Jackson v. Edwards
| Citation | 404 F.3d 612 |
| Decision Date | 14 April 2005 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 03-2805. |
| Parties | Reginald JACKSON, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Ernest EDWARDS, Superintendent of Otisville Correctional Facility, Respondent-Appellant. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) |
Esther Noe, Assistant District Attorney (Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney, on the brief, Leonard Joblove, Assistant District Attorney, of counsel), Kings County, Brooklyn, NY, for Respondent-Appellant.
Vida M. Alvy, Alvy & Jacobson, New York, NY, for Petitioner-Appellee.
Before: NEWMAN, SACK, B.D. PARKER, Circuit Judges.
Ernest Edwards, the Superintendent of the Otisville Correctional Facility, appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Weinstein, J.) granting Reginald Lee Jackson's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2253(a).
Jackson was convicted in New York Supreme Court, Kings County, of second degree manslaughter and second degree criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the 1997 shooting death of Selwyn Anthony Brown. The District Court granted habeas relief on both offenses based on two separate claims: (1) Jackson was deprived of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment by the trial court's refusal to allow the jury to consider a justification defense; and (2) he was denied effective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment when trial counsel cited inapposite case law to the court. We hold that the District Court correctly granted Jackson habeas relief on his due process claim. Consequently, we need not reach his Sixth Amendment claim.
Jackson was the superintendent of an apartment building at 110 Grove Street in Brooklyn, New York. His responsibilities included, among others, building security. Late in the evening of March 7, 1997, a group of family members and friends was drinking and playing cards in apartment 1B. The apartment belonged to Bernadette Brown, who was joined that evening by her sister-in-law, Mirna Brown, as well as by Ula Dawn Hall and her younger sister Natalie Hall. Later, Selwyn Anthony Brown ("Brown"), who was Bernadette's brother and Mirna's husband, arrived with his nephew George Adams. Brown had been drinking heavily by the time he joined the party.
Ula and Natalie Hall had previously lived upstairs in apartment 2E but had moved out a year earlier. Their mother had lived in the apartment until around January of that year and had surrendered her key before moving out. Although the Halls no longer rented apartment 2E, Natalie Hall had retained a key, and a lock the Halls had installed remained on the door.
Jackson told police that close to midnight, he learned from the daughter of another tenant, Patricia Drummond, that Natalie Hall and her friends were inside apartment 2E, which supposedly had been vacant for two months. Drummond was a friend of Jackson's who lived in the building, and, after the Halls had moved out, he had permitted her to store food in the refrigerator of 2E. Hoping to secure the apartment, Jackson went to 110 Grove Street to change the lock.
Once at the building, Jackson encountered Natalie Hall and asked her for the keys to 2E, which she gave him. When Ula learned that her sister had given up the keys, she insisted that they find Jackson. The sisters eventually located him upstairs, sitting in the doorway of 2E and changing the lock. Ula Hall rushed past Jackson into the apartment and went to the refrigerator. An argument ensued as Ula claimed that food in the refrigerator belonged to her family, while Jackson explained that the food belonged to Patricia Drummond. Ula also demanded to know why Jackson had taken the keys from her sister. Jackson responded that she no longer had a right to be in the apartment, which had been rented to another tenant. The argument continued until Patricia Drummond arrived at the apartment and claimed the food as her own. Ula then left the apartment and walked toward the stairs.
Hearing noise above them, Brown and his nephew, George Adams, left apartment 1B and met Ula in the stairwell. Brown asked her what had happened and Ula told him to "leave it alone" and "forget it." When Ula finally told him that she had wanted to get the keys to 2E from Jackson, Brown walked past her and insisted, "no, get your keys now." By this time — now the early morning hours of March8 — Brown, Ula Hall, Natalie Hall, Bernadette Brown, Mirna Brown, and George Adams had all congregated around the doorway of apartment 2E, along with Patricia Drummond and Jackson.
