Hoffman v. Arave

• Decision Date: 13 June 1997
• Docket Number: Civil No. 94-0200-S-BLW.
• Citation: Hoffman v. Arave, 973 F.Supp. 1152 (D. Idaho 1997)
• Parties: Maxwell HOFFMAN, Petitioner, v. A.J. ARAVE, Warden, et al., Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Idaho

973 F.Supp. 1152

Maxwell HOFFMAN, Petitioner, v. A.J. ARAVE, Warden, et al., Respondent.

Civil No. 94-0200-S-BLW.

United States District Court, D. Idaho.

June 13, 1997.

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Ellison M. Matthews, Boise, ID, Charles F. Peterson, Boise, ID, for Petitioner.

Lynn E. Thomas, Sol.Gen., Boise, ID, Alan G. Lance, Office of Atty. Gen., Boise, ID, Kenneth M. Robins, L. LaMont Anderson, Michaelina Murphy, Office of Atty. Gen., Criminal Law Div., Capital Litigation Unit, Boise, ID, for Respondent.

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER REGARDING PROCEDURAL DEFAULT AND MOTION FOR EVIDENTIARY HEARING

WINMILL, District Judge.

Pursuant to the court's scheduling order, the parties to this habeas action have submitted briefs addressing the application of the procedural default bar to the grounds for relief set forth in the final petition for writ of habeas corpus. The parties also have filed briefs addressing the petitioner's motion for a federal evidentiary hearing. Having examined the available law, the record and the materials submitted by the parties, the court now rules as follows.

DISCUSSION

A. Legal Framework: Exhaustion and Procedural Default

Ordinarily, before a habeas court can consider the merits of a state prisoner's petition for writ of habeas corpus, the court must be satisfied that each claim set forth in the petition is exhausted. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b) (application for a writ of habeas corpus cannot be granted unless the claims asserted have been exhausted in state court); Rose v. Lundy, 455 U.S. 509, 102 S.Ct. 1198, 71 L.Ed.2d 379 (1982) (same). "The exhaustion requirement may be satisfied in two ways: by showing either that no state remedies are available or that the state supreme court has been presented with a fair opportunity to rule on the merits of the claim." Harmon v. Ryan, 959 F.2d 1457, 1460 (9th Cir.1992). Where no state remedies remain available, although the claim is deemed exhausted, the petitioner's failure to timely seek state court review will often constitute a default under the state's procedural rules. Id. at 1461. If a default rests on a state procedural rule that "provides an independent and adequate state-law ground for the conviction and sentence," the habeas court must refrain from reviewing the claim unless the petitioner can demonstrate "cause and prejudice" or that a fundamental miscarriage of justice would result from a failure to entertain the claim. Gray v. Netherland, ___ U.S. ___, ___-___, 116 S.Ct. 2074, 2080-81, 135 L.Ed.2d 457 (1996); Wells v. Maass, 28 F.3d 1005, 1008 (9th Cir.1994).

To obtain habeas review, then, the petitioner must satisfy the exhaustion requirement while, at the same time, avoiding procedural default by showing that he has complied with the state's procedural default rules and presented the state court with a fair opportunity to rule on the merits of his federal claims. See Duncan v. Henry, 513 U.S. 364, 365, 115 S.Ct. 887, 888, 130 L.Ed.2d 865 (1995) (claims may be reviewed by the habeas court if the petitioner has "fairly presented" the federal claims to the state courts so as to give the state the "`opportunity to pass upon and correct' alleged violations of its prisoners' federal rights"). In this respect, the petitioner must have "fairly presented" the "state courts with the same claim he urges upon the federal courts." Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 276, 92 S.Ct. 509, 512, 30 L.Ed.2d 438 (1971). Specifically, the petitioner's federal claim has been "fairly presented" if in state court the petitioner made an express "reference to a specific federal constitutional guarantee, as well as a statement of the facts which entitle the petitioner to relief." Gray, ___ U.S. at ___, 116 S.Ct. at 2081; see also Duncan, 513 U.S. at 365, 115 S.Ct. at 888 ("If a habeas petitioner wishes to claim that an evidentiary ruling at a state court trial denied him due process of law guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, he must say so, not only in federal court, but in state court.").

