S. Washington v. Rick Thaler, Director

714 F.3d 352, 2013 WL 1845604, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 9020
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedMay 2, 2013
Docket12-20079
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 714 F.3d 352 (S. Washington v. Rick Thaler, Director) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
S. Washington v. Rick Thaler, Director, 714 F.3d 352, 2013 WL 1845604, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 9020 (5th Cir. 2013).

Opinion

*353 PER CURIAM:

Petitioner, S.A. Doris Washington, a Texas state prisoner, was convicted by a jury of aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon and sentenced to a 55-year term of imprisonment. His conviction was affirmed on direct appeal. Washington applied for state habeas relief. Washington claimed, inter alia, that he was denied the right to an impartial jury and a fair trial due to the bias of a juror. Specifically, Washington asserted that his trial attorney, Kurt Wentz, had rendered ineffective assistance by failing either to challenge for cause or strike Juror Number 12.

The trial, court record includes the following exchange between trial counsel and Juror Number 12 during voir dire:

MR. WENTZ: The Judge has talked to you about the Fifth Amendment, as well as [the State]. How many of you would require a defendant to testify at his trial?
You’ve known this forever, basically, ever since you were taking civics in junior high school and high school. That doesn’t mean we don’t have our own feeling about this. How many simply would require a defendant to testify at his trial or they would hold it against him if he didn’t?
THE JUROR: Number 12.
MR. WENTZ: In other words, you could not really accord the defendant his Fifth Amendment right?
THE JUROR: Although it is his choice, to me, if it was me to—if I was on that side I would feel I need to say whether I did or didn’t, explain why. So I would be leaning towards the prosecution if he didn’t testify in his own behalf.
MR. WENTZ: So you would—
THE JUROR: It’s an integrity issue for me.
MR. WENTZ: But basically, I know where you’re coming from and I under- • stand what you’re saying, but I think what you’re saying—
THE JUROR: I would hold it against him, yes.

Following these remarks, neither the trial court, the petitioner’s lawyer, nor the prosecutor followed up on Juror Number 12’s statement with further inquiry. Neither party challenged or struck Juror Number 12, and so he sat on the jury that convicted Washington.

The state habeas court ordered Mr. Wentz to file an affidavit. Finding Wentz’s affidavit to be credible, the state habeas court adopted the following findings of fact and conclusions of law proposed by the respondent regarding Juror Number 12:

9. According to the credible affidavit of Kurt Wentz, juror number 12 did not say that he could not follow the law with respect to affording the applicant his 5th Amendment right not to testify, thereby giving counsel a reason to strike him for cause.
10. According to the credible affidavit of Kurt Wentz, and supported by the record, juror number 12 said that whether or not a defendant, testified was an issue of integrity.
11. According to the credible affidavit of Kurt Wentz, counsel did not use a peremptory strike on juror number 12 because counsel believed it was good strategy to keep him—specifically, that because this juror believed in the concept of integrity, he would judge harshly the accomplice witness testimony against the applicant.

The state habeas court recommended that relief be denied. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied relief without a written order or hearing based on the findings of the trial court.

Washington then filed a 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition, raising, inter alia, *354 the above claims of denial of a fair trial-due to juror bias and ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Respondent Thaler filed a motion for summary judgment, and the district court granted that motion in part, dismissing all of Washington’s claims except those for trial court error and ineffective assistance of counsel relating to the bias of Juror Number 12. After further briefing on those issues, Thaler filed a supplemental motion for summary judgment on those issues, which the district court granted. The district court granted Washington a certificate of appealability limited to the question of whether the trial court denied Washington a fair trial by not dismissing, sua sponte, Juror Number 12. We denied Washington’s request to expand the COA grant to include his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.

On habeas review, we review the district court’s findings of fact for dear error and its legal conclusions de novo. Summers v. Dretke, 431 F.3d 861, 868 (5th Cir.2005). Where the petitioner’s claim has been adjudicated on the merits by the state court, the federal court’s review of the state court’s decision is deferential. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).

Under § 2254(d)’s deferential standard, federal habeas relief cannot be granted unless the state court’s adjudication

either (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 ..., or (2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the state court proceeding.

Id. A state court’s decision is “contrary to ... clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court if: (1) the state court applies a rule that contradicts the governing law set forth in [the Supreme Court’s] cases, or (2) the state court confronts a set of facts that are materially indistinguishable from a decision of [the Supreme] Court and nevertheless arrives at a result different from [Supreme Court] precedent.” Summers, 431 F.3d at 869 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

A state court unreasonably applies clearly established Supreme Court precedent “if the state court correctly identifies the governing legal rule but applies it unreasonably to the facts of a particular prisoner’s case.” Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). The unreasonableness inquiry is an objective one and does not ask whether the state court’s adjudication was merely “incorrect.” Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Instead, habeas relief is warranted only where the state court’s application of Supreme Court precedent is both incorrect and unreasonable. Id. Moreover, a state court’s factual findings are presumed correct unless the applicant rebuts that presumption by clear and convincing evidence. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1). Finally, § 2254(d) authorizes federal courts to review only a state court’s decision, not the written explanation for that decision. Summers, 431 F.3d at 868.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
714 F.3d 352, 2013 WL 1845604, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 9020, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/s-washington-v-rick-thaler-director-ca5-2013.