Coddington v. Sharp

• Decision Date: 12 May 2020
• Docket Number: No. 16-6295,16-6295
• Citation: 959 F.3d 947
• Parties: James CODDINGTON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Tommy SHARP, Warden, Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

959 F.3d 947

James CODDINGTON, Petitioner-Appellant,

v.Tommy SHARP, Warden, Oklahoma State Penitentiary,^* Respondent-Appellee.

No. 16-6295

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

FILED May 12, 2020

John T. Carlson, Ridley, McGreevy & Winocur P.C., Denver, Colorado (Seth A. Day, Hall Estill P.C., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with him on the briefs), for Petitioner-Appellant.

Caroline E.J. Hunt, Assistant Attorney General (Mike Hunter, Attorney General of Oklahoma, with her on the brief), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Respondent-Appellee.

Before LUCERO, MORITZ, and EID, Circuit Judges.

EID, Circuit Judge.

Petitioner James Coddington seeks collateral review of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals' (OCCA) resolution of his constitutional challenges to his conviction and sentence. Coddington argues that the trial court deprived him of his constitutional right to present a defense when it refused to allow his expert to testify that he was unable to form the requisite intent for malice murder. He also argues that his confession to the murder should have been suppressed because he did not knowingly and voluntarily waive his Miranda rights. The OCCA denied relief, and, applying AEDPA deference, the district court below did the same. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the district court's denial of Coddington's petition because Coddington has failed to show that the OCCA's rejection of his challenges involved an unreasonable application of federal law. I.

In March of 1997, Coddington, who had a history of cocaine use, relapsed and began using cocaine again. Coddington v. State , 142 P.3d 437, 442 (Okla. Crim. App. 2006). He spent approximately $1,000 per day to support his habit. See id. Eventually, he ran out of money. See id. On March 5, following a three or four-day cocaine binge, he was desperate for cocaine and robbed a convenience store. See id. But the money he took from the store was insufficient, so later that day he went over to Al Hale's house. See id. Hale and Coddington were friends, and Coddington knew that Hale usually kept large sums of cash (on March 5, Hale had over $24,000 in cash in his home). See id.

Coddington did not immediately ask Hale for money—he watched TV with him for a couple hours. See id. At some point though, Coddington asked Hale if he could borrow some money. See id. According to Coddington, Hale could tell that Coddington had "relapsed on drugs." 2003 Tr. VI at 47. He refused Coddington's request, told him to go back to treatment, and then asked him to leave. Id . at 48. Coddington began to leave. Id . But after noticing a hammer on the counter when he walked through the kitchen toward the door, Coddington stopped. State Ex. 89 at 14. Hale then went into the kitchen and "pushed^* [Coddington] and told [him] to get out." 2003 Tr. VI at 76. Coddington then grabbed the hammer and hit Hale in the head, causing him to fall. Id . at 69. When Hale was lying face-down on the ground, Coddington hit him several more times in the back of the head. Id . at 69–70. He then took the money that Hale had on his person ($525) and, believing Hale was dead, left the house. State Ex. 89 at 15.

Coddington was mistaken; Hale was not dead. See id. at 443. Hale's son, Ron, discovered his father later that day. See id. There was "blood and blood spatter everywhere." Id. "Hale was lying in his bed, soaked in blood, still breathing but unable to speak." Id. Hale had moved from the kitchen to his bedroom. See id. Hale was rushed to a hospital, where he died 24 hours later. See id. The autopsy showed he died from blunt-force trauma to the head. See id.

After Coddington left Hale's house, Coddington immediately bought more cocaine and continued committing crimes to finance his purchases. He robbed five more convenience stores. See id. at 442. When he eventually got back home, he threw the hammer in a creek behind his apartment. See id. at 455.

Two days later, the police arrested Coddington at his apartment. See id. at 443. When the police arrived, Coddington began voluntarily making statements. See id. at 447. Realizing that Coddington may have been starting to confess, the police officers read him his Miranda rights. See id. Coddington waived his Miranda rights and continued making statements to officers. See id. About two to three hours after he initially waived his rights outside of his apartment, the police officers interrogated him at the station. See id. At the station, the officers reminded Coddington of his waiver from a few hours earlier, and Coddington stated he remembered waiving his rights. See id. Coddington then confessed to the convenience store robberies and to murdering Hale. See id. at 443.

