Neil Chapman v. Robert Lampert

371 F. App'x 742
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMarch 17, 2010
Docket09-35271
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 371 F. App'x 742 (Neil Chapman v. Robert Lampert) 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
Neil Chapman v. Robert Lampert, 371 F. App'x 742 (9th Cir. 2010).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM **

Petitioner Neil Chapman (Chapman) appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Chapman seeks ha-beas relief from his state court conviction for thirteen counts arising from the sexual abuse of his daughter, “B.C.”, on the ground that he was denied his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. Because the parties are familiar with the facts and procedural history, we do not restate them here except as necessary to explain our disposition. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253. We affirm.

*744 We review de novo the district court’s denial of habeas relief. Dows v. Wood, 211 F.3d 480, 484 (9th Cir.2000). Habeas relief is warranted only if 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), or “was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding,” id. § 2254(d)(2). We review de novo a district court’s conclusions regarding procedural default. Pirtle v. Morgan, 313 F.3d 1160, 1168 (9th Cir.2002). We review a district court’s decision to grant or deny an evidentiary hearing for abuse of discretion. Estrada v. Scribner, 512 F.3d 1227, 1235 (9th Cir.2008).

To succeed on an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, the petitioner must show: (1) “that counsel’s performance was deficient” and (2) “that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense.” Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 686-87, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Chapman’s habeas petition raises three grounds upon which his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective: (1) the failure to investigate and call Steve Chapman as a witness; (2) the failure to investigate and call Stephan White as a witness; and (3) the failure to investigate and obtain B.C.’s medical records. Chapman’s petition fails on all three grounds.

We affirm the district court’s finding that Chapman failed to exhaust his ineffective assistance claim for failing to investigate and call Steve Chapman as a witness, and that the claim is therefore procedurally defaulted. See Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 275, 92 S.Ct. 509, 30 L.Ed.2d 438 (1971). A state prisoner must exhaust all constitutional claims in state court before a federal court can consider them. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(1)(A), (c). To fully and fairly present a claim to the state courts, a petitioner “must describe in the state proceedings both the operative facts and the federal legal theory on which his claim is based so that the state courts have a fair opportunity to apply controlling legal principles to the facts bearing upon the constitutional claim.” Kelly v. Small, 315 F.3d 1063, 1066 (9th Cir.2003) (internal quotation marks omitted), overruled on other grounds by Robbins v. Carey, 481 F.3d 1143, 1149 (9th Cir.2007).

Chapman failed to present the operative facts of his ineffective assistance claim relating to Steve Chapman’s testimony, to the Oregon Court of Appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court. His briefs to both state courts of appeal argued ineffective assistance of counsel only in relation to the testimony of Stephan White, thereby depriving Oregon’s appellate courts “the opportunity to pass upon and correct” the alleged violation of Chapman’s federal right related to Steve Chapman’s testimony. Baldwin v. Reese, 541 U.S. 27, 29, 124 S.Ct. 1347, 158 L.Ed.2d 64 (2004) (internal quotation marks omitted). Chapman concedes that he did not exhaust his remedies as to his ineffective assistance claim related to B.C.’s medical records, and that claim is procedurally defaulted as well.

Chapman argues that he has overcome his procedural default as to these two claims by establishing “gateway” actual innocence under Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298, 115 S.Ct. 851, 130 L.Ed.2d 808 (1995). A petitioner may overcome a procedural default by (1) producing “new reliable evidence [of innocence] — whether it be exculpatory scientific evidence, trustworthy eyewitness accounts, or critical physical evidence — that was not presented at trial,” id. at 324, 115 S.Ct. 851, and (2) showing “that it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have convicted him in the light of the new evidence,” id. at 327, 115 S.Ct. 851. To dem *745 onstrate actual innocence under Schlup, a petitioner must show “factual innocence, not mere legal insufficiency.” Bousley v. United States, 523 U.S. 614, 623, 118 S.Ct. 1604, 140 L.Ed.2d 828 (1998).

Chapman presents several items in support of his actual innocence claim, including B.C.’s medical records and affidavits from ex-wife Stella Chapman, the daughters from his prior marriage to Rose Chapman, Stephan White, and Steve Chapman. Although Chapman has presented some impeachment evidence, that evidence does not fundamentally call into question the reliability of Chapman’s conviction. It does not rise to the level of evidence that this court has previously found to satisfy the Schlup standard. Compare Carriger v. Stewart, 132 F.3d 463, 471-72, 478-79 (9th Cir.1997) (en banc) (holding that the petitioner satisfied the Schlup standard where the prosecution’s chief witness against the petitioner, who had been convicted and sentenced to death for murder, later confessed in open court that he was the murderer and that he had framed the petitioner) with Sis-trunk v. Armenakis, 292 F.3d 669, 673-76 (9th Cir.2002) (en banc) (holding that the petitioner could not pass through the Schlup gateway where new evidence presented by the petitioner, who had been convicted of raping an eleven-year-old girl, revealed inaccuracies in the expert’s testimony and had some impeachment value related to the victim’s testimony).

At trial, B.C.

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371 F. App'x 742, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/neil-chapman-v-robert-lampert-ca9-2010.