Filed: Patrick Fisher
Filed: Patrick Fisher
JUN 12 2001
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
No. 00-5085
(D.C. No. 97-CV-305-BU)
(N.D. Okla.)
Respondent.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination
of this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is
therefore ordered submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is
not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata,
and collateral estoppel. The court generally disfavors the citation of orders and
judgments; nevertheless, an order and judgment may be cited under the terms
and conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
to the jury that petitioner was presumed not guilty, rather than innocent.
The parties have briefed this issue, and we now address the merits.
Petitioner was convicted of larceny in Tulsa County District Court.
Petitioner filed a direct appeal in the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals
(OCCA), and the OCCA affirmed petitioners conviction, but reduced his
sentence. Petitioner filed his opening brief on direct appeal on April 20, 1994,
and the OCCA affirmed his conviction on August 25, 1995. In the interim, on
January 24, 1995, the OCCA issued its decision in
(Okla. Crim. App. 1995). In
that a criminal defendant was presumed not guilty, rather than innocent, was
not harmless error, and the court vacated the defendants conviction on direct
appeal. Id. at 560-62. After the OCCA issued its opinion affirming his
conviction, petitioner filed a petition for rehearing arguing that the trial court had
charged the jury in his case with an identical presumed not guilty instruction
and that his conviction must therefore be vacated under
denied the petition for rehearing on the grounds that the OCCAs procedural rules
did not permit a rehearing on an issue that was not raised in the appellants
opening brief. Petitioner subsequently filed an application for post-conviction
relief in the state district court. The state district court denied petitioners
application, and the OCCA affirmed on appeal.
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On April 2, 1997, petitioner filed his habeas petition under 2254 raising
the Flores issue, claims of ineffective assistance of trial and appellate counsel,
and a number of other issues. The district court denied petitioners habeas
petition in all respects. In his application for a COA, petitioner has reasserted the
issues raised in his 2254 petition. He also claims that the district court erred in
not holding an evidentiary hearing on his petition.
I. Flores and Ineffective Assistance of Appellate Counsel
[A]n appellate advocate may deliver deficient performance and prejudice a
defendant by omitting a dead-bang winner.
388, 395 (10th Cir. 1995) (citation omitted). A dead-bang winner is an issue
which was obvious from the trial record,
in a reversal on appeal.
Petitioners appellate counsel did not challenge the presumed not guilty
instruction in petitioners opening brief on direct appeal, and we must first decide
whether appellate counsel was ineffective in failing to challenge the instruction
before the Flores case was decided. This court has previously addressed this
issue, and we rejected the claim of a state habeas petitioner that the basis of
reversal recognized in
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However, Sherrill is distinguishable because the OCCA did not publish its
opinion in Flores until over three years after the petitioners direct appeal was
completed in Sherrill . Id. at 1175. Here, by contrast, petitioners direct appeal
was still pending at the time
that, after his appellate counsel filed his opening brief, but before the OCCA
issued its decision in
instructed him to file a supplemental brief in the OCCA raising the issue.
Petitioner alleges that his appellate counsel refused to file a supplemental brief.
Thus, the issue here is whether the procedural rules in effect in the OCCA at the
time of petitioners direct appeal permitted petitioner to file a supplemental brief
raising the Flores issue.
On their face, the procedural rules in effect in the OCCA during the
pendency of petitioners direct appeal prohibited the filing of supplemental briefs
on issues that were not raised in the opening brief.
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ch. 18, app. Rules 3.4(F)(1) and 3.4(F)(2) (effective Aug. 1, 1993 and Sept. 14,
1994, respectively). However, a published decision of the OCCA indicates that,
in certain circumstances, the court would still review an issue raised for the first
time in a supplemental brief for fundamental error.
871 P.2d 56, 68 (Okla. Crim. App. 1994). Under Oklahoma law, fundamental
error is the same as plain error, and it involves errors which go to the
foundation of the case, or which take from a defendant a right which was essential
to his defense.
Simpson v. State , 876 P.2d 690, 695 (Okla. Crim. App. 1994)
On remand, the district court will also have to determine if, under federal
habeas standards, the giving of the presumed not guilty instruction was only
harmless error in light of the evidence presented at trial of petitioners guilt.
See Walker v. Gibson , 228 F.3d 1217, 1236-37 (10th Cir. 2000) (holding that
presumed not guilty instruction was harmless error for purposes of federal
habeas relief, and claim of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, in light of
overwhelming evidence of defendants guilt),
petition for cert. filed (U.S. Apr.
18, 2001) (No. 00-9558).
2
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See Walker v. Gibson , 228 F.3d 1217, 1231 (10th Cir. 2000),
(U.S. Apr. 18, 2001) (No. 00-9558).
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1257, 1264 (10th Cir. 1998). We therefore deny a COA on this claim.
Petitioner also claims that his trial counsel was ineffective in failing to
investigate a potential witness to determine whether she could have provided
exculpatory testimony at trial. The witness was allegedly an employee at the WalMart store where the larceny took place. Although petitioner failed to raise this
claim on direct appeal, there was no procedural default because this claim raises
issues that are outside of the trial court record.
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Further, we DENY
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