Akins v. Joe Easterling

648 F.3d 380

Terrancé AKINS, Petitioner–Appellant,

v.Joe EASTERLING, Respondent–Appellee.

No. 08–6161.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: Dec. 7, 2010.Decided and Filed: Aug. 5, 2011.

ARGUED: Christopher S. Perry, Jones Day, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Brent C. Cherry, Office of the Tennessee Attorney General, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Christopher S. Perry, Michael S. Fried, Jones Day, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Brent C. Cherry, Office of the Tennessee Attorney General, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee.Before: MOORE and STRANCH, Circuit Judges; COHN, District Judge. ^*

OPINION

KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge.

Petitioner–Appellant Terrancé Akins was convicted in Tennessee state court of one count of especially aggravated robbery, and the Tennessee appellate courts upheld his conviction. He now appeals the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We certified two issues for appeal: whether the state trial court erred in (1) permitting the prosecution to exercise a peremptory challenge to excuse an African American prospective juror, and (2) permitting Akins to represent himself at trial. Because we cannot conclude that the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals was unreasonable in its adjudication of Akins's claims, we AFFIRM.

I. BACKGROUND & PROCEDURE

In 1998, a jury in Williamson County, Tennessee, convicted Akins of one count of especially aggravated robbery, Tenn.Code Ann. § 39–13–403, for his role in a carjacking at the Cool Springs Mall in Franklin, Tennessee. Akins, seventeen years old at the time of the crime, was charged in a juvenile petition but ultimately tried as an adult. Akins was appointed counsel but moved to represent himself at trial. The trial court granted Akins's request to represent himself and permitted appointed counsel to serve as elbow counsel. At sentencing, the trial court found that Akins was a violent offender and sentenced him to twenty years of imprisonment. The jury also assessed a $50,000 fine, which the trial judge reduced to $1000.

The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction on direct appeal,State v. Groomes, No. M1998–00122–CCA–R3–CD, 2000 WL 1133542 (Tenn.Crim.App. Aug. 10, 2000) (unpublished decision), and the Tennessee Supreme Court denied Akins's application for permission to appeal, State v. Akins, No. M1998–00122–SC–R11–CD (Tenn. Mar. 4, 2002). Akins filed a petition for post-conviction relief, which the state court denied. Akins v. State, No. 203–079 (Williamson Cnty.Cir.Ct. Aug. 19, 2005). The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the judgment, Akins v. State, No. M2005–02215–CCA–R3–PC, 2007 WL 189461 (Tenn.Crim.App. Jan. 22, 2007) (unpublished decision), and the Tennessee Supreme Court denied Akins's application for permission to appeal, Akins v. State, No. M2005–02215–SC–R11–PC (Tenn. May 14, 2007).

Akins filed a pro se petition for a writ of habeas corpus on September 6, 2007, raising four grounds for relief. The state moved to dismiss Akins's petition on the merits. On August 12, 2008, the district court granted the state's motion to dismiss and denied the petition. The district court also declined to certify any of the four grounds for appeal. Akins filed a timely notice of appeal. We granted Akins's application for a certificate of appealability on the two issues now before us and appointed counsel for Akins.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Standard of Review

“We review the district court's legal conclusions in habeas proceedings de novo and its findings of fact for clear error.” Braxton v. Gansheimer, 561 F.3d 453, 457 (6th Cir.2009). The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”) governs Akins's petition because he filed it after the effective date of AEDPA. Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 326–27, 117 S.Ct. 2059, 138 L.Ed.2d 481 (1997). Under AEDPA, we may grant a writ with respect to a claim adjudicated on the merits in state-court proceedings only if the adjudication (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.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).

