Hargrave-Thomas v. Yukins
| Decision Date | 16 August 2006 |
| Docket Number | Civil No. 00-40171. |
| Citation | 450 F.Supp.2d 711 |
| Parties | Kylleen HARGRAVE-THOMAS, Petitioner, v. Joan YUKINS, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Michigan |
Appeal from the District Court, Gadola, J Andrea D. Lyon, Depaul College of Law, Chicago, IL, Bridget M. McCormack, University of Michigan (Clinical Law Program), Ann Arbor, MI, for Petitioner.
Joseph A. Puleo, Detroit, MI, William C. Campbell, Michigan Department of Attorney General, Lansing, MI, for Respondent.
Kylleen Hargrave-Thomas is a Petitioner who is well-known to this Court. Among all others who have come before this Court, Ms. Hargrave-Thomas and her petition for a writ of habeas corpus stand out both factually and procedurally. Petitioner is currently on bond following a successful, but later reversed, petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Now before the Court are Respondent's third motion to enforce the Sixth Circuit's mandate, for revocation of bond, for order to surrender, and for order of arrest, filed on May 9, 2005; and Petitioner's motion for relief from judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), for an evidentiary hearing, and to continue bond, filed on July 21, 2005. These motions are merely the latest, and perhaps last, motions in a struggle for both sides to achieve what, in their respective views, is justice. For the reasons set forth below, the Court will reluctantly dismiss Petitioner's petition for a writ of habeas corpus, dismiss her motion for relief from judgment, revoke Petitioner's bond, order Petitioner to surrender, and deny her motion for an evidentiary hearing.
This case arises out of the tragic death of Manuel Joseph Bernal. Mr. Bernal was killed in the early morning hours of October 11, 1991. As he lay sleeping, a knife was plunged into his heart and his bed was lit aflame. Ms. Hargrave-Thomas, who, depending on the differing accounts was either Mr. Bernal's fiance é or his recently scorned lover, was eventually charged with his murder.1
Subsequent to being charged with Mr. Bernal's murder, Petitioner was tried in the Recorder's Court for the City of Detroit. After being persuaded to do so by a friend of Ms. Hargrave-Thomas, Petitioner's trial counsel, lead attorney Rene Cooper and co-counsel Nicholas Venditelli, took up Ms. Hargrave-Thomas's case without charge. Unfortunately, Ms. Hargrave-Thomas appears to have gotten what she paid for in this instance. With the benefit of hindsight, if Petitioner sought out her counsel solely because of an inability to pay, in the candid opinion of this Court, Ms. Hargrave-Thomas would have been far better off seeking appointed counsel. In perhaps the most effrontuous example of representation this Court has seen, Mr. Cooper and Mr. Venditelli failed to interview any witnesses and failed to conduct an investigation. They recommended that Ms. Hargrave-Thomas waive her right to a trial by a jury of her peers. Subsequently, counsel failed to make an opening argument, failed to present a theory of the case, and did not put forth any evidence. Instead, their entire efforts to defend Ms. Hargrave-Thomas consisted only of a suggestion in closing arguments that the prosecution's case was nothing but innuendo and speculation.2
On November 5, 1993, following the close of trial, the Honorable Wendy Baxter of the Recorder's Court for the City of Detroit found Ms. Hargrave-Thomas, a woman with no previous encounters with police, guilty of first degree murder M.C.L. 750.316, and burning of a dwelling house, M.C.L. 750.72. Petitioner was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder conviction and 36 months to 20 years for the arson conviction.
Soon after trial, through newly retained appellate counsel, Ms. Hargrave-Thomas moved the trial court for a new trial on several grounds, the most relevant to the matters now before this Court being a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Surprisingly, despite the spiritless approach to the defense of the murder and arson charges against Ms. Hargrave-Thomas by her trial counsel, her new appellate counsel did not argue ineffective assistance of trial counsel for failure to investigate. Instead appellate counsel claimed that her trial attorneys were ineffective for failing to move to suppress particular evidence presented at trial and for failing to object to alleged questionable comments made by the prosecutor relating to Ms. Hargrave-Thomas's assertion of constitutional protections. Appellate counsel also asked the court to conduct a Ginther hearing to further develop the record as it pertained to her ineffective assistance of counsel claims. See People v. Ginther, 390 Mich. 436, 212 N.W.2d 922 (1973). The trial court denied Petitioner's request for a new trial and her request for the Ginther hearing.
