Meadows v. Holland

• Decision Date: 16 October 1987
• Docket Number: No. 86-6748,86-6748
• Citation: 831 F.2d 493
• Parties: David MEADOWS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Manfred G. HOLLAND, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 493

831 F.2d 493

David MEADOWS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Manfred G. HOLLAND, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 86-6748.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued June 1, 1987.

Decided Oct. 16, 1987.

Silas B. Taylor, Deputy Atty. Gen. (Charles G. Brown, Atty. Gen., Charleston, W.Va., on brief) for appellant.

James Audley McLaughlin, Charleston, W. Va. (Deborah C. McHenry, West Virginia University College of Law, Morgantown, W.Va., on brief) for appellee.

Before WINTER, Chief Judge, RUSSELL, WIDENER, HALL, PHILLIPS, MURNAGHAN, SPROUSE, CHAPMAN, WILKINSON, and WILKINS, Circuit Judges, sitting en banc.

K.K. HALL, Circuit Judge:

The Attorney General of the State of West Virginia, acting on behalf of Manfred G. Holland, Superintendent of the West Virginia State Penitentiary ("the State"), appeals an order of the district court granting a petition for a writ of habeas corpus brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254 by David Meadows, a West Virginia inmate. We granted an initial en banc hearing in this matter in order to review definitively, the State's contention that a prior decision of this Court interpreting West Virginia law and relied upon by the district court in granting habeas relief was wrongly decided. We now reverse.

I.

On April 17, 1981, petitioner Meadows was found guilty by a jury in Mercer County, West Virginia, of the first degree murder of a former girlfriend, Gloria Darlene Hairston. Hairston had disappeared from her home on the evening of November 28, 1979. Her body was eventually discovered on January 17, 1980. She had died as a result of multiple gunshot wounds.

The evidence presented against Meadows at trial was admittedly circumstantial. According to witness testimony, Meadows engaged in a physical altercation with Hairston at her place of employment on November 28, 1979. During that incident, he struck both Hairston and another employee with whom he accused her of having an affair. He also threatened them with a knife and allegedly stated that "I'm not through with you all yet."

Later that same day, Meadows borrowed a 1975 blue Chevrolet Caprice from a friend, Veronica Finney. Finney subsequently testified that Meadows returned her automobile at either 7:20 p.m. or 8:20 p.m. She further testified that Meadows remained at her home watching television until approximately 10:30 p.m.

Other witnesses testified that they had seen Hairston's automobile parked along the road early in the evening of November 28. Witnesses also testified to observing a car resembling the one borrowed by Meadows parked behind Hairston and to hearing a woman scream as well as two gunshots. Buckshot, blood of Hairston's type, her glasses, and a button from her blouse were all discovered near the site where the two cars were seen.

Meadows' defense at trial relied primarily upon an assertion of alibi. In addition to Finney's testimony that Meadows had returned to her home by 8:20 p.m., the defense also presented a witness who testified to having seen Hairston at a nearby train station between 8:40 and 8:55 p.m. The defense also relied upon the State's inability to establish with any precision the time of Hairston's death.

As the case was presented to the jury, the trial court gave the following instruction on the issue of alibi:

The Court instructs the jury that while the burden of proving an alibi is on the defendant, on account of its affirmative nature, this does not dispense with the necessity the state proving the actual presence of the defendant at the place where, and at the time when, the crime was committed, and if from the evidence the jury has a reasonable doubt as to the presence of the defendant at the place where, and at the time when, the offense was committed, they should acquit him. ¹

Following his conviction, Meadows filed an appeal with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in May, 1982. In the interval between Meadows' trial and the filing of his appeal, this Court decided the case of Adkins v. Bordenkircher, 674 F.2d 279 (4th Cir.1982). In Adkins we affirmed the grant of habeas relief to a West Virginia petitioner on the ground that an alibi instruction given at his trial unconstitutionally shifted the burden of proof on an essential element of the crime from the state to the defendant. ² Of particular significance to this appeal, we also held that habeas relief was not procedurally barred by the petitioner's failure to object to the instruction at trial because West Virginia did not apply a contemporaneous objection rule to a "constitutional or jurisdictional challenge." Adkins, 674 F.2d at 282.

