Fields v. Attorney General of State of Md.

• Decision Date: 23 March 1992
• Docket Number: No. 90-6695,90-6695
• Citation: 956 F.2d 1290
• Parties: Merrill E. FIELDS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF the STATE OF MARYLAND; Kenneth E. Taylor, Warden, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 1290

956 F.2d 1290

Merrill E. FIELDS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF the STATE OF MARYLAND; Kenneth E Taylor, Warden, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 90-6695.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued June 5, 1991.

Decided Feb. 26, 1992.

As Amended March 23, 1992.

Steven H. Goldblatt, Director, Appellate Litigation Clinical Program, Washington, D.C. (Beth E. Cook, Supervising Atty., James I. Crowley, Student Counsel, David A. Moss, Student Counsel, Appellate Litigation Clinical Program, on brief), Washington, D.C., for petitioner-appellant.

Sara Elizabeth Page, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen. of Md., on brief), Baltimore, Md., for respondents-appellees.

Before POWELL, Associate Justice (Retired), United States Supreme Court, sitting by designation, WILKINSON, Circuit Judge, and ELLIS, District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.

OPINION

ELLIS, District Judge:

Merrill Fields appeals from the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. His petition alleges constitutional deprivations arising out of events surrounding plea bargaining conducted in connection with state daytime housebreaking charges against him. Specifically, Fields alleges that (i) he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to counsel at a critical stage of the criminal proceedings and his Fourteenth Amendment rights to Due Process and Equal Protection when his appointed counsel failed to appear on his behalf at his two rearraignments; (ii) he was deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel in connection with his guilty plea; and (iii) he was denied fair play and equity under Maryland law when the state declined to resurrect plea bargain offers contemplated, but not consummated, at his rearraignments. The district court denied Fields' petition, holding that (i) arraignments are not critical stages of criminal proceedings requiring counsel under the Sixth Amendment; (ii) Fields failed to meet the Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), test for ineffective assistance of counsel; (iii) the facts do not support Fields' claim that he was denied fair play and equity under Maryland law; and (iv) the court could not fashion an effective remedy, even if Fields were entitled to relief. Although we decline to adopt some of the district court's reasoning, we find the result is sustainable on other, appropriate grounds. We therefore affirm.

I.

In January 1988, Merrill Fields faced two separate daytime housebreaking charges. Each carried a twenty year maximum sentence. He was scheduled to be arraigned on one of these, Case No. 58735705, on January 13, 1988. No arraignment date had yet been scheduled for the second charge, Case No. 28802203. Michael Gambrill of the Public Defender's Office represented Fields at the January 13th arraignment. On that occasion, the prosecutor, Louis Coleman, offered a cap of seven years' imprisonment in exchange for a guilty plea. The presiding judge, Judge Silver, indicated that if such a plea agreement were consummated and a guilty plea entered, he would impose a sentence of only eighteen months. Presumably in response to this, Coleman then offered Fields a plea bargain of eighteen months' imprisonment in exchange for a guilty plea. Gambrill informed Fields of this offer, but apparently advised him to postpone his acceptance until the second housebreaking count, Case No. 28802203, could be consolidated with the first count. ¹ Fields indicated to Gambrill his willingness to accept the eighteen-month offer and his further desire to have Gambrill negotiate a second plea bargain for the second charge. ² Gambrill therefore asked that Fields be arraigned in Case No. 58735705 on a future date to allow the two cases to be consolidated. Rearraignment was scheduled for February 2, 1988, before Judge Silver. Coleman agreed that the eighteen-month offer on the first count would remain open until the rearraignment. Trial was set for February 29, 1988.

Gambrill did not attend his client's rearraignment on February 2nd. ³ Advised by prosecutor Roman Choma that arraignment in the second case was now set for February 10th, Judge Silver continued the rearraignment to that date to allow the two cases to be arraigned together. No plea offers were made or discussed at the brief February 2nd hearing. Fields was present, but apparently believed he could neither accept nor reject any plea offers in the absence of his attorney, and thus did not raise the issue.

