Jackson v. Frank

• Decision Date: 06 November 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-1979.,02-1979.
• Citation: 348 F.3d 658
• Parties: Frederick G. JACKSON, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Matthew J. FRANK,<SMALL><SUP>1</SUP></SMALL> Respondent-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

348 F.3d 658

Frederick G. JACKSON, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Matthew J. FRANK,¹ Respondent-Appellant.

No. 02-1979.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued September 12, 2002.

Decided November 6, 2003.

Melinda A. Swartz (argued), Office of the Wisconsin State, Public Defender, Milwaukee, WI, for Petitioner-Appellee.

Warren D. Weinstein (argued), Office of the Attorney General, Wisconsin Department of Justice, Madison, WI, for Respondent-Appellant.

Before RIPPLE, ROVNER, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge.

When Frederick Jackson told the detective questioning him that he wanted a lawyer "right now," the detective responded that he could not accommodate Jackson's request and that he would have to end the interview. The detective's statement to Jackson was, at the very least, misleading: under Wisconsin law public defenders are available to suspects in custody on an emergency basis. After his conversation with the detective, Jackson waived his Miranda rights and confessed. He later moved to suppress his confession, arguing that his waiver was not voluntary due to the detective's misstatement of Wisconsin law. The Wisconsin trial and appellate courts found no Miranda violation, and Jackson filed a writ of habeas corpus, which the district court granted. We find that the detective's failure to follow state law does not give rise to habeas relief and the Wisconsin appellate court's decision was not objectively unreasonable in light of the Supreme Court's decision in Duckworth v. Eagan, 492 U.S. 195, 109 S.Ct. 2875, 106 L.Ed.2d 166 (1989). Although we share many of the district court's concerns about Jackson's waiver of his Miranda rights, we find that the district court exceeded the limits imposed on federal habeas review, and we therefore reverse its grant of Jackson's petition.

I. BACKGROUND

On May 29, 1997, Milwaukee police officers investigating a report of gunshots observed Frederick Jackson's car speeding. They pulled Jackson over and noticed a white substance all over his mouth and teeth, and, after they asked him about it, Jackson drove away. Jackson was quickly stopped, arrested, and taken to the hospital.

Four days after he was arrested,² Jackson was interviewed by Milwaukee police detective James Guzinski. The detective advised Jackson of his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Jackson then asked the detective if he could arrange for him to see a lawyer. According to Detective Guzinski's testimony at the state suppression hearing, he responded:

At that point I told him I could not do that, and that I was going to end my interview with him. He stated he wanted to talk to me now. I stated that he would have to waive his right to an attorney and he would have to be very clear about that which he stated yes, he did want to do that because he wanted to cooperate in giving a statement and answering my questions.

Detective Guzinski further testified as follows:

Q: ... After you read him his rights and asked him if he wanted to make a statement, what exact words do you recall him speaking to you?

A: He asked me if he could have a lawyer right now.

. . . . .

Q: Was your sense of that whether you personally could get him a lawyer-you were physically able to go and summon a lawyer for him, or was he asking that someone bring him a lawyer?

A: His intent to me was to have a lawyer present there, then and there, right now, and if I could arrange for that.

Q: And you said no, I can't, basically?

A: That's correct.

. . . . .

Q: Okay. Could you as a matter of actual fact have gotten on the phone at that moment and tried to summon an attorney from the Public Defender's or somewhere else?

A: No.

Q: Why not?

A: I had no phone. I'm in a locked room. I have no access to any of these things.

Q: You were at the Criminal Justice Facility?

A: That is correct.

Q: And you had no access to a phone to call anyone?

A: I had no access to leave the room.

Q: You had no way to get him a lawyer at that point?

A: No.

According to his testimony, the detective then described to Jackson the procedure by which public defenders are assigned once charges are established, and Jackson responded again that he would like a lawyer but also wanted to talk with the detective. Detective Guzinski testified that the conversation continued as follows:

A: I then told him I couldn't talk to him now because he wished an attorney.

Q: Did you then get up and begin to leave the room?

A: No.

