Taylor v. Mckee

• Decision Date: 12 August 2011
• Docket Number: No. 09–1433.,09–1433.
• Citation: 649 F.3d 446
• Parties: Sean TAYLOR, Petitioner–Appellant,v.Kenneth T. McKEE, Warden, Respondent–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

649 F.3d 446

Sean TAYLOR, Petitioner–Appellant,

v.Kenneth T. McKEE, Warden, Respondent–Appellee.

No. 09–1433.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: May 31, 2011.Decided and Filed: Aug. 12, 2011.

ARGUED: Jason G. Winchester, Jones Day, Chicago, Illinois, for Appellant. Jerrold E. Schrotenboer, Jackson County Prosecutor's Office, Jackson, Michigan, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Jason G. Winchester, Jones Day, Chicago, Illinois, for Appellant. Jerrold E. Schrotenboer, Jackson County Prosecutor's Office, Jackson, Michigan, for Appellee.Before: BATCHELDER, Chief Judge; ROGERS and SUTTON, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

ROGERS, Circuit Judge.

This case turns on the cause and prejudice that can excuse a procedural default. Petitioner Sean Taylor appeals the district court's denial of his request for a writ of habeas corpus in regard to his incarceration in Michigan for a number of state crimes, including felony murder. Taylor claims that he was denied his right to a fair trial when he was forced to walk in front of jury members on the venire panel while he was wearing prison shackles. However, because Taylor's counsel did not raise the shackling issue at trial, it is procedurally defaulted, and Taylor's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel does not constitute cause and prejudice to excuse this default.

I.

In January 2003, Sean Taylor was arrested and charged, along with his accomplice, Philip Thompson, in the shooting death and robbery of Trevor Chambers and the robbery and assault of Joel Cropper. At Taylor's trial, the state introduced evidence that proved that both victims were shot by Thompson while being robbed by both Taylor and Thompson. Cropper testified that he was standing near his friend Chambers, who was talking to his girlfriend on a pay phone, when Taylor and Thompson approached Cropper and Chambers, Thompson put a gun to Chambers' throat and ordered him to empty his pockets, and Taylor told Cropper to empty his pockets. Thompson then tried to take Chambers' boots from him, but when Chambers resisted Thompson shot him in the eye. Cropper began to run away and was shot in the back. Cropper survived the incident, but Chambers did not. A Jackson County, Michigan, jury convicted Taylor of felony murder in violation of Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.316, assault with intent to rob while armed in violation of Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.89, assault with intent to murder in violation of Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.83, and assault with intent to rob while unarmed in violation of Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.88. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment and concurrent terms of twenty-five-to-fifty years', twenty-nine-to-sixty years', and twelve–to–22.5 years' imprisonment.

Taylor appealed his convictions to the Michigan Court of Appeals, raising a number of claims, including that he was denied a fair trial under the Michigan and United States constitutions when he was forced to walk in front of the venire panel while he was wearing prison shackles, and that the imposition of separate sentences for felony murder and the underlying felony of assault with intent to rob while armed with respect to Chambers violated the Double Jeopardy Clause. The court of appeals rejected each of the claims, except Taylor's double-jeopardy argument, which the court agreed required the vacatur of his assault-with-intent-to-rob-while-armed conviction. In response to Taylor's argument regarding his being in shackles in front of the venire panel, the only claim relevant to this appeal, the court of appeals noted that the claim must be “reviewed for plain error affecting substantial rights because the alleged error was not preserved by a contemporaneous objection and a request for a curative instruction.” Because the court of appeals found that Taylor “presented no evidence that a juror who actually deliberated [his] case saw him in shackles,” and that “the trial court repeatedly instructed the jury panel not to draw any negative inferences from the fact that defendant was in custody and on trial,” it held that Taylor was not entitled to relief on this claim.

Taylor then appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, raising the same claims he brought before the court of appeals. The supreme court denied Taylor's application for leave to appeal, stating that it was “not persuaded that the questions presented should be reviewed by [that] Court.” People v. Taylor, 474 Mich. 970, 706 N.W.2d 730, 730 (2005). One justice dissented on an issue unrelated to that before us. Id. at 730–31 (Kelly, J., dissenting).

