Wright v. Quarterman

• Decision Date: 17 November 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-70037.,05-70037.
• Citation: 470 F.3d 581
• Parties: Gregory Edward WRIGHT, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Nathaniel QUARTERMAN, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

470 F.3d 581

Gregory Edward WRIGHT, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Nathaniel QUARTERMAN, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 05-70037.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

November 17, 2006.

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Bruce Edward Anton, Sorrels & Udashen, Dallas, TX, Mary M. Penrose, University of Oklahoma College of Law, Norman, OK, for Wright.

Deni S. Garcia, Austin, TX, for Quarterman.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Before SMITH, GARZA and PRADO, Circuit Judges.

EMILIO M. GARZA, Circuit Judge:

Gregory Edward Wright moves for a certificate of appealability ("COA") to appeal the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. He argues that reasonable jurists would find debatable whether: 1) his Confrontation Clause claim is procedurally barred; 2) he received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial; and 3) the state suppressed evidence in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963).

I

The evidence at trial established that Donna Vick was stabbed to death in her home in DeSoto, Texas, in the early hours of March 21, 1997. Wright, who had been staying with Vick in her home, was seen with her at a VFW lodge on the night before the murder. Around 4:00 a.m. the next morning, Wright and his friend, John Adams, drove Vick's car to purchase crack cocaine from a drug dealer who was staying at Llewelyn Mosley's home. Mosley testified that Adams and Wright arrived at his house on the night of the murder and told him that they had some things from a woman in DeSoto that they wanted to get rid of, including a television, a weed eater, a rifle, a color printer, and a microwave. Several of these items were later identified as belonging to Vick. Wright negotiated with the dealer. After exchanging some of the items, Wright and Adams appeared cheerful and exchanged "high fives."

The next day, Adams asked Daniel McGaughey, an employee at a video store, to call the police because he wanted to turn himself in. Adams directed the police to Vick's house and assisted in recovering her car. DNA testing revealed that blood found on the steering wheel belonged to Wright. At the house, the police found Vick's body on her bed and Wright's bloody fingerprint on her pillowcase. In a trash can, the police found a handwritten note reading, "Do you want to do it?"

Adams also led the police to a shack that Wright sometimes stayed in, where they arrested Wright and seized a bloody and gold-paint splattered pair of blue jeans. Outside the shack, the police found a bloody knife. DNA evidence established that the blood on the knife and jeans was Vick's. Several cans of gold spray paint were found in Wright's home, and witnesses testified that Wright had previously been seen with gold paint on his face and clothes. A police officer testified that he had known people to inhale spray paint to get high. The police also found mail addressed to Adams at the shack. After Wright was arrested, he phoned a friend from jail and asked her to remove any of his clothing from the shack.

Adams also led the police to a knife in a vacant lot near Mosley's home. DNA testing revealed that the knife had Vick's blood on it. A medical examiner testified that Vick could have been stabbed by more than one knife.

At trial, the prosecution argued that both Adams and Wright attacked Vick.¹ The court instructed the jury that it could convict Wright only in the event that it found that he actually attacked Vick. The court did not instruct the jury on a law of the parties theory of liability.² The jury found Wright guilty, and he was sentenced to death.

Wright's conviction was affirmed on direct appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ("TCCA"). Wright v. State, 28 S.W.3d 526 (Tex.Crim.App.2000). He petitioned the state court for a writ of habeas corpus. The state trial judge adopted the State's proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law in their entirety and recommended that relief be denied. The TCCA adopted the trial court's findings of fact and conclusions of law and denied relief.

Wright petitioned the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas for a federal writ of habeas corpus. A magistrate judge recommended denying relief on all of Wright's claims. Wright v. Dretke, 3:01-CV-0472, 2004 WL 438941 (N.D.Tex. Mar.10, 2004). The district court judge adopted the magistrate judge's recommendation and denied the petition.

II

We issue a certificate of appealability only when the movant has made "a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right." 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2). This requires him to "demonstrate that reasonable jurists would find the district court's assessment of the constitutional claims debatable or wrong." Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 484, 120 S.Ct. 1595, 146 L.Ed.2d 542 (2000). At this stage, we are not permitted to give full consideration of the factual or legal bases in support of the claim. Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 336, 123 S.Ct. 1029, 154 L.Ed.2d 931 (2003). Instead, we merely conduct an overview of the claims and a general assessment of their merits. Id.

