Sharkey v. Williams

District Court, D. Nevada·Decided July 19, 2022·No. 2:20-cv-00253·Unknown

Opinion

1 2 3 4

5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 7 James Sharkey, Case No.: 2:20-cv-00253-KJD-DJA

8 Petitioner, Order 9 v.

10 Brian Williams, et al.,

11 Respondents.

13 Before the court for a decision on the merits is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed 14 by James Sharkey, a former prisoner of the Nevada Department of Corrections. ECF No. 6. For 15 reasons that follow, the petition will be denied. 16 I. BACKGROUND 17 In January 2018, Sharkey stood trial in the Eighth Judicial District Court for Nevada on a 18 charge of battery constituting domestic violence in relation to an incident that occurred in May 19 2016. Sharkey was accused of grabbing his wife, Andrea, by the waist and pushing her. Sharkey 20 represented himself at trial with the assistance of stand-by counsel. After a three-day trial at 21 which both Andrea and Sharkey testified, the jury returned a verdict of guilty. The court 22 subsequently adjudged Sharkey guilty of a category C felony for his third conviction within 23 seven years. He was sentenced to 24-60 months, with 401 days credit for time served. 1 Sharkey appealed his conviction. The Nevada Court of Appeals affirmed. In April 2019, 2 Sharkey filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the state district court. The court dismissed 3 several claims as procedurally barred and denied on the merits Sharkey’s claims of ineffective 4 assistance of appellate counsel. Sharkey appealed.

5 Prior to a decision on his post-conviction appeal, Sharkey initiated this federal habeas 6 proceeding on or about January 29, 2020, by submitting a petition containing twelve claims. In 7 its screening order, this court questioned whether Sharkey had exhausted state court remedies for 8 any of the claims. Accordingly, the court gave Sharkey 30 days to either (1) show cause why the 9 court should not dismiss this action as unexhausted or (2) file a motion for stay and abeyance. 10 Sharkey filed a response that did not address the exhaustion issue or set forth sufficient grounds 11 for stay and abeyance. 12 Nonetheless, the court took judicial notice of an order of affirmance entered by the 13 Nevada Court of Appeals on April 27, 2020. Sharkey v. Dzurenda, No. 79294-COA, 2020 WL 14 2042968 62 P.3d 260 (Nev. App. April 27, 2020). That order established that Sharkey had

15 exhausted at least some of his claims. Id. The court directed respondents to respond to the 16 petition. 17 In December 2020, respondents filed a motion to dismiss to which Sharkey did not 18 respond. In granting the motion, the court dismissed several grounds for failure to state a claim 19 for relief and directed Sharkey to show cause why two additional grounds should not be 20 dismissed as procedurally defaulted. When Sharkey again failed to respond, the court dismissed 21 those grounds and gave Sharkey 30 days to show cause why his case should not be dismissed 22 with prejudice under Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(b) due to his failure to respond to court orders or file 23 anything for over a year. 1 When Sharkey filed a response to that order, the court ordered respondents to file an 2 answer to Sharkey’s remaining grounds for relief – i.e., Grounds 2, 3, 4(A) and 5, which all 3 allege ineffective assistance of appellate counsel. The respondents filed an answer, in response to 4 which Sharkey has filed a reply.

5 II. STANDARD OF REVIEW 6 This action is governed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), 7 which sets forth the following standard of review: 8 An application for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court shall not be granted with respect to any 9 claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings unless the adjudication of the claim – 10 (1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable 11 application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or 12 (2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the 13 facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.

14 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). A decision of a state court is "contrary to" clearly established federal law if 15 the state court applies a rule that contradicts the governing law set forth in Supreme Court cases 16 or if the state court decides a case differently than the Supreme Court has on a set of materially 17 indistinguishable facts. Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 405-06 (2000). An "unreasonable 18 application" occurs when "a state-court decision unreasonably applies the law of [the Supreme 19 Court] to the facts of a prisoner's case." Id. at 409. "[A] federal habeas court may not "issue the 20 writ simply because that court concludes in its independent judgment that the relevant state-court 21 decision applied clearly established federal law erroneously or incorrectly." Id. at 411. 22 The Supreme Court has explained that "[a] federal court's collateral review of a state- 23 court decision must be consistent with the respect due state courts in our federal system." Miller- 1 El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 340 (2003). The "AEDPA thus imposes a 'highly deferential 2 standard for evaluating state-court rulings,' and 'demands that state-court decisions be given the 3 benefit of the doubt.'" Renico v. Lett, 559 U.S. 766, 773 (2010) (quoting Lindh v. Murphy, 521 4 U.S. 320, 333, n. 7 (1997); Woodford v. Viscotti, 537 U.S. 19, 24 (2002) (per curiam)). "A state

5 court's determination that a claim lacks merit precludes federal habeas relief so long as 6 'fairminded jurists could disagree' on the correctness of the state court's decision." Harrington v. 7 Richter, 562 U.S. 86, 101 (2011) (citing Yarborough v. Alvarado, 541 U.S. 652, 664 (2004)). 8 The Supreme Court has emphasized "that even a strong case for relief does not mean the state 9 court's contrary conclusion was unreasonable." Id. (citing Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63, 75 10 (2003)); see also Cullen v. Pinholster, 563 U.S. 170, 181 (2011) (describing the AEDPA 11 standard as "a difficult to meet and highly deferential standard for evaluating state-court rulings, 12 which demands that state-court decisions be given the benefit of the doubt") (internal quotation 13 marks and citations omitted). 14 "[A] federal court may not second-guess a state court's fact-finding process unless, after

15 review of the state-court record, it determines that the state court was not merely wrong, but 16 actually unreasonable." Taylor v. Maddox, 366 F.3d 992, 999 (9th Cir. 2004), overruled on other 17 grounds by Murray v. Schriro, 745 F.3d 984, 999–1000 (9th Cir. 2014).; see also Miller-El, 537 18 U.S. at 340 ("[A] decision adjudicated on the merits in a state court and based on a factual 19 determination will not be overturned on factual grounds unless objectively unreasonable in light 20 of the evidence presented in the state-court proceeding, § 2254(d)(2).").

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