Wilson v. Moore

• Decision Date: 25 May 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-6577,98-6577
• Citation: 178 F.3d 266
• Parties: , Teresa Ann WILSON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Michael MOORE, Commissioner of South Carolina Department of Corrections; Charles Molony Condon, Attorney General of the State of South Carolina, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

178 F.3d 266 Teresa Ann WILSON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Michael MOORE, Commissioner of South Carolina Department of Corrections; Charles Molony Condon, Attorney General of the State of South Carolina Respondents-Appellees.

No. 98-6577.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued Jan. 28, 1999.

Decided May 25, 1999.

ARGUED: David Isaac Bruck, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellant. Robert Eugene Bogan, Assistant Attorney General, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Charles M. Condon, Attorney General, John W. McIntosh, Deputy Attorney General, Donald J. Zelenka, Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees.

Before WILKINSON, Chief Judge, TRAXLER, Circuit Judge, and GOODWIN, United States District Judge for the Southern District of West Virginia, sitting by designation.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge TRAXLER wrote the opinion, in which Chief Judge WILKINSON and Judge GOODWIN joined.

OPINION

TRAXLER, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Teresa Ann Wilson ("Teresa") applied under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2254 (West 1994 & Supp. 1998) for relief from two drug conspiracy convictions in South Carolina state court, asserting that her Sixth Amendment right to counsel was abridged when one lawyer jointly represented her and her husband, and that she did not knowingly waive her right to be represented separately by her own attorney. In rejecting Teresa's arguments, the district court declined to consider belated evidence that she had been suffering the effects of domestic abuse at the time of her prosecution. This evidence, which Teresa contends would show her inability to participate independently in her own defense, was not presented to the state courts during post-conviction relief (PCR) proceedings; however, while her federal habeas application was pending, Teresa included this evidence in a petition for a writ of habeas corpus to the Supreme Court of South Carolina, which denied her petition without explanation in a one-sentence order.

The district court concluded that the South Carolina Supreme Court had disposed of Teresa's habeas petition on state procedural grounds and, therefore, had not considered the evidence. As a result, the district court also refused to consider it, taking into account only the evidence that had been before the state PCR court. Ultimately, the district court rejected Teresa's § 2254 application and granted summary judgment to the State. ¹ On appeal, Teresa urges us to find that the South Carolina Supreme Court actually considered this evidence and disposed of her petition on the merits, and she suggests that the appropriate remedy is to return the matter to district court for reconsideration of her claims in light of this evidence.

We hold that the South Carolina Supreme Court rejected Teresa's habeas petition on state procedural grounds and, therefore, did not take into account Teresa's evidence of spousal abuse. Thus, in ruling on her claims for relief under § 2254, the district court properly refused to consider the new evidence. We conclude further that the district court correctly determined that Teresa's claims were without merit. Accordingly, we affirm.

I.

Teresa and her husband Ronnie Wilson ("Ronnie") were indicted in South Carolina state court on two counts of conspiring to traffic cocaine and marijuana and one substantive trafficking count. They retained a single attorney to represent them at their joint trial. At a pretrial hearing, the trial judge detailed at length the perils of joint representation, and specifically explained the difficulties that could arise when an attorney representing co-defendants attempted to plea bargain. ² In fact, the trial judge urged the Wilsons to retain separate counsel. Nevertheless, Teresa waived her right to separate counsel orally and in writing by signing a waiver form. ³

Following a jury trial, the Wilsons were convicted on all three counts and sentenced to identical prison terms of twenty-five years. On direct review, the South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the Wilsons' conspiracy convictions but vacated their substantive trafficking convictions because of a jurisdictional infirmity. See State v. Wilson, 315 S.C. 289, 433 S.E.2d 864 (1993).

