Meeks v. McKune

• Decision Date: 09 April 2009
• Docket Number: No. 08-3074-EFM.,08-3074-EFM.
• Citation: 607 F.Supp.2d 1235
• Parties: Reginald MEEKS, v. David McKUNE, et al., Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Kansas

Page 1235

607 F.Supp.2d 1235

Reginald MEEKS, v. David McKUNE, et al., Respondent.

No. 08-3074-EFM.

United States District Court, D. Kansas.

April 9, 2009.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Reginald Meeks, Lansing, KS, pro se.

Jared S. Maag, Office of United States Attorney, Topeka, KS, for Respondent.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ERIC F. MELGREN, District Judge.

Before the court is Petitioner Reginald Meeks (Petitioner) writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. (Doc. 1). For the following reasons, the Court DENIES the motion.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

A summary of the facts is taken from the opinion on direct appeal in State v. Meeks.¹

At 9 p.m. on August 21, 2001, the decedent, James Green, his brother Imon (a/k/a Shawn) Wright, Mia Taylor, and Dennis Jennings (a/k/a Rusty) were with Christopher Graves at his home at 647 Troup in Kansas City, Kansas. The defendant, Reginald Meeks, who was a friend of Christopher Graves' brother Jesse, came to the Graves house and demanded an apology from Green regarding a prior incident where Green had shut Meeks' hand in a door. Green refused to apologize.

Meeks challenged Green to fight outside, and Green reluctantly agreed. Meeks went outside first, followed by Green and the others. Green and Meeks fought and wrestled for about 5 minutes. Green then stopped, telling Meeks that he was tired and that they did not need to fight.

Green's brother, Wright, testified that Meeks continued trying to get to Green, so Wright stepped in to calm Meeks down. As Green was walking away toward his home at 648 Troup, Meeks pulled out a handgun. As everyone scattered, Wright warned Green that Meeks had a gun. Meeks began chasing Green around Wright's car, which was parked on the street.

When Green slipped and fell, Wright threw a brick toward Meeks. Meeks turned and aimed his handgun at Wright, so Wright ran to 647 Troup. As Wright reached the door, he heard two gunshots. After he went inside the house and shut the door, he looked back into the street. He saw his brother, Green, lying on the ground and Meeks standing in front of Green. Meeks then ran away with the gun in his hand. The other people present testified to similar events. Taylor testified that as Green got up and started to walk away from the fight, Meeks followed him and pulled out a gun. When someone yelled that Meeks had a gun, Green turned around and then began running around Wright's car. Meeks fired several shots, Green fell down, and Meeks ran away.

Jennings testified that after Meeks and Green were wrestling, Meeks pulled out a gun and fired. When Jennings heard the first shot, he ran to his house with Graves.

Wright, Taylor, and Graves were later shown photographic lineups; each one separately identified Meeks as the shooter.

Around 9 p.m., Reverend Lacy Rydell, a neighbor, heard two gunshots and heard Green cry for help. Rydell went to the door and saw Green stooped down in the street behind a car. Rydell then called 911. He saw Green fall to the ground and the other man shoot at Green and then run. Rydell heard five to six gunshots in all.

Two other people in the neighborhood also heard the shots that evening and saw Green running around a car. Barbara Ann Brooks, Green's girlfriend, was at 648 Troup. She testified that when she heard gunshots, she ran to the door and saw a guy chasing Green around the car and shooting him. Cassie Glover, who lived at 650 Troup, heard five or six gunshots and went to her door. She saw Green running around a car, but saw no one else. After running upstairs to lay her step-daughter down, she returned and saw Green lying on the street.

Officer Terrance Hall was the first police officer to arrive at the scene, appearing approximately 10 minutes after the shooting. He asked Green who shot him, and Green answered, "Meeks shot me." By 9:22 p.m. Green was unconscious; at 10:47 p.m. he was pronounced dead. The coroner found one gunshot wound in the chest from a .25 caliber bullet which missed Green's right lung but pierced his left lung and one of the major veins that drains blood from the arm. He also found several small abrasions. He opined that based upon Green's wound, Green could have remained conscious for 10 to 15 minutes after being shot.

