Shaw v. Scully

654 F. Supp. 859, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJanuary 13, 1987
Docket85 Civ. 7565(RJW)
StatusPublished
Cited by47 cases

This text of 654 F. Supp. 859 (Shaw v. Scully) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shaw v. Scully, 654 F. Supp. 859, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129 (S.D.N.Y. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

ROBERT J. WARD, District Judge.

Petitioner David Shaw pleaded guilty to five counts of Robbery in the First Degree in 1980. He now petitions for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. His petition challenges the trial court’s decision not to suppress evidence and identifications that followed from his warrantless arrest and that eventually led to his guilty plea. In addition, he contends that he was deprived of effective assistance of counsel. For the reasons hereinafter stated, the Court denies the petition.

BACKGROUND

A. Facts.

Petitioner challeges a judgment entered October 29, 1980 in the Supreme Court of New York, Bronx County, (Grey, J.), on his plea of guilty to five counts of Robbery in the First Degree, see N.Y. Penal Law § 160.15.

During December 1979, Detective Taylor began investigating a series of armed robberies that had occurred at retail food stores in the Bronx. James Preston, a suspect in the robberies, told Taylor that “Dave” who lived at 168th Street and Third Avenue in the Bronx was responsible for the robberies. After determining the last name of this second suspect by interviewing the landlord of the apartment building, Taylor ordered photographs of David Shaw, the petitioner. On January 17,1980, an employee of a store that had been robbed about a month earlier picked Shaw's photograph out of an array. On January 24, 1980, Police Officer Cote and *861 Detectives Taylor, Schudde and McGary traveled to the apartment in the Bronx where Shaw resided.

The parties dispute the circumstances of Shaw’s arrest at the apartment. Respondents contend that Detective Taylor knocked on the apartment door and announced that he was a police officer. One of the apartment’s occupants supposedly came to the door and looked through the peephole. Detective McGary, who had been stationed on the roof, then alerted the others that petitioner had escaped through a rear window and was climbing a fire escape to the roof. McGary arrested Shaw on the roof. Shaw contends, by contrast, that the police forced their way into the apartment. Pam Milton, the lessee of the apartment, testified that petitioner looked out the door, walked back to the bedroom and fled the apartment. She admitted that the detectives arrested Shaw outside the apartment. By Milton’s account, however, the police forced the apartment door open. William Prince, the building superintendent testified that he repaired the door several days after the incident by replacing a pin in the door hinge.

Following his arrest, Shaw was advised of his constitutional rights and taken to the precinct house to be interviewed by Detective Mockler. Mockler again read appellant his Miranda warnings. During this questioning, Shaw admitted having robbed a McDonald’s restaurant, but he denied involvement in any of the robberies under investigation. Three robbery victims subsequently identified petitioner in a lineup.

Before trial, Shaw moved to suppress the statements he had made to Mockler and to strike proposed identification testimony on the ground that they were the tainted products of an unlawful arrest. On September 15 through September 20, Justice Grey held an omnibus hearing on Shaw’s motions. In a written decision, the judge held that the photographic identification procedure employed by the police in soliciting information concerning the rash of robberies was not suggestive and furthermore that the prospective in-court identification of Shaw rested on an independent source. The trial judge also held that Shaw’s arrest was constitutional because the police had apprehended him on the roof of the apartment building. After failing to have the identifications and other evidence suppressed, Shaw pleaded guilty to five counts of Robbery in the First Degree. On the basis of a plea bargain Shaw was sentenced to an indeterminate term of imprisonment of from four and one-half to nine years.

B. Procedural History.

The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, unanimously affirmed without opinion petitioner’s conviction on December 3, 1981. People v. Shaw, 85 A.D.2d 934, 447 N.Y.S.2d 571 (1st Dep’t 1981). On February 24, 1982, the New York Court of Appeals denied leave to appeal. People v. Shaw, 55 N.Y.2d 1045, 449 N.Y.S.2d 1038, 434 N.E.2d 1089 (1982). Petitioner then filed his first application for a writ of habeas corpus in the district court for the Northern District of New York. At petitioner’s behest, the district court dismissed the petition without prejudice on June 23,1983. Shaw next filed a motion in state court to vacate judgment pursuant to N.Y.Crim.Proc. Law § 440.10. That motion was denied in all respects on the merits on September 27, 1983. The New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department denied Shaw permission to appeal the order denying the motion to vacate judgment. On December 29, 1983, the Honorable Matthew J. Jasen certified that the December 8, 1983 decision by the Appellate Division was not appealable.

Following the final denial of his motion to vacate judgment, Shaw filed the instant petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He alleges first that the trial court admitted tainted evidence that had been seized after his warrantless, and henceforth unlawful, arrest in violation of the Fourth Amendment and secondly that he was deprived of effective assistance of counsel at both the *862 trial and appellate stages of his prosecution. 1

DISCUSSION

Application for habeas corpus relief may not be addressed on the merits by a federal court until the petitioner has exhausted available state court remedies. See Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 92 S.Ct. 509, 30 L.Ed.2d 438 (1971). 2 The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has defined what constitutes “exhaustion” in the context of federal habeas corpus petitions.

The exhaustion requirement is not satisfied unless the federal claim has been “fairly presented” to the state courts. In order to have fairly presented his federal claim to the state courts the petitioner must have informed the state court of both the factual and the legal premises of the claim he asserts in federal court.

Daye v. Attorney General, 696 F.2d 186, 191 (2d Cir.1982) (en banc) (citations omitted). In Daye, the Second Circuit held that a claim may be viewed as having been fairly presented to the state courts “even without citing chapter and verse of the Constitution” if the state court application includes

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Bluebook (online)
654 F. Supp. 859, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shaw-v-scully-nysd-1987.