Walker v. Vaughn

• Decision Date: 03 May 1995
• Docket Number: No. 94-1367,94-1367
• Citation: 53 F.3d 609
• Parties: Ronald WALKER, Appellant, v. Donald T. VAUGHN; The Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania; District Attorney of Philadelphia County.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 609

53 F.3d 609

Ronald WALKER, Appellant, v. Donald T. VAUGHN; The Attorney General of the State of

Pennsylvania; District Attorney of Philadelphia County.

No. 94-1367.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued Jan. 24, 1995.

Decided May 3, 1995.

Michael J. Kelly (argued), Defender Ass'n of Philadelphia, Federal Court Div., Philadelphia, PA, for appellant.

Donna G. Zucker (argued), Office of Dist. Atty., Philadelphia, PA, for appellees.

Before: SLOVITER, Chief Judge, HUTCHINSON and LEWIS, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

SLOVITER, Chief Judge.

Appellant Ronald Walker appeals the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254. Walker's petition alleges ineffective assistance of counsel in the state trial and direct appeal, primarily for their failure to press a claim on his behalf under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986) (barring racially discriminatory use of peremptory challenges by prosecutors). Although we will affirm the ruling of the district court, the procedural history of this case presents an important issue about the procedure to be followed by a federal court reviewing a habeas corpus petition when a dormant state proceeding is reactivated. The relevant procedural facts are necessarily set forth in detail.

I. Facts and Procedural History

In November 1985, appellant Ronald Walker, armed with a double-barrelled shotgun and a handgun, entered the home of his estranged wife in Philadelphia. Walker proceeded to hold his wife's mother, sister and daughter hostage in the home for a period of approximately twenty-four hours. After a long standoff with police, Walker released the hostages and surrendered. He was then charged with crimes arising out of the incident.

On October 9, 1986, after a jury trial in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Walker was convicted of three counts of kidnapping, one count of attempted kidnapping, burglary, simple assault and possession of an instrument of crime. The judgment and sentence in the case was entered on May 20, 1987. On April 13, 1989, Walker's conviction was affirmed on direct appeal in an unpublished opinion by the Pennsylvania Superior Court. See Commonwealth v. Walker, 390 Pa.Super. 658, 561 A.2d 823 (1989).

Walker did not file a petition for allocatur to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Instead, on February 28, 1990 he filed a pro se petition under the Pennsylvania Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA), 42 Pa.Cons.Stat.Ann. Sec. 9541 et seq. (hereinafter "PCRA action"), alleging that both his trial counsel and his appellate counsel had been ineffective.

Walker's court-appointed counsel in the PCRA action, however, failed to prosecute the PCRA petition promptly, resulting in a delay of more than two years. ¹ Thus, on March 19, 1992, Walker filed this petition for habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and listed as respondents Donald T. Vaughn by name (the Superintendent of the State Correctional Institute at Graterford), the District Attorney of Philadelphia, and the Attorney General of Pennsylvania (hereinafter referred to jointly as the "State"). In his petition, Walker alleged that the delay in the resolution of his PCRA action rendered that action ineffective to protect his rights, and that therefore his failure to exhaust his state post-conviction remedy should be excused.

On April 20, 1992, the state court presiding over the PCRA action scheduled a hearing for July 2, 1992 and issued an order to compel Walker's counsel to attend. The State, in responding on May 14, 1992 to Walker's federal petition, notified the district court of this latest development in the PCRA action and argued that Walker's obligation to exhaust his state remedies should not be excused. On June 5, 1992, the federal magistrate judge issued a Report and Recommendation that, due to the pendency of the PCRA action, Walker's habeas petition should be denied and dismissed without prejudice for failure to exhaust his state court remedies. The district court, however, took no immediate action regarding this Report and Recommendation, and Walker's federal habeas petition remained pending.

Walker's court-appointed PCRA counsel did not appear at the state PCRA hearing on July 2, 1992. The state court therefore took a number of steps, including threatening the imposition of sanctions, in order to force Walker's counsel to appear. While those efforts were largely unsuccessful, Walker's PCRA counsel did file an amended PCRA petition on September 30, 1992. That amended petition, however, was not accompanied by the supplemental memorandum required by Pennsylvania law. After several additional missed appearances, the state court ordered Walker's PCRA counsel to attend a hearing on December 15, 1992, and warned counsel that he risked being held in contempt if he did not appear on that date.

