Hamilton v. Morgan

• Citation: 474 F.3d 854
• Decision Date: 24 January 2007
• Docket Number: No. 05-5614.,05-5614.
• Parties: Quinn HAMILTON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Jack MORGAN, Warden, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

474 F.3d 854

Quinn HAMILTON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Jack MORGAN, Warden, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 05-5614.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: January 26, 2006.

Decided and Filed: January 24, 2007.

ARGUED: Michael C. Holley, Federal Public Defender's Office, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellant. David H. Findley, Office of the Attorney General, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Michael C. Holley, R. David Baker, Federal Public Defender's Office, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellant. David H. Findley, Office of the Attorney General, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee.

Before: SILER, BATCHELDER, and MOORE, Circuit Judges.

MOORE, J. (pp. 862-69), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.

OPINION

SILER, Circuit Judge.

Petitioner Quinn Hamilton appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Respondent Warden Jack Morgan (hereinafter "the State") on his habeas corpus petition, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, seeking relief from a state court conviction for armed robbery and evading arrest. Because the decision of the Tennessee courts to allow prior testimony of a witness deemed unavailable for trial was neither "contrary to" nor "an unreasonable application of" federal law, we affirm the denial of Hamilton's writ.

I. Background

In February 1997, Quan Shelton reported to Nashville police that two men robbed him of a gold necklace and $550 in cash. Detective Shellie Malone, investigating the crime, met with Shelton and took descriptions of the alleged perpetrators. Using those descriptions, she generated from a police database photographs of black males. Shelton failed to identify the older suspect but identified juvenile Mario Woodard.

Police subsequently arrested Woodard, who agreed to cooperate. He identified Quinn Hamilton as the other suspect. Based on that information, Detective Malone again met with Shelton and showed him a photographic line-up of six men, which included a photograph of Hamilton. Shelton "immediately" identified Hamilton.

At Hamilton's preliminary hearing, Shelton testified that he was walking down the street alone when two men accosted him. He stated that a younger man was on a bicycle, but that an older man approached him, put a gun to his stomach, and removed his gold necklace. The older man then reached into Shelton's pockets, demanded money, and threatened to kill Shelton. Shelton had $550 in cash, which the older man took. Shelton identified Hamilton as the older man, and Woodard as the younger. He also stated that he had joined the armed services and would be reporting for basic training in August 1997.

Later, at a suppression hearing, Shelton testified that, from a photographic lineup, he identified Hamilton as the man who robbed him and that Detective Malone did nothing to indicate Hamilton's photograph as the man who robbed him. He further identified Hamilton in the courtroom. Hamilton's attorney was present at both hearings and cross-examined Shelton.

In January 2000, a few days before Hamilton's first trial date, the State filed a motion seeking to declare Shelton unavailable and requesting the court to allow his prior testimony to be admitted at trial. In support of its motion, the State filed a letter dated January 6, 2000, from Captain Elizabeth W. Watson, Shelton's company commander. The letter stated that Shelton was at that time stationed in Germany, but had twice been AWOL. For that reason, Captain Watson declined to support his attendance at Hamilton's trial. In response to the State's motion, the trial court ordered a transcript of Shelton's suppression hearing testimony to be prepared. The trial was continued until May 22, 2000.

On April 14, 2000, the State filed a second motion to have Shelton declared unavailable and requesting that his prior testimony be admitted. Attached to this motion was another letter from Captain Watson stating that Shelton would be deploying to Kosovo for six months on April 28, 2000, and that he would be unavailable for trial. The trial court granted this motion and ruled that the State would be able to introduce Shelton's testimony at the preliminary hearing and at the suppression hearing as substantive evidence at Hamilton's trial.

Again Hamilton's trial was continued. A few days before the new trial date of January 8, 2001, the State filed a third motion to declare Shelton unavailable. In relevant part, this motion stated that:

6. Around the beginning of November [2000], Mr. Shelton returned to Germany from Kosovo. He immediately began having discipline problems including being absent-without-leave.

7. From conversations with Mr. Shelton's commander prior to the Christmas holidays, the State learned that Mr. Shelton would not be allowed to travel and in fact, did not wish to travel.

