Macias v. Makowski
| Decision Date | 24 May 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 00-2006.,00-2006. |
| Citation | 291 F.3d 447 |
| Parties | Alfonso MACIAS, Jr., Petitioner-Appellant, v. John MAKOWSKI, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Valerie R. Newman (briefed), Debra A. Gutierrez (argued), State Appellate Defender Office, Detroit, MI, for Petitioner-Appellant.
Janet A. Van Cleve (argued and briefed), Office of the Attorney General, Habeas Corpus Division, Lansing, MI, for Respondent-Appellee.
Before: SUHRHEINRICH and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; HOOD District Judge.*
Alfonso Macias, Jr. was convicted in state court of assault with intent to commit murder and for possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to between 10 and 20 years in prison for the assault and 2 additional years for unlawfully possessing the firearm. After his conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal, Macias filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, claiming that his due process rights were violated by prosecutorial misconduct. The district court denied the writ. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.
At approximately 3:00 a.m. on January 1, 1994, Christopher LaSalle parked his car at a gas station in Pontiac, Michigan. He had four passengers with him in the car. LaSalle exited to speak to his girlfriend, Angela Giglio, who was a passenger in a car that was parked in front of him. As he was standing next to this other car, a third car pulled into the gas station. At this point, LaSalle returned to his car, having been prompted to do so by one his friends. He then looked out of his driver's side window and saw that an individual was pointing a gun at him. The gunman pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired. Shortly thereafter a shot was fired into the driver's side of LaSalle's car. As LaSalle attempted to escape, the gunman fired a second gunshot into the car's roof. A third shot hit the car as LaSalle drove away from the gas station. Fortunately, no one was injured by the gunfire.
LaSalle originally identified the shooter as a Hispanic male known to him by the nickname "Bontay," with whom he had had a physical confrontation two months earlier. On January 3, 1994, LaSalle informed the police that the individual he knew as "Bontay" was named Alfonso Macias, Jr. LaSalle testified that an individual with whom he works had told him the alleged shooter's proper name.
On January 14, 1994, during a photo lineup, LaSalle identified Macias as the individual who had fired the gunshots at him. At trial, six other eyewitnesses also identified Macias as the shooter. Macias, however, presented evidence that he was not at the gas station at the time the shooting occurred. Specifically, Angela Moran testified that she was with Macias until approximately 1:10 a.m. that morning, at which time she dropped him off at the apartment where he was staying. Jennifer Mojica, a resident of the apartment, testified that Macias was still there when she went to sleep at approximately 1:30 a.m. Finally, Brenda Ruelas, Mojica's roommate, testified that she watched television movies with Macias "[f]or about two or three hours" after Macias arrived, which would overlap the incident at the gas station.
On June 22, 1994, a jury convicted Macias of assault with intent to commit murder, in violation of M.C.L. 750.83, and for unlawfully possessing a firearm, in violation of M.C.L. 750.227b. On appeal, the Michigan Court of Appeals initially concluded that the prosecutor had improperly attacked the credibility of Macias's key alibi witness, Brenda Ruelas, "with argument unsupported by the evidence, including argument that was false." After noting that Macias's defense relied on Ruelas's credibility, and that the weight of the evidence against Macias was not overwhelming because "[t]here was significant contradiction" in the accounts of the eyewitnesses, the Court of Appeals determined that the "error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt." It therefore reversed Macias's conviction and remanded the case for a new trial.
On appeal by the state, the Michigan Supreme Court remanded the case to the Court of Appeals for reconsideration in light of People v. Mateo, 453 Mich. 203, 551 N.W.2d 891 (1996). Although the Michigan Court of Appeals concluded that Mateo was irrelevant to Macias's appeal, a partially new panel of the court decided to reverse the earlier ruling by the prior panel. The Michigan Court of Appeals explained that it was "now convinced that the prosecutor's argument did not contain false or misleading statements of fact, but was a legitimate argument based on legitimate inferences drawn from [Ruelas's] testimony." One judge dissented, pointing out that "Ruelas was listed as an alibi witness in defendant's notice of alibi, dated April 24, 1994, two months before trial, and the prosecutor's statement that she did not come forth until trial was irrelevant, false or misleading at best."
Macias then filed a motion for reconsideration, arguing that the Michigan Court of Appeals had violated the law-of-the-case doctrine by reversing its earlier decision even though it had concluded that Mateo was irrelevant. On July 25, 1997, the Michigan Court of Appeals denied Macias's motion after determining that the Michigan Supreme Court had "left open the door to reconsidering whether there was error at all."
After the Michigan Supreme Court denied Macias's application for appeal, Macias filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, arguing that the prosecutor's statements regarding Ruelas's testimony constituted prosecutorial misconduct. The district court subjected Macias's claim to the four-factor test outlined in United States v. Carroll, 26 F.3d 1380, 1385-87 (6th Cir. 1994), to determine whether the prosecutorial misconduct violated Macias's due process rights, and concluded that "none of the [four] factors weigh[s] in Petitioner's favor or demonstrate[s] that Petitioner's trial was fundamentally unfair." Moreover, the district court concluded that even if the remarks were improper, they constituted harmless error because Macias was identified as the shooter by seven eyewitnesses. Macias then filed a motion for reconsideration of the district court's order, which the court denied. This timely appeal followed.
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) of 1996, Pub.L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214 (Apr. 24, 1996), applies to Macias's case because he filed his habeas corpus petition pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 after the effective date of AEDPA. Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 336, 117 S.Ct. 2059, 138 L.Ed.2d 481 (1997). A federal court is authorized to grant a writ of habeas corpus to a person in custody pursuant to a state-court judgment, but only if the adjudication of the claim: "(1) 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; or (2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).
The Supreme Court has declared that "a federal habeas court making the `unreasonable application' inquiry should ask whether the state court's application of clearly established federal law was objectively unreasonable." Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 409, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). In its discussion of the term "objectively unreasonable," the Court stated that Id. at 411, 120 S.Ct. 1495. A district court's denial of the writ is subject to de novo review. Rogers v. Howes, 144 F.3d 990, 992 (6th Cir.1998).
During the prosecutor's rebuttal closing argument, Macias's counsel objected to the prosecutor's implication that he had "twist[ed]" the evidence. After the state trial court admonished the prosecutor to "confine [her] remarks to ... the facts that [she had] proven," the prosecutor nonetheless attacked the veracity of Brenda Ruelas, Macias's key alibi witness, with the following argument:
Ladies and gentlemen, you have seven eyewitnesses who said it's the defendant who did it. You have one young lady [Brenda Ruelas] who had been drinking Boone's Farm, who isn't sure what she was watching, who says, "Yeah, we were there for two or three hours watching movies."
Well, Brenda, where were you in January? She said the end of January she had talked to the defendant. Why didn't she go to the police then and say, "Hey, you've got the wrong guy"?
Mr. Ribitwer: Your Honor, I'll object. That's based upon facts not in evidence, that she even knew that the police had issued any warrants. There is nothing to show that she knew that this man was charged or wanted for anything, if in fact he was. She is making argument based upon facts not in evidence. I object.
Ms. Davis: Your Honor, I think it's a reasonable inference. She comes forth the day of trial.
The Court: Overruled.
Ms. Davis: Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, she comes forth the day of trial or shortly before and says, not to the police but to someone else apparently, "You've got the wrong guy." Is that consistent with common sense? Is that consistent with truth? No, it is not. If she knew that he wasn't there, why didn't she go to the police and tell them?
(Emphasis added.) Macias contends that he is entitled to a writ of habeas corpus because the...
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