Chambers v. McDaniel

• Decision Date: 09 December 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-15773.,07-15773.
• Parties: Roger M. CHAMBERS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. E.K. McDANIEL, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

549 F.3d 1191

Roger M. CHAMBERS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. E.K. McDANIEL, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 07-15773.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted June 10, 2008.

Filed December 9, 2008.

Linda Marie Bell, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Las Vegas, NV, for the petitioner-appellant.

Robert E. Wieland, Senior Deputy Attorney General, Criminal Justice Division, Reno, NV, for the respondent-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada; Robert C. Jones, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-04-073-RCJ-VPC.

Before: J. CLIFFORD WALLACE and SUSAN P. GRABER, Circuit Judges, and ROBERT J. TIMLIN,^* District Judge.

Opinion by Judge TIMLON; Dissent by Judge WALLACE.

TIMLIN, District Judge:

Roger Chambers appeals the district court's denial of his second amended petition for habeas corpus, under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, challenging his conviction for murder in the first degree and his sentence of two consecutive sentences of life without the possibility of parole by a Nevada state trial court. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253. We hold that Chambers' federal constitutional right to due process was violated because the instructions given at his trial permitted the jury to convict him of first-degree murder without a finding of the essential element of deliberation. The error was not harmless. Accordingly, we reverse and remand to the district court to grant the writ unless the State elects to retry Chambers within a reasonable time.

BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

In 1994, Chambers was convicted of first degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon by a jury in a Nevada state trial court, and Chambers was sentenced to death.

The charges and conviction arose out of an altercation between Chambers, a chef by profession, and Henry Chacon on September 28, 1993. Chambers met Chacon while traveling by bus from San Francisco to Reno. While on the bus, Chambers and Chacon became acquainted and ingested alcohol and cocaine together. Upon arriving in Reno, they rented a hotel room to share in the Circus Circus casino and hotel. Chambers and Chacon went to the room together, but Chambers subsequently went downstairs and played poker. When he returned to the room, he found Chacon burning heroin to smoke on Chamber's set of professional chef knives. When Chambers saw this, he became angry, and the two began to fight. According to Chambers, Chacon initially stabbed Chambers with a knife, but Chambers got the knife away from Chacon. A struggle ensued, which resulted in Chacon's death.

The morning after the fight, Chambers went to the Washoe Medical Center. When asked why he was there, Chambers responded, "There's a dead body in the room." He then stated that he did not mean to do it. Hospital staff checked Chambers into the hospital, noting that he appeared to be intoxicated, as he was unsteady and his speech was rapid and disjointed. A nurse administered a breathalyzer test, which showed a blood alcohol level of 0.27.

The police arrived to interview Chambers, who admitted that he had killed someone and that the victim was in the bathtub. Chambers told the police officers how he and Chacon had met, and stated that he had got angry when he saw Chacon cooking heroin on one of the knives he used in his profession. Chambers asserted that Chacon had stabbed him first, and that he wrestled the knife away from Chacon and stabbed him back several times. He repeatedly told the police officers that he stabbed Chacon in self-defense.

Based on Chambers' statement, the police went to Circus Circus where they discovered Chacon's body in the hotel room's bathtub. In the bathroom, they also located a black canvas bag with several pockets holding knives and other kitchen utensils. Also next to the sink the police found two knives, with sooty deposit on the blades suggesting that they were used to smoke heroin.

Police subsequently took Chambers into custody, and he was transported to the Reno Police Department. Chambers was read his Miranda rights, which he waived. A drug recognition expert examined Chambers and concluded that he was under the influence of a central nervous system stimulant. After this determination, the officers questioned Chambers again for four hours, with a video camera recording the interview. After Chambers was booked, blood and urine samples were obtained. The urine sample contained amphetamine, methamphetamine, a trace of morphine, and marijuana metabolites. No narcotics were found in his blood.

At trial, the results of the autopsy of Chacon were presented into evidence. The coroner testified that Chacon had seventeen stab wounds, most of which were superficial. However, two stab wounds were significant: one into the front chest that passed through the lung and the sack covering the heart, and the second in the back that also passed into the chest and into a lung, causing the collapse of the lung.

