Garcia v. Scully

538 F. Supp. 365, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12135
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedMay 10, 1982
DocketNo. CV 81 3860
StatusPublished

This text of 538 F. Supp. 365 (Garcia v. Scully) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garcia v. Scully, 538 F. Supp. 365, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12135 (E.D.N.Y. 1982).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

BRAMWELL, District Judge.

Petitioner Carlos Garcia, by petition dated November 18, 1981, seeks release from New York State custody pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (1976).

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Mr. Garcia was convicted of manslaughter in the first degree and felony murder after a jury trial before the Honorable Joseph R. Corso in Supreme Court, Kings County. On June 20, 1975, a judgment of conviction was entered sentencing petitioner to a term of imprisonment of ten to twenty years on the manslaughter count and a term of twenty-five years to life on the felony murder count. The terms were imposed to run concurrently.

The judgment of conviction was unanimously affirmed without opinion by the Appellate Division, Second Department. People v. Garcia, 58 A.D.2d 1043, 396 N.Y.S.2d 748 (2d Dept. 1977). Leave to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals was thereafter denied by the Honorable Sol Wachtler on September 9, 1977. People v. Garcia, 42 N.Y.2d 1002, 398 N.Y.S.2d 1045, 368 N.E.2d 51 (1977).

Mr. Garcia premises the instant petition on an alleged defect in the trial court’s charge on the intent required to convict on manslaughter. He claims that the “natural and probable consequences” intent charge given here was of the type recently condemned by the Supreme Court in Sandstrom v. Montana, 442 U.S. 510, 99 S.Ct. 2450, 61 L.Ed.2d 39 (1979), and therefore his conviction cannot stand.

In Sandstrom v. Montana, the Supreme Court reversed the defendant’s conviction for homicide on the ground that on the issue of intent the trial court had charged that “the law presumes that a person intends the ordinary consequences of his voluntary acts.” 442 U.S. at 512, 99 S.Ct. at 2453. The Court found that because such a charge either impermissibly shifted the People’s burden of proving every essential element of the crime to the defendant, or created a conclusive presumption of intent, it was unconstitutional. Id. at 519, 99 S.Ct. at 2456, see Patterson v. New York, 432 U.S. 197, 97 S.Ct. 2319, 53 L.Ed.2d 281 (1977); Mullaney v. Wilbur, 421 U.S. 684, 95 S.Ct. 1881, 44 L.Ed.2d 508 (1975); In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970) (unconstitutional shifting of burden of proof to defendants). See also United States v. United States Gypsum Company, 438 U.S. 422, 98 S.Ct. 2864, 57 L.Ed.2d 854 (1978); Morissette v. United States, 342 U.S. 246, 72 S.Ct. 240, 96 L.Ed. 288 (1952) (unconstitutional conclusive presumptions).

In the case at hand, the pertinent portion of the charge on manslaughter reads as follows:

There is a presumption of law upon which you may rely, that a person intends the natural and probable consequences of his act and unless an act is done under circumstances or conditions that might preclude the existence of such an intent, you, the jury, have the right to find intent from the results produced.

The respondents argue three points in opposition. They argue that petitioner is procedurally barred from raising the claim in this habeas proceeding because he failed to register a timely objection to the charge in conformity with N.Y.Crim.Proc. Law § 470.05(2). See Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977). In addition, they argue that petitioner failed to present the claim to the state courts in ‘ his direct appeal and therefore cannot be said to have exhausted state remedies available to him. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b), (c). Finally, on the merits, they argue that the charge on intent given here is distinguishable from the one condemned by the Supreme Court in Sandstrom.

PROCEDURAL DEFAULT

Petitioner concedes that his attorney at trial failed to register a timely objection to [367]*367the charge and this would constitute a procedural default barring habeas review within the meaning of Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977). Apparently conversant with the Wainwright case, petitioner goes on to characterize his attorney’s incompetence as being adequate “cause” for the default, thereby excusing him from the bar of Wainwright. Wainwright v. Sykes at 84, 97 S.Ct. at 2505.

The Supreme Court, in Sykes, held that a federal court presented with a habeas petitioner’s federal constitutional claim is barred from reaching the merits of such claims when a petitioner has failed, as a matter of state law, to comply with an available procedural mechanism by which he could have challenged an alleged constitutional violation. Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. at 74, 97 S.Ct. at 2499. Thereafter, the court went on to propound the so-called “cause and prejudice” test whereby such a procedural default could be eliminated as a bar to federal habeas review providing “cause” for the noncompliance plus a showing of actual “prejudice” from the constitutional violation could be shown. Id. at 84, 97 S.Ct. at 2505. See also Klein v. Harris, 667 F.2d 274, 284-85 (2d Cir. 1981).

The “cause and prejudice” analysis of Sykes is only triggered however, where “the federal court determines that the state courts have refused to hear a petitioner’s federal constitutional claim because of a state law procedural default.” Klein v. Harris, supra at 285. In a case such as the one at hand, where the state appellate courts affirm without opinion, this determination is sometimes difficult.

In the instant case however, the determination is, by virtue of a recent case law development, relatively easy. In Klein v. Harris, the Second Circuit instructs us that in a situation such as the one presented here, where the parties are in agreement that the federal constitutional claim was never raised on direct appeal, the Appellate Division’s silence cannot properly be construed as a finding of a procedural default. This would have to be so, in the Second Circuit’s opinion, because where “the New York appellate courts were not at [that] time even asked to consider Klein’s federal constitutional claim, [the Court could not] possibly hold that those courts invoked a state procedural rule to preclude their consideration of that claim.” Klein v. Harris, 667 F.2d at 286. [Emphasis in original]

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Related

Ex Parte Royall
117 U.S. 241 (Supreme Court, 1886)
Morissette v. United States
342 U.S. 246 (Supreme Court, 1952)
In Re WINSHIP
397 U.S. 358 (Supreme Court, 1970)
Picard v. Connor
404 U.S. 270 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Mullaney v. Wilbur
421 U.S. 684 (Supreme Court, 1975)
Patterson v. New York
432 U.S. 197 (Supreme Court, 1977)
Wainwright v. Sykes
433 U.S. 72 (Supreme Court, 1977)
Smith v. Digmon
434 U.S. 332 (Supreme Court, 1978)
United States v. United States Gypsum Co.
438 U.S. 422 (Supreme Court, 1978)
Sandstrom v. Montana
442 U.S. 510 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Rose v. Lundy
455 U.S. 509 (Supreme Court, 1982)
Fielding v. LeFevre
548 F.2d 1102 (Second Circuit, 1977)

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Bluebook (online)
538 F. Supp. 365, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12135, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garcia-v-scully-nyed-1982.