Fields v. Leapley, 93-3034

• Decision Date: 26 July 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93-3034,93-3034
• Citation: 30 F.3d 986
• Parties: Kenneth A. FIELDS, Appellant, v. Walter LEAPLEY, Warden, South Dakota State Penitentiary; Mark W. Barnett, Attorney General, State of South Dakota, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 986

30 F.3d 986

Kenneth A. FIELDS, Appellant, v. Walter LEAPLEY, Warden, South Dakota State Penitentiary Mark W. Barnett, Attorney General, State of South Dakota, Appellees.

No. 93-3034.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted May 13, 1994.

Decided July 26, 1994.

Stephen Miller, Sioux Falls, SD, argued, for appellant.

Gary Campbell, Pierre, SD, argued, for appellees.

Before MAGILL, Circuit Judge, JOHN R. GIBSON, Senior Circuit Judge, and MAGNUSON, ^* District Judge.

MAGILL, Circuit Judge.

Kenneth A. Fields appeals the district court's denial of his petition for habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254 (1988). Fields argues that the prosecutor at his trial violated his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights by commenting on his post-arrest, post-Miranda warnings silence in violation of Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 619, 96 S.Ct. 2240, 2245, 49 L.Ed.2d 91 (1976). For reversal, Fields argues that the district court applied an improper standard to determine whether the Doyle violations merit reversal. We agree and reverse the district court's denial of habeas relief.

I. BACKGROUND

Early in the morning of October 21, 1990, Fields stabbed and killed Scott Fodness outside the Pomp Room Bar (Pomp Room) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Fodness, who was a bouncer at the Pomp Room, was 23 years old and 6 feet 1 inch tall, weighed between 240 and 260 pounds, and had been an all-state wrestler in high school. Fields was 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed about 145 pounds. The stabbing was the culmination of a barroom brawl that had spilled out onto the street outside the Pomp Room. The police immediately arrested Fields and informed him of his Miranda rights. That night, the police conducted two interviews with Fields regarding the events surrounding the stabbing. Fields told Officer Lance Mattson and later Detective Marc Norlin that Fodness was "trying to cause bodily harm" and that he simply acted in self-defense. Fields, however, refused to discuss the actual stabbing. The police taped and later transcribed the two interviews.

On October 25, 1990, a Minnehaha County grand jury issued an indictment charging Fields with one count of first-degree murder, S.D. Codified Laws Sec. 22-16-4 (1988), and one count of first-degree manslaughter, id. Sec. 22-16-15. On March 5, 1991, Fields' jury trial began. Fields did not dispute that he had stabbed and killed Fodness, but claimed that he acted in self-defense. ¹ The government's theory of the case was that Fodness was simply removing Fields from the Pomp Room when Fields stabbed him to death. At trial, the government and Fields called numerous witnesses to testify regarding the barroom brawl, the stabbing, and Fields' subsequent arrest.

We first recount the events leading up to the initial brawl which are largely undisputed. Dan Padovani and Wayne Crafton, who worked with Fields, picked up Fields at 8 p.m. on October 20, 1990. They purchased a twelve-pack of beer and at about 9 to 9:30 p.m. drove to "The Blitz," a dance club in Pipestone, Minnesota. While at The Blitz, Padovani, Crafton, and Fields continued drinking. They left The Blitz and drove to the Pomp Room between 10 and 11 p.m. The group continued drinking at the Pomp Room. Fodness arrived for work at the Pomp Room between 11 and 12 p.m. The trouble began at approximately 1 a.m. Padovani was speaking with a woman when Mike McKee, another co-worker of Fields, either slapped or punched Padovani on the head. A scuffle between Padovani and McKee ensued. One of the bouncers then informed Padovani that he had to leave and proceeded to push Padovani out the door. Jon Ertz, the manager of the bar, followed Padovani out the door. Outside the bar, a fight between Padovani and Ertz ensued. Fields followed Padovani out the door and became involved in the fight as either a peacekeeper or an active participant. At this point, the respective stories diverge.

Fields testified that Ertz punched him in the jaw and that Fodness then grabbed him and began punching him. Fields testified that Fodness walked him backwards across the street and over the sidewalk, and threw him into the bushes by the sidewalk. Further, Fields testified that Fodness continued to inflict bodily harm and would not let Fields go. Fields testified that he feared Fodness and was able to describe the beating that Fodness had inflicted on him, but he could not remember pulling his knife or stabbing Fodness. Fields also testified that the alcohol that he had that night did not impair his memory of the events.