A jury found Chambers guilty of first-degree murder and also found two aggravating circumstances warranting a death sentence. Chambers was sentenced to death.

B. Procedural Background

Chambers appealed his conviction to the Nevada Supreme Court, challenging the reasonable doubt jury instruction, the admission of certain evidence, and the court's failure to properly admonish the jury. He also argued that the death penalty was excessive and should be set aside. The Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the conviction, but set aside the death penalty, directing the imposition of a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Following a petition for writ of mandamus by the State arguing that the appropriate sentence was two life sentences without the possibility of parole, the Nevada Supreme Court granted the writ, and Chambers was resentenced to serve two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

Chambers then filed a petition styled as a "Notice of Appeal; Writ of Habeas Corpus/Post-Conviction Petition" in the Nevada state trial court. The court dismissed the petition, but upon appeal the Nevada Supreme Court reversed the dismissal, finding that the trial court improperly construed this document as a habeas corpus petition, when it was simply a notice of Chambers' future intent to file a habeas petition.

During this time, Chambers filed in the state trial court a habeas corpus petition asserting sixteen detailed claims for relief. After the court appointed counsel to proceed with the petition, an additional claim was added to the petition. The state trial court denied the petition on April 18, 2000. Chambers appealed, and the Nevada Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Chambers' petition on July 12, 2001.

On July 27, 2001, Chambers filed a habeas corpus petition in federal district court. After the Federal Public Defender was appointed, Chambers filed a first amended petition alleging ten grounds for relief. The government filed a motion to dismiss, contending that Chambers had failed to exhaust his state court remedies as to five grounds for relief asserted by Chambers. The district court granted the motion to dismiss in part, finding four grounds for relief had not been exhausted, including Ground One of the Petition challenging the state court's jury instruction on premeditation and deliberation as a violation of his constitutional right to due process.

In its Order, the federal district court gave Chambers the option of abandoning the unexhausted grounds and proceeding on those which remained, or voluntarily dismissing the entire petition to return to state court to exhaust his state remedies for the unexhausted grounds for relief. Chambers chose to return to state court, and on November 3, 2003, the district court ordered the case dismissed without prejudice and stated that Chambers could return to the district court and move to reopen the action once he had exhausted his state court remedies with respect to the unexhausted claims.

On November 12, 2003, Chambers filed a Petition for Extraordinary Writ with the Nevada Supreme Court, alleging the four unexhausted grounds for relief. On December 3, 2003, the Nevada Supreme Court denied the petition, stating that "[w]e have considered the petition on file herein, and we are not satisfied that this court's intervention by way of extraordinary relief is warranted at this time."

After Chambers' case was reopened in federal district court, Chambers refiled his second amended habeas petition ("petition") on March 22, 2004. The State filed a motion to dismiss arguing that Chambers had failed to properly exhaust his state remedies when he filed the Petition for Extraordinary Writ in Nevada Supreme Court, and the district court denied that motion.

On December 13, 2006, after the State had answered Chambers' petition, the district court denied the petition. Chambers filed this timely appeal.

EXHAUSTION

The State first argues that Chambers' constitutional due process claim concerning the jury instruction on premeditation given at his trial is not properly brought to federal court because Chambers failed to exhaust his state remedies as to that claim. We review de novo whether a petitioner has exhausted state remedies. Greene v. Lambert, 288 F.3d 1081, 1086 (9th Cir.2002).

A state prisoner must exhaust a federal constitutional claim in state court before a federal court may consider a claim. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(1)(A), (c). The exhaustion requirement, first enunciated in Ex parte Royall, 117 U.S. 241, 6 S.Ct. 734, 29 L.Ed. 868 (1886), and subsequently codified in 28 U.S.C. § 2254, is "grounded in principles of comity and reflects a desire to `protect the state courts' role in the enforcement of federal law.'" Castille v. Peoples, 489 U.S. 346, 349, 109 S.Ct. 1056, 103 L.Ed.2d 380 (1989) (quoting Rose v. Lundy, 455 U.S. 509, 518, 102 S.Ct. 1198, 71 L.Ed.2d 379 (1982)). Pursuant to § 2254(c), exhaustion typically requires that "state prisoners must give the state courts one full...