Detective Terry Zeigler spoke with Meeks on August 27, 2001, 6 days after Green's death. Meeks waived his Miranda rights and told Zeigler that he was with his mother at her house at 9 o'clock the night of Green's death. However, his mother, Esther Hawkins, later testified that she worked from 3 p.m. until 11 p.m. that night, that she got home from work around 11:15 p.m., and that she saw Meeks coming down the street. He stayed for only a few minutes.

Despite what Meeks had initially told Detective Zeigler about being with his mother at her house at 9 o'clock the night of Green's death, his theory of defense at the trial was that he was at the Club Uptown that night, not wrestling and shooting Green on Troup. As support, his sister, Ra'meka Meeks, testified that when she was still 19 years old, she went to the Club Uptown with Reginald Meeks, Jason Meeks, and a friend named Mike one weeknight sometime around August 2001. The defendant then testified that the night they had gone to that club was Tuesday, August 21.

However, Norma Harris, the manager and owner of Club Uptown, testified as a State rebuttal witness that her club was only open Thursdays through Saturdays before August 28, 2001. She also testified that the club's video system, which through its video tape might confirm or deny Meeks' defense that he was present, was not in place until the end of January 2002. She also provided summaries of liquor purchases during various months in an attempt to corroborate her testimony that the club was not open on the night of the murder.

The jury convicted Meeks of first-degree premeditated murder, and the court sentenced him to life, without eligibility for parole for 25 years.

Meeks appealed raising five issues. Meeks stated that (1) the trial court committed error in allowing the admission of the victim's statement; (2) the trial court abused its discretion in denying his request for a continuance; (3) the trial court abused its discretion in permitting the jury to hear the entire 911 call; (4) the cumulative effect of trial errors denied him a fair trial; and (5) there was insufficient evidence to establish that the murder was premeditated. The Kansas Supreme Court upheld Meeks' conviction.

Meeks then filed for state post-conviction relief pursuant to K.S.A. § 60-1507. He alleged ineffective assistance of counsel. The district judge held an evidentiary hearing and denied Meeks' motion. The Kansas Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's findings, and the Kansas Supreme Court denied review.²

II. Standard of Review

The Court's review of Petitioner's habeas motion is governed by 28 U.S.C. § 2254, as amended by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA").³ Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1) and (2), the Court may not grant relief unless the state court's decision "was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States," or, "was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented at trial."

The United States Supreme Court has stated that a state court decision is "contrary to" clearly established federal law "if the state court applies a rule that contradicts the governing law set forth in [Supreme Court] cases" or if the state court "confronts a set of facts that are materially indistinguishable from a decision of [the Supreme Court] and nevertheless arrives at a result different from our precedent."⁴ A state court decision may be an "unreasonable application" of federal law "if the state court identifies the correct governing legal principle from [the Supreme Court] but unreasonably applies that principle to the facts of the prisoner's case."⁵ The Court presumes that the state court factual findings are correct absent clear and convincing evidence to the contrary.⁶

III. Analysis

In his petition for relief, Petitioner alleges (1) that his confrontation rights were violated by admitting the hearsay statement of the victim; (2) his due process rights were violated when the trial court denied his counsel's request for a continuance when a witness changed her statement during trial; (3) his due process rights were violated by the admission into evidence a witness's 911 call; (4) his due process rights were violated because there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction; and (5) ineffective assistance of counsel in violation of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Court will address each claim.

1. Hearsay Statement in Violation of the Confrontation Clause

Petitioner claims that his constitutional rights were violated because the trial court admitted the hearsay statement of the victim. After receiving a 911 call around 9 p.m. on August 21, 2001, approximately ten minutes after the victim was shot, police arrived on the scene. In response to police officer's question of who shot him, the victim stated "Meeks shot me." The victim became unconscious at 9:22 p.m. and was pronounced dead at 10:47 p.m. The trial court allowed the statement to be admitted into evidence. The law regarding the admissibility of the victim's statement has changed significantly from the time of trial through the present.

At trial

At trial, the state sought to introduce the victim's statement as either a dying declaration, an excited utterance, or a contemporaneous hearsay exception. The trial judge allowed the admission of the victim's statement as a statutory hearsay exception, i.e., a contemporaneous statement. The trial judge went through the provisions of K.S.A. § 60-460(d)(3) and found: (1) the declarant was unavailable because he was deceased; (2) the...