This led to Taylor's filing of a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus with the district court below, asserting the same claims raised before the Michigan appellate courts. Shortly thereafter, Taylor filed a motion to hold his habeas petition in abeyance pending the exhaustion of the following claims that he planned to raise before the state appellate courts via collateral review: prosecutorial misconduct; ineffective assistance of trial counsel; and ineffective assistance of appellate counsel. The trial court granted this motion and gave Taylor sixty days to begin the process of exhausting his state court remedies. Taylor later moved to reopen his case, claiming that he was unable to pursue his additional claims in the state courts because of the prison's failure to maintain a constitutionally adequate law library and prison legal services program. Taylor asserts that he was unable to obtain the assistance he needed in order to file his state-court claims within the sixty days required by the district court's order. Thus, he was forced to abandon his additional claims and return to the federal court. The district court granted Taylor's motion to reopen and the case proceeded on the petition as filed.

The district court entered an order in March 2009, denying Taylor's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. In regard to Taylor's claim in relation to the venire panel's seeing him in shackles, the district court stated as follows:

Absent evidence that jury members actually saw Petitioner in shackles, Petitioner cannot demonstrate a constitutional violation. Furthermore, even if jurors had seen Petitioner in shackles, the Supreme Court has not held that a defendant's constitutional rights are automatically violated when jurors see shackles on the defendant. To the contrary, each case is evaluated on a case by case basis (i.e., whether the defendant is being transported with shackles or sitting in the courtroom shackled, etc.). The underlying facts in this case or, more aptly, the lack thereof relative to Petitioner's claim do not lend themselves to habeas relief.

Although the warden had argued in response to Taylor's petition that Taylor had procedurally defaulted his claim by not contemporaneously objecting to the shackling incident at trial, the district court did not address this argument. Taylor now appeals.

II.

Though it relied on the merits in issuing its decision, the district court correctly denied Taylor's petition for a writ of habeas corpus as his constitutional claim was procedurally defaulted. As we repeated in Dixon v. Clem, 492 F.3d 665, 673 (6th Cir.2007), this court may affirm the decision of the district court if it is correct for any reason, even a reason different from that relied upon by the district court. Taylor's failure to object at trial to his being in shackles in front of the jury led the Michigan Court of Appeals to apply plain-error review to his shackling claim. This application of plain-error review prevented the state court from fully considering the merits of Taylor's shackling claim, and constitutes an independent and adequate state ground for a procedural default. Moreover, Taylor has not demonstrated any cause or prejudice to excuse this default.

The warden argued before the district court that Taylor's shackling claim was procedurally defaulted, but the district court chose to deny Taylor's petition on the merits and did not even address the warden's procedural-default argument. We have explained procedural default as follows:

A federal habeas petitioner can procedurally default a claim by “failing to obtain consideration of a claim by a state court, either due to the petitioner's failure to raise that claim before the state courts while state-court remedies are still available or due to a state procedural rule that prevents the state courts from reaching the merits of the petitioner's claim.”

Lundgren v. Mitchell, 440 F.3d 754, 763 (6th Cir.2006) (quoting Seymour v. Walker, 224 F.3d 542, 549–50 (6th Cir.2000)). If a state has a procedural rule that prevented the state courts from hearing the merits of a habeas petitioner's claim, that claim is procedurally defaulted when “1) [the] petitioner failed to comply with the rule, 2) the state actually enforced the rule against the petitioner, and 3) the rule is an ‘adequate and independent’ state ground foreclosing review of a federal constitutional claim.” Id. (quoting Willis v. Smith, 351 F.3d 741, 744 (6th Cir.2003)).

Taylor's claim in regard to his shackling was procedurally defaulted by his failure to make a contemporaneous-objection to his treatment at the trial-court level. Michigan has a contemporaneous objection rule that it enforced in this case, as Taylor made no objection before the trial court to his having to walk in front of the venire panel in shackles. See, e.g., People v. Solomon, 220 Mich.App. 527, 560 N.W.2d 651, 653 (1996). Pursuant to this contemporaneous-objection rule, a party's failure to object leads to the claim's being waived and reviewed solely for plain error. See Lancaster v. Adams, 324 F.3d 423, 437 (6th Cir.2003). The Michigan Court of Appeals did just that in this case, relying on People v. Watson, 245 Mich.App. 572, 629 N.W.2d 411, 421 (2001), and stating that “[Taylor's] claim is reviewed for plain error affecting substantial rights because the alleged error [in keeping him in shackles in front of the jury]...