Hall v. Scribner

• Decision Date: 22 December 2008
• Docket Number: No. C 06-2808 RMW (PR).,C 06-2808 RMW (PR).
• Citation: 619 F.Supp.2d 823
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of California
• Parties: Richard B. HALL, Petitioner, v. Larry SCRIBNER, Warden, Respondent.

619 F.Supp.2d 823

Richard B. HALL, Petitioner, v. Larry SCRIBNER, Warden, Respondent.

No. C 06-2808 RMW (PR).

United States District Court, N.D. California.

December 22, 2008.

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Richard B. Hall, Soledad, CA, pro se.

Bruce Louis Ortega, California State Attorney's Office, San Francisco, CA, for Respondent.

ORDER DENYING PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

RONALD M. WHYTE, District Judge.

Petitioner, a state prisoner proceeding pro se, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The court ordered respondent to show cause why the petition should not be granted. Respondent has filed an answer addressing the merits of the petition, and petitioner has filed a traverse. Having reviewed the briefs and the underlying record, the court concludes that petitioner is not entitled to relief based on the claims presented and denies the petition.

BACKGROUND

In 1999, petitioner and Ericka Ryan met in Louisville, Kentucky. (Resp. Ex. I (People v. Hall, California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Four, Case No. A094198, September 30, 2003) at 1.) Petitioner and Ryan were living with petitioner's friend, Mickey Parsons. (Id. at 2.) Parsons and petitioner discussed moving to Florida because petitioner had warrants out for his arrest relating to child support payments. (Id.) Petitioner and Parsons later had a falling out after Parsons changed his mind about traveling to Florida, and Ryan and petitioner left for California instead. (Id.) Petitioner and Ryan traveled by car for several days with money obtained from Ryan's family, from pawning petitioner's golf clubs, and from Ryan "working the truckers" for money and drugs. (Id.) Once they arrived in California, they stayed with Ryan's brother, (id.), and both found odd jobs, (id. at 3).

In August, they decided to leave California, took a bus to Oregon, and got off in Orick, Oregon. (Id.) They had little to no money leftover, and spent the next two days walking around, eating nothing and sleeping outdoors. (Id.) According to petitioner, Ryan talked about stealing a purse or backpack. (Id. at 3-4.) They wandered into Lost Man Creek parking area, and encountered the victim, David Schauer, who approached petitioner and Ryan and began talking to them. (Id. at 4.) At this point, Ryan's version of events are markedly different from petitioner's version of events. (Id.)

Ryan testified that petitioner spoke with Schauer briefly before Schauer walked up one of the trails. (Id.) When they ran into him again coming down the trail, Ryan and petitioner "communicated through their eyes," leading her to understand that petitioner was going to choke Schauer.¹ (Id.) Ryan testified that petitioner ran at Schauer from behind and they both fell down. (Id.) Ryan heard a "gurgle" or something and she believed petitioner was choking Schauer and began walking down to the parking area. (Id.) After hearing something strange, she turned around and saw Schauer looking at her while petitioner was "stomping on his head," and watched him do that three times before she turned again and walked away. (Id.) Petitioner later caught up with her and threw Schauer's video camera and jacket into the woods. (Id. at 5.) Petitioner had Schauer's key to his Isuzu, Schauer's driver's license, a bag of marijuana, and $60 in cash. (Id.) They got into Schauer's Isuzu and drove out of the area. (Id.)

Petitioner testified that Schauer had approached them and seemed "stoned." (Id.) Schauer invited them up the mountain to smoke marijuana, and while petitioner did not smoke marijuana, Ryan persuaded him to accompany them. (Id.) Ryan carried two makeshift weapons and she told petitioner that she intended to get a ride or money from Schauer in exchange for a sexual favor or "whatever it took." (Id.) At that point, petitioner decided not to go with them and walked back to wait for Ryan. (Id.) Almost an hour later, Ryan came running down the trail, panicked, and said there had been an accident and Schauer might be hurt. (Id.) Petitioner ran up the trail with Ryan, saw Schauer lying down, checked his pulse and found there was none. (Id.) Petitioner told Ryan to pick up Schauer's things while he covered up Schauer's body with logs. (Id.) They got into Schauer's Isuzu and drove away. (Id.) Ryan admitted to petitioner later that "things got out of control and she had hit the man with rocks." (Id. at 6.)