Teresa then sought post-conviction relief (PCR) in South Carolina Circuit Court. See S.C. Code Ann. §§ 17-27-10 to -160 (Law. Co-op. 1985 & Supp. 1998). Primarily, Teresa contended that she was denied her Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel because her attorney represented both her and Ronnie even though they had disparate legal interests, and that she did not effectively waive her right to separate counsel because the nature of the potential conflict of interest was not adequately explained to her. ⁴ Teresa never suggested to the PCR court, however, that she was unable to knowingly waive her right to separate counsel because of chronic abuse, ⁵ i.e., Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS). Subsequently, the PCR court entered a written order denying post-conviction relief. The PCR judge rejected her Sixth Amendment claims, concluding that Teresa had been adequately informed of the problems intrinsic to joint representation but that she had waived her right to separate counsel. Teresa sought review of the PCR court's order of dismissal, but the South Carolina Supreme Court denied Teresa's petition for certiorari.

In April 1997, after obtaining new counsel, Teresa filed a § 2254 application in the district court. ⁶ She advanced two grounds for federal habeas relief. First, she contended that she was denied effective assistance of counsel under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments because her attorney was hampered by a conflict of interest between Teresa and Ronnie. Teresa claimed that she played a minimal role in Ronnie's drug activities. Because of this perceived gap in culpability between her and Ronnie, Teresa argued that her attorney could not provide adequate joint representation. As a specific example of this alleged conflict of interest, Teresa highlighted a plea offer that the prosecutor extended to Teresa alone in exchange for her testimony. She believes that competent counsel would have recognized that her best interests conflicted with Ronnie's and thus would have advised her to obtain separate counsel. Teresa's second § 2254 claim was that she did not knowingly and voluntarily waive her right to separate counsel because she was suffering the effects of BWS and was unable to assess independently whether it would serve her best interests to retain her own attorney.

In support of her § 2254 application, particularly her second ground for relief, Teresa presented--for the first time--several affidavits attesting to the abuse she allegedly suffered at Ronnie's hands and a psychological report concluding that Teresa suffered from BWS before and during the trial. Thus, Teresa's § 2254 application rested in part on factual allegations that were never presented to the PCR court. It is undisputed that this newly presented evidence was available and could have been developed at the time Teresa filed her PCR application.

Teresa's § 2254 application was referred to a magistrate judge for a recommendation to the district court. After the State moved for summary judgment, the magistrate judge directed the parties to brief the issue of whether the newly submitted affidavits and psychological report could be considered. Before the magistrate judge issued a recommendation, however, Teresa returned to state court and filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the original jurisdiction of the South Carolina Supreme Court. In this petition, Teresa advanced the same two grounds for relief that she raised in her § 2254 application: (1) that she was denied effective assistance of counsel because of the joint representation, and (2) that her "waiver of her right to conflict-free representation was the invalid product of battering, domination and abuse by her co-defendant." J.A. 188. In support of the petition, Teresa submitted the same affidavits and psychological report that had been submitted for the first time in federal court. ⁷

The State moved to dismiss the petition, urging the South Carolina Supreme Court to find that Teresa's claims were procedurally barred under state law. Without requesting that the State formally answer the habeas petition, the South Carolina Supreme Court then summarily denied the petition in a one-sentence order: "Petition for Habeas Corpus is denied." J.A. 221. The magistrate judge thereafter refused to consider the affidavits and the psychological report on BWS and recommended that the district court deny Teresa's § 2254 application.

The district court agreed with the magistrate judge's recommendation that Teresa be denied relief on her § 2254 application and granted summary judgment to the State. See Wilson v. Moore, 999 F.Supp. 783, 793 (D.S.C.1998). With respect to the new factual grounds for relief, the district court concluded that the South Carolina Supreme Court had disposed of Teresa's petition for original habeas on state procedural grounds and thus had not considered the merits of her petition "in light of the new evidence." Id. at 790. Therefore, the district court concluded that because the state courts did not take into account Teresa's additional evidence in denying her collateral relief, it could not consider this evidence in reviewing her § 2254 application. ⁸ Turning to the merits of her Sixth Amendment claims, the district court held that the PCR court had correctly rejected Teresa's ineffective assistance claim and that Teresa effectively waived her right to separate counsel. See id. at 792-93.

II.

Teresa directs her argument primarily toward the district court's ruling that the South Carolina Supreme Court refused to reach the merits of her habeas petition and, therefore, did not consider her new evidence. Teresa contends that the "denial" language used by the state supreme court...