On direct appeal, Meadows raised five issues with regard to his conviction. Surprisingly, however, he did not present any objections to the jury instruction on alibi based upon our decision in Adkins. Meadows' conviction was subsequently affirmed by the West Virginia court in State v. Meadows, 304 S.E.2d 831 (W.Va.1983). Although the dissenting opinion in Meadows questioned the constitutionality of the jury instruction, there is no indication that the majority considered the issue which had been neither briefed nor argued.

In December, 1984, Meadows sought post-conviction relief through a state habeas corpus petition filed with the Mercer County Circuit Court. In this petition, he asserted for the first time, a claim that the jury instruction given at his trial was unconstitutional. The Circuit Court, under the mistaken assumption that the claim had been addressed on direct appeal and, thus, was not subject to relitigation under West Virginia law, dismissed the petition.

Rather than appealing the dismissal, Meadows filed an original habeas petition with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. Following its normal practice with regard to initial habeas petitions, the court refused to grant a writ. The refusal, however, was without prejudice to Meadows' right to refile the petition in Circuit Court.

At this juncture, Meadows abandoned any further effort at pursuing state remedies. On July 5, 1985, he filed a petition for habeas relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254 with the district court raising the alleged instructional error as one of seven grounds justifying post-conviction relief. All of Meadows' claims except that based on the jury instruction were dismissed. The remaining claim was referred to the magistrate for a report and recommendation.

In a report issued on July 11, 1986, the magistrate recommended that habeas relief be granted. After considering the timely objections presented by the State, the district court adopted the magistrate's findings. The court concluded that, notwithstanding the State's effort to distinguish the instruction at Meadows' trial from that at issue in Adkins, both instructions suffered from the same constitutional infirmity. The district court rejected an effort by the state to assert a bar of procedural default based upon Meadows' failure to object at trial, reasoning that Adkins was controlling authority on that question. Finally, the court found no merit in the State's somewhat belated assertion that Meadows had failed to exhaust available state remedies. ³ Accordingly, the court ordered that the State of West Virginia either release Meadows from custody within ninety days or retry him.

A timely appeal to this Court was filed by the State. The relief ordered by the district court has been stayed pending resolution of the appeal.

II.

On appeal, appellant's principal contentions are essentially identical to the objections to the magistrate's report presented to the district court. The State argues that the alibi instruction given at Meadows' trial is distinguishable from the instruction in Adkins and thus, did not render petitioner's trial fundamentally unfair. The State also contends that Meadows has not totally exhausted available avenues of state post-conviction relief. Finally, the State contends that petitioner's failure to object at trial to the form of the alibi instruction amounts to a procedural default that precludes habeas relief. In support of the latter contention, the State argues that more recent decisions of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals demonstrate that our assessment of the West Virginia contemporaneous objection rule articulated in Adkins was flawed. We find appellant's argument on the issue of procedural default both persuasive and dispositive. ⁴

The doctrine whereby a criminal defendant's failure to observe a state contemporaneous objection rule operates as an "adequate and independent state ground" that bars habeas relief is a "well-established principle of federalism." Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 81, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 2503, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977). Moreover, the deference thereby accorded a contemporaneous objection rule in federal habeas proceedings is more than merely a matter of comity. Rather, it is an implicit recognition of the fact that a procedure which encourages a timely consideration of all issues relevant to a criminal prosecution has substantial independent value. ⁵

Obviously, if a state either does not have or does not enforce procedures which require timely objection to alleged trial errors, the subsequent consideration of a habeas petitioner's claims does not undermine the societal interest in promptly resolving all issues attendant to a criminal prosecution. Neither does federal habeas review under such circumstances imply "disrespect for the State by entertaining the claim." County Court of Ulster Cty. v. Allen, 442 U.S. 140, 154, 99 S.Ct. 2213, 2223, 60 L.Ed.2d 777 (1979).

A decision in a federal habeas proceeding that a state does not require contemporaneous objection is, however, a significant determination. The effect is to substantially diminish the concept of finality in the operation of the state criminal justice system. It is, therefore, a conclusion that should not be reached lightly or without clear support in state law. ⁶ Upon reconsideration, we now conclude that...