Shelton v. Mapes
| Decision Date | 08 April 2016 |
| Docket Number | 15–2733.,Nos. 15–1015,15–2540,s. 15–1015 |
| Citation | 821 F.3d 941 |
| Parties | Shawn P. SHELTON, Petitioner–Appellant v. Terry MAPES, Respondent–Appellee Shawn P. Shelton, Petitioner–Appellant v. Terry Mapes, Respondent–Appellee Shawn P. Shelton, Petitioner–Appellant v. Terry Mapes, Respondent–Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Rockne Ole Cole, argued, Iowa City, IA, for Appellant.
Shawn Shelton, pro se.
Benjamin Milton Parrott, AAG, argued and on the brief, Des Moines, IA, for Appellee.
Before RILEY, Chief Judge, SMITH and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.
A jury convicted Shawn Shelton of first-degree murder and attempted murder in Iowa state court in 1990. Shelton appealed his conviction and the Iowa Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case for a new trial on grounds that are not relevant to this appeal. In his second trial, the jury again found Shelton guilty of both counts. Shelton was sentenced to life in prison for the first-degree murder conviction and twenty-five years for the attempted murder conviction. The present appeal arises from the district court's1 denial of Shelton's federal petition for writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. On appeal, Shelton presents two ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims regarding jury instructions. We affirm.
Shawn Shelton and Ivan Eugene Swigart left a party in Chariton, Iowa in the early morning hours of July 3, 1989. Shelton drove his vehicle and Swigart rode with him as a passenger. While driving out of the town, Shelton and Swigart observed a pickup truck behind them and believed it was following them. Shelton pulled his vehicle to the side of the road with the intent of allowing the pickup truck to pass by. Instead, the pickup truck stopped alongside Shelton's vehicle. Terry Allen Masters, the driver of the pickup truck, and Dwight Kennedy, the passenger, asked Shelton whether he needed assistance. Shelton asked Masters and Kennedy “what the fuck is your problem” and told them to stop following his vehicle. Shelton sped away and continued to drive down the highway until he reached a gravel road. Shelton turned down the gravel road, hoping Masters and Kennedy would not see him turn and the incident would end. He observed Masters and Kennedy continue down the highway past the gravel road turn off, so he turned his vehicle around and began to drive back toward the highway. On his way back to the highway, however, Shelton discovered Masters and Kennedy driving on the gravel road toward his vehicle. The vehicles engaged in a game of “chicken,” driving toward each other until Shelton swerved toward the ditch at the last minute, before the vehicles could collide. Masters and Kennedy continued driving down the gravel road away from the highway. Shelton backed his vehicle out of the ditch onto the gravel road.
While his vehicle was stopped on the gravel road and positioned between Masters' vehicle and the highway, Shelton removed a disassembled shotgun from behind his seat in the vehicle. He assembled and loaded the shotgun, then told Swigart “we have to kill them before they kill us.” Swigart exited the vehicle with the shotgun. Masters and Kennedy had turned their pickup truck around on the gravel road and were driving back in the direction of Shelton's vehicle and the highway. As Masters and Kennedy approached Shelton's vehicle, they observed Swigart standing near the rear of the vehicle with the gun. Masters slowed his pickup truck, then began to slowly reverse the truck. Masters and Kennedy both ducked below the dash board of the truck. Masters raised his head slightly above the dash board to guide the truck backwards. Swigart fired the gun at Masters' truck, hitting the windshield just above the dash board. The shot struck Masters' face and killed him instantly.
Swigart then reentered Shelton's vehicle and said “let's get the hell out of here.” Shelton initially drove back toward the highway, but turned around to go back to Masters' truck after telling Swigart that they should retrieve the shotgun shell that contained their fingerprints. Upon reaching Masters' truck, Shelton fired three additional shots at the pickup truck. Swigart reached inside Masters' truck to turn off the headlights. Shelton and Swigart retrieved some of the shotgun shells and left the scene. After seeing another vehicle driving down the gravel road toward them, Shelton turned off his headlights and drove in the opposite direction of the highway.
