Sessoms v. Grounds
| Decision Date | 22 September 2014 |
| Docket Number | No. 08–17790.,08–17790. |
| Parties | Tio Dinero SESSOMS, Petitioner–Appellant, v. Randy GROUNDS, Warden, Respondent–Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Reversed and remanded.
Jeffrey Firestone (argued), Deputy Attorney General; Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General of California; Michael P. Farrell, Senior Assistant Attorney General; and Charles A. French, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, Sacramento, CA, for Respondent–Appellee.
Peter C. Pfaffenroth, HL Rogers and Brian A. Fox, Sidley Austin LLP, Washington, D.C.; Mark E. Haddad and Douglas A. Axel, Sidley Austin LLP, Los Angeles, CA; and David M. Porter, Office of the Federal Defender, Sacramento, CA, for Amicus Curiae National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
On Remand from the United States Supreme Court. D.C. No. 2:05–cv–01221–JAM–GGH.
Before: ALEX KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, and MARY M. SCHROEDER, BARRY G. SILVERMAN, M. MARGARET McKEOWN,* KIM McLANE WARDLAW, RAYMOND C. FISHER, RICHARD A. PAEZ, CONSUELO M. CALLAHAN, MILAN D. SMITH, JR., SANDRA S. IKUTA and MARY H. MURGUIA, Circuit Judges.
Opinion by Judge McKEOWN; Dissent by Chief Judge KOZINSKI; Dissent by Judge CALLAHAN; Dissent by Judge MURGUIA.
OPINIONOpinion by McKEOWN, Circuit Judge, joined by SCHROEDER, WARDLAW, FISHER, PAEZ and M. SMITH, Circuit Judges:
An American poet wrote more than 100 years ago: “When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.” 1 When a suspect says “give me a lawyer,” that request walks, swims, and quacks like a duck. It is an unambiguous request for a lawyer, no matter how you slice it. The statement is unequivocal—it is not a maybe or a perhaps—it is an invocation of the Fifth Amendment right to counsel.
In late 1999, a naive and relatively uneducated nineteen-year-old Tio Sessoms sat alone in an eight-by-ten foot interrogation room. Four days earlier, on the advice of his father, Sessoms had turned himself in to the police. Before doing so, Sessoms's father told his son: you must ask for a lawyer before talking to the police.
Sessoms followed his father's advice. When the two police detectives entered the interrogation room, Sessoms sat slouched in his chair. He looked up, and they exchanged brief pleasantries. Sessoms was unfailingly polite, even saying he was glad the detectives “had a safe flight.” Forty seconds after the detectives entered the room, the following exchange occurred:
Sessoms: There wouldn't be any possible way that I could have a—a lawyer present while we do this?
Det. Woods: Well, uh, what I'll do is, um—
Sessoms: Yeah, that's what my dad asked me to ask you guys ... uh, give me a lawyer.2
Instead of immediately ceasing the interrogation, the detectives carried on, convinced Sessoms that his accomplices had already told them what had happened, and impressed upon Sessoms that the only way to tell his side of the story was to speak to the officers then and there, without an attorney. Only after talking with him, softening him up, and warning him about the various “risks” of speaking with counsel did the detectives read Sessoms his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Unsurprisingly, Sessoms agreed to talk and made incriminating statements.
Sessoms was convicted of murder, robbery, and burglary, and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. We consider his habeas appeal under the “demanding but not insatiable” standard of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”). See Miller–El v. Dretke, 545 U.S. 231, 240, 125 S.Ct. 2317, 162 L.Ed.2d 196 (2005). The California Court of Appeal concluded that Sessoms's request was not an unequivocal or unambiguous request for an attorney as required under Davis v. United States, 512 U.S. 452, 114 S.Ct. 2350, 129 L.Ed.2d 362 (1994). Because this conclusion was an unreasonable application of Supreme Court precedent as it existed at the time of the Court of Appeal's determination, we reverse the district court's denial of the petition for a writ of habeas corpus and remand with instructions to grant a conditional writ of habeas corpus with directions that the State retry Sessoms within a reasonable period or release him. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1).
Det. Woods: ... Tio, I'm Dick.
Sessoms: How you doing, all right. You already know me.
Det. Woods: You say—
Det. Keller: Tio, Pat Keller.
Det. Woods: You say Tio or Theo?
Sessoms: It—my name is pronounced Tio because it's [S]panish.
Det. Woods: Tio. Okay.
Det. Keller: Why don't we swap corners here for a minute, you guys? Go ahead and sit here.
