Diaz v. Scully

641 F. Supp. 1037
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJuly 15, 1986
DocketNos. 85 Civ. 3997 (VLB), 85 Civ. 6048 (VLB)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 641 F. Supp. 1037 (Diaz v. Scully) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Diaz v. Scully, 641 F. Supp. 1037 (S.D.N.Y. 1986).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM ORDER

VINCENT L. BRODERICK, District Judge.

Petitioners Diaz and Cintron each seek a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 to set aside judgments of the New York State Supreme Court, which convicted them of kidnapping in the first degree and robbery in the first degree on March 21, 1980.1 Petitioners, along with another defendant, Aníbal Caballero,2 were sentenced to an indeterminate term of 15 years to life on the kidnapping count and seven years on the robbery count.

Petitioners appealed their convictions to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department. By orders dated June 3, 1982 the judgments against the petitioners were affirmed without decision. Petitioners then sought leave to appeal their convictions to the New York Court of Appeals. By orders dated July 8,1982 and July 28, 1982, leave was denied.

Each petitioner now asserts two grounds for habeas corpus relief: (1) the trial judge diluted the reasonable doubt standard by instructing the jury that “the People do not have to prove as to each defendant, each of the elements of the crime, if you find that they were intentionally aiding each other.” Transcript (hereinafter “T.”) at 2199; (2) the prosecutor abused his peremptory challenges by eliminating Blacks and particularly Black women from the jury.

Because the bases in each petition for relief sought are identical and stem from the same set of operative facts at trial, I consolidate the two petitions, and treat them together.

I.

Respondent claims that this court has no jurisdiction to hear the petitions because the petitioners have failed to exhaust their state remedies. He contends that petitioners never alerted the state court to the federal constitutional nature of the jury charge claim and therefore the petitions must be dismissed, or alternatively, petitioners must delete the unexhausted claim.

If a state prisoner has not exhausted his state court remedies, dismissal of the petition by the federal court is required. Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 276, 92 S.Ct. 509, 512, 30 L.Ed.2d 438 (1971); Wilson v. Fogg, 571 F.2d 91, 92 (2d Cir.1978). A petition which asserts both [1039]*1039exhausted and unexhausted claims must be dismissed until the petitioner returns to state court to litigate his unexhausted claims, or amends his petition to delete them. Rose v. Lundy, 455 U.S. 509, 520-21, 102 S.Ct. 1198, 1204-05, 71 L.Ed.2d 379 (1982).

In order to have exhausted state remedies as to a particular claim, a petitioner must have presented the claim in state court in a manner likely to have alerted the court to the federal nature of the claim. Daye v. Attorney General of the State of New York, 696 F.2d 186, 192 (2d Cir.1982), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1048, 104 S.Ct. 723, 79 L.Ed.2d 184 (1984). “A defendant may, however, fairly present the substance of a federal constitutional claim to the state court without citing ‘book and verse on the federal constitution.’ ” Daye, 696 F.2d at 192 (citations omitted). “[T]he state court will be alerted to the constitutional nature of a claim if the defendant has claimed the deprivation of a particular right specifically protected by the Constitution.” Id. at 193.

In the trial of these petitioners, petitioners excepted to the contested portion of the charge. T. 2232-33. In his appellate brief, petitioner Diaz raised the question of dilution of the reasonable doubt standard by the contested portion of the charge. See Appellate Division Brief of Defendant-Appellant Diaz at 53. This constituted adequate notice to the Appellate Division of the federal constitutional nature of the jury charge claim. Thus petitioner Diaz has exhausted his state court remedies and I have jurisdiction to address the petition on the merits. While it is less clear that petitioner Cintron raised this issue before the Appellate Division, see Appellate Division Brief of Defendant-Appellant Cintron at 36-38, judicial economy suggests that I impute Diaz’s exhaustion to Cintron.

II.

In their first claim for relief, petitioners argue that their due process rights were violated through dilution of the reasonable doubt standard by the trial court’s instruction to the jury that “the People do not have to prove as to each defendant, each of the elements of the crime, if you find that they were intentionally aiding each other.” T. 2199.

It is a fundamental principle of American criminal law that in order that a defendant be convicted on any charge, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt, as to that defendant, each element of the crime charged. Where, however, under New York law a given defendant intentionally aids another person to commit a crime, he is guilty of the crime when he acts “with the mental culpability required for the commission thereof”:

When one person engages in conduct which constitutes an offense, another person is criminally liable for such conduct when, acting with the mental culpability required for the commission thereof, he solicits, requests, commands, importunes, or intentionally aids such person to engage in such conduct.

New York Penal Law § 20.00.

In such situations the elements of the crime must be proven; it is not necessary that the prosecutor establish that the actor with respect to those elements was the defendant, so long as all of the elements are established beyond a reasonable doubt as to some other actor or actors, and it is further established beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, acting with the “mental culpability” required for the commission of the crime, intentionally aided the actor.

It was in the course of the trial judge’s explication of Penal Law § 20 that the challenged sentence, underlined below, occurred:

Now I have mentioned throughout these charges, reference to the defendant or one whom he intentionally aided.
Under the law of the State of New York and members of the jury, a person is criminally responsible for an offense not only when he directly commits it, but when he intentionally aids in its commission.
[1040]*1040This basic principle is stated in our law and reads as follows:
“When one person engages in conduct which constitutes an offense, another person is criminally liable for such conduct, when, acting with the mental culpability required for the commission thereof — and I’ll explain that term — he solicits, requests, demands, importunes or intentionally aids such person to engage in such conduct.”
Now again, you may recall, as I said, there was reference to a fourth person, and under the law, in any prosecution for an offense in which the criminal liability of a defendant is based upon the conduct of another person, if you find that it’s based on the conduct of this fourth person, it’s no defense that such person is not being prosecuted for this conduct in question.

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641 F. Supp. 1037, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/diaz-v-scully-nysd-1986.