McNeil v. Middleton

• Decision Date: 22 September 2003
• Docket Number: No. 01-56565.,01-56565.
• Citation: 344 F.3d 988
• Parties: Sally Marie McNeil, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Raymond L. Middleton; Bill Lockyer, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

344 F.3d 988

Sally Marie McNeil, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Raymond L. Middleton; Bill Lockyer, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 01-56565.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted April 8, 2003.

Filed September 22, 2003.

Peter B. Clarke, Escondido, CA; Charles R. Khoury, Jr., Wilton, NH, for the petitioner-appellant.

Warren P. Robinson, Deputy Attorney General, San Diego, CA, for the respondent-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California; Jeffrey T. Miller, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-99-01490-JM.

Before BEEZER, FERNANDEZ, and PAEZ, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

PAEZ, Circuit Judge:

Sally Marie McNeil ("McNeil") appeals the district court's denial of her federal habeas petition, challenging the constitutional validity of her state court conviction for second degree murder. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, and we reverse the district court's judgment and remand with directions to grant the petition.

In 1996, a California jury convicted McNeil for the second degree murder of her husband, Ray McNeil ("Ray"). At trial, McNeil admitted that she shot and killed Ray, but testified that she acted in self-defense because at the time of the killing she feared that her life was in imminent danger. McNeil also testified that Ray physically and sexually abused her throughout their marriage. In support of her defense, McNeil presented an expert witness who testified that McNeil suffered from the effects of Battered Women's Syndrome ("BWS").¹ This evidence was presented to show that McNeil's perception of imminent danger at the time of the killing was reasonable, genuine, and actual.²

At the conclusion of the trial, the court instructed the jury on first degree murder, second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, and self-defense. As part of these instructions the court, as required by California law, instructed the jury that self-defense requires an actual and reasonable belief in the necessity of defending against imminent peril or great bodily harm. Although the court allowed McNeil to present BWS evidence, it instructed the jury that it could not consider this evidence in determining the reasonableness of McNeil's belief in her need to resort to self-defense by fatally shooting Ray. As the State concedes, this limiting instruction was erroneous under California law.

As noted, the court also instructed the jury on voluntary manslaughter. Under California law, a person is not guilty of murder if the person kills another in the actual but unreasonable belief in the necessity to defend against imminent peril to life or great bodily injury. This aspect of voluntary manslaughter is commonly referred to as "imperfect self-defense" or "unreasonable self-defense." In defining imminent peril, the court instructed the jury that imminent peril is a peril that is apparent to a reasonable person. The State also concedes that this definition of imminent peril was incorrect under California law.

In her direct appeal, state habeas petition, and subsequent federal habeas petition, McNeil argued that by limiting the jury's consideration of BWS evidence the trial court prevented the jury from considering constitutionally relevant evidence that supported her claim of perfect self-defense. McNeil also argued that the erroneous inclusion of a reasonableness standard in the definition of imminent peril prevented the jury from considering any claim of imperfect self-defense (and therefore from reaching a verdict of voluntary manslaughter) in violation of her constitutional right to present a defense and her due process right to a fair trial. The state court of appeal affirmed, concluding that, although the two instructions were erroneous, they were harmless. The district court also rejected McNeil's constitutional claims, ruling that the state court's decision was not an unreasonable application of clearly established constitutional law as determined by the Supreme Court.

Because the erroneous imperfect self-defense instruction wholly deprived McNeil of that defense by requiring that her fear be reasonable, McNeil was denied due process. The erroneous instruction prevented the jury from considering McNeil's defense that she was guilty of nothing more than voluntary manslaughter, thus depriving McNeil of her constitutional right to present a defense. In light of the substantial evidence McNeil proffered in support of an imperfect self-defense claim, the state appellate court's conclusion that it "[was] not reasonably likely that the jury would have misunderstood the requirements of the imperfect self-defense component of voluntary manslaughter," People v. McNeil, No. DO26047, slip op. at 9 (Cal. Ct.App. June 18, 1998), we conclude that the state court of appeal's analysis "resulted in a decision that was contrary to [and] 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); Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). Finally, because we conclude that the erroneous instruction rose to the level of constitutional error that had a substantial and injurious effect on the jury's verdict, we reverse the district court's denial of habeas relief.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

