Lucky I. IROMUANYA, Petitioner-Appellant v. Scott FRAKES, Director, Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, Respondent-Appellee
No. 16-1935
United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
Submitted: May 10, 2017. Filed: August 7, 2017
874 F.3d 872
The merits of Calzone‘s as-applied challenge were not well developed in the briefs on appeal, and they are best addressed by the district court in the first instance. Calzone contends that he is not subject to all of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations,
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For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court‘s dismissal of Calzone‘s facial challenge to
Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellee was James D. Smith, AAG, of Lincoln, NE. The following attorney(s) appeared on the appellee brief; James D. Smith, AAG, of Lincoln, NE.
Before RILEY, BEAM, and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.
BEAM, Circuit Judge.
Lucky Iromuanya appeals the district court‘s1 denial of his
I. BACKGROUND
The following facts were set forth by the Nebraska Supreme Court and are presumed to be correct under our standard of review. See
The primary issue at Iromuanya‘s trial was whether the state could prove second-degree murder or only manslaughter for Cooper‘s death and the attempted versions of those crimes for Jenkins’ shooting. Iromuanya requested that the trial court include “malice” as an element of the second-degree-murder instruction (which was declined) and also proposed his own theory-of-defense instruction, which spelled out his assertion from the taped statement
On the attempted second-degree-murder charge (involving Jenkins), the court instructed the jury that it could find Iromuanya either guilty or not guilty of the charge, but it did not include an option for finding Iromuanya guilty of a lesser included offense of attempted manslaughter. Nor did the attempted second-degree-murder instruction include any instructions about lack of provocation. With regard to the charge of second-degree murder (of Cooper), the court did include manslaughter as a lesser included offense, and included instructions about sudden-quarrel provocation, but it did so in a “step” instruction—meaning that the jury would only consider manslaughter and sudden-quarrel provocation if it found Iromuanya not guilty of second-degree murder and proceeded to the next part of the instruction. During deliberations, an additional instruction was given after the jury posed a question about the effect of a “sudden quarrel” on attempted second-degree murder. The court instructed the jury that it could not consider “sudden quarrel” when deciding guilt on the charge of attempted second-degree murder. The jury ultimately convicted Iromuanya of the attempted second-degree murder of Jenkins, second-degree murder of Cooper, and both weapons charges, and he was sentenced to an aggregate prison term of 70 years to life imprisonment. Id. at 273.
The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed Iromuanya‘s conviction on direct appeal. In that appeal, Iromuanya argued that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on malice as an element of second-degree murder and failed to give his requested self-defense instruction. Id. at 286. The Nebraska Supreme Court held that because “[m]alice is not an element of second degree murder . . . the district court . . . did not err in refusing to instruct that it was.” Id. at 289 (citing
During state postconviction proceedings, Iromuanya challenged his trial counsel‘s effectiveness for failing to properly challenge the jury instructions. On appeal of the denial of postconviction relief, the Nebraska Supreme Court again denied relief. State v. Iromuanya (Iromuanya II), 282 Neb. 798, 806 N.W.2d 404 (2011). As relevant to this appeal, after Iromuanya I but before Iromuanya II, the Nebraska Supreme Court decided State v. Ronald Smith, 282 Neb. 720, 806 N.W.2d 383, 394 (2011),2 which overruled an earlier case holding that manslaughter was an unintentional crime, and held that the offense of manslaughter was an intentional killing without malice, upon a sudden quarrel. In Iromuanya II, the court held that counsel was not ineffective for not anticipating this change in the law, and also held that the state was not constitutionally required to prove a lack of sudden-quarrel provocation for the attempt to cause Jenkins’ death. 806 N.W.2d at 435.
The district court held that the ineffective assistance claims failed on the merits, because the Nebraska Supreme Court‘s determination that counsel‘s performance was not deficient was not an unreasonable application of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), nor was it an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence adduced at trial. See
II. DISCUSSION
A. Standard of Review
We review petitions for writ of habeas corpus under the standards set forth in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA“). If Iromuanya‘s claims were “adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings,”
A state prisoner must present the substance of each federal constitutional claim to the state courts before seeking federal habeas corpus relief. Arnold v. Dormire, 675 F.3d 1082, 1086-87 (8th Cir. 2012). Under the postconviction procedures available in Nebraska, the prisoner must have presented each
B. Procedural Default
The first dispute is whether Iromuanya has fairly presented his due process claims to the state courts, and if he did, whether they were adjudicated on the merits by the Nebraska courts. Iromuanya argues the trial court violated his due process rights by failing to properly instruct the jury as previously stated. The government argues that Iromuanya did not raise these claims in briefing to the Nebraska Supreme Court on direct or postconviction appeal. Our review of Iromuanya‘s direct appeal and postconviction appeal briefs indicates that Iromuanya arguably did raise the due process issues, both independently
We reject Iromuanya‘s argument that the instructions relieved the State of its burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the attempt to cause death was not committed during a sudden quarrel provocation. Due process requires the prosecution to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, every fact necessary to constitute the crime charged. Here, the instruction for attempted second degree murder of Jenkins informed the jury that the State had to prove Iromuanya‘s intent to kill beyond a reasonable doubt. The absence of a provocation is not an element of second degree murder, and no element of the charge is presumed. If the jurors had believed that Iromuanya did not intend to kill Jenkins, the instructions required them to find him not guilty of attempted second degree murder.
