Simmons v. Kapture

• Decision Date: 26 January 2007
• Docket Number: No. 03-2609.,03-2609.
• Citation: 474 F.3d 869
• Parties: Patrick SIMMONS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Robert KAPTURE, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

474 F.3d 869

Patrick SIMMONS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Robert KAPTURE, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 03-2609.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: September 14, 2006.

Decided and Filed: January 26, 2007.

ARGUED: E. Michael Rossman, Jones Day, Columbus, Ohio, for Appellant. B. Eric Restuccia, Office of the Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: E. Michael Rossman, Jones Day, Columbus, Ohio, for Appellant. B. Eric Restuccia, Office of the Attorney General, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellee. Timothy A. Baughman, Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Detroit, Michigan, Anne Yanties, State Appellate Defender Office, Detroit, Michigan, for Amici Curiae.

Before MARTIN and DAUGHTREY, Circuit Judges; REEVES, District Judge.^*

MARTIN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which DAUGHTREY, J., joined. REEVES, D.J. (pp. 879-88), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.

OPINION

BOYCE F. MARTIN, JR., Circuit Judge.

Petitioner Patrick Simmons appeals the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus in which he sought to challenge his guilty plea entered in Michigan state court. Simmons claims that his plea was not knowing and voluntary, that he was denied effective assistance of counsel in the plea stage, and that the state should have provided him appointed counsel to represent him in the appellate process under the Supreme Court's recent decision in Halbert v. Michigan, 545 U.S. 605, 125 S.Ct. 2582, 162 L.Ed.2d 552 (2005). Simmons filed the present petition before the decision issued in Halbert. After the district court denied him relief, and this Court denied him a certificate of appealability, he filed a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court granted the writ, remanding the case to this Court for further consideration in light of Halbert.

I.

Simmons's guilty plea arose from an incident that occurred in April 1998 at the Rainbow Hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he was residing at the time. Simmons had become disabled in 1969 from a head injury, which he claims has caused him to suffer from "confusion" ever since. He had a severe problem with alcohol abuse, and appears to have been overin-dulging with some friends at the time, including the victim, Adrian Blystra, who was staying in Simmons's room at the hotel. On the morning of April 5, Simmons lit Blystra's shirt on fire, causing Blystra to suffer significant burns on his back and shoulder. The parties dispute what Simmons's intention was in setting the shirt on fire — he characterizes it as a practical joke, while the state describes his mental state in much more malicious terms.

Blystra continued to live in Simmons's apartment at the hotel for several more days, during which time Simmons provided him with Neosporin to help him treat his burn, but he eventually moved out. Toward the end of April, Blystra sought to have criminal charges brought against Simmons, and on April 30, Simmons was arrested and charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, as well as a habitual offender charge. In return for Simmons's agreement to plead guilty to the assault charge, the prosecutor dropped the habitual offender charge and agreed to recommend a sentence of five to ten years.

During the October 5, 1998 plea hearing, in an attempt to have Simmons "state the elements of the offense," the prosecutor, defense counsel, and the trial judge asked him numerous questions about his intent in setting Blystra on fire. Simmons repeatedly stated that he set the fire as a joke, to wake Blystra up, and to get Blystra's attention. He also repeatedly denied attempting to injure Blystra, and stated that he was quite inebriated at the time. Eventually, however, Simmons agreed with the prosecutor's statement that he "went up to a man who was passed out, and [] lit him on fire, knowing that would cause him injury. . . ." Joint App'x at 246.

Both the prosecutor and defense counsel repeatedly tried to contradict Simmons's characterization of the incident as a joke. Defense counsel essentially cross-examined him about his intent, and argued to the court that Simmons had admitted sufficient mens rea for the court to accept his plea. The trial judge expressed significant hesitation in accepting the plea, in apparent recognition of Simmons's wavering explanations of his mental state. The judge noted that "he stated basically his intent was to wake Mr. Blystra up, and he didn't have any idea that he would be injured to any extent," id. at 245, and described the explanation of Simmons's intent as "shaky." Id. at 243. Eventually however, the trial court accepted the plea, explaining that "it's not per se that it will satisfy this Court, but I believe that there is [sic] still higher courts that may well review this matter, and they're certainly entitled to do that, although it's not a right of appeal. I think we have covered enough in this that I'm satisfied as well as counsel being satisfied that we've covered the elements of this offense." Id. at 248.

