Jamison v. Cohen
| Decision Date | 03 December 2018 |
| Docket Number | No. 17-7466,17-7466 |
| Parties | MATTHEW JAMISON, Petitioner - Appellee, v. LEVERN COHEN, Respondent - Appellant, and BRYAN P. STIRLING, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
UNPUBLISHED
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Beaufort. Margaret B. Seymour, Senior District Judge. (9:15-cv-02859-MBS)
Before NIEMEYER, THACKER, and RICHARDSON, Circuit Judges.
Vacated and remanded by unpublished by per curiam opinion.
ARGUED: Susannah Rawl Cole, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellant. Gregory Dolin, UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE SCHOOL OF LAW, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Alan Wilson, Attorney General, Donald J. Zelenka, Deputy Attorney General, Melody J. Brown, Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Alphonso Simon Jr., Assistant Attorney General, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellant. Polina Katsnelson, Law Clerk, UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE SCHOOL OF LAW, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
Warden Levern Cohen ("Appellant" or "State") appeals from the district court's order granting habeas relief to Matthew Jamison ("Appellee") pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Appellee pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter for shooting and killing a bystander in a crowd of people. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Over four years later, during Appellee's post-conviction proceedings in state court, an alleged eyewitness submitted an affidavit and offered testimony supporting the notion that Appellee acted in self defense.
The state post-conviction review ("PCR") court determined that the eyewitness's affidavit and testimony constituted newly discovered evidence that warranted a new trial under state law. However, on appeal the South Carolina Supreme Court developed a modified test for considering whether a guilty plea (as opposed to a conviction) may be undermined by newly discovered evidence. The state supreme court then applied that test to Appellee, and, without offering him a hearing, held that Appellee did not meet that test.
Appellee then filed the instant § 2254 petition in the district court, alleging that the state supreme court violated his Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process and equal protection. The district court granted relief, explaining that the state supreme court should have remanded the case to the PCR court for a hearing and determination of whether Appellee satisfied the new test.
We vacate and remand. Appellee challenges the constitutionality of a post-conviction court's decision not to afford him a hearing on a new state law test. But,because Appellee challenges a proceeding collateral to detention, and not to the detention itself, his claim is not cognizable on federal habeas review and should have been dismissed.
In the spring of 2000, Appellee had some unfortunate encounters with a man named Jamie Jackson, also known as "Jig," and Jig's companions. On one occasion, they "beat [Appellee] up . . . pistol whipped him [and] shot at [him]." Jamison v. Cohen, 211 F. Supp. 3d 754, 757 (D.S.C. 2016). They also allegedly assaulted Appellee's sister, and during this incident, "hit [Appellee]'s child in the face." Id. at 756.
On June 11, 2000, Appellee attended a party in Columbia, South Carolina, where he was "approached by Jig and a number of his cohorts." Jamison, 211 F. Supp. 3d at 756. Appellee opened fire toward Jig's group, and as a result shot and killed a 15 year old boy, who happened to be "at the wrong place . . . at the wrong time." Id. at 757. Appellee was indicted for murder with malice aforethought, but he pled guilty to the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter. He acknowledged that he was "giv[ing] up any defenses [he] might have." Id. at 757. Appellee was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and he did not file a direct appeal. See id. at 758.
Over four years later, while Appellee's first petition for PCR relief was progressing through the state courts, an alleged eyewitness to the shooting, Theotis Bellamy, signed an affidavit (the "Bellamy Affidavit"). He stated that on the night of theshooting, he "noticed that [Jig] appeared to have a gun" and "the other guys usually have guns also." S.J.A. 45.1 Bellamy "saw [Jig and his entourage] approach [Appellee,] who was minding his own business as usual." Id. Then Jig "looked as if he was reaching for his gun or something while approaching [Appellee] with some other[] fellas, so [Appellee] did what he had to do to keep from being killed." Id. Bellamy averred that he did not give the statement earlier because he was "scared" of Jig -- Jig had told Bellamy's brother "if [Bellamy] told what had happened, something was going to happen to [Bellamy]." Id. However, because Jig was in prison at the time of the affidavit, Bellamy finally felt comfortable coming forward. See id. at 45, 61-62.