Enumeration of the claim's operative facts, without more, is not adequate to alert the state court to the federal nature of the claim. Johnson v. Zenon, 88 F.3d 828, 829-31 (9th Cir.1996). Similarly, the reliance in state court on a state law ground, or on a different theory of federal law than relied upon in the habeas court, does not constitute a fair presentation of the petitioner's federal claim. Id. In general, then, a claim will be adjudicated in the habeas proceeding only if the same claim has first been expressly presented to the state court.

However, in a situation unique to Idaho, under certain circumstances the federal court is free to address a claim in habeas even though the petitioner did not specifically present the claim to the Idaho Supreme Court. In Beam v. Paskett, 3 F.3d 1301 (9th Cir.1993), cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1060, 114 S.Ct. 1631, 128 L.Ed.2d 354 (1994), the Ninth Circuit determined that federal claims alleging a constitutional violation at sentencing have been "implicitly" considered by the Idaho Supreme Court as part of that court's mandatory review under Idaho Code § 19-2827. 3 F.3d at 1306-02. Because § 19-2827 requires the state supreme court to determine whether a sentence of death was imposed under the influence of "any arbitrary factor," the Ninth Circuit panel concluded that the Idaho Supreme Court necessarily considers "claims of error that fall within its obligatory review even if the defendant has not raised those claims with specificity." Id. Thus, after Beam, a petitioner who alleges a sentencing error in the federal court may obtain habeas review even though the claim has not been fairly presented to the Idaho Supreme Court.¹ See id.

The scope of Beam, however, is limited to constitutional errors that are alleged to have occurred during the imposition of the death sentence in a particular case. Id. at 1306 ("Idaho law establishes a mandatory review system in which the state supreme court is required to examine the record on its own initiative in order to determine whether certain specified types of errors occurred during sentencing."); Paradis v. Arave, 667 F.Supp. 1361, 1366 (D.Idaho 1987) (explaining that review pursuant to § 19-2827 "does not extend to every issue which may or may not arise as to pretrial and trial proceedings, but only applies to the sentencing procedure and death sentence"). In particular, constitutional challenges to the choice of legal standards, the determination of fact and the application of law to fact during the sentencing proceeding all fit within the Beam rationale. See Beam, 3 F.3d at 1306-07. Claims that make a broad-based constitutional challenge to Idaho's death penalty process or allege constitutional error unrelated to the sentencing, are not encompassed by § 19-2827 or Beam. See id.

B. Fairly Presented and/or Beam Claims

The petitioner contends that the claims listed below, all set forth in paragraph 13 of the final petition, either were "fairly presented" to the state supreme court on consolidated appeal or were implicitly considered by the state court pursuant to § 19-2827 and Beam. The respondent, on the other hand, asserts that these same claims are procedurally defaulted:

1. That the "heinous, atrocious and cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity" aggravating circumstance is unconstitutionally vague, and the state court's finding is not supported by the evidence in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments ("claim A");

2. That the failure to authorize funds for a psychiatrist at the post-conviction relief stage denied the petitioner his Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights ("claim B");

3. That the state court's order prohibiting counsel from being present for the presentence investigation interview denied the petitioner his Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights ("claim C");

4. That the imposition of the death sentence without proof that the petitioner killed, attempted to kill, intended to kill or acted with reckless indifference to human life, violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments ("claim G");

5. That the sentence of death imposed on petitioner was disproportionate to the sentences imposed on other individuals convicted of murder under similar circumstances, in violation of the Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments ("claim H");

6. That the Idaho statute authorizing the death penalty creates a mandatory presumption in favor of the death sentence in violation of the Eighth Amendment ("claim J");

7. That the Idaho statute, which fails to require a jury to sentence a person to death, denied petitioner his right to due process under the Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments ("claim K");

8. That the state court's failure to properly find and weigh the mitigating and aggravating factors violated the Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments ("claim L"); 9. That the Idaho statute governing post-conviction remedies in capital cases denies the petitioner due process and equal protection as well as effective assistance of counsel and meaningful appellate review in violation of the Eighth Amendment ("claim M"); and

10. That the trial court erred by admitting statements of the petitioner taken in violation of his right to counsel under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments ("claim N").

The court will consider each claim in turn.

1. Claim A

In federal court, the petitioner alleges in claim A that the "heinous, atrocious and cruel" aggravating circumstance is unconstitutionally vague and that the evidence offered at trial is insufficient to establish the aggravating circumstance. This claim is substantially the same as presented to the state court. There, the petitioner relied on the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to support his contention that the trial court improperly applied the aggravating circumstance to the facts of his case. See ...