Sessoms: So glad you fellows had a safe flight.
Sessoms: I'm glad you fellows had a safe flight out here.
Det. Keller: So are we. Huh.
Det. Woods: Well, we want a safe one back too.
Sessoms: Oh, you know ( [i]naudible).
Det. Woods: Yeah. Uh, we both, uh—both from, uh, Sacramento PD and, uh—
Sessoms: There wouldn't be any possible way that I could have a—a lawyer present while we do this?
Det. Woods: Well, uh, what I'll do is, um—
Sessoms: Yeah, that's what my dad asked me to ask you guys ... uh, give me a lawyer.
Woods proceeded as though Sessoms had said nothing. Instead of ending the interrogation, Woods persuaded Sessoms that having a lawyer was a bad idea. Sessoms explained that he was concerned that some police officers “end up switching your words afterwards,” to which Woods responded that he had no intention of playing any “switch games.” Woods even produced a tape recorder to allay Sessoms's fears. As it turns out, the session was videotaped from the outset.
Woods then explained the situation: Sessoms and two accomplices were all being “charged with the same thing.” Woods said he already knew “what happened” because the accomplices had waived their rights “and laid it out from A to Z.” Woods reassured Sessoms that he believed that Sessoms “did not participate in the stabbing,” but warned that if Sessoms didn't make a statement right then and there, Woods wasn't going to be able to “get his version of it” because “most all attorneys—in fact, all attorneys will—will sometimes or usually advise you not to make a statement.” Woods said he didn't really “need [Sessoms's] statement to make [the] case” anyway because he “already [had] two and a half other complete statements,” reiterating that he already “[knew] what happened” and had the hard evidence to back it up.
Only then—after telling Sessoms that having a lawyer would only hurt him and that invoking his right to counsel would be futile because the police already knew what had happened—did Woods read Sessoms his rights under Miranda. Sessoms hesitated, shrugged his shoulders, and said, “[l]et's talk,” proceeding to implicate himself in the crime.
II. Proceedings in the California Courts
Before trial, Sessoms moved to suppress the incriminating statements arguing that they were obtained in violation of Miranda because he had “clearly and unequivocally” invoked his right to counsel. The trial court denied the motion. Sessoms went to trial and was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery, and burglary, with the special circumstance that he was engaged in the commission or attempted commission of the crimes of robbery and burglary when the murder occurred. At the conclusion of the trial, Sessoms moved for a new trial “based upon prejudicial Miranda error,” renewing the objections he had made in his pretrial motion. The trial court denied the motion. Sessoms was sentenced principally to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Sessoms appealed to the California Court of Appeal, which determined that Sessoms's statements did not qualify as an invocation of the right to counsel under Davis, 512 U.S. 452, 114 S.Ct. 2350.4 It found that “although [ Sessoms] twice explicitly referred to an attorney, neither statement was an unequivocal or unambiguous request for counsel.” People v. Sessoms, No. C041139, 2004 WL 49720, at *3 (Cal.Ct.App. Jan. 12, 2004). According to the Court of Appeal, Sessoms's first statement was “legally indistinguishable” from the statements made in Davis, 512 U.S. at 455, 114 S.Ct. 2350 () and People v. Crittenden, 9 Cal.4th 83, 123–24, 36 Cal.Rptr.2d 474, 885 P.2d 887 (1994) (), which were not unequivocal requests for an attorney. Id. Sessoms's second statement, the court continued, was also not an unequivocal request for an attorney, but “[a]t best ... a statement of his father's advice to him.” Id. Ultimately, the Court of Appeal concluded that Sessoms's statements were not “sufficiently clear[ ] that a reasonable police officer in the circumstances would understand the statement to be a request for an attorney.” Id. (quoting Davis, 512 U.S. at 459, 114 S.Ct. 2350) (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted).
III. Proceedings in the Federal Courts
After exhausting his state court remedies, Sessoms filed a federal habeas petition, arguing primarily that he had invoked his right to counsel. A magistrate judge recommended denying the petition. The district court adopted the magistrate judge's findings and recommendations and denied the petition, but granted a certificate of appealability on the Miranda and ineffective assistance of counsel claims.5
A divided three judge panel of this court upheld the district court's denial of Sessoms's habeas petition. Sessoms v. Runnels, 650 F.3d 1276, 1283 (9th Cir.2011). The majority held that “[b]ecause Sessoms's statements were made prior to his Miranda waiver, Davis...
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