Bryant v. Stirling

Decision Date19 March 2019
Docket NumberCivil Action No. 1:13-2665-BHH
CourtUnited States District Courts. 4th Circuit. United States District Court of South Carolina
PartiesJames N. Bryant, III, Petitioner, v. Bryan P. Stirling, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections; Warden, Kirkland Correctional Institution, Respondents.
Opinion and Order

Petitioner, James N. Bryant ("Petitioner"), represented by counsel and under a sentence of death, seeks habeas corpus relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. This action is before the Court on Petitioner's amended petition for writ of habeas corpus and Respondents' motion for summary judgment. (ECF Nos. 65 and 73.) In accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B) and Local Civil Rule 73.02(B)(2)(c), D.S.C., this matter was referred to United States Magistrate Judge Shiva V. Hodges, for pre-trial proceedings and a Report and Recommendation ("Report"). On July 26, 2018, Judge Hodges issued a Report recommending that Respondents' motion for summary judgment be granted and the amended petition for writ of habeas corpus be denied and dismissed with prejudice. (ECF No. 86.)

Petitioner filed objections on August 29, 2018 (ECF No. 89), and Respondents replied on September 12, 2018 (ECF No. 90). The Report sets forth the relevant factual and procedural background (ECF No. 86 at 4-14), which the Court incorporates hereinwithout recitation.1 For the reasons set forth herein, the Court overrules Petitioner's objections with respect to Grounds Four through Nine of the amended petition, ACCEPTS the Magistrate Judge's Report as to Grounds Four through Nine, sustains Petitioner's objections with respect to Grounds One and Two of the amended petition, and REJECTS the Report as to Grounds One and Two. (ECF No. 86.) Therefore, the Court GRANTS Respondents' motion for summary judgment as to Grounds Four through Nine, and DENIES the motion as to Grounds One and Two. (ECF No. 73.) Consequently, the Court GRANTS Petitioner's amended petition for writ of habeas corpus as to Grounds One and Two. (ECF No. 65.)

I. LEGAL STANDARD

A. The Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation

The Magistrate Judge makes only a recommendation to the Court. The recommendation has no presumptive weight. The responsibility to make a final determination remains with the court. Mathews v. Weber, 423 U.S. 261, 270-71 (1976). The Court is charged with making a de novo determination of those portions of the Report to which specific objection is made, and the Court may accept, reject, or modify, in whole or in part, the recommendation of the Magistrate Judge, or recommit the matter with instructions. 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1). However, the Court need not conduct a de novo review when a party makes only "general and conclusory objections that do not direct the court to a specific error in the magistrate's proposed findings and recommendations." Orpiano v. Johnson, 687 F.2d 44, 47 (4th Cir. 1982). In the absence of a timely filed,specific objection, the Magistrate Judge's conclusions are reviewed only for clear error. See Diamond v. Colonial Life & Accident Ins. Co., 416 F.3d 310, 315 (4th Cir. 2005).

B. Summary Judgment Standard

Summary judgment is appropriate "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). It is well established that summary judgment should be granted "only when it is clear that there is no dispute concerning either the facts of the controversy or the inferences to be drawn from those facts." Pulliam Inv. Co. v. Cameo Properties, 810 F.2d 1282, 1286 (4th Cir. 1987).

The party moving for summary judgment has the burden of showing the absence of a genuine issue of material fact, and the Court must view the evidence before it and the inferences to be drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. United States v. Diebold, Inc., 369 U.S. 654, 655 (1962). When a respondent is the moving party and the petitioner has the ultimate burden of proof on an issue, the respondent must identify the parts of the record that demonstrate the petitioner lacks sufficient evidence. The nonmoving party must then go beyond the pleadings and designate specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 324 (1986); see Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c).

A party "cannot create a genuine issue of material fact through mere speculation or the building of one inference upon another." Beale v. Hardy, 769 F.2d 213, 214 (4th Cir. 1985). Therefore, "[m]ere unsupported speculation . . . is not enough to defeat a summary judgment motion." At Ennis v. National Ass'n of Bus. & Educ. Radio, Inc., 53F.3d 55, 62 (4th Cir. 1995).