At the station, Coddington was able to recall the murder in detail. See State Ex. 89 at 13–21 (Transcript of Police Station Interview); see also 2003 Tr. VI 47–48, 62–63. He recalled the clothes he wore, that he and Hale conversed for a couple hours, that they watched TV, that he had gone to Hale's home to ask for money, that Hale refused his request for money, that Hale then asked him to leave, and that he struck Hale with a claw hammer as Hale was showing him out. See State Ex. 89 at 14–15. He also remembered specific details about the hammer—that it had a chrome handle with a rubber grip. See id. at 20. He remembered how many times he struck Hale. See id. at 15. He remembered how much money he took from Hale's person and the denominations of the bills. See id. at 18. Finally, he stated that he did not call the police when he left Hale's home because he did not want to get caught. See Coddington , 142 P.3d at 443.

The state charged Coddington with multiple armed robberies, murder, and robbery with a dangerous weapon. Coddington pleaded guilty to six armed robberies and proceeded to trial on the murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon charges. Prior to trial, the court resolved two motions in limine relevant to this petition. First, the court considered the state's motion to exclude Coddington's expert's testimony on whether Coddington was able to form intent. See id. at 448–51. Coddington proffered that his expert—Dr. Smith—would have testified that his cocaine use leading up to and during the murder rendered him unable to form malice aforethought. See id. at 448–51. The state moved to have this portion of Dr. Smith's testimony excluded, and the trial judge granted the motion. See id.

Second, the court considered Coddington's motion to suppress his confession. See id. at 446–48. Coddington believed that he did not knowingly or voluntarily waive his Miranda rights. See id. The court did not agree and denied the motion. See id.

The case proceeded to trial. At the guilt phase of trial, the jury convicted Coddington of first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon. See id. at 442. At the sentencing phase, the jury found the existence of two aggravating circumstances and sentenced Coddington to death. See id. Coddington appealed his conviction and sentence to the OCCA. See id. Among other things, he challenged the pretrial rulings (1) denying his motion to suppress his confession and (2) excluding a portion of Dr. Smith's testimony. See id. at 446–51. The OCCA first concluded that Coddington's confession was sufficiently knowing and voluntary, but it agreed with Coddington that the trial court erred by restricting Dr. Smith's testimony. See id. The OCCA summarily determined that this amounted to a constitutional error and applied Chapman v. California , 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), to determine whether the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See id. at 448–51. The OCCA determined that the evidence that Coddington acted with malice aforethought was overwhelming. See id. at 451. Accordingly, it held that "Dr. Smith's expert opinion on the ultimate issue of whether Coddington could form the requisite malice would not have made a difference in the jury's determination of guilt." Id.

The OCCA similarly rejected Coddington's other guilt-phase arguments and affirmed his conviction. It did, however, find that reversible error occurred at the sentencing phase. See id. at 461.^† It therefore vacated Coddington's death sentence and remanded for resentencing. See id. At resentencing, the jury found the existence of aggravating circumstances and again sentenced Coddington to death. Coddington v. State , 254 P.3d 684, 693 (Okla. Crim. App. 2011). The OCCA affirmed, see id. at 718, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari, see Coddington v. Oklahoma , 565 U.S. 1040, 132 S.Ct. 588, 181 L.Ed.2d 432 (2011). Coddington then filed a petition for post-conviction relief with the OCCA. Coddington v. State , 259 P.3d 833 (Okla. Crim. App. 2011). The OCCA denied the petition. See id. at 840. Subsequently, Coddington filed a 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition. Coddington v. Royal , No. CIV-11-1457-HE, 2016 WL 4991685 (W.D. Okla. Sept. 15, 2016).

In his § 2254 petition, Coddington raised nine grounds for relief. See id. at *1. The district court denied relief on all of them. See id. We granted a Certificate of Appealability (COA) as to the first and second grounds: (1) whether the OCCA unreasonably applied federal law when it held that the exclusion of Dr. Smith's testimony was harmless, and (2) whether the OCCA unreasonably applied federal law when it affirmed the lower court's decision that Coddington's waiver of his Miranda rights was knowing and voluntary.

II.

Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), the standard under which we review the district court's disposition of a state petitioner's habeas petition depends on how the claim at issue was resolved in the state court. Byrd v. Workman , 645 F.3d 1159, 1165 (10th Cir. 2011). Here, because the issues in Coddington's habeas petition were already adjudicated on the merits by the OCCA, "we review the district court's legal analysis of the state court decision de novo." Littlejohn v....