Cooper-Smith v. Palmateer

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 15, 2005
Docket03-35794
StatusPublished

This text of Cooper-Smith v. Palmateer (Cooper-Smith v. Palmateer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cooper-Smith v. Palmateer, (9th Cir. 2005).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

MICHAEL T. COOPER-SMITH,  No. 03-35794 Petitioner-Appellant, v.  D.C. No. CV-00-00848-GMK JOAN PALMATEER, OPINION Respondent-Appellee.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon Garr M. King, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted December 8, 2004—Portland, Oregon

Filed February 16, 2005

Before: Thomas G. Nelson, Johnnie B. Rawlinson, Circuit Judges, and William W Schwarzer,* District Judge.

Opinion by Judge T.G. Nelson

*The Honorable William W Schwarzer, Senior United States District Judge for the Northern District of California, sitting by designation.

1933 1936 COOPER-SMITH v. PALMATEER

COUNSEL

Stephen R. Sady, Chief Deputy Public Defender, Portland, Oregon, for the petitioner-appellant. COOPER-SMITH v. PALMATEER 1937 Carolyn Alexander, Assistant Attorney General, Salem, Ore- gon, for the respondent-appellee.

OPINION

T. G. NELSON, Circuit Judge:

Michael Cooper-Smith appeals the district court’s denial of his writ of habeas corpus for alleged ineffective assistance of counsel. The district court denied Petitioner’s habeas petition after declining to expand the record under Rule 7 of the Rules Governing 28 U.S.C. § 2254 cases. Petitioner objects to this decision. Petitioner also presents the uncertified issue that his sentence violated Apprendi v. New Jersey.1 We have jurisdic- tion pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253. We affirm the district court’s denial of Petitioner’s habeas petition and its decision not to expand the record under Rule 7. We decline to expand the Certificate of Appealability in order to reach Petitioner’s Apprendi issue.

I. Procedural History and Facts

A. Procedural History

Petitioner Michael Cooper-Smith sought federal habeas relief on the basis that, inter alia, (1) his state trial counsel (“Counsel”) rendered ineffective assistance when he failed to pursue a motion to suppress evidence seized from Petitioner’s home and to suppress eyewitness identifications; (2) Counsel rendered ineffective assistance when he failed to call Petition- er’s doctor, Dr. True, as a witness at Petitioner’s sentencing hearing; and (3) the trial court violated Petitioner’s constitu- tional rights under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amend- ments when it imposed a dangerous offender sentence without the predicate facts being proven to a jury. 1 530 U.S. 466 (2000). 1938 COOPER-SMITH v. PALMATEER The district court analogized the ineffectiveness claim for Counsel’s failure to pursue the suppression motion to similar claims in the guilty plea context. The district court reviewed the claim unconstrained by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1)2 because the Oregon post-conviction trial court applied a standard that was “contrary to” Supreme Court precedent. The Oregon court applied a “more probable than not” standard rather than the Strickland v. Washington3 “reasonable probability” stan- dard. Applying Strickland, the district court denied the claim because Petitioner failed to demonstrate prejudice. The dis- trict court also declined to expand the record under Rule 7 to include a declaration from the Petitioner because he had not satisfied the requirements of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(2).4 2 Section 2254(d)(1) provides: An application for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court shall not be granted with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings unless the 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[.] 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). When a state court’s decision is contrary to clearly established Supreme Court precedent, “a federal court will be unconstrained by § 2254(d)(1).” Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 405-06 (2000) (“Williams I”). 3 466 U.S. 668, 694 (1984). 4 Section 2254(e)(2) provides: If the applicant has failed to develop the factual basis of a claim in State court proceedings, the court shall not hold an evidentiary hearing on the claim unless the applicant shows that— (A) the claim relies on— (i) a new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to cases on collateral review by the Supreme Court, that was previously unavailable; or (ii) a factual predicate that could not have been previously discovered through the exercise of due diligence; and COOPER-SMITH v. PALMATEER 1939 The district court also denied the ineffective assistance claim based on Counsel’s failure to call Dr. True at the sen- tencing hearing because Petitioner had failed to establish prej- udice. The district court concluded that Petitioner had failed to rebut the findings of fact of the post-conviction trial court that: (1) the sentencing judge considered Dr. True’s report and the information that was available to Dr. True at the time of his report; (2) the sentencing judge considered the Pre- Sentence Investigation Report; (3) the sentencing judge con- sidered the report and testimony of Dr. Colbach; (4) Petitioner is exactly the kind of offender for which the dangerous offender statutes are written; and (5) Petitioner failed to show his sentence would have differed had Dr. True been called to testify on his behalf.5 Accordingly, the district court con- cluded that Petitioner had failed to establish prejudice as the result of Counsel’s failure to call Dr. True, and that the post- conviction court’s rejection of his claim was not contrary to, or an unreasonable application of, Supreme Court precedent. The district court also declined to expand the record under Rule 7 to include an affidavit from Dr. True because of Peti- tioner’s failure to make the showing required by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(2).

Finally, the district court denied Petitioner’s Apprendi claim as meritless because the Apprendi decision has not been made retroactive to collateral proceedings.

(B) the facts underlying the claim would be sufficient to establish by clear and convincing evidence that but for con- stitutional error, no reasonable factfinder would have found the applicant guilty of the underlying offense. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(2). 5 See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1) (requiring that state court factual findings be presumed correct unless the habeas applicant rebuts that presumption with clear and convincing evidence). 1940 COOPER-SMITH v. PALMATEER After the district court denied Petitioner’s habeas petition, Petitioner received a Certificate of Appealability (“COA”) as to the ineffective assistance of counsel claims from the district court. In conjunction with these claims, Petitioner challenges the district court’s refusal to expand the record under Rule 7.

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Teague v. Lane
489 U.S. 288 (Supreme Court, 1989)
Saffle v. Parks
494 U.S. 484 (Supreme Court, 1990)
Williams v. Taylor
529 U.S. 420 (Supreme Court, 2000)
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530 U.S. 466 (Supreme Court, 2000)
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542 U.S. 296 (Supreme Court, 2004)
Schriro v. Summerlin
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Holland v. Jackson
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Cooper-Smith v. Palmateer, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cooper-smith-v-palmateer-ca9-2005.