The movant's arguments "must be assessed under the deferential standard required by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1)." Tennard v. Dretke, 542 U.S. 274, 282, 124 S.Ct. 2562, 159 L.Ed.2d 384 (2004); see Miller-El, 537 U.S. at 348-50, 123 S.Ct. 1029 (Scalia, J., concurring) (arguing that a court must consider 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)'s deferential standard of review when ruling on motion for COA). A federal court may not issue a writ of habeas corpus "with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings" unless the state court's decision was "contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). A state court's decision is contrary to clearly established federal law if the court either: 1) arrived at a conclusion of law opposite that reached by the Supreme Court; or 2) arrived at a result opposite that of the Supreme Court on materially indistinguishable facts. Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 405-06, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). A state court's decision is an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law if the state court derives the correct legal principle from Supreme Court decisions but applies that principle in an objectively unreasonable manner. Id. at 409, 120 S.Ct. 1495.

A

Wright argues that his Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against him was violated when the trial court admitted into evidence the testimony of Detective Dan Trippel. On direct examination by the prosecution, Trippel described a conversation he had with Adams, who did not testify. Trippel testified that he discovered Vick's body after meeting with Adams. On cross examination, Wright elicited testimony from Trippel that Adams claimed that he owned one of the knives used in the murder. On redirect, Trippel testified that Adams told him that Wright used Adams's knife to stab Vick. Wright made a hearsay objection. The prosecution responded that the testimony was admissible under the rule of optional completeness. See TEX.R. EVID 107 ("When part of a ... conversation ... is given in evidence by one party, the whole on the same subject may be inquired into by the other ...."). Under the rule of optional completeness, hearsay is admissible when it serves to clarify other hearsay evidence elicited by the opposing party. Bunton v. State, 136 S.W.3d 355, 367 (Tex.App.—Austin 2004, pet. ref'd). The prosecution argued that if the jury only heard that Adams admitted that he owned one of the murder weapons, it might be left with the mistaken impression that Adams confessed to Trippel that he had killed Vick. Wright responded that the rule was inapplicable because the jury had not been given a false impression. Wright did not argue to the trial court that the Sixth Amendment prohibited admission of this testimony.

On direct appeal, Wright argued that the admission of Trippel's testimony violated Texas evidentiary rules³ and the Confrontation Clause. The TCCA deemed Wright's Confrontation Clause argument waived because his objection based on hearsay did not alert the trial court to the federal nature of his claim. Wright, 28 S.W.3d at 536; see TEX.R.App. P. 33.1(a)(1)(A) (stating that to preserve error for appeal, appellant must have objected with sufficient specificity to make trial court "aware of the complaint, unless the specific grounds were apparent from the context"). On subsequent habeas review, the district court consequently deemed Wright's Confrontation Clause claim procedurally defaulted. Wright, 2004 WL 438941, at *6.

A federal court may not grant a petition for a writ of habeas corpus where the state court expressly denied the claim based on an independent and adequate state procedural rule. Coleman v. Thompson, 501 U.S. 722, 730, 111 S.Ct. 2546, 115 L.Ed.2d 640 (1991).⁴ To be adequate, a state rule must be "firmly established and regularly followed." Ford v. Georgia, 498 U.S. 411, 423-24, 111 S.Ct. 850, 112 L.Ed.2d 935 (1991); see Barr v. City of Columbia, 378 U.S. 146, 149, 84 S.Ct. 1734, 12 L.Ed.2d 766 (1964); N.A.A.C.P. v. Alabama ex rel. Flowers, 377 U.S. 288, 295-301, 84 S.Ct. 1302, 12 L.Ed.2d 325 (1964). It is the petitioner's burden to demonstrate that the procedural bar is not regularly applied, Stokes v. Anderson, 123 F.3d 858, 860 (5th Cir.1997), or that the rule was exorbitantly applied under the circumstances of the case, Lee v. Kemna, 534 U.S. 362, 376, 122 S.Ct. 877, 151 L.Ed.2d 820 (2002). We review the adequacy of a state law used to preclude federal habeas review de novo. Rosales v. Dretke, 444 F.3d 703, 707 (5th Cir.2006). Wright argues...