Cain v. Redman

• Decision Date: 04 December 1990
• Docket Number: 4:89-cv-89.,No. 4:89-cv-71,4:89-cv-71
• Citation: 757 F. Supp. 831
• Parties: William CAIN, Petitioner, v. Robert REDMAN, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan

757 F. Supp. 831

William CAIN, Petitioner, v. Robert REDMAN, Respondent.

Nos. 4:89-cv-71, 4:89-cv-89.

United States District Court, W.D. Michigan, S.D.

December 4, 1990.

William Cain, Coldwater, Mich., pro se.

James L. Stopkai, Asst. Atty. Gen., Appellate Div., Habeas Corpus Section, Lansing, Mich., for respondent.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER ADOPTING MAGISTRATE'S REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

ROBERT HOLMES BELL, District Judge.

Magistrate Joseph G. Scoville filed a Report and Recommendation on November 8, 1990 in which he recommended petitioner's habeas corpus matter be dismissed on its merits. Petitioner's objections to this Report and Recommendation have been received and thoroughly reviewed by this Court which must nevertheless adopt the Magistrate's findings.

Petitioner's challenged jury instructions resulting in his 1971 murder convictions are nearly identical to those found unconstitutional in Sandstrom v. Montana, 442 U.S. 510, 99 S.Ct. 2450, 61 L.Ed.2d 39 (1979) as improperly depriving defendant of due process through a presumption which relieves the prosecution of the burden of proving every element of a criminal offense beyond a reasonable doubt. The issue of Sandstrom's retroactive application is governed by Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989) and Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U.S. 302, 109 S.Ct. 2934, 106 L.Ed.2d 256 (1989), in which it was held that unless the new ruling fits within a few narrowly fashioned exceptions retroactivity won't apply to new Constitutional commands.

While this Court is satisfied that Sandstrom represents a new Constitutional rule, it finds the rule was not in existence at the time of petitioner's conviction. Prihoda v. McCaughtry, 910 F.2d 1379, 1382 (7th Cir.1990). It further finds that the Sandstrom rule doesn't fall within the narrow exceptions of retroactivity set forth in Teague. The Sandstrom rule doesn't place "certain kinds of primary, private individual conduct beyond the power of the criminal law making authority to proscribe", nor does it require the observance of "those procedures that ... are implicit in the concept of ordeal liberty". This later category is clearly resumed for "watershed rules of criminal procedure". Saffle v. Parks, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 110 S.Ct. 1257, 1263, 108 L.Ed.2d 415 (1990) and Sawyer v. Smith, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 110 S.Ct. 2822, 2831, 111 L.Ed.2d 193 (1990).

Accordingly, this Court adopts the reasoning and conclusion of Magistrate Scoville's Report and Recommendation in toto, thereby DISMISSING petitioner's action in these matters.

MAGISTRATE'S REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

JOSEPH G. SCOVILLE, United States Magistrate Judge.

These are consolidated habeas corpus actions brought by a state prisoner pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Petitioner is serving a life sentence after being convicted of first-degree murder by a jury in the Genesee County Circuit Court in September, 1971. Mich.Comp.Laws § 750.316. Petitioner has submitted two identical habeas petitions, which have been consolidated into one action (Order, docket # 32). These habeas petitions challenge the instructions given to the jury at petitioner's trial. Specifically, petitioner raises a Sandstrom error, alleging that the trial court's instructions to the jury improperly shifted the burden of proving the elements of intent and malice to petitioner. Sandstrom v. Montana, 442 U.S. 510, 99 S.Ct. 2450, 61 L.Ed.2d 39 (1979). After considering petitioner's argument, I conclude that recent Supreme Court authority precludes petitioner from raising this claim in a federal habeas corpus petition.

BACKGROUND

The genesis of this criminal action was the fatal shooting of I.C. Blackman at a bar in Flint, Michigan. Petitioner acknowledged that he fired a gun at the decedent, but argued that it was done in self-defense. The jury nevertheless convicted petitioner of first-degree murder on September 23, 1971. The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction on February 27, 1973. The conviction became final on June 12, 1975, when the Michigan Supreme Court denied leave to appeal.

Before their deliberations, the jury received instructions from the judge which, in part, included the following:

The law implies from an unprovoked, unjustifiable or inexcusable killing, the existence of that wicked disposition which the law terms malice aforethought. If a man kills another suddenly without provocation, the law implies malice and the offense is murder.

