Field v. Hallett

37 F.4th 8

Eunice FIELD, Petitioner, Appellant,

v.Allison HALLETT, Superintendent, MCI Framingham, Respondent, Appellee.

No. 20-1571

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

June 14, 2022

Elizabeth Caddick for appellant.

Maria Granik, Assistant Attorney General, with whom Maura Healey, Attorney General, was on brief, for appellee.

Before Lynch, Thompson, and Gelpí, Circuit Judges.

THOMPSON, Circuit Judge.

Petitioner Eunice Field ("Field") seeks a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 to vacate her conviction for murder in the first degree. The conviction stems from Field fatally stabbing her ex-girlfriend's Alcoholics Anonymous ("AA") sponsor Lorraine Wachsman ("Wachsman") nine times in the head, chest, and neck. After Massachusetts' state courts denied Field's appeal of her conviction and motions for a new trial, see Commonwealth v. Field, 477 Mass. 553, 79 N.E.3d 1037 (2017), her claims made their way to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, where she sought a writ of habeas corpus via 28 U.S.C. § 2254 as amended by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, Pub. L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214 ("AEDPA"). Field contended that her trial counsel failed to provide her with her constitutionally protected right to have effective assistance of counsel, but the district court denied her petition. Field v. Hallett, No. 18-CV-11618-DJC, 2020 WL 1821863 (D. Mass. Apr. 10, 2020). Given the highly deferential leash to which we are strapped by the standards governing this appeal, we affirm the district court's denial of Field's petition.

A. Background

"We take the facts largely as recounted by the [SJC] decision affirming [Field's] conviction, ‘supplemented with other record facts consistent with the SJC's findings.’ " Yeboah-Sefah v. Ficco, 556 F.3d 53, 62 (1st Cir. 2009) (citing Healy v. Spencer, 453 F.3d 21, 22 (1st Cir. 2006) ).

The Initial Encounter

Though not the traditional way to tell a story, we'll start this tragic recounting in the middle of things, when Field was first encountered by police. On the afternoon of August 9, 2010, police officers at the Brockton Police Department spotted a car parked outside the lobby doors of the precinct, blocking the exit area of the station. A woman who was later identified as Field was in the driver's seat, smoking a cigarette and drinking a coffee. Three officers approached her car and spoke with Field, who complained of chest pain. She also stated that she was bipolar. One of the officers asked her if she was well enough to get out of the car so they could move it out of the way of the exit, and when she agreed, the officer noticed blood on her hands and forearms. The officer asked how she got the blood all over her, and she replied, "I just killed someone."

How It Started

Let's back up now and fill in the backstory leading up to the murder, cobbling together the story of what transpired with the benefit of hindsight (i.e., using information provided in the police interviews and trial testimony, as recounted in the state court decision denying Field's motion for a new trial, and the SJC's review of the same). Eunice Field was a fifty-four-year-old woman at the time she committed this crime. In the years leading up to its commission, Field had a history of suffering from mental health and substance abuse disorders, the most prominent of her issues being her battle with bipolar disorder. Her ex-girlfriend, Renee Williams ("Williams"), testified at trial that Field had been hospitalized at least ten times in twenty years. At one point, she was in a Veterans Administration program on Cape Cod for over two years. Not all of these hospitalizations were specifically mental health related -- some of her hospitalizations were for substance abuse or abuse of medications. Earlier in the year, Williams and Field ended their twenty-year relationship and opted to just be friends, though it appears they continued to share an apartment in Brockton, Massachusetts. According to Williams, Field felt Wachsman had influenced Williams into ending the relationship. Following the breakup, Field spent a few months living in Tennessee but later returned to Brockton; upon her return, Field and Williams maintained a platonic friendship. The weekend before the murder, Williams and Field attended a few cookouts and meetings, and Williams testified Field generally seemed normal, if a bit quiet. They were also together the day before the incident (Sunday), which Williams similarly testified was a normal day (for example, they watched movies, Field spent time on her computer) -- Field even told Williams she had called Wachsman and said she was going to meet with her at 11:00 a.m. the next day -- a Monday. As it turns out (Field later explained at the post-killing police interview), another reason Field wanted to visit Wachsman was because she wanted to "clear the air" about Ruthie (a friend of Field's who was terminally ill, and Field said that Wachsman would not allow her to go see Ruthie before she died a few years previous, but we are unclear about the relationship between Wachsman and Ruthie based on the record).

