Nevius v. Sumner

105 F.3d 453
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided December 11, 1996·No. CA Nos. 86-2878, 96-80322 and 96-99015·Published·Cited by 227 cases

Opinion

OPINION

CANBY, Circuit Judge:

Thomas Nevius, a Nevada state prisoner under sentence of death, brings three matters before this court. First, he appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to file a petition for writ of habeas corpus. No. 96-99015. Second, he moves this court to recall its eight-year-old mandate in Nevius v. Sumner, 852 F.2d 468 (9th Cir.1988) (“Nevius I”), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1059, 109 S.Ct. 1972, 104 L.Ed.2d 441 (1989). No. 86-2878. Third, he moves this court for authorization to file a second petition for writ of habeas corpus in the district court — an authorization now required by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(3)(A).1 No. 96-80322.

We affirm the district court’s denial of Nevius’ motion to file a petition for writ of habeas corpus and deny Nevius’ motion to recall our mandate.2 By separate order, however, we have granted Nevius leave to file a second petition for writ of habeas corpus.

I.

BACKGROUND

In 1982, Thomas Nevius, a black man, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death by an all-white jury. For a statement of the facts surrounding the murder, see Nevius v. State, 101 Nev. 238, 699 P.2d 1053, 1054-57 (1985).

At trial, the prosecutor used his peremptory challenges to remove all of the prospective minority jurors. In response to defense objection, the prosecutor voluntarily placed in the record his ostensibly race-neutral reasons for challenging the minority jurors. According to one of Nevius’ trial counsel, it was common knowledge at the time that the district attorney’s office engaged in a practice of removing black jurors in cases involving black defendants, but defense counsel did not obtain or present evidence of that practice to bolster Nevius’ claim that the prosecutor’s use of his peremptory challenges violated Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965), and our decision in Weathersby v. Morris, 708 F.2d 1493 (9th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 1046, 104 S.Ct. 719, 79 L.Ed.2d 181 (1984).3

Some months after trial, one of Nevius’ trial counsel had a conversation with the prosecutor about Nevius’ case. According to trial counsel, the prosecutor said at some point in the conversation: “[Y]ou don’t think Í wanted all those niggers on my jury, did you?” Nevius’ counsel did not, however, seek to place this statement before the trial court in a motion for new trial, nor did counsel attempt to place the statement before the Nevada Supreme Court, in which Nevius’ direct appeal was then pending.

On direct appeal, the Nevada Supreme Court affirmed Nevius’ conviction and sentence. The court held that Nevius’ Swain claim was insufficiently supported, because, contrary to the requirements of Swain, it relied solely on the exclusion of minority jurors in Nevius’. own case. The court also held that the prosecutor’s asserted reasons for challenging all of the prospective minority [456] jurors were proper. Nevius, 699 P.2d at 1058-59,1059 n. 3.

Following the Nevada Supreme Court’s denial of his petition for rehearing, Nevius attempted to obtain collateral relief in state court. The state district court summarily dismissed Nevius’ petition for writ of habeas corpus on the merits and because it was filed in the wrong venue. Nevius then filed another petition, correcting the venue problem. That petition was also summarily dismissed on the merits.

Nevius then appealed the denial of his two post-conviction petitions to the Nevada Supreme Court and also petitioned for a writ of mandamus. The Nevada Supreme Court dismissed his appeals and denied his petition for a writ of mandamus.

The same day that the Nevada Supreme Court rejected his appeals and mandamus petition, Nevius filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus with the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. In his petition, Nevius sought discovery to establish that the prosecutor had made the statement about not wanting “all those niggers on my jury.” 4 The state opposed discovery on the ground that counsel — the same counsel who had represented Nevius at trial, on direct appeal, and in all of the state post-conviction proceedings — had waived reliance on that evidence by failing to assert it in the earlier state proceedings. No claim of ineffective assistance of trial and appellate counsel was raised before the district court. The district court denied Nevius’ motion for discovery without holding an evidentiary hearing, and denied Nevius’ petition for writ of habeas corpus.

On appeal, we affirmed the district court’s denial of Nevius’ petition on the ground that the prosecutor’s reasons for challenging all of the minority jurors at Nevius’ trial satisfied the requirements of Weatkersby. Nevius I, 852 F.2d at 467-68. We noted, however, the existence of “serious allegations” concerning the prosecutor’s statements that, if proven, “might have presented in a different light the factual issues concerning the motivation of the prosecutor in exercising his peremptory challenges.” Id. at 469-70. Because those statements were not in the record, however, they were not before us. We held that they would have to be presented to the state courts and a record made before we could consider them. Id.

Following our decision, Nevius filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the state district court, in which he attempted to use the prosecutor’s statements to bolster his Swain-Weathersby claim. Although ordered to answer the petition by August 23, 1989, the state did not file an answer, and took no action with respect to the petition, for almost five years. Then, on April 11,1994, the state filed a motion to dismiss the petition on procedural grounds. Without conducting an evidentiary hearing, the state district court then denied Nevius’ petition.

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Nevius v. Sumner, 105 F.3d 453 (9th Cir. 1996).

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