C. Section 2254 Standard

Because Petitioner filed the petition after the effective date of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), his claims are governed by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), as amended. Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320 (1997). Section 2254 "sets several limits on the power of a federal court to grant an application for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a state prisoner." Cullen v. Pinholster, 563 U.S. 170, 181 (2011). For instance, § 2254 authorizes review of only those applications asserting a prisoner is in custody in violation of the Constitution or federal law and only when, except in certain circumstances, the prisoner has exhausted remedies provided by the State. Id.

When a § 2254 petition includes a claim that has been adjudicated on the merits in a State court proceeding, § 2254 provides that the application shall not be granted with respect to that claim, unless the State court's 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.

28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). "This is a 'difficult to meet,' and 'highly deferential standard for evaluating state-court rulings, which demands that state-court decisions be given the benefit of the doubt.'" Pinholster, 563 U.S. at 181 (internal citations omitted) (quoting Harrington v. Richter, 562 U.S. 86, 102 (2011); Woodford v. Visciotti, 537 U.S. 19, 24 (2002) (per curiam)).

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently explained proper application of these standards as follows:

Under § 2254(d)(1), such a decision is "contrary to" Supreme Court precedent "if the state court applied a rule that contradicts the governing law set forth in" Supreme Court cases, or "confronted a set of facts that are materially indistinguishable from a Supreme Court decision and nevertheless arrive[d] at a result different from [that] precedent." Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 405-06, 120 S. Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). A decision is an "unreasonable application" of clearly established Supreme Court precedent if the PCR court "correctly identified the governing legal rule but applied it unreasonably to the facts of a particular prisoner's case." Id. at 407-08, 120 S. Ct. 1495. "In order for a federal court to find a state court's application of Supreme Court precedent unreasonable, the state court's decision must have been more than incorrect or erroneous. The state court's application must have been objectively unreasonable." Wiggins, 539 U.S. at 520-21, 123 S. Ct. 2527 (internal citation and quotation marks omitted); see also Harrington v. Richter, 562 U.S. 86, 103, 131 S. Ct. 770, 178 L.Ed.2d 624 (2011) ("[A] state prisoner must show that the state court's ruling on the claim being presented in federal court was so lacking in justification that there was an error well understood and comprehended in existing law beyond any possibility for fairminded disagreement.").
Alternatively, a state prisoner may be granted relief pursuant to § 2254(d)(2) if the PCR court['s] decision[] was based on a factual determination "sufficiently against the weight of the evidence that it is objectively unreasonable." Winston v. Kelly, 592 F.3d 535, 554 (4th Cir. 2010). As with legal conclusions, "for a state court's factual determination to be unreasonable under § 2254(d)(2), it must be more than merely incorrect or erroneous." Id. (internal citation omitted).

Williams v. Stirling, 914 F.3d 302, 311-12 (4th Cir. 2019), as amended (Feb. 5, 2019) (modifications omitted).

D. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence." U.S. Const. amend. VI. The United States Supreme Court has held that this right is violated when counsel retained by, or appointed to, a criminal defendant fails to provide adequate or effective legal assistance. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 686 (1984). Strickland established a two-prong test for a claimof ineffective assistance of counsel in violation of the Sixth Amendment, under which the criminal defendant must show deficient performance and resulting prejudice. Id. at 687. "The performance prong of Strickland requires a defendant to show 'that counsel's representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness.'" Lafler v. Cooper, 566 U.S. 156, 163 (2012) (quoting Hill v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 57 (1985)). "[C]ounsel should be 'strongly presumed to have rendered adequate assistance and made all significant decisions in the exercise of reasonable professional judgment,'" and courts should indulge in a "'strong presumption that counsel's conduct fell within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance.'" Burt v. Titlow, 134 S. Ct. 10, 17 (2013) (modifications omitted) (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689-90). "To establish Strick...

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