8. On January 2, 2001, the State learned that the situation had changed. Mr. Shelton was willing to travel if he could go through Atlanta, Georgia. His commander stated that he would be allowed to travel, but it was too late for any flights through Atlanta. Since that date, the State has been unable to contact Mr. Shelton.

The State respectfully submits that Mr. Shelton is beyond the reach of Tennessee's subpoena power. Only by his full cooperation and mature decisions and behavior on his part could the logistical problem of getting Mr. Shelton to Nashville for this trial be solved. Because of his location and behavior, the problem remains unsolved. The State of Tennessee still wishes to prosecute [the Defendant] and asks that the Court grant this motion.

The State presented no documents or evidence in support of the motion. Nonetheless, the trial court granted the State's motion and admitted Shelton's prior testimony at trial.

On January 8, 2001, Hamilton was tried in Tennessee state court on four charges, including the armed robbery of Shelton. The State introduced transcripts of Shelton's prior testimony. Woodard testified that he saw Hamilton holding a gun and saw him rob Shelton. Woodard testified that he was "sure" Hamilton was the robber and denied any participation. Detective Malone testified regarding the police investigation and the results of the photographic line-ups. The jury returned a guilty verdict on two of the four charges — evading arrest and the armed robbery of Shelton. The court sentenced Hamilton to seven and nineteen years, respectively, to run consecutively, for a total sentence of twenty-six years.

Hamilton timely appealed his armed robbery conviction, arguing that he was deprived of his federal Sixth Amendment right of confrontation when the trial court declared Shelton unavailable and admitted his prior testimony. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) denied relief. Subsequently, the Tennessee Supreme Court summarily dismissed Hamilton's petition.

Hamilton then filed a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 in the district court, raising the same Confrontation Clause claim. The district court granted Hamilton permission to serve certain interrogatories and requests for production on the State regarding the "unavailability" question and later to amend the record. The district court denied the petition for habeas corpus, but it granted Hamilton a certificate of appealability on the Confrontation Clause issue.

II. Analysis

A. Standard of Review

We review the legal conclusions of the district court sitting in habeas de novo and the factual findings of both the state trial and appellate courts for clear error. Brumley v. Wingard, 269 F.3d 629, 637-38 (6th Cir.2001) (internal citations omitted). Because Hamilton's habeas petition was filed after April 24, 1996, our review is governed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), 1996, Pub.L. No., 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214 (1996). See Calvert v. Wilson, 288 F.3d 823, 827 (6th Cir.2002). AEDPA provides that a federal court may not grant a petition for writ of habeas corpus unless the state court adjudication of the claim "resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law" as determined by the Supreme Court. Id.; 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).

The issues of the unavailability of the witness and the reasonableness of the State's efforts to produce the witness are parts of the Confrontation Clause under the Sixth Amendment. Although our court does not have a published opinion on the standard of review for such a question, other circuits have held that these questions are mixed questions of law and fact and reviewed de novo. See, e.g., Barrett v. Acevedo, 169 F.3d 1155, 1163 (8th Cir. 1999)(en banc); McCandless v. Vaughn, 172 F.3d 255, 265 (3d Cir.1999). We, therefore, adopt that standard.

B. The State's Efforts to Procure Witness Shelton for Trial Were Reasonable

The threshold issue for consideration is Hamilton's complaint that the State did not make a good faith effort to obtain Shelton for trial. Hamilton primarily points to the State's third motion to declare Shelton unavailable, which was based on the prosecutor's conversations with Shelton's commander revealing that Shelton would not be allowed to travel due to discipline problems and that Shelton did not desire to travel, and to information developed on January 2, 2001, that Shelton was willing to travel to the United States, but only if he were routed through Atlanta.

The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment strives to ensure that a criminal defendant may have a jury assess the prosecution's witnesses "face to face." Mattox v. United States, 156 U.S. 237, 242-43, 15 S.Ct. 337, 39 L.Ed. 409 (1895); U.S. Const. amend. VI. ("[I]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to be confronted with the witnesses against him."). Thus, the prosecution may not substitute former testimony for live testimony unless the government first demonstrates that the witness remains unavailable for trial proceedings. Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 65, 100 S.Ct....