Thereafter, petitioner and Ryan traveled several western states, using Schauer's credit cards for everything until eventually the credit cards were declined. (Id. at 7.) When the Isuzu ran out of gas, they hitched a ride with a trucker into town and traded petitioner's watch for a night at a motel. (Id.) An officer traced the abandoned Isuzu and found petitioner and Ryan at the motel. (Id.)

Both petitioner and Ryan were charged with murder with a robbery-murder special circumstance. (Id. at 8.) Ryan eventually pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Petitioner went to trial and, on January 16, 2001, the jury found him guilty of first degree murder and found true the special circumstance. (Id.) The court sentenced petitioner to life without the possibility of parole. (Id.)

On direct appeal, the state appellate court affirmed petitioner's conviction and sentence on September 30, 2003. The state supreme court denied a petition for review on January 14, 2004. The state supreme court denied petitioner's habeas petition on January 25, 2006. The instant petition was filed on April 24, 2006.

DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

This court may entertain a petition for writ of habeas corpus "in behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a state court only on the ground that he is in custody in violation of the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a). Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), a district court may not grant a petition challenging a state conviction or sentence on the basis of a claim that was reviewed on the merits in state court unless the state court's adjudication of the claim "(1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or (2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the state court proceeding." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). The first prong applies both to questions of law and to mixed questions of law and fact, Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 384-86, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000), while the second prong applies to decisions based on factual determinations, Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 340, 123 S.Ct. 1029, 154 L.Ed.2d 931 (2003).

"Under the `contrary to' clause, a federal habeas court may grant the writ if the state court arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by [the Supreme] Court on a question of law or if the state court decides a case differently than [the] Court has on a set of materially indistinguishable facts." Williams, 529 U.S. at 412-13, 120 S.Ct. 1495. A state court decision is an "unreasonable application of Supreme Court authority, falling under the second clause of § 2254(d)(1), if the state court correctly identifies the governing legal principle from the Supreme Court's decisions but "unreasonably applies that principle to the facts of the prisoner's case." Id. at 413, 120 S.Ct. 1495. The federal court on habeas review may not issue the writ "simply because that court concludes in its independent judgment that the relevant state-court decision applied clearly established federal law erroneously or incorrectly." Id. at 411, 120 S.Ct. 1495.

Under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2), a state court decision "based on a factual determination will not be overturned on factual grounds unless objectively unreasonable in light of the evidence presented in the state-court proceeding." Miller-El, 537 U.S. at 340, 123 S.Ct. 1029. The court must presume correct any determination of a factual issue made by a state court unless the petitioner rebuts the presumption of correctness by clear and convincing evidence. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1).

In determining whether the state court's decision is contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law, a federal court looks to the decision of the highest state court to address the merits of a petitioner's claim in a reasoned decision. LaJoie v. Thompson, 217 F.3d 663, 669 n. 7 (9th Cir.2000). The standard of review under the AEDPA is somewhat different where the state court gives no reasoned explanation of its decision on a petitioner's federal claim and there is no reasoned lower court decision on the claim. When confronted with such a decision, a federal court should conduct "an independent review of the record" to determine whether the state court's decision was an objectively unreasonable application of clearly established federal law. Richter v. Hickman, 521 F.3d 1222, 1229 (9th Cir.2008).

B. Petitioner's Claims

1. Ineffective assistance of trial counsel

Petitioner claims that counsel provided ineffective assistance because he failed to have DNA and fingerprint analysis conducted on items recovered from the crime scene to establish that (1) Ryan had physical contact with items used to kill Schauer and the concealing of Schauer's body, and (2) that Ryan had physical contact with Schauer. (Petition at 1-3.) Petitioner opines that had counsel conducted this testing for Ryan's DNA or fingerprints on some unspecified item(s) recovered from the crime scene, and had the testing discovered evidence of Ryan's DNA or finger-prints, the jury would have understood that Ryan's testimony, placing her far away from the crime scene, was false, and would have credited petitioner's...