A. BACKGROUND

We take the following recitation of background facts from the California Court of Appeal's decision, People v. McNeil, slip op. at 2-5:

McNeil and Ray were both former [M]arines, bodybuilders and steroid users. Their relationship was replete with violent altercations. Evidence was introduced that McNeil had hit Ray and threw things at him, including dumbbells and a VCR that she threw out a second story window as Ray was walking below, and that Ray had hit, kicked and pushed McNeil leaving her with bruises and black eyes. Evidence was also introduced that McNeil had several violent altercations with others, including women she suspected Ray was having affairs with, barroom bouncers, and the police.

On the night of the shooting, Ray said he was going out to the Price Club, which closed at 8:30 p.m., to get chicken for dinner. However, he did not return until 10:30 p.m., and had gone to a more expensive market. Ray had had several affairs during the course of the marriage, and McNeil suspected he had been seeing a girlfriend. McNeil criticized Ray for getting the more expensive chicken, which she could not afford, and asked what had taken him so long and if he had been with his girlfriend. She also told him he looked like "shit" and would not do well in an upcoming bodybuilding contest.

McNeil told police that Ray then slapped her, pushed her down on the floor and started choking her. McNeil squirmed away, ran into the bedroom and took her shotgun out of its case in the closet. She grabbed two shells, loaded one, pumped the gun, and then "went out and aimed it at [Ray]" and shot him. At the time, Ray was at the kitchen stove cooking chicken. McNeil stated that after Ray was shot, he doubled over and then came towards her, so she loaded the second round, pumped the gun again, and shot him a second time.

After that, McNeil gave the shotgun to a neighbor, and called 911. The 911 operator who took the call testified that she heard a male, who had been moaning, ask: "Why did you shoot me?" and McNeil respond: "I told you that I wasn't taking your shit anymore."

When police arrived, Ray was on his hands and knees about five feet inside the apartment and McNeil was standing at the kitchen sink. It looked like Ray's face had been blown off from the bridge of his nose down, and he was saying "Why?[,]" "Oh God," and "Help me." When paramedics arrived, Ray pointed to his stomach, and they saw his liver protruding through the skin. Ray was taken to the hospital and died that night. The shotgun wound to his midsection was the one that caused his death; the shotgun blast to his face caused massive damage to his lower jaw and face.

A police criminologist testified that the weapon used was a 12-gauge pump shotgun with a pistol grip, which was fired at Ray's midsection and then at his face from about six feet away. A crime scene reconstructionist opined that Ray's head was close to, and in line with, the sofa cushions when he was shot in the face, which would indicate that Ray was not upright when he was shot a second time.

Police discovered fingernail marks on McNeil's neck the night of the shooting and Ray's body was exhumed so that his fingernails could be examined. His fingernails were very short, and it was determined that his hands could not have caused the marks on McNeil's neck and further, that the marks were inconsistent with manual strangulation and could have been self-inflicted.

B. MCNEIL'S DEFENSE

At trial, the State argued that McNeil committed murder when she killed Ray. McNeil's defense was that she killed Ray because she feared for her life. She presented this defense through the testimony of an expert on BWS and through her own testimony regarding her history of abuse at the hands of Ray.

The defense expert testified that McNeil "would definitely qualify to be a battered woman"; indeed, the State's expert agreed that McNeil was a battered woman, but that because she was assertive and aggressive, she was "not the typical person with battered women's syndrome." However, McNeil's expert testified that in her experience battered women often develop assaultive behaviors as defense mechanisms.

The defense expert defined BWS for the jury and explained how BWS can make women hyper-sensitive to perceived threats of danger. The defense expert, who had conducted several clinical interviews with McNeil, testified that McNeil described regular beatings during her childhood and through her first marriage, including physical battery as well as death threats. McNeil provided detailed testimony of the physical harm that she suffered at...