On November 28, 2006, Appellee filed a second petition for PCR relief, this time based on the purported newly discovered evidence in the Bellamy Affidavit. The PCR court held a hearing on Petitioner's second PCR application, at which Bellamy testified that Jig's group "approached [Appellee] like they're fixing to . . . pull out weapons." Jamison, 211 F. Supp. 3d at 762. Bellamy "knew Jig had a gun on him" that "he [was] about to pull," so, in his view, Appellee "had to defend himself." Id. Bellamy also testified that Jig pulled the victim in front of him and used him as a human shield that night. See id.
After withdrawing this order in favor of holding further proceedings on an unrelated procedural issue, on October 14, 2008, the PCR court upheld the original order and awarded Appellee a new trial based on the "after-discovered evidence" of the Bellamy Affidavit and testimony. See Jamison, 211 F. Supp. 3d at 763. The PCR court stated:
While the record demonstrates that a claim of self-defense was known to [Appellee] from the outset and that his attorney tried to get someone to back up that claim, no one would come forward. This Court is concerned about granting a new trial because a claim of self-defense can be waived. Yet, no law has been cited to the Court concerning whether the entry of a guilty plea where self-defense was specifically mentioned, constitutes a waiver of that defense and prohibits granting a new trial on after-discovered evidence when someone does not come forward to corroborate the claim . . . . He was facing life imprisonment. He entered a plea to a lesser offense because he could not get anyone to back up his claim of self-defense.
Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). The State then filed a petition for certiorari to the South Carolina Court of Appeals, which granted the petition and affirmed the PCR court in a short, per curiam order. See Jamison v. State, No. 2012-UP-437, 2012 WL 10862447 (S.C. Ct. App. July 18, 2012).
On May 16, 2013, the State appealed to the South Carolina Supreme Court, arguing that the Spann test "applies only to trials, not guilty pleas," and, by its nature, a guilty plea constitutes a waiver of defenses. J.A. 184. On October 22, 2014, the South Carolina Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals. First, it held that South Carolina law "affords 'any person' the ability to seek post-conviction relief on the basis of newly discovered evidence -- not just individuals convicted and sentenced following trial," and thus, it "reject[ed] the State's claim that the waiver of trial and admission of guilt encompassed in a guilty plea necessarily preclude post-conviction relief in all cases." See Jamison v. State, 765 S.E.2d 123, 129 (S.C. 2014) (emphasis in original).
Critically, however, the South Carolina Supreme Court then stated, "We nevertheless acknowledge that a valid guilty plea must be treated as final in the vast majority of cases," and "there must be some consequence attached to the decision to plead guilty." Jamison, 765 S.E.2d at 129 (internal quotation marks omitted). It reasoned that the "five-factor [Spann test] is not the proper test for analyzing whether a PCR applicant is entitled to relief on the basis of newly discovered evidence following a guilty plea." Id. (emphasis supplied).
A majority of the state supreme court, against two dissenters, then sua sponte fashioned a test for determining when relief is appropriate where a petitioner seeks reliefbased on newly discovered evidence after a guilty plea. That test is as follows: "(1) the newly discovered evidence was discovered after the entry of the plea and, in the exercise of reasonable diligence, could not have been discovered prior to the entry of the plea; and (2) the newly discovered evidence is of such a weight and quality that, under the facts and circumstances of that particular case, the 'interest of justice' requires the applicant's guilty plea to be vacated." Id. at 130 (the "Jamison test"). Then, without remanding or holding a hearing, the majority held that Petitioner did not meet that test. Specifically, it held the "interests of justice do not require that [Appellee's] guilty plea and sentence be vacated." Id. This is because "[Appellee]...
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