A heavily intoxicated Brown approached Jackson, and a loud, hostile argument ensued.1 Although both Bernadette and Mirna implored Brown to stop the confrontation, the argument grew increasingly heated and others became involved. There is some dispute over precisely what happened next. Ula Hall, Mirna Brown, and Bernadette Brown all claimed that they saw no physical contact between Brown and Jackson. Immediately after the incident, George Adams told police that he saw his uncle in a "fist fight" with Jackson; however, he later testified that he had only seen "pushing and shoving." Natalie Hall testified that she saw Brown raise his hands and push Jackson. Patricia Drummond testified that she saw Brown punch Jackson twice, knocking him to the ground. At some point, Jackson pulled a gun out of his pocket. The gun discharged, and Brown was shot in the chest. Jackson ran out of the building and discarded the gun, which was never recovered. Brown later died from the gunshot wound.
Several hours after the shooting, Jackson called a police officer with whom he was acquainted and surrendered. At the police station, Jackson waived his Miranda rights, confessed to the shooting, and gave the arresting officers a written statement. Jackson described being contacted by Drummond's daughter, going to 110 Grove Street to secure apartment 2E, and having an argument with Ula Hall over the keys and the food in the refrigerator. He stated that "a tall male" then came up to him and told him to "[g]ive her the fucking keys." Jackson explained that at that point, Patricia Drummond stepped between the two men, but Brown managed to punch Jackson twice in the face knocking him down. Jackson stated that he saw a crowd coming towards him and then remembered "the crowd opening up and clearing a path."
Jackson again confessed to these events on videotape. He stated that he had recently purchased a .38 revolver, which he used for protection while working as a superintendent late at night. He explained that he believed he needed the gun because there was significant drug activity in both 110 Grove Street and his own, neighboring apartment building, and because there was considerable drinking and misbehavior in the buildings involving both tenants and outside visitors. Jackson stated that he kept the gun in the basement of his apartment building, where he was also the superintendent, and that he only carried it with him when he was cleaning or securing the buildings late at night. He stated that he never took the gun "off the premises" after purchasing it.
Jackson further stated that he understood that Brown's "job" that evening was "to take the keys and start beating me up." He described Brown punching him twice in the face and stated that he "fell back" or "stepped back a couple of steps," looked up, and saw "the whole crowd ... coming." He then pulled the gun out of his pocket, but he did not remember pointing it at Brown when it went off.
Because Jackson had been charged with, inter alia, second degree murder, at the conclusion of the evidence, defense counsel requested a justification instruction under New York Penal Law § 35.15. He asked the court to instruct the jury that Jackson was justified in using deadly physical force because he reasonably believed such force was necessary to protect himself from an imminent assault or robbery by Brown or to defend against a burglary of the apartment. The court denied the request on the grounds that neither the trial evidence nor the case law defense counsel cited supported such an instruction. The court found that having "reviewed the statute," "the only possible exception might be if there was a burglary being committed or an arson," but "none of that is applicable in this case."
Barred from arguing justification, defense counsel argued in his summation that Jackson shot Brown when the gun went off accidentally after Jackson had removed it from his pocket. The trial court then charged the jury on Murder in the Second Degree, N.Y. Penal Law § 125.25(2), or the lesser-included offense of Manslaughter in the Second Degree, N.Y. Penal Law § 125.15, and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, N.Y. Penal Law § 265.03 (McKinney 1997), or in the alternative, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree, N.Y. Penal Law § 265.01 (McKinney 1997). The jury acquitted Jackson of second degree murder but convicted him of second degree manslaughter and second degree criminal possession of a weapon. In September 1997, the court sentenced Jackson to concurrent indeterminate terms of five to fifteen years for manslaughter, and seven and one-half to fifteen years for weapons possession.
Jackson appealed to the Appellate Division where he contended that (1) the trial court improperly denied his request for a jury instruction on justification; and (2) he was denied effective assistance of counsel. The Appellate Division unanimously affirmed his conviction, tersely concluding:
Contrary to the defendant's contention, no reasonable view of the evidence supports a justification charge and, thus, the trial court properly declined to give it (see, Penal Law § 35.15[2]).
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