Payne v. McKune
| Decision Date | 08 September 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. 02-3434-JWL.,02-3434-JWL. |
| Citation | 280 F.Supp.2d 1259 |
| Parties | Ricky PAYNE Plaintiff, v. David R. McKUNE, et al. Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Kansas |
Ricky Payne, Lansing, KS, Pro Se.
John K. Bork, Office of Attorney General, Topeka, KS, Autumn L. Fox, The Law Office of Autumn L. Fox, P.A., Abilene, KS, Elizabeth L. Reimer, Kansas Judicial Council, Topeka, KS, for Defendants.
Ricky Payne brings this motion for federal habeas corpus relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. (Doc. 1). Petitioner raises five separate grounds for relief in support of his motion: (1) that he received constitutionally ineffective assistance from his trial attorney because he failed to secure the testimony of alibi witnesses at trial; (2) that the state trial court violated his constitutional rights by failing to suppress statements made to law enforcement officials; (3) that the state court's instruction on aggravated robbery was constitutionally deficient; (4) that the state court violated his right to a fair trial by admitting DNA evidence without proper foundational requirements; and (5) that the state court upheld his convictions based on insufficient evidence. As set forth below, the court finds that the state courts' adjudications were neither contrary to nor an unreasonable application of controlling Supreme Court authority and denies petitioner's request for a writ of habeas corpus.
On January 30, 1997, M.W. fell asleep on her couch around 11:30 p.m.1 At approximately 2:00 a.m. the following morning, she awoke to find that her head was covered with a blanket and an intruder was beating her. As she stood up and struggled with the intruder, the blanket fell off of her head. M.W. testified that she immediately recognized the intruder as Mr. Payne, who was an acquaintance of her brother's. The intruder held M.W. down and proceeded to rape and sodomize her. Thereafter, he moved her into a bathroom, shut the door, and threatened to kill her if she came out of the room. The intruder exited, and M.W. called the police to report the incident. M.W. went to the hospital where medical personnel observed that she had bruises, swollen eyes, and fresh abrasions and tears in her anus.
Besides M.W.'s eyewitness identification of Mr. Payne, other circumstantial evidence linked him to the crime. For example, investigators discovered shoe prints outside of M.W.'s apartment that matched a pair of shoes owned by Mr. Payne. Investigators also tested a semen stain found on M.W.'s underwear, which matched Mr. Payne's DNA.2 Also, Mr. Payne gave a statement to the police. According to the interviewing officers, he initially denied being at M.W.'s residence. However, after showing him pictures of the victim and the injuries that she sustained, he stated that the bruises were the result of "rough sex," to which she consented. Mr. Payne denied these statements at trial and further testified that he was not at M.W.'s apartment at the time of the incident. Even so, a jury convicted petitioner of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated burglary, and kidnapping. The trial court sentenced him to a controlling term of 486 months of imprisonment.
On direct appeal to the Kansas Court of Appeals, Mr. Payne raised five issues: (1) whether the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his statements to police; (2) whether the trial court erred in its jury instruction on the aggravated robbery charge; (3) whether the trial court erred by admitting the DNA results into evidence; (4) whether the trial court erred by denying his motion for a new trial; and (5) whether there was insufficient evidence to support his convictions. On August 20, 1999, the Kansas Court of Appeals affirmed his convictions. The Kansas Supreme Court denied his petition for review.
On December 29, 1999, petitioner filed a state petition for habeas relief pursuant to K.S.A. § 60-1507. Therein, Mr. Payne alleged that his trial counsel's performance was constitutionally deficient because he failed to properly subpoena alibi witnesses. The district court appointed counsel and heard testimony on two separate occasions. At the conclusion of the first hearing, the trial court found that trial counsel's performance did not deviate from an objectively reasonable standard of care and denied Mr. Payne's motion. Several months later, Mr. Payne filed a notice of appeal out of time. The Court of Appeals appointed new counsel, who requested leave to file the notice of appeal out of time or for an additional hearing on the state habeas motion. Mr. Payne was granted a second hearing on his state habeas motion. At the end of the second hearing, the court again found that trial counsel's performance was not unreasonable and, additionally, found that any deficient performance did not result in prejudice to petitioner's defense. On June 28, 2002, the Kansas Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's denial of Mr. Payne's state habeas petition. The Kansas Supreme Court denied his petition for review on September 24, 2002.