* * * * * *

The instrument with which the killing was done may be taken into consideration, because the intent to kill, in the absence of evidence showing a contrary intent, may be inferred from the use of a deadly weapon in such a manner that the death of the person assaulted would be the inevitable consequence. The law presumes that every person, unless believed by some disability as here and after mentioned, contemplates and intends the natural, ordinary, and usual consequences of his voluntary acts, unless the contrary appears from the evidence. He is presumed to do this.

(Trial Transcript, at 1085-87; docket # 23). Eighteen years after his conviction, petitioner claims that these jury instructions were erroneous and violated his constitutional rights.

In 1979, eight years after petitioner's conviction, the Supreme Court ruled that certain jury instructions establishing presumptions are unconstitutional, as an abridgement of the constitutional principles of presumption of innocence and allocation of burden of proof. Sandstrom v. Montana, 442 U.S. 510, 99 S.Ct. 2450, 61 L.Ed.2d 39 (1979). The Court held that such instructions deprive criminal defendants of due process because they are susceptible to an interpretation that relieves the state of the burden of proving every element of a criminal offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Sandstrom, 442 U.S. at 514-24, 99 S.Ct. at 2454-59. In his habeas actions, petitioner attempts to challenge the instructions at his trial under Sandstrom. However, Sandstrom was decided four years after petitioner's conviction became final. Petitioner now seeks to apply Sandstrom retroactively to his 1971 conviction.

The Supreme Court has recently broken new ground in the area of retroactive application of law raised in habeas corpus actions. In light of the recent pronouncements by the Supreme Court in this area, I conclude that Sandstrom cannot be applied retroactively to petitioner's case and that the petitions should be dismissed on their merits.

DISCUSSION

In 1989, the Supreme Court decided two landmark cases concerning the retroactive application of new rules of law on collateral review of state convictions. The first was Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989), decided by a plurality of the Court. The second case was Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U.S. 302, 109 S.Ct. 2934, 106 L.Ed.2d 256 (1989), in which a majority of the Court embraced the plurality view.

The "application of constitutional rules not in existence at the time a conviction became final seriously undermines the principle of finality which is essential to the operation of our criminal justice system." Teague, 489 U.S. at 309, 109 S.Ct. at 1074. Moreover, the state courts "are understandably frustrated when they faithfully apply existing constitutional law only to have a federal court discover, during a habeas proceeding, new constitutional commands." Id. at 310, 109 S.Ct. at 1075 (quoting Engle v. Isaac, 456 U.S. 107, 128 n. 33, 102 S.Ct. 1558, 1572 n. 33, 71 L.Ed.2d 783 (1982)). With this background, the plurality in Teague held: "Unless they fall within an exception to the general rule, new constitutional rules of criminal procedure will not be applicable to those cases which have become final before the new rules are announced." Id. 489 U.S. at 310, 109 S.Ct. at 1075. In Penry, Justice White, who had concurred only in the judgment of Teague, became the fifth member of the court to adopt the Teague retroactivity analysis, thus giving the Teague rule majority support of the Court. Penry, 109 S.Ct. at 2940, 2944; accord, Saffle v. Parks, ___ U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 1257, 1258-59, 108 L.Ed.2d 415 (1990) (in both capital and noncapital cases, new rule of constitutional law not applied in cases on collateral review unless the rule comes within one of two narrow exceptions).

Under the Teague/Penry analysis, the court must consider two issues in reviewing the instant case: (1) Does Sandstrom represent a "new" rule? (2) If so, does this new rule fall into one of the two exceptions identified by the Supreme Court? As explained below, I conclude that Sandstrom represents a new rule within the meaning of Teague, Penry, and their progeny and that Sandstrom error does not fall into either of the exceptions allowing for retroactive application.

I.

The first issue for consideration is whether Sandstrom error constitutes a "new" rule within the meaning of Teague. "A case announces a new rule when it breaks new ground or imposes a new obligation on the States or the Federal Government. To put it differently, a case announces a new rule if the result was not dictated by precedent existing at the time the defendant's conviction became final." Teague, 489 U.S. at 301, 109 S.Ct. at 1070 (citations omitted). This principle serves to ensure that gradual developments in the law over which reasonable jurists may disagree are not later used to upset the finality of state convictions valid when entered. Sawyer v. Smith, ___ U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 2822, 2827, 111 L.Ed.2d 193 (1990). The new rule principle therefore "validates reasonable, good-faith interpretations of existing precedents made by state courts even though they are shown to be contrary to later decisions." Butler v. McKellar, ___ U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 1212, 1217, 108 L.Ed.2d 347 (1990). The Supreme Court has provided further guidance in analyzing whether a rule is new under Teague standards by holding that precedents which "inform, or even control or govern" the...