That night, Field posted a message to her Facebook page that read, "Tic toc, tic toc. I'm going to finish my book tomorrow. You're all going to be real interested in it because you're all in it. The title is Tormented Minds by Eunice Field." She also wrote a letter to Williams (found the evening of the murder in Field's apartment pursuant to a search warrant), which read in part that Wachsman "will get what she deserves for coming between you and me." The morning of the crime, Williams testified that there was nothing odd about Field's behavior.

We know that after making breakfast for Williams, Field went to Wachsman's home in Bridgewater. She stabbed Wachsman nine times -- six times in her neck, two in her chest, and one in her back. She then found herself at the Brockton Police Department.

The Police Interviews

Back to the Brockton Police Department. After approaching Field in her car, the officers proceeded to ask Field if she would come into the lobby of the station. One of the officers asked Field who she killed, and she replied, "Lorraine Wachsman." The officer then asked why she killed Wachsman, and she replied, "[b]ecause she got in my way." She later clarified this statement to mean that the victim got in the way of her and her ex-girlfriend (later identified as Williams). When asked what she used to kill the victim, Field said that she used a kitchen knife. Field could not identify the address of Wachsman, but instead gave a general location. Some time later, EMTs arrived to provide medical assistance to Field because of her complaint about having chest pain. Field reiterated to the EMTs that she stabbed someone. During this time, Field did not appear to be confused by the questions and did not have difficulty answering any questions, though she was slow in answering the questions, sometimes taking five or ten seconds before answering. Bridgewater police eventually discovered Wachsman's body in her home that afternoon.

After the initial inquiries, the Brockton police subsequently conducted a video-recorded interview with Field. The interview lasted approximately one hour and forty minutes. One of the detectives conducting the interview, Detective Clark, read Field her Miranda warnings and a warning of the right to stop questioning. When asked if she understood these warnings, Field replied, "Yeah." She was then asked if she wished to waive her Miranda rights and she replied, "Yeah."

The other detective, Detective Congdon, asked Field if she needed medical attention, which she declined. During the video interview, Detective Congdon asked Field about any medical ailments she had, to which she responded she was bipolar. The detectives then proceeded to interview her about the incident, and she stated that she stabbed Wachsman in the chest with a kitchen knife, and said that Wachsman "always got in the way." She admitted that she went to Wachsman's home with the purpose of killing her, and that she took the knife from her own home. As we mentioned earlier, she called Wachsman the night before to arrange the visit. When she got to her house, she "took the knife out right away" and "rushed" it into Wachsman's chest. She indicated that there was a struggle.

During the interview, Field exhibited a slowness in answering the questions, and took unusually long pauses between words and sentences. She also at times appeared not to be listening to the questioning and talking about other things, which were often "irrelevant and nonsensical."

Later in the day, Field was transferred to the Bridgewater Police Department. There, officers conducted yet another video-recorded interview with Field. Once again, she was given her Miranda warnings and also advised of her right to stop the questioning. Field signed the Miranda form, and requested food and a cigarette. She agreed to questioning while she waited for her food order. During this interrogation, Field made additional incriminating statements, including Field indicating that she did not attempt to help Wachsman and that she felt good about her actions that day. But she stated that she would not answer any additional questions without food. However, one of the officers conducting the interview, Lieutenant Coppenrath, continued to ask her questions, some of which she answered, some of which she did not. The interview lasted around forty-six minutes.

B. Procedural History

A state court grand jury indicted Field for murder in the first degree on October 21, 2010. Approximately two years later, on October 2, 2012, her trial began in Plymouth Superior Court. During the trial, the Commonwealth introduced the two video-recorded police interviews and called a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Russell Vasile ("Dr. Vasile"), as an expert witness. Dr. Vasile testified that after watching Field's interviews, he did not see...