Jeff Sutter testified on behalf of Fields regarding a prior altercation Sutter had had with Fodness. Sutter testified that in August 1990 Fodness had grabbed him by the neck, carried him from outside the Pomp Room to the bushes across the street, put a knee in Sutter's chest, and threatened to break every bone in Sutter's body.

The testimonies of the government's witnesses differed from that of Fields. Bruce Friesth, a bouncer and bartender at the Pomp Room, testified that Fodness did not strike Fields. Rather, Fodness held Fields by the shoulders and "walked" him backwards across the street; Fodness or Fields stumbled on the curb opposite the Pomp Room; they quickly regained their balances; and Fodness deposited Fields in the bushes. Friesth saw Fields punching Fodness on the inside part of Fodness's body. Russell Doty, another bouncer at the Pomp Room, testified that Fodness had not hit Fields, but merely carried him across the street and deposited him in the bushes. Steve Bruns, a bartender at the Pomp Room, testified that Fodness walked Fields across the street and was straddling him when he was stabbed. Ricky Johnson, a customer at the Pomp Room, testified that Fodness and Fields were rolling around in the middle of the street before Fodness carried Fields into the bushes. Steve Wallin testified that Fodness and Fields exchanged blows while they wrestled on the ground in the middle of the street outside the Pomp Room, and that they both swung their fists at one another while they were in the bushes. No witness testified as to seeing the actual stabbing, but some saw Fodness fall onto Fields.

The government played to the jury, without objection, audiotapes of the two interviews of Fields which were conducted the night of the stabbing. On those tapes, Fields stated that he acted in self-defense. The government also introduced evidence that Fodness had been stabbed three or four times. Two of the wounds were fatal: one to the heart, and another to his liver. Fodness also had a defensive wound on the inside webbing of his hand. Fodness's wounds, however, arguably were consistent with Fields' claim of self-defense.

The major disputed issue concerned whether Fields acted in self-defense. Some of the government's witnesses testified that Fodness did not hit Fields and merely held Fields by the shoulders and "walked" him backwards across the street away from the entrance to the bar. Other government witnesses stated that Fields and Fodness were rolling around and wrestling in the middle of the street. One witness stated that both Fields and Fodness "exchanged blows" in the middle of the street. Most of the witnesses acknowledged that they had been watching the altercation between Ertz and Padovani and had not focused on the interactions between Fodness and Fields.

During closing argument, the prosecutor argued that Fields' testimony was not credible, in part, because he testified that he did not remember stabbing Fodness. The prosecutor contrasted that testimony with Fields' statements to Officer Mattson and Detective Norlin that Fields did not want to talk about the stabbing. ²

The jury deliberated and convicted Fields of first-degree manslaughter, and the trial court sentenced Fields to a prison term of sixty-five years. Fields appealed the jury verdict to the South Dakota Supreme Court claiming, among other arguments not relevant here, that the trial court committed plain error in allowing admission of evidence and committed error in allowing the prosecutor to comment, over Fields' timely objection, on Fields' post-arrest, post-Miranda warnings silence. The South Dakota Supreme Court affirmed Fields' conviction because it concluded that the prosecutor's statements did not violate Doyle.

Fields then sought habeas corpus relief in the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota. Fields' sole argument in district court was that remarks in the prosecutor's closing argument constituted improper references to Fields' invocation of his right to silence under Doyle. The district court dismissed Fields' petition because, assuming that the prosecutor's remarks violated Doyle, those violations were harmless under the standard set out in Brecht v. Abrahamson, --- U.S. ----, ----, 113 S.Ct. 1710, 1722, 123 L.Ed.2d 353 (1993). Fields appeals from that decision.

II. DISCUSSION

Fields argues that the prosecutor violated his Fourteenth Amendment rights in violation of Doyle, 426 U.S. at 619, 96 S.Ct. at 2245, and that the violations were not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt under Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 828, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967). Specifically, Fields argues that the district court erred when it applied the Brecht v. Abrahamson standard to evaluate the effect of the prosecutor's Doyle violations. The government argues that (1) the prosecutor committed no error because the prosecutor merely commented on earlier inconsistent statements by Fields, and (2) assuming that the prosecutor violated Doyle, the error does not warrant reversal. We conclude that the prosecutor's closing argument violated Fields' Fourteenth Amendment due process rights, and that violation was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

A. Doyle Violations

In Doyle, the Supreme Court held that "the use for impeachment purposes of [a defendant's] silence, at the time of arrest and after receiving Miranda warnings, violate[s...