On February 10th, Judge Silver rearraigned Fields in Case No. 58735705 and arraigned him in Case No. 28802203. Again, Gambrill failed to appear. ⁴ Choma represented the government. At the time, Choma was considering a plea bargain offer of two years' imprisonment on the second charge, but was unable to communicate any offer to Fields because of Gambrill's absence. ⁵ He did record the contemplated offer in Fields' case file. Another public defender present in the courtroom was unfamiliar with Fields' case and could not assist Fields because the case file was in Gambrill's possession.

Fields appeared for trial on February 29, 1988, before Judge Hubbard. Gambrill was present. Prosecutor Jack Lesser offered to recommend a seven-year cap in exchange for guilty pleas on both counts. Fields rejected this offer. Gambrill then objected to the state's refusal to honor the original eighteen-month offer in Case No. 58735705 and the two-year offer in Case No. 28802203 ⁶ and indicated that he intended to call prosecutors Coleman and Choma to testify regarding the offers and whether they remained open. ⁷ Judge Hubbard indicated that if any open offers were below the state sentencing guidelines' ranges, she would require argument about why the court should accept them. ⁸ She then continued the case until April 19, 1988. Thereafter, Lesser expressly withdrew the seven-year offer.

On April 19, 1988, Fields, accompanied by Gambrill, appeared again before Judge Hubbard for trial. Gambrill did not raise the issue of the earlier arraignment offers, nor did he call Coleman or Choma to testify. At Fields' instigation, Gambrill made a counteroffer to the state. Following negotiations, the parties agreed that Fields would plead guilty in both cases in exchange for the state's recommendation of concurrent ten-year terms of imprisonment, of which five years of each would be suspended. The agreement included a term of probation following imprisonment, as well as drug screening and treatment. During the ensuing plea colloquy, Judge Hubbard and Gambrill questioned Fields regarding the voluntariness of his plea and advised him of the rights he would waive by pleading guilty. Importantly, he was advised that his appeal rights would be limited to issues of coercion of the plea, jurisdiction of the court, receipt of a sentence greater than the statutory maximum, and ineffective assistance of counsel. Apropos of this last issue, Fields, in the plea colloquy, stated, "I am very pleased with my counsel." Thereafter, he pled guilty to both counts. ⁹ The court accepted the pleas and sentenced Fields to two concurrent ten-year terms of imprisonment, with five years of each term suspended, and five years of probation upon release from confinement.

Fields then petitioned for post-conviction relief in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, claiming that Gambrill's absence at the two rearraignments cost him the eighteen-month and two-year plea bargains, resulting in his receipt of a harsher sentence. Specifically, he alleged: (i) denial of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel at the arraignments; (ii) denial of the right to the assistance of counsel at the arraignments under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment; (iii) denial of the right to effective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment; and (iv) denial of the right to fair play and equity under Maryland law. Following a state court post-conviction hearing, Fields' petition was denied. Having exhausted his state remedies, Fields petitioned pro se for a writ of habeas corpus, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district court denied Fields' petition, holding (i) that Fields had not been denied counsel at a critical stage of the criminal proceedings because in Maryland arraignments are not adversarial proceedings requiring the assistance of counsel; (ii) that Gambrill's failure to attend the rearraignments did not result in violations of Fields' Due Process and Equal Protection rights under the Fourteenth Amendment; and (iii) that Fields' ineffective assistance of counsel claim failed because a showing of prejudice required under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), had not been made. Specifically, the district court found nothing in the record indicating that Fields intended to accept the original plea offers, nothing indicating that the trial judge would have accepted the arraignment plea bargains, and nothing delineating the full terms of the alleged plea bargains, particularly whether the prison sentences were to run concurrently or consecutively. Alternatively, the district judge held that even if Fields had prevailed on the merits of his claims, no effective remedy could be fashioned. Specific performance was unavailable because there was no evidence of detrimental reliance by Fields on any plea offers and because the terms of the original plea offers were uncertain. Nor would repleading assure Fields the relief he sought; a state court would not be bound to accept any new plea or follow any new plea recommendation. Fields v. Singleton, No. H-90-61 (D.C.Md. Oct. 22, 1990).

This appeal followed. On February 27, 1991, we granted a certificate of probable cause and appointed counsel for Fields.

II.

We address first Fields' constitutional claims of denial of counsel at a critical stage of criminal...