Maples v. Allen, 07-15187.
| Decision Date | 26 October 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 07-15187.,07-15187. |
| Citation | 586 F.3d 879 |
| Parties | Cory R. MAPLES, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Richard F. ALLEN, Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
Before EDMONDSON, BARKETT and HULL, Circuit Judges.
Cory Maples appeals from the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district court granted Maples a certificate of appealability ("COA") on the issue of whether Maples's ineffective-assistance claims are procedurally barred. This Court expanded the COA to include Maples's claim that the jury instructions were constitutionally deficient. After review and oral argument, we affirm.
Maples was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for killing two companions, Stacy Alan Terry and Barry Dewayne Robinson II, after an evening of drinking, playing pool, and riding around in Terry's car. When the men arrived at Maples's house, Maples went inside and got a .22 caliber rifle. Maples then shot each man twice in the head in an execution-style killing. See Maples v. State, 758 So.2d 1, 14-15 (Ala.Crim.App.1999). Maples fled in Terry's car. Id. at 15-16.
Maples signed a confession, stating that he: (1) shot both victims around midnight; (2) had drunk six or seven beers by about 8 p.m., but "didn't feel very drunk"; and (3) did not know why he decided to kill the two men. Faced with this confession, Maples's trial attorneys argued that Maples was guilty of murder, but not capital murder. See id. at 19, 24. Under Alabama law, capital murder involves, inter alia, (1) murder during a robbery, or (2) the murder of two persons by one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct. See Ala.Code § 13A-5-40(a)(2) & (10). The trial judge instructed the jury on capital murder, robbery, and the lesser included charges of murder (a non-capital crime) and first-degree theft of property. Both the capital murder and the lesser included murder charges required that the jury find that Maples had the intention to cause the death of a person. See Ala.Code §§ 13A-5-40 (capital murder), 13A-6-2(a)(1) (murder). The jury convicted Maples of capital murder.
On direct appeal, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed Maples's conviction and death sentence. Ex parte Maples, 758 So.2d 81 (Ala.1999); Maples v. State, 758 So.2d 1 (Ala.Crim.App.1999). On direct appeal, Maples argued that the jury instructions violated due process because the trial court failed to include, sua sponte, an instruction on the lesser included, non-capital offense of manslaughter due to voluntary intoxication.1 This claim forms part of the basis of the current appeal.
Maples subsequently filed a petition for post-conviction relief pursuant to Alabama Rule of Criminal Procedure 32, claiming, inter alia, that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate or present evidence of: (1) Maples's mental health history; (2) his intoxication at the time of the crime; and (3) his alcohol and drug history. Maples's Rule 32 petition claimed the jury instructions violated due process by not including the lesser offense of manslaughter due to voluntary intoxication. The State of Alabama moved the state trial court (what Alabama calls the circuit court) to dismiss Maples's Rule 32 petition, and that motion was denied. Seventeen months later, the trial court issued an order (the "Rule 32 Order") dismissing Maples's Rule 32 petition. The trial court dismissed some claims for failure to state a claim, and found other claims procedurally barred because they could have been raised at trial or on direct appeal but were not.
The Alabama trial court clerk sent copies of the Rule 32 Order, filed on May 22, 2003, to: (1) Maples's two attorneys (Jaasi Munanka and Clara Ingen-Housz) with the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell in New York, who were attorneys of record and had performed all of the substantive work on Maples's Rule 32 case; and (2) Maples's local counsel (John G. Butler, Jr.) in Alabama. No one disputes that both Butler and Sullivan & Cromwell received copies of the Rule 32 Order dismissing Maples's petition.2
Neither Maples nor any of his three attorneys filed a notice of appeal from the dismissal of Maples's Rule 32 petition within the 42 days required by Alabama Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(b)(1). Butler took no action whatsoever after receiving the Rule 32 Order. Sullivan & Cromwell received the Rule 32 Order but instead of opening the envelope that contained it, the firm returned it to the Alabama circuit court clerk.
