Whorton v. Bockting

44 A.L.R. Fed. 2d 777, 127 S. Ct. 1173, 167 L. Ed. 2d 1, 20 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 99, 549 U.S. 406, 72 Fed. R. Serv. 635, 2007 U.S. LEXIS 2826, 75 U.S.L.W. 4121
Supreme Court of the United States·Decided February 28, 2007·No. 05-595·Published·Cited by 715 cases

Opinion

127 S.Ct. 1173 (2007)

Glen WHORTON, Director, Nevada Department of Corrections, Petitioner,
v.
Marvin Howard BOCKTING.

No. 05-595.

Supreme Court of United States.

Argued November 1, 2006.
Decided February 28, 2007.

*1176 Attorney General George J. Chanos, for petitioner, by Irving L. Gornstein for the United States as amicus curiae, by special leave of the Court, supporting the petitioner.

Frances A. Forsman, Las Vegas, NV, for respondent.

George J. Chanos, Attorney General of the State of Nevada, Gerald Gardner, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Counsel of Record, Victor-Hugo Schulze, II, Senior Deputy Attorney General, Rene L. Hulse, Senior Deputy Attorney General, Las Vegas, NV, for Petitioner.

Franny A. Forsman, Counsel of Record, Federal Public Defender, Michael Pescetta, Assistant Federal Public Defender for District of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, for Respondent.

*1177 Justice ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case presents the question whether, under the rules set out in Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989), our decision in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004), is retroactive to cases already final on direct review. We hold that it is not.

I

A

Respondent Marvin Bockting lived in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his wife, Laura Bockting, their 3-year-old daughter Honesty, and Laura's 6-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, Autumn. One night, while respondent was at work, Autumn awoke from a dream crying, but she refused to tell her mother what was wrong, explaining: "`[D]addy said you would make him leave and that he would beat my butt if I told you.'" App. 119. After her mother reassured her, Autumn said that respondent had frequently forced her to engage in numerous and varied sexual acts with him. Ibid.

The next day, Laura Bockting confronted respondent and asked him to leave the house. He did so but denied any wrongdoing. Two days later, Laura called a rape crisis hotline and brought Autumn to the hospital for an examination. At the hospital, Detective Charles Zinovitch from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sexual Assault Unit attempted to interview Autumn but found her too distressed to discuss the assaults. Detective Zinovitch then ordered a rape examination, which revealed strong physical evidence of sexual assaults. See Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and Order in Nevada v. Bockting, Case No. C-83110 (D.Nev., Sept. 5, 1994); App. 47, 119.

Two days later, Detective Zinovitch interviewed Autumn in the presence of her mother, and at that time, Autumn provided a detailed description of acts of sexual assault carried out by respondent; Autumn also demonstrated those acts using anatomically correct dolls. Id., at 47-48; 119. Respondent was then arrested, and a state grand jury indicted him on four counts of sexual assault on a minor under 14 years of age.

At respondent's preliminary hearing, Autumn testified that she understood the difference between a truth and a lie, but she became upset when asked about the assaults. Although she initially agreed that respondent had touched her in a way that "[she] didn't think he was supposed to touch [her]," id., at 14, she later stated that she could not remember how respondent had touched her or what she had told her mother or the detective, id., at 19-21. The trial court, however, found the testimony of Laura Bockting and Detective Zinovitch to be sufficient to hold respondent for trial.

At trial, the court held a hearing outside the presence of the jury to determine whether Autumn could testify. After it became apparent that Autumn was too distressed to be sworn in, id., at 25-26, the State moved under Nev.Rev.Stat. § 51.385 (2003)[1] to allow Laura Bockting and Detective *1178 Zinovitch to recount Autumn's statements regarding the sexual assaults. App. 25-27. Under the Nevada statute, out-of-court statements made by a child under 10 years of age describing acts of sexual assault or physical abuse of the child may be admitted if the court finds that the child is unavailable or unable to testify and that "the time, content and circumstances of the statement provide sufficient circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness." § 51.385(1)(a). Over defense counsel's objection that admission of this testimony would violate the Confrontation Clause, id., at 27-28, the trial court found sufficient evidence of reliability to satisfy § 51.385.

As a result of this ruling, Laura Bockting and Detective Zinovitch were permitted at trial to recount Autumn's out-of-court statements about the assaults. Laura Bockting also testified that respondent was the only male who had had the opportunity to assault Autumn. In addition, the prosecution introduced evidence regarding Autumn's medical exam. Respondent testified in his own defense and denied the assaults, and the defense brought out the fact that Autumn, unlike many children her age, had acquired some knowledge about sexual acts, since she had seen respondent and her mother engaging in sexual intercourse and had become familiar with sexual terms. Id., at 118.

The jury found respondent guilty of three counts of sexual assault on a minor under the age of 14, and the trial court imposed two consecutive life sentences and another concurrent life sentence.

B

Respondent took an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court, which handed down its final decision in 1993, more than a decade before Crawford.[2] In analyzing respondent's contention that the admission of Autumn's out-of-court statements had violated his Confrontation Clause rights, the Nevada Supreme Court looked to Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980), which was then the governing precedent of this Court. See Bockting v. State, 109 Nev. 103, 847 P.2d 1364 (1993) (per curiam). Roberts had held that the Confrontation Clause permitted the admission of a hearsay statement made by a declarant who was unavailable to testify if the statement bore sufficient indicia of reliability, either because the statement fell within a firmly rooted hearsay exception or because there were "particularized guarantees of trustworthiness" relating to the statement in question. 448 U.S., at 66, 100 S.Ct. 2531. Applying Roberts, the Nevada Supreme Court held that the admission of Autumn's statements was constitutional because the circumstances surrounding the making of the statements provided particularized guarantees of *1179 trustworthiness. The Court cited the "natural spontaneity" of Autumn's initial statements to her mother, her reiteration of the same account to Detective Zinovitch several days later, her use of anatomically correct dolls to demonstrate the assaults, and her detailed descriptions of sexual acts with which a 6-year-old would generally not be familiar. Bockting, supra, at 109-112, 847 P.2d, at 1368-1370.

C

Respondent then filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus with the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, arguing that the Nevada Supreme Court's decision violated his Confrontation Clause rights.

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Whorton v. Bockting, 44 A.L.R. Fed. 2d 777, 127 S. Ct. 1173, 167 L. Ed. 2d 1, 20 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 99, 549 U.S. 406, 72 Fed. R. Serv. 635, 2007 U.S. LEXIS 2826, 75 U.S.L.W. 4121 (U.S. 2007).

44 A.L.R. Fed. 2d 777 (Whorton v. Bockting) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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