Sholes v. Cain

370 F. App'x 531
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedMarch 25, 2010
Docket08-30654
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 370 F. App'x 531 (Sholes v. Cain) 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
Sholes v. Cain, 370 F. App'x 531 (5th Cir. 2010).

Opinion

PER CURIAM: *

Kevin Sholes filed an application for ha-beas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district court denied relief. Sholes appeals, arguing violations of his due process rights and his right to effective assistance of counsel. We agree with the district court that the state court’s determination was not contrary to or an unreasonable application of federal law. Therefore, we AFFIRM.

Sholes was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. The Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed the conviction and sentence on direct appeal. The court’s opinion outlines the facts of the crime in further detail. State v. Sholes, 782 So.2d 691, 693-94 (La.App. 4th Cir.2001). The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s evidentia-ry rulings and found the evidence sufficient to establish Sholes’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The Louisiana Supreme Court denied all state writs. State v. Sholes, 810 So.2d 1136 (La.2002).

Sholes filed a pro se state post-conviction relief application, which was supplemented after he retained counsel. The trial court held a hearing on the claims and granted Sholes post-conviction relief. The Louisiana Supreme Court, though, reversed. State v. Sholes, 920 So.2d 212 (La.2006).

Sholes, represented by counsel, filed a Section 2254 application in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He alleged due process violations under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 86-87, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), and ineffective assistance of counsel. The magistrate judge examined each piece of withheld material and concluded that their withholding did not undermine confidence in the jury’s verdict. Each ineffective assistance of counsel claim was reviewed, and deficiency and prejudice were not found. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 686, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). The district court adopted the magistrate’s report, denying Sholes habeas relief. Proceeding pro se, Sholes appeals the district court’s judgment.

*533 DISCUSSION

We will not grant Section 2254 habeas relief to a state inmate unless the state court’s adjudication resulted in a decision that is “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). A state court’s decision is contrary to clearly established federal law if (1) the state court “applies a rule that contradicts the governing law” as announced by the Supreme Court, or (2) the state court decides a case with materially indistinguishable facts differently than the Supreme Court did. Mitchell v. Esparza, 540 U.S. 12, 15-16, 124 S.Ct. 7, 157 L.Ed.2d 268 (2008) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). A state court’s application of clearly established federal law is unreasonable when the state court “identifies the correct governing legal principle from Supreme Court precedent, but applies that principle to the case in an objectively unreasonable manner.” Woods v. Quarterman, 498 F.3d 580, 584 (5th Cir.2007) (citation and quotation marks omitted).

We review the district court’s conclusions of law in its consideration of the state court’s adjudication de novo and its conclusions of fact for clear error. Nelson v. Quarterman, 472 F.3d 287, 293 (5th Cir. 2006).

A. The Brady Claims

Sholes alleges that the State withheld evidence in violation of Brady. To establish a due process violation under Brady, the defendant must show that (1) the State withheld evidence, (2) the evidence was favorable to the defendant, and (3) the evidence was material to the defense. Avila v. Quarterman, 560 F.3d 299, 305 (5th Cir.2009) (citation omitted).

The State appears to concede that the evidence, consisting of three witness statements and a supplemental police report, was withheld from Sholes. We do not decide whether all the evidence was favorable to the defendant. Sholes’s claim under Brady fails because he has not shown that the Louisiana Supreme Court was unreasonable in finding the evidence immaterial.

Evidence is material “if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” Stickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 280, 119 S.Ct. 1936, 144 L.Ed.2d 286 (1999) (citation and quotation marks omitted). That does not mean that the petitioner must show that he would have been acquitted. Rather, we determine whether “the favorable evidence could reasonably be taken to put the whole case in such a different light as to undermine confidence in the verdict.” Youngblood v. West Virginia, 547 U.S. 867, 870, 126 S.Ct. 2188, 165 L.Ed.2d 269 (2006) (quoting Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 435, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995)). Our materiality inquiry is “a fact-intensive examination done on a careful, case-by-case basis.” Banks v. Thaler, 583 F.3d 295, 322 (5th Cir.2009).

Sholes alleges that confidence in the jury verdict is undermined because he could not effectively cross-examine the witnesses about inconsistencies in their statements. However, most of the inconsistencies alleged by Sholes are not actually inconsistencies or have little bearing on his guilt. Moreover, the alleged inconsistencies regarding the identification of Sholes as the perpetrator do not undermine confidence in the verdict where, as here, Sholes was known to the witnesses prior to the incident. In the context of the reliability of identification procedures, we have noted the prior familiarity between the identifier and the identified as part of the “thread of *534 reliability.” United States v. Hefferon, 314 F.3d 211, 219 (5th Cir.2002).

The Louisiana Supreme Court’s determination that the withheld evidence did not undermine confidence in the outcome of the verdict was not contrary to or an unreasonable application of federal law.

B. The Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claims

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Vanhalst v. Davis
E.D. Texas, 2020
Sholes v. Cain
178 L. Ed. 2d 192 (Supreme Court, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
370 F. App'x 531, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sholes-v-cain-ca5-2010.