United States of America Ex Rel. Robert Hudson v. David H. Brierton, Warden, Stateville Corrections Center

699 F.2d 917, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 30770
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 4, 1983
Docket81-2444
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 699 F.2d 917 (United States of America Ex Rel. Robert Hudson v. David H. Brierton, Warden, Stateville Corrections Center) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States of America Ex Rel. Robert Hudson v. David H. Brierton, Warden, Stateville Corrections Center, 699 F.2d 917, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 30770 (7th Cir. 1983).

Opinion

*919 HARLINGTON WOOD, Jr., Circuit Judge.

This is the third appeal in this habeas corpus case. 1 We are required on this appeal to determine: (1) whether noncompliance with a state contemporaneous-objection rule renders unavailable federal habeas review of a state prisoner’s claim that the fruits of an allegedly illegal interrogation were admitted at his trial, and (2) whether an in-court identification of the defendant was tainted by suggestive police identification procedures, creating a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification. Jurisdiction is based upon 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

Robert Hudson’s petition for habeas corpus arises out of his Illinois state court conviction, in 1967, for armed robbery and murder. 2 Hudson challenges the procedures which the Chicago police used to obtain his statements implicating an accomplice, McFadden, who implicated a second accomplice, Smith; both accomplices returned the favor by testifying against Hudson at his trial. 3 Hudson contends that the interrogation violated his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights because his interrogators did not advise him of his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), and did not permit him to call an attorney despite his specific request to do so. Furthermore, Hudson asserts that his prolonged interrogation under coercive circumstances rendered his statements involuntary. In addition, Hudson challenges the admission of an in-court identification as unreliable. According to Hudson, the identification procedure was so suggestive as to create a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentifieation, yet the identification was admitted at trial, violating his due process rights.

1. Fruit of the Poisonous Tree; Waiver

Before considering the merits of Hudson’s claim respecting the illegality of his interrogation and inadmissibility of the fruits of that interrogation, the district court considered whether Hudson could raise the issue for habeas review since he violated the Illinois contemporaneous-objection rule, making no objection to the admis *920 sibility of the testimony at trial. The district court concluded that the requirements of “cause” and “prejudice” under Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977) had been satisfied, thus permitting the issue to be raised for habeas corpus review. As “cause” for failing to raise the issue at trial, the district court cited the unsettled state of the law regarding the scope of the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine at the time and misfeasance of his attorney. 4 The respondent challenges this ruling. Because we agree with the respondent’s position on the waiver issue, we do not reach the merits of Hudson’s claim.

In Wainwright v. Sykes, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider the availability of federal habeas corpus to review a state prisoner’s claim that testimony was admitted at his trial in violation of his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966); the state court had previously declined to consider the claim on the merits because Sykes had not complied with the state’s contemporaneous-objection rule. Thus, stated generally, the Court was assessing the adequacy of this independent state procedural ground as a bar to federal habeas review. Construing the language of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(a), the Court in Sykes held that noncompliance with a state’s contemporaneous-objection rule was an independent and adequate state ground for denying habeas review, “absent a showing of cause for the noncompliance and some showing of actual prejudice resulting from the alleged constitutional violation.” Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 84, 87, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 2505, 2506, 53 L.Ed.2d 594. The majority opinion left “open for resolution in future decisions the precise definition of the ‘cause’-and-‘prejudice’ standard” and observed “only that it is narrower than the standard set forth in dicta in Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837 (1963), which would make federal habeas review generally available to state convicts absent a knowing and deliberate waiver of the federal constitutional contention.” Id. at 87, 97 S.Ct. at 2506. 5

Subsequent to the district court’s decision in this case, the United States Supreme Court in Engle v. Isaac, 456 U.S. 107, 102 S.Ct. 1558, 71 L.Ed.2d 783 (1982) took the opportunity to explain the meaning of “cause” as used in Sykes. In Isaac, the *921 Court held that state prisoners who fail to abide by a state contemporaneous-objection rule are barred from asserting, in federal habeas corpus proceedings, a constitutional challenge to jury instructions given in their state trials, absent cause for the failure to object and actual prejudice resulting from the constitutional violation.

Isaac involved three state prisoners who sought writs of habeas corpus based on a denial of due process resulting from the use of an unconstitutional self-defense instruction given at trial. Each prisoner had failed to comply with an Ohio procedural rule which required a contemporaneous objection to jury instructions. Under Ohio law, noncompliance with this rule bars appellate consideration of an objection. In rejecting the argument that the rule in Sykes should be limited “to cases in which the constitutional error did not affect the truthfinding function of the trial,” the Court ruled that “any prisoner bringing a constitutional claim to the federal courthouse after a state procedural default must demonstrate cause and actual prejudice before obtaining relief.” Id. 102 S.Ct. at 1572. The prisoners cited as cause: (1) the futility of making an objection in light of adverse state precedent, and (2) the novelty of the constitutional claim at the time of their trials.

The Court rejected outright futility as “cause,” stating:

[Fjutility of presenting an objection to the state courts cannot alone constitute cause for a failure to object at trial. If a defendant perceives a constitutional claim and believes it may find favor in the federal courts, he may not bypass the state courts simply because he thinks they will be unsympathetic to the claim.

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

Related

Bolden v. Pesavento
N.D. Illinois, 2022
Wydrick Phillips v. Jiminez Allen
668 F.3d 912 (Seventh Circuit, 2012)
Phillips v. Allen
743 F. Supp. 2d 931 (N.D. Illinois, 2010)
Neal v. City of Harvey, Ill.
1 F. Supp. 2d 849 (N.D. Illinois, 1998)
United States v. Ernest Frank Clark and Eric Griffin
989 F.2d 1490 (Seventh Circuit, 1993)
United States v. Jeffrey Earl Johnson
859 F.2d 1289 (Seventh Circuit, 1988)
Tyrone Walton v. Michael P. Lane
852 F.2d 268 (Seventh Circuit, 1988)
Brooks v. Fitzsimmons
658 F. Supp. 840 (N.D. Illinois, 1987)
United States v. Carney Goodman
797 F.2d 468 (Seventh Circuit, 1986)
United States Ex Rel. Hancock v. McEvers
619 F. Supp. 882 (N.D. Illinois, 1985)
United States ex rel. Bishop v. Chrans
595 F. Supp. 604 (N.D. Illinois, 1984)
United States v. James P. Wisniewski
741 F.2d 138 (Seventh Circuit, 1984)
Kimble v. Duckworth
583 F. Supp. 1072 (N.D. Indiana, 1984)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
699 F.2d 917, 1983 U.S. App. LEXIS 30770, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-of-america-ex-rel-robert-hudson-v-david-h-brierton-ca7-1983.