Stewart v. Mackie

196 F. Supp. 3d 734, 2016 WL 3689946, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89958
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedJuly 12, 2016
DocketCivil No. 2:15-CV-11843
StatusPublished

This text of 196 F. Supp. 3d 734 (Stewart v. Mackie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stewart v. Mackie, 196 F. Supp. 3d 734, 2016 WL 3689946, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89958 (E.D. Mich. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER CONDITIONALLY GRANTING THE PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

Gerald E. Rosen, United States District Judge

Larry Devel Stewart, (“Petitioner”), incarcerated at the Oaks Correctional Facility in Manistee, Michigan, filed a pro se petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, challenging his convictions for first-degree felony murder, M.C.L.A. 750.316(l)(b); armed robbery, M.C.L.A. 750.529; conspiracy to commit armed robbery, M.C.L.A. 750.157a, 750.529; and felony-firearm, M.C.L.A. 750.227b.

The Court finds that petitioner was denied his due process right to a fair trial by the pervasive and flagrant misconduct of the prosecutor throughout the trial. For the reasons stated below, the petition for writ of habeas corpus is CONDITIONALLY GRANTED.

I. Background

Petitioner Larry Devel Stewart was convicted following a jury trial in the Macomb County Circuit Court, in which he was tried jointly with co-defendant Renyatta Hamilton.1 At trial, the prosecution presented evidence to establish that Stewart “ambushed and shot Kevin Brown in a botched robbery attempt that was set up when his girlfriend and co-defendant, Ren-yatta Hamilton, lured Brown to the apartment complex where she was staying. [737]*737Brown sustained four gunshot wounds in the incident and later died from his injuries.” People v. Stewart, No. 313097, 2014 WL 1233946, at *1 (Mich.Ct.App. Mar. 25, 2014). Petitioner’s conviction was affirmed on appeal. Id., Iv. den. 497 Mich. 882, 854 N.W.2d 714 (2014).

Petitioner has filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on the following grounds:

I. The prosecutor violated due process and the Fifth Amendment right to silence by referencing Mr. Stewart’s post-Miranda silence and request for counsel, contrary to Doyle v. Ohio.
II. The trial court violated Mr. Stewart’s Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses by denying the motion for severance or separate juries and by subsequently admitting Renyatta Hamilton’s inadequately-redacted police statements without a proper limiting instruction.
III. Reversal is required where the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Stewart was involved in a conspiracy, or that he acted with the malice required for felony murder.
IV. The trial court committed plain error in failing to instruct the jury on the factually-supported lesser included offense of involuntary manslaughter.
V. Pervasive flagrant and ill-intentioned prosecutorial misconduct throughout this trial violated Mr. Stewart’s due process rights and requires reversal.
VI. Defense counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to object to the prosecutor’s Doyle violation, erroneous jury instruction, and to the failure to instruct the jury on involuntary manslaughter.
II. Standard of Review
28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), as amended by The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), imposes the following standard of review for habeas cases: An application for a writ of habe-as corpus on behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court shall not be granted with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings unless the adjudication of the claim—
(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 of the United States; 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.

A decision of a state court is “contrary to” clearly established federal law if the state court arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by the Supreme Court on a question of law or if the state court decides a case differently than the Supreme Court has on a set of materially indistinguishable facts. Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 405-06, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). An “unreasonable application” occurs when “a state court decision unreasonably applies the law of [the Supreme Court] to the facts of a prisoner’s case.” Id. at 409, 120 S.Ct. 1495. A federal habeas court may not “issue the writ simply because that court concludes in its independent judgment that the relevant state-court decision applied clearly established federal law erroneously or incorrectly.” Id. at 410-11, 120 S.Ct. 1495.

The Supreme Court explained that “[A] federal court’s collateral review of a state-court decision must be consistent with the respect due state courts in our federal system.” Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 340, 123 S.Ct. 1029, 154 L.Ed.2d 931 (2003). The “AEDPA thus imposes a [738]*738‘highly deferential standard for evaluating state-court rulings,’ and ‘demands that state-court decisions be given the benefit of the doubt.’” Renico v. Lett, 559 U.S. 766, 773, 130 S.Ct. 1855, 176 L.Ed.2d 678 (2010)((quoting Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 333, n. 7, 117 S.Ct. 2059, 138 L.Ed.2d 481 (1997); Woodford v. Visciotti, 537 U.S. 19, 24, 123 S.Ct. 357, 154 L.Ed.2d 279 (2002)(per curiam)). “[A] state court’s determination that a claim lacks merit precludes federal habeas relief so long as ‘fairminded jurists could disagree’ on the correctness of the state court’s decision.” Harrington v. Richter, 562 U.S. 86, 101, 131 S.Ct. 770, 178 L.Ed.2d 624 (2011)(citing Yarborough v. Alvarado, 541 U.S. 652, 664, 124 S.Ct. 2140, 158 L.Ed.2d 938 (2004)).

III. Discussion

The Court finds it unnecessary to address all of the claims raised by petitioner; instead, the Court will focus on petitioner’s second and fifth claims alleging Sixth Amendment confrontation violations and prosecutorial misconduct because these claims form the basis upon which habeas relief is being granted.

A prosecutor’s improper comments will be held to violate a criminal defendant’s constitutional rights if they “ ‘so infected the trial with unfairness as to make the resulting conviction a denial of due process.’ ” Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 168, 181, 106 S.Ct. 2464, 91 L.Ed.2d 144 (1986)(quoting Donnelly v. DeChristoforo, 416 U.S. 637, 643, 94 S.Ct. 1868, 40 L.Ed.2d 431 (1974)). Prosecutorial misconduct will thus form the basis for habeas relief only if the conduct was so egregious as to render the entire trial fundamentally unfair based on the totality of the circumstances. Donnelly v. DeChristoforo, 416 U.S. at 643-45, 94 S.Ct.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
196 F. Supp. 3d 734, 2016 WL 3689946, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89958, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stewart-v-mackie-mied-2016.