Shelton was charged in Iowa state court with murder in the first degree for the death of Masters and attempted murder of Kennedy. A jury convicted Shelton of both charges. Shelton appealed his conviction and the Iowa Supreme Court reversed and remanded for a new trial on grounds that are not relevant to this appeal. At the second trial, Shelton's sole defense was that he acted in self-defense. The jury again convicted Shelton on both counts. The trial court sentenced Shelton to life in prison for the first-degree murder conviction and twenty-five years on the attempted murder conviction. Shelton again appealed his conviction. The Iowa Supreme Court dismissed the appeal without prejudice to any claim for ineffective assistance of counsel in a postconviction relief action.
An application for postconviction relief alleging ineffective assistance of trial and appellate counsel was subsequently filed in Iowa state court and a hearing was held, after which the court dismissed Shelton's application, finding no evidence existed that trial or appellate counsel were ineffective. The court also held that the evidence against Shelton that he aided and abetted Swigart in the murder of Masters and the attempted murder of Kennedy was overwhelming. On appeal, the Iowa Court of Appeals found that “while the justification jury instruction was an incorrect statement of the law, the great weight of the evidence admitted at trial demonstrates no prejudice to Shelton” and affirmed the denial of Shelton's postconviction relief. Shelton v. State, 2011 WL 441932, at *10 (Iowa Ct.App.2011). The Iowa Supreme Court denied further review.
Shelton then petitioned for federal habeas relief, asserting several claims, all of which concern his justification defense and the corresponding jury instructions. The district court denied Shelton's petition for habeas relief, concluding that Shelton failed to show he received constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel or that the state appellate court decision was unreasonable. However, the district court granted a certificate of appealability on the issues of whether the Iowa Court of Appeals rendered a decision contrary to federal law and whether Shelton received ineffective assistance of counsel. Shelton appealed the district court's denial of habeas relief through counsel and submitted an additional pro se appellate brief in this case. We previously granted leave to Shelton to proceed pro se in a separate appeal, which has been consolidated with this case.
On appeal, Shelton argues that the district court erred in finding that he received effective assistance of counsel at his state trial. Because this appeal is from a denial of habeas relief, 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) applies. Section 2254(d) provides that a writ of habeas corpus shall not be granted on any claim adjudicated on the merits in state court unless such adjudication resulted in a decision that was “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law” or was “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). The United States Supreme Court has made clear that “an unreasonable application of federal law is different from an incorrect application of federal law.” Renico v. Lett, 559 U.S. 766, 773, 130 S.Ct. 1855, 176 L.Ed.2d 678 (2010) (quoting Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 410, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000) ). Further, “a federal habeas court may not issue the writ simply because that court concludes in its independent judgment that the relevant state-court decision applied clearly established federal law erroneously or incorrectly.” Id. (quoting Williams, 529 U.S. at 411, 120 S.Ct. 1495 ). The federal habeas court must conclude the state court's application of federal law was “objectively unreasonable,” which “creates ‘a substantially higher threshold’ for obtaining relief than de novo review.” Id. (). “[I]n a habeas case alleging ineffective assistance of counsel, we are bound to view what happened at trial through two filters.” Marcrum v. Luebbers, 509 F.3d 489, 501 (8th Cir.2007). First, we must defer to judgments of trial counsel. Id. (citing Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984) ). Second, we must defer to the state courts' application of federal law to the facts of the case. Id. (citing Bell v. Cone, 535 U.S. 685, 698–99, 122 S.Ct. 1843, 152 L.Ed.2d 914 (2002) ). “In habeas corpus proceedings, we review the district court's findings of fact for clear error and its conclusions of law de novo.” Id. (citing Garcia v. Bertsch, 470 F.3d 748, 752 (8th Cir.2006), cert. denied, 551 U.S. 1116, 127 S.Ct. 2937, 168 L.Ed.2d 267 (2007) ).
The first claim raised by Shelton is that he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel by virtue of counsel's failure to object to Jury Instruction No. 32, pertaining to his justification defense. Shelton contends that Jury Instruction No. 32 was an incorrect statement of law and that the error was one of constitutional magnitude, infecting his entire trial. Jury Instruction No. 32 states:
A person may use reasonable force to prevent injury to a person, including the defendant. The use of this...
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