Palmer v. Clarke
| Decision Date | 30 June 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 03-3841.,No. 03-3842.,03-3841.,03-3842. |
| Citation | 408 F.3d 423 |
| Parties | Charles Jess PALMER, Appellant, v. Harold W. CLARKE, Director, State of Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, Appellee. National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Amicus on Behalf of Appellant. Charles Jess Palmer, Appellee, v. Harold W. Clarke, Director, State of Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, Appellant. National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Amicus on Behalf of Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Steven E. Achelpohl, argued, Omaha, NE (Michael A. Nelson, Omaha, on the brief), for appellant.
J. Kirk Brown, AAG, argued, Lincoln, NE, for appellee.
Before WOLLMAN, LAY, and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.
Charles Jess Palmer and the State of Nebraska each appeal from the district court's partial grant of Palmer's petition for writ of habeas corpus. We affirm in part and reverse in part.
Palmer has been tried, convicted, and sentenced to death three times for the 1979 felony murder of Eugene Zimmerman in Grand Island, Nebraska. The Nebraska Supreme Court reversed Palmer's first conviction and death sentence because the state trial court erroneously admitted hypnotically induced testimony. State v. Palmer, 210 Neb. 206, 313 N.W.2d 648, 655 (1981) (Palmer I.) That court subsequently reversed Palmer's second conviction and death sentence because the trial court allowed Palmer's estranged wife (Cherie Palmer) to testify at trial in violation of Nebraska's marital privilege. State v. Palmer, 215 Neb. 273, 338 N.W.2d 281, 284 (1983) (Palmer II). The marital privilege, as it then existed, provided that: Neb.Rev.Stat. § 27-505(a)(2) (Reissue 1995). Because of Palmer's appeal of a divorce decree in Texas, the couple's marriage had not yet terminated, and thus Cherie Palmer remained incapable of testifying against Palmer during the pendency of the second trial.
After Palmer's second conviction was reversed, but before his third trial, the Nebraska Legislature amended the marital privilege statute by rendering the privilege inapplicable in cases involving crimes of violence.1 Neb.Rev.Stat. § 27-505(a)(3)(a) (Reissue 1995). As a result, Cherie Palmer was permitted to testify against Palmer in his third trial. Palmer was again convicted and again sentenced to death. On appeal, the Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed Palmer's conviction and sentence. State v. Palmer, 224 Neb. 282, 399 N.W.2d 706 (1986) (Palmer III).
Before the start of his third trial, Palmer filed a federal habeas corpus petition, contending that his second trial violated his right against double jeopardy and that his impending third trial would also constitute a double-jeopardy violation because the properly admitted evidence in both his first and second trials was legally insufficient to convict him. After four hearings before the district court, four appeals to our court, and multiple remands, we dismissed Palmer's petition. See Palmer v. Drum, No. 84-8041 (8th Cir. May 10, 1984) (); Palmer v. Grammer, 863 F.2d 588 (8th Cir.1988) (Palmer (Fed.) I) ( Palmer's original petition but remanding the case to allow Palmer to amend); Palmer v. Clarke, 961 F.2d 771 (8th Cir. 1992) (Palmer (Fed.) II) ( amended petition to district court with instructions to consider prosecutorial misconduct argument); Palmer v. Clarke, 12 F.3d 781 (8th Cir.1993) (per curiam) (Palmer (Fed.) III) ( Palmer's amended petition).
Palmer subsequently filed a petition for post-conviction relief in Nebraska state court. The state district court denied Palmer's petition in its entirety, and the Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed. State v. Palmer, 257 Neb. 702, 600 N.W.2d 756 (1999) (Palmer IV). Palmer next filed a twenty-two-claim federal habeas corpus petition challenging his third conviction and sentence. The district court denied the writ as to Palmer's third conviction, but granted the writ as to Palmer's resulting death sentence. The district court held that, because of errors committed during the sentencing phases of all three of Palmer's trials, the death penalty could not constitutionally be imposed upon Palmer. The district court granted a certificate of appealability as to the claims on which it denied relief, and the State appealed those claims on which the district court granted relief.
