Munson v. Kapture

• Decision Date: 20 September 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-1563.,03-1563.
• Parties: Maurice MUNSON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Robert J. KAPTURE, Warden, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

384 F.3d 310

Maurice MUNSON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Robert J. KAPTURE, Warden, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 03-1563.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued August 12, 2004.

Decided and Filed September 20, 2004.

Rehearing En Banc Denied November 18, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Avern Cohn, J James Sterling Lawrence (argued and briefed), Detroit, MI, for petitioner-Appellant.

Laura Graves Moody (Briefed), Brenda E. Turner, Office of the Attorney General habeas Corpus Division, Lansing, MI, Debra M. Gagliardi (argued), Asst. Attorney, Lansing, MI, for Respondent-Appellee.

Before: KEITH, MARTIN, and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge.

Maurice Munson, a Michigan prisoner, appeals the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. For the reasons that follow, we AFFIRM.

I.

A jury convicted Munson of two counts of armed robbery in violation of M.C.L. § 750.529 and two counts of assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct (penetration) in violation of M.C.L. § 750.502(G)(1). The events giving rise to Munson's prosecution transpired at Juanita's House of Beauty in Detroit, Michigan, on late Friday, June 18, or early June 19, 1993, as Sherrease Carter, age thirty, an employee of the beauty shop, and her sixteen-year-old niece, Shamika Kincaid, were leaving the shop. The evidence adduced at trial indicates that as Carter and Kincaid were leaving the shop, Munson appeared and forced them back inside at knifepoint. He ordered them to undress, which they did, and he proceeded to take various items from the shop (including money, hair clippers and jewelry), as well as items from Carter and Kincaid (including clothing and sandals that they had just purchased and jewelry).

Munson then took Carter into a back room and threatened Kincaid that she would be next. In the back room, Munson sat down on a chair and forced Carter onto his lap. Munson put the knife down momentarily as he attempted to insert his penis into Carter's vagina, at which point Carter grabbed the knife and stabbed him multiple times. Carter and Kincaid, still naked, immediately ran out of the shop. They observed Munson leave the shop with packages containing their newly-purchased sandals and clothing, among other things. Carter and Kincaid were soon picked up by a motorist who took them to the police station. When the victims later returned to the shop, they discovered a pager that Munson had apparently dropped during the incident.

The police located Munson by tracing the pager, which was registered to one "Moe Rone Monson." After discovering that there was an individual named Maurice Munson in the Detroit area with a criminal record, police went to his residence, which was his aunt's apartment. Munson's former girlfriend, Keysha Monique Tate, was at the apartment at the time and permitted the police to enter after they repeatedly knocked on the door. Munson was arrested in the apartment, at which time the police seized, without a warrant, various incriminating items, including cash, gauze bandages, hair clippers, sandals, new clothing items and jewelry.

Tate gave a statement to police, which she confirmed and elaborated upon at trial, indicating that Munson had bandages on his chest when she arrived at the apartment Saturday morning. Tate also stated that on the morning of his arrest, Munson gave her a pair of sandals, various clothing items, cash and a ring. Carter and Kincaid also positively identified Munson as the perpetrator at separate lineups and at trial. Among the pieces of physical evidence admitted at trial were the pager and the items seized in the apartment upon Munson's arrest, which apparently were the same items stolen from the victims and the beauty shop.

Munson did not testify at trial. He asserted an insanity defense, with all expert witnesses agreeing that he was mentally ill but disagreeing as to whether he was criminally responsible for his actions. The jury found Munson mentally ill but guilty of robbery and assault. He was sentenced to prison for a term of twenty-five to sixty years.

Munson filed a direct appeal to the Michigan Court of Appeals, raising only one issue: that his sentence was disproportionately high. The Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence, and the Michigan Supreme Court denied leave to appeal.

Munson then filed in the state trial court a post-conviction motion for relief from judgment, in which he raised five new claims: (1) the warrantless arrest, search and seizure deprived him of due process; (2) he was denied a fair and impartial trial because of prosecutorial misconduct; (3) his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance; (4) the cumulative effect of the trial errors deprived him of a fair trial; and (5) his appellate counsel rendered ineffective assistance.

