the prosecutor argued that Brown served as a lookout and as a potential getaway driver for the unidentified gunman. The jury subsequently convicted Brown of armed robbery and carjacking, but acquitted him of attempted murder. Brown was sentenced to a range of 130 months to 216 months of imprisonment.

In his appeal to the Michigan Court of Appeals, Brown claimed that: (1) there was insufficient evidence to prove that he aided and abetted the unidentified gunman in the armed robbery and carjacking, (2) the trial court committed reversible error by "engaging in advocacy which departed from the required role of neutrality," (3) there was plain error involving "improper vouching" by the prosecutor, and (4) Brown's sentence was improperly calculated. The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed Brown's convictions but remanded the case for resentencing. Brown then applied for leave to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court, which denied his application. On remand, the Michigan trial court sentenced Brown to a range of 60 to 120 months of incarceration.

In a pro se petition, Brown subsequently sought a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, claiming that there was: (1) insufficient evidence to prove that he aided and abetted the unidentified gunman, (2) reversible error based on the trial court's "depart[ure] from neutrality," and (3) "improper vouching" by the prosecutor. The district court granted Brown an unconditional writ of habeas corpus based upon Brown's first claim, concluding that there was insufficient evidence for any reasonable juror to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Brown had committed the charged offenses. On appeal, the state argues that the district court impermissibly substituted its judgment for that of the state court and failed to afford proper deference to the state court's findings of fact.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Standard of review

We review a district court's legal conclusions de novo, but will set aside its factual findings only if clearly erroneous. Lucas v. O'Dea, 179 F.3d 412, 416 (6th Cir.1999). The standard of review for state-court determinations, however, is governed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), codified at 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). AEDPA provides that

[a]n application for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court shall not be granted with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings unless the adjudication of the claim

(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 on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.

Id.

A state-court decision is considered contrary to federal law "if the state court arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by the [Supreme] Court on a question of law or if the state court decides a case differently than the [Supreme] Court has on a set of materially indistinguishable facts." Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 413, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). The application of federal law is unreasonable where "the state court identifies the correct governing legal principle from [the Supreme] Court's decisions but unreasonably applies that principle to the facts of the prisoner's case." Id. When assessing unreasonableness, "a federal habeas court may not issue the writ simply because it concludes in its independent judgment that the relevant state-court decision applied clearly established federal law erroneously or incorrectly. Rather, that application must also be unreasonable." Id. at 411, 120 S.Ct. 1495. Furthermore, factual findings made by the state court are presumed correct in the absence of clear and convincing evidence to the contrary. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1).

B. The district court's grant of habeas corpus was not erroneous

The state argues on appeal that the district court impermissibly substituted its judgment for that of the state court when it granted Brown's writ of habeas corpus on insufficiency-of-the-evidence grounds. A district court may grant a writ of habeas corpus based on insufficiency of the evidence only where it finds that, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, no rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). The Jackson standard must be applied "with explicit reference to the substantive elements of the criminal offense as defined by state law." Jackson, 443 U.S. at 324 n. 16, 99 S.Ct. 2781.

To support a conviction for aiding and abetting a crime under Michigan law, the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that (1) the crime charged was committed by the defendant or some other person, (2) the defendant performed acts or gave encouragement that assisted the commission of the crime, and (3) the defendant intended the commission of the crime or had knowledge that the principal intended it when the defendant gave aid or encouragement. People v. Carines, 460 Mich. 750, 597 N.W.2d 130, 135 (1999) (holding that the evidence was sufficient to prove that the defendant aided and abetted an armed robbery beyond a reasonable doubt). The phrase "aiding and abetting" includes all words or actions by the defendant that might support, encourage, or incite the commission of the crime. People v. Palmer, 392 Mich. 370, 220 N.W.2d 393, 397 (1974) (holding that the evidence was sufficient to prove that the defendant aided and abetted an involuntary manslaughter). Although intent is a required element for the aiding-and-abetting offense, intent may be inferred from circumstantial evidence. People v. Wilson, 196 Mich.App. 604, 493 N.W.2d 471, 476 (1992) (holding that the evidence was sufficient to prove that the defendant aided and abetted a felonious sexual assault). But mere presence, or even knowledge, that a crime is about to be committed is insufficient to prove guilt under an aiding-and-abetting theory. Id.

On appeal, the state relies on the following facts to argue that "the jury reasonably concluded from the circumstantial evidence presented . . . that Petitioner intended to give aid or encouragement to...