II.

Simmons's case followed a complicated procedural route between the entry of his guilty plea and his current filing in this Court. Just over a month after the entry of his plea, on November 19, 1998, Simmons requested that the trial court appoint him appellate counsel to assist him in filing an application for leave to appeal in the Michigan Court of Appeals. His proffered basis for appeal was that he had been forced by the terms of the plea offer to plead guilty. This request for counsel was denied on December 1. Simmons then filed an application for leave to appeal pro se in January 1999. That request was denied for failing to follow the court rules regarding the number of copies to be filed. On November 10, 1999, Simmons filed a pro se motion for relief from judgment in the trial court, challenging his plea on the basis that it was involuntary and not supported by the facts, and claiming ineffective assistance of counsel. This motion was also denied by the trial court, as was his subsequent motion for reconsideration. Simmons then filed another application for leave to appeal the trial court's decision with the Michigan Court of Appeals, again without the assistance of counsel, which again was summarily denied. Simmons sought a discretionary appeal of the Court of Appeals's decisions with the Michigan Supreme Court, and this final request to the state courts was also denied.¹

Simmons next turned to the federal courts, filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan on February 20, 2001. He claimed in the habeas petition that his plea was not supported by sufficient evidence, and that he was denied effective assistance of counsel at the plea stage. At the outset, Simmons sought a stay of the proceedings so as to obtain counsel. This request was denied by the district court. The district court also denied Simmons's motion for an evidentiary hearing, and his case was referred to a magistrate judge. In a report and recommendation filed on September 24, 2003, the magistrate recommended that the habeas petition be denied. The magistrate reasoned that Simmons's plea was knowing and voluntary, as Simmons understood the nature of the charge against him and the sentence to which he was subject, and also found that the Constitution did not require the state court to establish a factual basis for a guilty plea. The magistrate agreed with the state court that Simmons's attorney effectively represented him at the plea stage by persuading the trial court to accept a desirable plea bargain, and that this approach explained her choice not to interview additional witnesses or to elicit factual testimony from Simmons to support the plea. Finally, the magistrate addressed Simmons's habeas claim for the state's failure to appoint him appellate counsel, noting that under Ross v. Moffitt, 417 U.S. 600, 94 S.Ct. 2437, 41 L.Ed.2d 341 (1974), a state court does not have to appoint counsel in a discretionary appeal. Because appeals from guilty pleas in Michigan were discretionary, the magistrate rejected this claim as well.

The district court adopted the magistrate's report and recommendation, and denied Simmons a certificate of appealability on November 7, 2003. This Court also denied Simmons's application for a certificate of appealability on August 19, 2004. Undeterred after this string of rejections from the courts of Michigan and those of this Circuit, Simmons subsequently petitioned for a writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court. On June 28, 2005, the Supreme Court granted the writ, and simultaneously vacated the judgment and remanded to this Court for further consideration in light of Halbert v. Michigan, 545 U.S. 605, 125 S.Ct. 2582, 162 L.Ed.2d 552 (2005). In response, this Court issued a certificate of appealability for the present appeal, which defined the issues of Simmons's claim as (1) whether Halbert affords any relief for Simmons; (2) whether Simmons's guilty plea was valid, and whether this issue has been waived; and (3) whether trial counsel was ineffective, and whether this issue has been waived.

III.

This Court reviews a district court's decision regarding a writ of habeas corpus de novo. Dando v. Yukins, 461 F.3d 791, 795 (6th Cir.2006). Factual findings made by the district court are reviewed for clear error unless the factual determinations are made based on state court documents, in which case they are considered de novo. Id. at 796.

Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), a federal court may not grant habeas relief

on any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings unless the adjudication of the claim either—

(1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United...