With respect to § 2254(d)(1), “[a] state court's decision would be considered ‘contrary to’ established law if it is ‘diametrically different’ from or ‘opposite in character or nature’ to federal law as determined by the Supreme Court.” Pudelski v. Wilson, 576 F.3d 595, 607 (6th Cir.2009) (quoting Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 405, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000)), cert. denied, ––– U.S. ––––, 130 S.Ct. 3274, 176 L.Ed.2d 1188 (2010). “[I]f the state court identifies the correct governing legal principle from the Supreme Court's decisions,” habeas relief is available under the “unreasonable application” clause if the state court “unreasonably applies that principle to the facts of the prisoner's case,” or “unreasonably extends or unreasonably refuses to extend a legal principle from the Supreme Court precedent to a new context.” Braxton, 561 F.3d at 458 (alteration omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Williams, 529 U.S. at 407–09, 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 law erroneously or incorrectly.’ ” Pudelski, 576 F.3d at 607 (quoting Williams, 529 U.S. at 411, 120 S.Ct. 1495). Rather, “[t]he state court's application of clearly established law must be objectively unreasonable.” Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63, 75, 123 S.Ct. 1166, 155 L.Ed.2d 144 (2003).

With respect to § 2254(d)(2), “ ‘a decision adjudicated on the merits in a state court and based on a factual determination will not be overturned on factual grounds unless objectively unreasonable in light of the evidence presented in the state-court proceeding.’ ” Braxton, 561 F.3d at 458 (quoting Miller–El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 340, 123 S.Ct. 1029, 154 L.Ed.2d 931 (2003)). The state court's factual determinations are “presumed to be correct,” and the petitioner has “the burden of rebutting the presumption of correctness by clear and convincing evidence.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1); accord Braxton, 561 F.3d at 458.

B. Batson Claim

Akins's first asserted ground for relief is that the state trial court erred, under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), in allowing the prosecutor to exclude an African American juror with a peremptory strike. The jury venire had two African American jurors, one of whom was excused for cause. The prosecutor sought to exercise a peremptory challenge on the remaining African American juror, “Juror D,” and Akins objected to the strike. In a conference outside the presence of the jury, the prosecutor stated that he wanted to strike Juror D because

(1) she indicated on the juror questionnaire that she had a relative who was charged with a crime or had been the subject of a criminal investigation; (2) she indicated that she considers herself to be politically slightly liberal; and (3) she indicated that, if she was a lawyer in this case, she would want to know how a juror felt about blacks and crime, their thoughts about blacks, and whether they had ever been robbed by a black person.

Groomes, 2000 WL 1133542, at *10; see also R.36, Addendum (“Add.”) 3 (DVD 3 at 2:05:54–2:08:05).¹ In particular, the prosecutor indicated that Juror D was the only juror to indicate on her questionnaire that she had a close friend or family member convicted of a crime. In response, Akins argued that the reasons given were not “good enough reasons to exclude her from the jury,” especially because another juror had responded affirmatively when Akins had asked the jury if anyone had a family member who had been the victim of a crime. R.36, Add. 3 (DVD 3 at 1:54:10–1:54:40 (question to jury), 2:10:40–2:11:59 (conference)). During the course of the discussion, the trial judge remarked to the prosecutor, “To be perfectly honest, this is not the only case where you've excused the only black juror. It's more often that you do that than not.” Id. at 2:13:35–2:13:44. The trial judge also rejected the prosecutor's second proffered reason—that Juror D identified herself as politically slightly liberal—as insufficient to strike her in this case. The trial judge conducted an individual voir dire with Juror D, in which she stated that her half-brother was convicted of selling drugs and that she believed that “race has a bearing on the outcome of a trial, in that a white juror may convict a defendant just because he is black.” Groomes, 2000 WL 1133542, at *12; see also R.36, Add. 3 (DVD 3 at 2:45:20–2:47:55). After Akins renewed his objection, the trial judge determined that Juror D's relationship to her half-brother was sufficient to excuse her. The trial judge permitted the strike, reasoning that the court had always permitted a party to excuse a juror whose close relative was convicted of a crime or had been the victim of a crime. The trial judge also overruled Akins's motion for a mistrial on the ground that there were no African American jurors.

Analysis of a claim of discrimination in the prosecutor's exercise of peremptory challenges in juror selection follows the three-part framework established in Batson: (1) the defendant must make a prima facie showing of discrimination; (2) the burden then shifts to the prosecution to provide a race-neutral explanation for the challenge; and (3) the defendant then has the opportunity to rebut the proffered race-neutral reason as pretext, and the trial court determines whether the defendant has established purposeful discrimination. 476 U.S. at 93–98, 106 S.Ct. 1712; accord Braxton, 561 F.3d at 458–59....