Petitioner raised nearly identical arguments with the Michigan Court of Appeals and then with the Michigan Supreme Court, again failing each time to raise a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to investigate. The Michigan Court of Appeals, in an unpublished opinion, rejected Petitioner's arguments based upon the record as it then existed. The Michigan Supreme Court, in a one line order, denied Petitioner's application for leave to appeal. People v. Hargrave-Thomas, 453 Mich. 971, 560 N.W.2d 626 (1996) (table decision). At no time did appellate counsel ever raise an ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to investigate claim.
Petitioner's current counsel then took over her case, seeking relief again through the state court system, by way of a motion for relief from judgment, pursuant to Michigan Court Rules 6.501, et. seq. In this motion, Petitioner raised, for the first time, a claim that this Court believes was obvious and long overdue. Counsel made a claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel for failure to investigate. Because Petitioner had not raised the claim against trial counsel on direct appeal, Petitioner had procedurally defaulted the claim. Due to the procedural default, Petitioner was required to show "good cause" and "actual prejudice" to overcome this default. M.C.R. 6.508(D). Petitioner claimed the "good cause" for the failure to raise the claim on direct appeal was because the matter was outside the record. At no time did Petitioner's counsel raise any claim of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel for failing to raise such an obvious claim.3
On November 11, 1998, the trial court denied Ms. Hargrave-Thomas's motion because it found she had failed to demonstrate the good cause or actual prejudice necessary to overcome the procedural default. Similarly, the Michigan Court of Appeals, in an unpublished July 21, 1999 order, denied leave to appeal because Petitioner had failed to demonstrate that she met the good cause and actual prejudice requirements of Michigan Court Rule 6.508(D). The Michigan Supreme Court denied leave to appeal on the same grounds on April 28, 2000. People v. Hargrave-Thomas, 461 Mich. 1022, 611 N.W.2d 799 (2000) (table decision).
Ms. Hargrave-Thomas's next action brought her into the purview of this Court when she filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, on November 17, 2000. In that petition, Ms. Hargrave-Thomas made four major claims: (1) prosecution failed to disclose material exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), (2) Petitioner was denied due process because of the ineffective assistance of her trial counsel, (3) the evidence adduced at trial was insufficient to support her conviction of murder and, (4) misconduct by the prosecutor deprived her of her right to a fair trial. Hargrave-Thomas, 236 F.Supp.2d at 759. This Court granted Petitioner leave to take discovery on May 22, 2001, and after four extensions of the discovery deadline, discovery closed on April 19, 2002.
Following the close of discovery, this Court held three days of evidentiary hearings to determine the merits of Petitioner's claims. At those hearings, the Court heard from six witnesses; among the witnesses were Rene Cooper and Nicholas Venditelli, Petitioner's co-counsel at the trial level; Elizabeth Jacobs, Petitioner's counsel on direct appeal; and Ms. Hargrave-Thomas.4 Following careful consideration of all the evidence, the Court issued its opinion and order on August 21, 2002.
In the opinion and order of this Court, three of Petitioner's four major claims were denied. More specifically, the Court ruled that Petitioner's Brady claim failed because she did not "show prejudice sufficient to overcome the adequate-and-independent-state-ground doctrine" and that additionally, the claim failed on the merits; that given the deferential standard when considering a claim of insufficient evidence, "the decision of the [Michigan] Court of Appeals was neither contrary to, nor an unreasonable application of, federal law"; and that Petitioner failed to show how alleged misconduct by the prosecutor would have prejudiced her bench trial.5 Hargrave-Thomas, 236 F.Supp.2d at 767, 778.
Ruling on Petitioner's claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel, however, this Court found that Petitioner was entitled to relief. The Court concluded that, based on the testimony of Attorneys Cooper and Venditelli, Petitioner had demonstrated that counsel's performance was deficient for failure to investigate, easily meeting the first prong of the Strickland test, deficient performance. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). This Court concluded:
At a bare minimum, a lawyer must "interview potential witnesses and ... make an independent investigation of the facts and circumstances in the...
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