Adams v. Bradshaw

817 F.3d 284, 2016 FED App. 0065P, 2016 WL 963862, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 4678
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMarch 15, 2016
DocketNo. 07-3688
StatusPublished

This text of 817 F.3d 284 (Adams v. Bradshaw) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. Bradshaw, 817 F.3d 284, 2016 FED App. 0065P, 2016 WL 963862, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 4678 (6th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

SILER, Circuit Judge.

Stanley T. Adams, an Ohio death row inmate, appeals the district court’s order denying his petition for a writ of habeas [287]*287corpus .filed under 28 -U.S.C. § 2254. We certified two claims for appellate review: (1) whether requiring Adams to wear a stun belt throughout trial denied him a fundamentally fair trial; and (2) whether Ohio’s lethal injection protocol violated the Eighth Amendment. We granted Adams’s motion to hold the case in abeyance pending the resolution of Glossip v. Gross, — U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. 2726, 192 L.Ed.2d 761 (2015), which was decided on June 29, 2015. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM the district court’s denial of a writ of habeas corpus.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

I. State court proceedings

An Ohio jury convicted Adams of burglary, kidnapping, two counts of rape, and three counts of aggravated murder. Following the penalty phase, the trial court followed the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Adams to death. On direct appeal, the Supreme Court of Ohio vacated Adams’s kidnapping conviction and the related specifications, but affirmed the remaining convictions and the death sentence. State v. Adams, 103 Ohio St.3d 508, 817 N.E.2d 29, 59 (2004).

In 2003, Adams, filed a petition for post-conviction relief under Ohio Revised Code § 2953.21. The trial court denied the petition. The Court of Appeals of Ohio affirmed the decision. State v. Adams, No.2003-T-0064, 2005 WL 238144, at *13 (Ohio Ct.App. Jan. 28, 2005). The Ohio Supreme Court declined further review. State v. Adams, 106 Ohio St.3d 1414, 830 N.E.2d 346, 346 (2005) (table).

II. Federal court proceedings

In 2006, Adams filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal district court, raising constitutional challenges both to the use of a stun belt during trial and to Ohio’s lethal injection protocol as the third and fourth grounds for .relief, respectively. In 2007, the district court denied the petition.

On appeal, we granted á COA for the third and fourth claims of Adams’s habeas corpus petition. Adams v. Bradshaw, No. 07-3688, slip op. at 4 (6th Cir. Nov. 9, 2007). In 2009, following final briefing but before oral argument, we granted Adams’s motion both to stay the appellate proceedings and to remand his case to the district court to pursue the factual development of the fourth claim, Adams’s constitutional challenge to Ohio’s lethal injection protocol. Adams v. Bradshaw, No. 07-3688, slip op. at 1 (6th Cir. Feb. 13, 2009). On remand, the district court rejected the warden’s motion to dismiss Adams’s lethal injection claim for lack of jurisdiction. On interlocutory appeal (case no. 10-4281), we affirmed the decision, reasoning that pursuant to Hill v. McDonough, 547 U.S. 573, 126 S.Ct. 2096, 165 L.Ed.2d 44 (2006), and Nelson v. Campbell, 541 U.S. 637, 124 S.Ct. 2117, 158 L.Ed.2d 924 (2004), “Adams’s lethal-injection claim, if successful, could render his death sentence effectively invalid. Further, Nelson’s statement that ‘method-of-execution challenges [ ] fall at the margins of habeas,’ 541 U.S. at 646, 124 S.Ct. 2117, strongly suggests that claims such as Adams’s can be brought in habeas.” Adams v. Bradshaw, 644 F.3d 481, 483 (6th Cir.2011). We remanded the case to the district court.

In 2013, the district court indicated that it had complied with our requests set forth in the 2009 order of remand. Further, the court denied: (1) Adams’s motions for additional discovery and to take judicial notice of another case, which involved a challenge to Ohio’s lethal injection protocol brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 being litigated in federal district court in the [288]*288Southern District of Ohio; and (2) the warden’s motion for summary judgment.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

A district court’s grant or denial of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus is reviewed de novo. Robins v. Fortner, 698 F.3d 317, 328 (6th Cir.2012). We review the district court’s findings of fact for clear error and its legal conclusions on mixed questions of law and fact de novo. Henderson v. Palmer, 730 F.3d 554, 559 (6th Cir.2013). Because Adams filed his habeas corpus petition in 2006, it is subject to the requirements of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), which became effective on April 24, 1996. Nali v. Phillips, 681 F.3d 837, 840 (6th Cir.2012) (citing Woodford v. Garceau, 538 U.S. 202, 210, 123 S.Ct. 1398, 155 L.Ed.2d 363 (2003)). Under AEDPA, a writ may not be granted unless the state court’s adjudication of the claim:

(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 States; or
(2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.

28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). “Under the ‘contrary to’ clause, § 2254(d)(1), ‘a federal habeas court may grant the writ if the state court arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by [the Supreme Court] on a question of law or if the state court decides a case differently than [the Supreme Court] has on a set of materially indistinguishable facts.’ ” Campbell v. Bradshaw, 674 F.3d 578, 585 (6th Cir.2012) (quoting Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 412-13, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000)). “Under the ‘unreasonable application’ clause, a federal habeas court may grant the writ if the state court identifies the correct governing legal principle from the Supreme Court’s decisions but unreasonably applies that principle to the facts of the petitioner’s case.” Hodges v. Colson, 727 F.3d 517, 525 (6th Cir.2013) (quoting Williams, 529 U.S. at 413, 120 S.Ct. 1495). “[T]he state court’s factual findings are presumed correct unless rebutted by the habeas petitioner by clear and convincing evidence.” Id. at 526 (citing 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1)).

DISCUSSION

I. Constitutional effect of the stun belt

We turn first to Adams’s contention that the use of a stun belt throughout the jury trial deprived him of a fundamentally fair trial. Before the completion of jury selection, the trial court conducted a hearing concerning the use of a stun belt. The prosecution explained that its motion to use the stun belt in this case stemmed from Adams’s recent convictions and sentencing for murder and rape in an unrelated case as well as Adams’s statements to two mental health professionals indicating that he would attack his previous counsel if he saw them again.

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Bluebook (online)
817 F.3d 284, 2016 FED App. 0065P, 2016 WL 963862, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 4678, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-bradshaw-ca6-2016.