Mercado v. Henderson

• Decision Date: 19 March 1990
• Docket Number: No. 86 Civ. 5347 (MBM).,86 Civ. 5347 (MBM).
• Citation: 733 F. Supp. 19
• Parties: Jose MERCADO, Petitioner, v. Robert J. HENDERSON, Superintendent, Auburn Correctional Facility, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

733 F. Supp. 19

Jose MERCADO, Petitioner, v. Robert J. HENDERSON, Superintendent, Auburn Correctional Facility, Respondent.

No. 86 Civ. 5347 (MBM).

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

March 19, 1990.

Jose Mercado, Auburn, N.Y., pro se.

Marianne Karas, Asst. Dist. Atty., Bronx, N.Y., for respondent.

ORDER

MUKASEY, District Judge.

The above-captioned case having been referred to Magistrate Sharon E. Grubin on July 15, 1986 to issue a report and recommendation as to petitioner Jose Mercado's petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, the Magistrate having filed and sent to the parties on February 6, 1990, her Report and Recommendation and petitioner having failed to submit any objections to that report, the Court affirms and adopts the Magistrate's Report and Recommendation dated February 6, 1990. The application for a writ of habeas corpus is denied and the petition is dismissed without prejudice because it contains both exhausted and unexhausted claims.

SO ORDERED.

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION TO THE HONORABLE MICHAEL B. MUKASEY

SHARON E. GRUBIN, United States Magistrate:

Petitioner seeks a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 23 U.S.C. § 2254 challenging his convictions after a jury trial in the New York State Supreme Court, Bronx County, of murder in the second degree (felony murder) (N.Y. Penal Law § 125.25(3)) and attempted robbery in the first degree (N.Y. Penal Law §§ 110.00 and 160.15(2)). He was sentenced to indeterminate concurrent terms of imprisonment of fifteen-years to life on the felony murder count and five to fifteen-years on the attempted robbery count. The Appellate Division, First Department, affirmed the convictions without opinion, People v. Mercado, 110 A.D.2d 1092, 488 N.Y.S.2d 941 (1st Dep't 1985), and the New York Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal, 65 N.Y.2d 818, 493 N.Y. S.2d 1038, 482 N.E.2d 934 (1985). The petition asserts four grounds by which petitioner's convictions were allegedly unconstitutional: (1) the evidence was legally insufficient to support either conviction; (2) the trial court erred in denying petitioner's motion for a severance; (3) the misconduct of the prosecutor during summation denied petitioner a fair trial; and (4) the trial court's instructions to the jury were inadequate in two respects.¹

In response to the petition, respondent submitted an opposing affidavit, a memorandum of law and the briefs that had been submitted to the Appellate Division on petitioner's appeal which consist of briefs of counsel and a supplemental brief submitted by petitioner pro se. Relying on these documents, respondent's counsel asserts that this is a mixed petition, i.e., one which presents both exhausted and unexhausted claims, subject to dismissal pursuant to Rose v. Lundy, 455 U.S. 509, 102 S.Ct. 1198, 71 L.Ed.2d 379 (1982), because petitioner did not fairly present the federal constitutional nature of his fourth claim to the state courts. I agree and recommend dismissal without prejudice to refiling after state court remedies have been exhausted.

As the fourth ground of the petition petitioner makes two claims with respect to asserted deficiencies in the charge to the jury. The first is that the state trial court failed to instruct the jury adequately to consider the guilt or innocence of each codefendant separately. The second is that the state trial court failed to instruct the jury that the evidence against petitioner was entirely circumstantial. In opposition to the instant petition, respondent contends correctly herein that these claims have not been exhausted because petitioner presented them only in terms of state law in his Appellate Division briefs and thus failed to alert the Appellate Division that it was being asked to determine a federal constitutional issue.

The federal habeas corpus statute, 28 U.S.C. § 2254, requires a person in state custody to exhaust his state remedies before seeking federal habeas corpus review. This rule is based on considerations of comity between the federal and state courts, ensuring that the state courts have an opportunity to consider and correct any violations of their prisoners' federal constitutional rights. Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 275, 92 S.Ct. 509, 512, 30 L.Ed.2d 438 (1971); Daye v. Attorney General of the State of New York, 696 F.2d 186, 191 (2d Cir.1982) (en banc), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1048, 104 S.Ct. 723, 79 L.Ed.2d 184 (1984). Thus, exhaustion requires a petitioner to have presented to the state courts the same federal constitutional claims, legally and factually, he raises in his petition to the federal court so that the state courts will have had the initial opportunity to pass on them. Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. at 275-76, 92 S.Ct. at 512-13; Daye v. Attorney General, etc., 696 F.2d at 191. See also Anderson v. Harless, 459 U.S. 4, 6, 103 S.Ct. 276, 277, 74 L.Ed.2d 3 (1982) (per curiam); McGann v. State of New York, 870 F.2d 908, 910 (2d Cir.1989); Morgan v. Jackson, 869 F.2d 682, 684 (2d Cir.1989). In Petrucelli v. Coombe, 735 F.2d 684, 687-88 (2d Cir.1984), the Second Circuit explained:

Because non-constitutional claims are not cognizable in federal habeas corpus proceedings, Smith v. Phillips, 455 U.S. 209, 221, 102 S.Ct. 940, 948, 71 L.Ed.2d 78 (1982), a habeas petitioner must put state courts on notice that they are to decide federal constitutional claims. See, e.g., Daye, 696 F.2d at 192. It is not necessary for a habeas petitioner to cite "book and verse" of the Constitution, id. (quoting Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 278, 92 S.Ct. 509, 513, 30 L.Ed.2d 438 (1971)), but adequate notice to the state courts that they are to decide federal constitutional claims at least includes:

(a) reliance on pertinent federal cases employing constitutional analysis, (b) reliance on state cases employing constitutional analysis in like fact situations, (c) assertion of the claim in terms so particular as to call to mind a specific right protected by the Constitution, and (d) allegation of a pattern of facts that is well within the mainstream of constitutional litigation.

See also Waterhouse v. Rodriguez, 848 F.2d 375, 381 (2d Cir.1988); Grady v. LeFevre, 846 F.2d 862, 864 (2d Cir.1988); Holland v. Scully, 797 F.2d 57, 64-65 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 870, 107 S.Ct. 237, 93 L.Ed.2d 162 (1986). The briefs submitted to the Appellate Division for petitioner on this point do not contain material falling into any of the Daye categories. Because petitioner had not objected at trial to the jury instructions, the brief submitted by counsel asked the Appellate Division to exercise discretion to order a new trial in the interest of justice as permitted by N.Y. Crim.Proc.Law § 470.15(6)(a).² Thus, the claims presented did not raise federal constitutional law. See Gordon v. Kelly, Civ. No. 89-1907 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 7, 1989) (1989 WL 92043); Castillo v. Abrams, No. 88 Civ. 1165 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 24, 1988) (1988 WL 96026) (1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9448); Kennedy v. Fogg, 468 F.Supp. 671, 673 (S.D.N.Y.1979). Cf. Gayle v. LeFevre, 613 F.2d 21, 22 n. 3 (2d Cir.1980) (determinations pursuant to N.Y.Crim.Proc.Law § 470.15(3), which permits an intermediate New York state appellate court to reverse or modify a judgment as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, constitute exercises of the appellate court's supervisory powers and are not dictated by constitutional considerations). Interestingly, in arguing his claim herein petitioner urges constitutional analysis and uses language that is notably absent from his Appellate Division papers. It seems reasonable to infer that the difference in argument is the result of petitioner's awareness that to present a claim herein, it must be one of constitutional dimension, and the comparison between his papers here and his papers at the Appellate Division serves to underscore the fact that his argument to the state court was not presented in such terms. Thus, petitioner argues herein that the trial court's instructions relieved the prosecution of its burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt; that they "so infected petitioner's trial that the resulting conviction violates due process of law;" that they violated "the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution ...;" and he cites such cases as United States v. Frady, 456 U.S. 152, 102 S.Ct. 1584, 71 L.Ed.2d 816 (1982) and Cupp v. Naughten, 414 U.S. 141, 94 S.Ct. 396, 38 L.Ed.2d 368 (1973). See Petitioner's "Supplemental Memorandum in Support of Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus Pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. 2254" at 29-32. In stark contrast, his Appellate Division arguments did not cite the United States Constitution and contained citations only to state law authority.

In response to respondent's having raised petitioner's failure to exhaust this claim, petitioner in a reply submission has argued that the state courts were alerted to a constitutional claim because: (1) he argued that these errors in the jury instructions deprived him of a "fair trial;" (2) the state, after arguing that the errors had not been preserved under New York law and were, in any event, meritless, cited to People v. Crimmins, 36 N.Y.2d 230, 367 N.Y.S.2d 213, 326 N.E.2d 787 (1975); and (3) his brief to the Appellate Division included a partial quotation from People v. Benzinger, 36 N.Y.2d 29, 364 N.Y.S.2d 855, 324 N.E.2d 334 (1974). Disposing of these arguments in reverse order, they are all meritless for the following reasons. As noted above, petitioner's notice to the state court that it is to decide a federal constitutional claim must be on the same facts and the same claim raised in the petition and not some other claim. While Benzinger contained certain constitutional analysis, it was with respect to a different issue than that for which petitioner cited the case, and his quotation from it had no concern with federal constitutional law. There was no discussion in Benzinger of errors with respect to jury...