By the time the trial court dismissed Maples's Rule 32 petition, attorneys Munanka and Ingen-Housz had left Sullivan & Cromwell. As Maples's Sullivan & Cromwell attorney acknowledged at oral argument, arrangements had been made within the firm for other attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell to take over representation of Maples. However, none of Maples's attorneys filed anything with the Alabama trial court reflecting this change.3
The State's attorney (Jon Hayden) wrote Maples a letter, dated August 13, 2003, informing him that although his deadline for appealing the dismissal of his Rule 32 petition had passed, Maples still had four weeks to file a federal habeas petition. Hayden gave Maples the address to file a federal habeas petition and informed him how to seek new counsel if he wished.
Thereafter, Maples's mother contacted Sullivan & Cromwell. On Maples's behalf, new attorneys from the Sullivan & Cromwell firm requested that the Alabama trial court re-issue its Rule 32 Order so that he might file a timely appeal. The trial court refused, stating in an order that it was "unwilling to enter into subterfuge in order to gloss over mistakes made by counsel for [Maples]." Ex parte Maples, 885 So.2d 845, 847 (Ala.Crim.App.2004) ().
Maples, through counsel Sullivan & Cromwell, then petitioned the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals for a writ of mandamus directing that he be granted an out-of-time appeal. That court denied his petition, finding that the circuit court clerk had properly served Maples's attorneys of record at their listed addresses with the Rule 32 Order and the attorneys had failed to act. Thus, an out-of-time appeal was not warranted. Id. at 848-50 (). The Alabama Supreme Court also denied Maples's petition for a writ of mandamus requesting an out-of-time appeal of the Rule 32 dismissal. Ex parte Maples, No. 1030701 (Ala. Sept. 3, 2004) (unpublished). The United States Supreme Court denied Maples's subsequent certiorari petition.
In the meantime, Maples, again through counsel Sullivan & Cromwell, had filed the federal habeas petition at issue here alleging, inter alia, the same ineffective-assistance claims asserted in his Rule 32 petition and the same jury-instruction claim asserted in his direct appeal. The district court stayed the § 2254 petition while Maples's state court petition seeking an out-of-time appeal of the Rule 32 Order was pending.
After the state appellate courts denied Maples's requests for an out-of-time appeal in his Rule 32 case, the district court denied Maples's § 2254 petition. The district court concluded that: (1) Maples's ineffective-assistance claims were procedurally defaulted because Maples did not timely file an appeal of the dismissal of his Rule 32 petition; (2) even if Maples's default were the result of his three post-conviction counsel's failing to file a Rule 32 appeal, such ineffectiveness could not establish cause for the default because there is no constitutional right to post-conviction counsel; and (3) the Alabama appellate courts' decisions that Maples was not entitled to a sua sponte jury instruction on manslaughter due to voluntary intoxication was not contrary to, or an unreasonable application of, clearly established federal law. This appeal followed.
"When examining a district court's denial of a § 2254 petition, we review the district court's factual findings for clear error and its legal determinations de novo." Owen v. Sec'y for Dep't of Corr., 568 F.3d 894, 907 (11th Cir.2009). We review de novo the district court's determination that a claim has been procedurally defaulted. Mize v. Hall, 532 F.3d 1184, 1190 (11th Cir.2008), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1629, 173 L.Ed.2d 1010 (2009).
The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), Pub.L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214, governs Maples's § 2254 petition and appeal. AEDPA "greatly circumscribes federal court review of state court decisions" and "establishes a general framework of substantial deference for reviewing every issue that the state courts have decided." Owen, 568 F.3d at 907 (quotation marks and citation omitted). According to § 2254, as amended by AEDPA, a federal court shall not grant a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a state prisoner
with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings unless 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 first issue is whether Maples's ineffective-assistance-of-trial-counsel claims are procedurally barred from federal habeas...
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