Q: What did you do?

A: I paused for a few minutes, and then he re-initiated conversation with me, and at that point is when he replied to me that he wished to talk to me now, and that's when I re-initiated whether or not he was going to waive his right to an attorney, and that's when he replied yes he would, and then I proceeded to go through the thing with the questions about the occurrence.

In fact, the detective's statement about the availability of a public defender did not accurately describe state law.³ Wisconsin regulations provide that public defenders are available to individuals in custody prior to their being charged on an emergency basis, 24 hours per day including weekends and holidays. Wis. Admin. Code § PD 2.03(2). Moreover, the public defender must have immediate access in person or by phone to any individual held in custody, id. § 2.03(3), and individuals "who indicate at any time that they wish to be represented by a lawyer, and who claim that they are not able to pay in full for a lawyer's services, shall immediately be permitted to contact the authority for indigency determinations...." Wis. Stat. § 967.06.

Jackson filed a motion to suppress his confession, arguing that he did not knowingly and voluntarily waive his Miranda rights. After his motion was denied, Jackson pled guilty to conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to deliver, see Wis. Stat. §§ 961.41(1)(cm); 961.48, and was sentenced to eight years in prison. He appealed the denial of his motion to suppress to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, which affirmed the judgment of the trial court and found Jackson's waiver was knowing and voluntary. See State v. Jackson, 229 Wis.2d 328, 600 N.W.2d 39 (Ct. App.1999). The Court of Appeals relied on the Supreme Court's holding in Duckworth, gleaning from the opinion that "all a person in custody need be told is that he or she does not have to talk to the police until that person has a lawyer," id. at 45 n. 2, and finding that the directive was complied with in Jackson's case. One judge dissented from the appellate court's decision, commenting that Duckworth was distinguishable from Jackson's case and the panel opinion did not comport with Miranda. Jackson's petition for review to the Wisconsin Supreme Court was denied.

Jackson then sought a writ of habeas corpus in federal court under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district court granted Jackson's petition, finding that Jackson had not voluntarily waived his Miranda rights. Following the lead of the dissenting Wisconsin appellate judge, the district court found Duckworth distinguishable and the failure to suppress the confession to have violated Miranda. After granting his petition, the district court released Jackson from custody pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 23. At that time, according to the district court, Jackson had only four months left to serve on his sentence. The state of Wisconsin appeals the judgment of the district court.

II. ANALYSIS

The scope of our review of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals' decision is strictly limited by the standard for habeas corpus cases promulgated by Congress in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), 110 Stat. 1214. Under the relevant provisions of the AEDPA an application for a writ of habeas corpus may not be granted unless adjudication of the claim in state court "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." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). Jackson does not suggest that the decision of the Wisconsin appellate court was "contrary to" clearly established federal law, but instead contends that it unreasonably applied clearly established federal law to his case. This is a difficult standard to meet; "unreasonable" means "something like lying well outside the boundaries of permissible differences of opinion." Hardaway v. Young, 302 F.3d 757, 762 (7th Cir.2002). We have held that under this criterion, habeas relief should not be granted if the state court decision can be said to be one of several equally-plausible outcomes. Boss v. Pierce, 263 F.3d 734, 742 (7th Cir.2001). Indeed, "a federal habeas court 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. Rather, that application must be objectively unreasonable." Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63, 123 S.Ct. 1166, 1175, 155 L.Ed.2d 144 (2003) (quoting Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 411, 409, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000)).

Within the framework of § 2254(d)(1), we review the district court's grant of the petition de novo. Dixon v. Snyder, 266 F.3d 693, 700 (7th Cir.2001). And "[w]hether the state court's holding involved an `unreasonable application' of clearly established federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court, is a mixed question of law and fact that we traditionally also review de novo but with a grant of deference to any reasonable state court decision." Schaff v. Snyder, 190 F.3d 513, 522 (7th Cir.1999) (emphasis in original).

Jackson argues that the Wisconsin appellate court unreasonably applied Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), when it affirmed the rejection of the motion to suppress his confession. In Miranda, the Court held that "[i]f...