The state trial court denied Munson's motion in a written order that rejected each of his new claims. With respect to the prosecutorial misconduct claim, the court held that "[t]he defendant fails to show just cause why prosecutor misconduct was not raised in earlier appeals. Further, the conduct complained of did not deny defendant a fair trial." The district court found the remaining claims to be without merit for reasons other than Munson's failure to raise them earlier.

The Michigan Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal in an order that states as follows:

The Court orders that the application for leave to appeal is DENIED because defendant has failed to meet the burden of establishing entitlement to relief under MCR 6.508(D).

The Court further orders that the motion to remand is DENIED because defendant has failed to show that development of a factual record is required for appellate consideration of the issues. MCR 7.211(C)(1)(a)(ii).

The Michigan Supreme Court also denied leave to appeal for the same reason, in an order stating:

On order of the Court, the delayed application for leave to appeal from the May 24, 2000 decision of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is DENIED, because the defendant has failed to meet the burden of establishing entitlement to relief under MCR 6.508(D).

Munson next sought relief in federal court, by filing the instant petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The petition asserted essentially the same claims that were presented in his motion for post-conviction relief: (1) the warrantless arrest and search and seizure denied him due process; (2) the prosecutor engaged in misconduct; (3) he was denied the effective assistance of trial counsel; (4) cumulative error rendered the trial unfair; and (5) he was denied the effective assistance of appellate counsel. The district court held that each claim was procedurally defaulted, but proceeded to analyze whether ineffective assistance of trial or appellate counsel constituted "cause" to excuse the procedural default. Concluding that neither trial counsel nor appellate counsel rendered ineffective assistance, the district court denied the petition; it granted a certificate of appealability, however, on the issues of whether Munson's claims were each procedurally defaulted and whether he was denied the effective assistance of trial or appellate counsel. This appeal followed.

II.

We review de novo the district court's denial of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Clinkscale v. Carter, No. 02-4219, 375 F.3d 430, at 435, 2004 WL 1516670, at *3 (6th Cir. July 8, 2004). As noted, the district court held that each of Munson's habeas claims was barred by the doctrine of procedural default. "Under the procedural default doctrine, [a] federal court is generally barred from considering an issue of federal law arising from the judgment of a state court if the state judgment rests on a state-law ground that is both independent of the merits of the federal claim and an adequate basis for the [state] court's decision." Id. at 439 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). We have articulated a four-part test to be used in determining whether a habeas claim has been procedurally defaulted:

First, the court must determine that there is a state procedural rule that is applicable to the petitioner's claim and that the petitioner failed to comply with the rule.... Second, the court must decide whether the state courts actually enforced the state procedural sanction.... Third, the court must decide whether the state procedural forfeiture is an "adequate and independent" state ground on which the state can rely to foreclose review of a federal constitutional claim.... Once the court determines that a state procedural rule was not complied with and that the rule was an adequate and independent state ground, then the petitioner must demonstrate ... that there was "cause" for him to not follow the procedural rule and that he was actually prejudiced by the alleged constitutional error.

Id. at 439-40 (citing Maupin v. Smith, 785 F.2d 135, 138 (6th Cir.1986)).

For purposes of procedural default, the "state judgment" with which we are concerned is "the last explained state court judgment." Ylst v. Nunnemaker, 501 U.S. 797, 805, 111 S.Ct. 2590, 115 L.Ed.2d 706 (1991). Munson argues that the last explained state court judgment is the trial court's opinion denying his post-conviction motion for relief. In that opinion, the court relied on procedural default in rejecting only one of his claims; it denied the other claims on their merits. Contrary to Munson's assertion, however, the last explained state court judgment in this case is the Michigan Supreme Court's order denying review of Munson's claims based upon his failure to comply with Rule 6.508(D).¹ We have held that orders such as that issued by the Michigan Supreme Court constitute "explained" state court judgments for purposes of procedural default. See, e.g., Simpson v. Jones, 238 F.3d 399, 407-08 (6th Cir.2000) (holding that an order issued by...