In habeas corpus cases, we review the district court's findings of fact for clear error and its legal conclusions de novo. Reagan v. Norris, 365 F.3d 616, 621 (8th Cir.2004).
Our power to review underlying state court decisions in habeas corpus cases is restricted to the "limited and deferential review" mandated by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). Ryan v. Clarke, 387 F.3d 785 790 (8th Cir.2004) (quoting Jones v. Luebbers, 359 F.3d 1005, 1011 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 670, 160 L.Ed.2d 507 (2004)). Under AEDPA, we may grant a writ of habeas corpus only if the relevant state court decision was either (1) "contrary to, or 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), or (2) "based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2). See also Ryan, 387 F.3d at 790.
The phrase "clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States" "refers to the holdings, as opposed to the dicta, of [the Court's] decisions as of the time of the relevant state-court decision." Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 412, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). A decision is contrary to clearly established Supreme Court precedent if "the state court arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by [the] Court on a question of law or ... decides a case differently than [the] Court has on a set of materially indistinguishable facts." Id. at 412-13, 120 S.Ct. 1495. A decision constitutes an unreasonable application of clearly established Supreme Court precedent "if the state court identifies the correct governing legal principle from [the] Court's decisions but unreasonably applies that principle to the facts of the prisoner's case." Id. at 413, 120 S.Ct. 1495. An incorrect decision is not necessarily unreasonable, and we may not grant a writ of habeas corpus unless the state court decision is both wrong and unreasonable. Colvin v. Taylor, 324 F.3d 583, 587 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 540 U.S. 851, 124 S.Ct. 137, 157 L.Ed.2d 93 (2003). A state court's determination of the facts is unreasonable "only if it is shown that the state court's presumptively correct factual findings do not enjoy support in the record." Jones, 359 F.3d at 1011.
AEDPA applies, however, only to habeas petitions filed after its effective date— April 24, 1996. Ryan, 387 F.3d at 789. The applicability of AEDPA thus centers on what was before a federal court on that date. Woodford v. Garceau, 538 U.S. 202, 207, 123 S.Ct. 1398, 155 L.Ed.2d 363 (2003). Accordingly:
If, on that date, the state prisoner had before a federal court an application for habeas relief seeking an adjudication on the merits of the petitioner's claims, then amended § 2254(d) does not apply. Otherwise, an application filed after AEDPA's effective date should be reviewed under AEDPA, even if other filings by that same applicant ... were presented to a federal court prior to AEDPA's effective date.
Id. (emphasis in original).
The district court held that Palmer's present habeas petition related back to his prior federal petition, and that AEDPA standards therefore did not apply, because we had "reserved judgment on the posttrial component" of Palmer's original habeas petition. We disagree for two reasons. First, Palmer's original petition in federal court contained no posttrial component. We noted in Palmer (Fed.) II that Palmer specifically stated that he was "not alleging and [was] expressly reserving any arguments [that] he [might] have arising out of his third trial" and that Palmer's original petition explicitly did not challenge his third judgment of conviction and sentence. 961 F.2d at 775 (modification in original). We also stated that a later petition attacking Palmer's third conviction would not qualify as a second or successive petition. Id. Accordingly, when Palmer's entire pretrial petition was denied in Palmer (Fed.) III, 12 F.3d at 783, there were no posttrial claims remaining on which to reserve judgment.
More importantly, Palmer's petition was not pending in federal court on April 24, 1996. In Palmer (Fed.) III, we clearly and categorically denied the habeas petition then pending before us. Id. The district court's conclusion that we held the petition "in abeyance" pending the conclusion of Palmer's third trial simply has no basis in the record. Our mandate issued, was received by the District of Nebraska, and was fully in force after the Supreme Court denied certiorari. See Palmer v. Clarke, 512 U.S. 1213, 114 S.Ct. 2694, 129 L.Ed.2d 825 (1994). Furthermore, the district court's observations about the disposition of the case file and records following Palmer (Fed.) III cannot render nugatory our clear language in that case.2 Accordingly, Palmer's present petition does not relate back to his prior petition, and AEDPA standards apply to all of Palmer's claims.
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