Mr. Payne filed his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 on December 19, 2002.
Because Mr. Payne "filed his habeas petition after April 24, 1996, the provisions of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act ("AEDPA") govern this [proceeding]." Martinez v. Zavaras, 330 F.3d 1259, 1262 (10th Cir.2003) (citing Lindh v Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 326-27, 117 S.Ct. 2059, 138 L.Ed.2d 481 (1997)). The AEDPA "`circumscribes a federal habeas court's review of a state-court decision.'" Anderson v. Mullin, 327 F.3d 1148, 1152 (10th Cir.2003) (quoting Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63, 123 S.Ct. 1166, 1172, 155 L.Ed.2d 144 (2003)).
Specifically, where the Kansas Court of Appeals reviews the merits of Mr. Payne's claims, "habeas relief is not warranted unless the state adjudication `(1) ... was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or (2) ... was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.'" Martinez, 330 F.3d at 1262 (quoting § 2254(d)) (emphasis added).3 "Under the `contrary to' clause, a federal habeas court may grant the writ if the state court arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by [the Supreme Court] on a question of law or if the state court decides a case differently than [the Supreme Court] on a set of materially indistinguishable facts." Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 412-13, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). "Under the `unreasonable application' clause, the Court in Williams stressed that the relevant inquiry is not whether the state court's application of federal law was incorrect, but whether it was `objectively unreasonable.'" Anderson, 327 F.3d at 1153 (citing Williams, 529 U.S. at 409, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389).
The court presumes "that factual determinations made by the state court are correct, and the petitioner bears the burden of rebutting this presumption with clear and convincing evidence." Martinez, 330 F.3d at 1262 (citing § 2254(e)(1); Fields v. Gibson, 277 F.3d 1203, 1221 (10th Cir.2002)). "This presumption does not extend to legal determinations or to mixed questions of law and fact." Id. (citing Herrera v. Lemaster, 225 F.3d 1176, 1178-79 (10th Cir.2000)). "That is, the `deferential standard of review does not apply if the state court employed the wrong legal standard in deciding the merits of the federal issue.'" Id. (quoting Cargle v. Mullin, 317 F.3d 1196, 1202 (10th Cir. 2003)). "Ultimately, our review of the state court's proceedings is quite limited, as section 2254(d) sets forth a highly deferential standard for evaluating state-court rulings." Anderson, 327 F.3d at 1152.
Mr. Payne raises five arguments in support of his petition for relief: (1) that trial counsel's failure to have the Sheriff's department subpoena his alibi witnesses constitutes ineffective assistance in violation of his rights under the Sixth Amendment; (2) that the state court violated his due process rights by admitting involuntary statements made to law enforcement officials; (3) that the state court's instruction on aggravated robbery was constitutionally deficient; (4) that the state court violated his right to a fair trial by admitting DNA evidence; and (5) that the state court upheld his convictions based on insufficient evidence. The court will address each issue in turn.
Mr. Payne believes that his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to secure the testimony of alibi witnesses. Trial counsel testified that he gave the subpoenas to his petitioner's friend, Carol Casey, to serve on the witnesses, instead of having the sheriff's department serve them. The Kansas Court of Appeals found that trial counsel's performance did not deviate from the level of care guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, and that even if counsel's performance was deficient, there was not a reasonable probability that the outcome of the proceeding would have changed, but for trial counsel's performance.
In reaching this decision the state appellate court relied on the Sixth Amendment framework set forth in State v. Rice, 261 Kan. 567, 599, 932 P.2d 981 (1997). The Rice court, in turn, borrowed its legal framework from Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Id. at 597-99, 932 P.2d 981. Thus, while the Kansas Court of Appeals did not directly cite to Strickland, it applied the same legal framework established under controlling Supreme Court precedent. As such, the state court adjudicated petitioner's claim on the merits, within the meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 2254, and petitioner is entitled to relief only if the appellate court's application of the legal framework was objectively unreasonable. Cook v....
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