While the state court was still attempting to compel Walker's state counsel to appear in the PCRA proceedings, the district court ordered the parties in the federal habeas proceeding to appear for a hearing on December 15, 1992 regarding the status of Walker's state PCRA action. The state court then changed its hearing to December 14, 1992, and at that hearing heard testimony on the merits of Walker's PCRA claim.

The following day, December 15, 1992, the district court held its hearing on the magistrate judge's report recommending dismissal of the federal action because Walker had failed to exhaust his state remedies. Walker testified that his PCRA counsel had represented him at the PCRA hearing the previous day, and that his original trial counsel had testified as a witness. The district court made no decision at that time. See Transcript of Proceedings, December 15, 1992, at 32.

On December 22, 1992, the state court removed Walker's court-appointed PCRA counsel, apparently because of his prior lack of diligence, and thereafter appointed a replacement. This marked renewed movement in the PCRA action.

On January 8, 1993, the district court held another hearing, at which Walker's former PCRA counsel testified, and advised the court he had been replaced. See Transcript of Proceedings, January 8, 1993, at 6-8. The district court acknowledged that "things are beginning to move" in the state proceeding, id. at 16, but expressed doubt about whether the state proceeding would be resolved expeditiously. Id. at 9. After receiving a supplemental brief addressing the exhaustion question, ² the district court issued an order on January 15, 1993 that disapproved the Report and Recommendation of the magistrate judge and ruled, instead, that the delay in the state PCRA proceeding was sufficient to waive Walker's exhaustion requirement under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254(b). The district court then directed Walker to file an amended habeas petition.

On February 1, 1993, with the assistance of his federally-appointed habeas counsel, Walker filed an amended habeas petition raising thirty-one issues. After the State filed a response to the amended petition, the district court ordered Walker to file an offer of proof and brief citation to authority in support of each of the thirty-one claims which Walker intended to pursue. See Order of February 26, 1993. Before Walker responded to the district court's order, his appointed habeas counsel filed a motion to withdraw in the federal action. The district court therefore continued Walker's obligation to file the offer of proof and citation to authority pending the resolution of the motion to withdraw.

While Walker's federal action was stalled for this reason, Walker's state PCRA action was proceeding. Walker's newly-appointed PCRA counsel was permitted to file a new amended petition, and between December 1992 and April 1993 the state court heard testimony regarding Walker's claims for post-conviction relief. Because there was no transcript of the voir dire that had been conducted for Walker's trial, the state court permitted Walker to present testimony regarding the merits of the alleged ineffective assistance/Batson violations. See App. at 101.

Walker testified that during voir dire, allegedly on October 6, 1986, the assistant district attorney who tried the case against him "had a problem with black males," App. at 102; that the jury ultimately selected was composed of "mainly females," App. at 107; that he was "very unhappy" about the selection process and complained about the process to his trial counsel "several times," App. at 107-08; and that his trial counsel told him to "shut up" and declined to object to the prosecutor's actions. App. at 108. The State objected to this testimony, in part because Walker had made no offer of proof regarding the number of people on the jury, the number of black jurors, and the number of black individuals who were stricken from the jury. Walker's counsel responded that he expected testimony or an affidavit on this issue by Walker's trial counsel. However, when Walker's trial counsel did testify on April 21, 1993, he was not questioned on any Batson-related issues.

On June 29, 1993, the state court issued an order denying Walker's PCRA claim. The court rejected Walker's ineffective assistance/Batson claim, concluding that Walker "failed to sustain his burden of proof on this issue." Commonwealth v. Walker, Nos. 8601-2553-2575, Memorandum Opinion at 10 (Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, filed June 29, 1993).

On July 8, 1993, Walker filed an amended federal habeas petition containing approximately thirty-three claims. One of the claims asserted by Walker was "that the makeup of the jury was prejudicial against petitioner." At a hearing before the district court on July 23, 1993, the State argued that Walker's petition did not state a claim for relief, relying upon the testimony and record produced in the PCRA proceeding. Among other things, the State argued that Walker...