Id. (footnotes omitted). We find that Iromuanya adequately, though possibly inartfully, presented the due process claims to the Nebraska Supreme Court, and that the court adjudicated them. Further, even were we to find the procedural issue in doubt, we may, and in fact will, proceed to the merits of Iromuanya‘s claims. See Barrett v. Acevedo, 169 F.3d 1155, 1162 (8th Cir. 1999) (holding that while normally procedural issues should be resolved first, judicial economy sometimes dictates reaching the merits if the merits are more easily resolvable).
C. Merits
Because the state court adjudicated Iromuanya‘s due process claim on the merits, Iromuanya II, 806 N.W.2d at 435, we review under the deferential standard of
At this point, the state of Nebraska law on second-degree murder and manslaughter between 1994 and 2011 merits our attention. In State v. Ryan, 249 Neb. 218, 543 N.W.2d 128, 137 (1996), the court reaffirmed numerous of its prior holdings that malice is, and has been for a very long time, an element of second-degree murder, despite the fact that the Nebraska legislature omitted the term “malice” from the
Relatedly, manslaughter is defined in Nebraska as the killing of another, without malice, either upon a sudden quarrel or by unintentionally causing the death of another while committing an unlawful act. See State v. Pettit, 233 Neb. 436, 445 N.W.2d 890, 896 (1989) (citing
In Ronald Smith, the defendant was convicted of second-degree murder after killing his girlfriend, following a night of drinking and methamphetamine use, as well as an ongoing argument between the two of them over money. Ronald pushed her from the bed and as she lay motionless on the floor, he smothered her with a pillow for one to two minutes. Before he left, he covered her with a blanket and absconded until he was arrested in Illinois. Id. at 387. On direct appeal, he argued (as Iromuanya now argues), that the jury was incorrectly instructed because the step instruction given did not allow the jury to consider whether his specific intent to kill was the result of a sudden quarrel. Id. at 390. The court acknowledged that at the time of Ronald‘s trial post-Jones, because manslaughter was not an intentional crime, the step instruction was the correct statement of the law at the time. Id. However, the court decided that Jones was wrongly decided (in part because it was based upon malice cases that were subsequently overruled in Burlison) and held that the state must prove intent to kill for a conviction for manslaughter upon a sudden quarrel. Id. at 392-94. Thus, the court found the step jury instruction to be erroneous. Id. at 394. However, the court also analyzed the evidence presented at trial, and found that the jury could not have reasonably concluded that Ronald committed sudden-quarrel manslaughter, and therefore the erroneous jury instruction was not prejudicial. Id. at 395. The court acknowledged that although Ronald and his girlfriend were arguing and he was angry, there was no evidence that this anger would have provoked a reasonable person in Ronald‘s position to obscure and disturb his power of reasoning so as to make him smother her with a pillow for two minutes after he had knocked her unconscious. Id.
In State v. William Smith (William Smith I), 19 Neb.App. 708, 811 N.W.2d 720, 733 (2012), the Nebraska Court of Appeals explained that during the time between Jones and Ronald Smith, “the crime of attempted voluntary manslaugh-
So, when Iromuanya committed and was tried for this crime in 2004, malice was not an element of second-degree murder, and a conviction for manslaughter did not require proof of intent. The effect of the foregoing was that the crime of attempted sudden-quarrel manslaughter did not exist (and therefore could not be considered by the jury as a lesser included offense for the attempt charge), and the absence of provocation was not an element of second-degree murder. Given all of this, the Nebraska Supreme Court found that there was no due process violation and the state was not relieved of its burden to prove the elements of second-degree murder in 2004 during Iromuanya‘s trial. Iromuanya II, 806 N.W.2d at 435. This was not contrary to, nor an unreasonable application of, Supreme Court precedent.
However, Iromuanya argues that In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368 (1970), Mullaney v. Wilbur, 421 U.S. 684, 95 S.Ct. 1881, 44 L.Ed.2d 508 (1975), Patterson v. New York, 432 U.S. 197, 97 S.Ct. 2319, 53 L.Ed.2d 281 (1977), and dicta from Martin v. Ohio, 480 U.S. 228, 107 S.Ct. 1098, 94 L.Ed.2d 267 (1987) compel a contrary conclusion. In re Winship sets forth the outer boundaries of our inquiry as it held that the Due Process Clause “protects the accused against conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime with which he is charged.” 397 U.S. at 364, 90 S.Ct. 1068. Five years later in Mullaney, the Supreme Court granted habeas corpus relief because the State of Maine placed the burden of proof on the defendant to prove that he acted “in the heat of passion” to avoid a conviction for murder (and its resulting life sentence) and reduced the homicide charge to manslaughter. 421 U.S. at 686, 700-01, 95 S.Ct. 1881. The State of Maine at that time recognized two forms of homicide—murder and manslaughter. Once the state had proved that a killing was both unlawful and intentional, the jury would then consider the distinction between murder and manslaughter. In so doing, the jury was instructed that malice aforethought was implied “unless the defendant proved by a fair preponderance of the evidence that [the defendant] acted in the heat of passion on sudden provocation.” Id. at 686, 95 S.Ct. 1881. The Court held that the malice presumption, though subject to rebuttal, relieved the state of its due process burden to prove every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt, as required by In re Winship. Id. at 700-01, 95 S.Ct. 1881.
A few years later, however, in Patterson, the Court distinguished Mullaney and found no due process violation where the accused was required to prove self defense
It would be quite different if the jury had been instructed that self-defense evidence could not be considered in determining whether there was a reasonable doubt about the State‘s case, i.e., that self-defense evidence must be put aside for all purposes unless it satisfied the preponderance standard. Such an instruction would relieve the State of its burden and plainly run afoul of Winship‘s mandate.
Martin, 480 U.S. at 233-34, 107 S.Ct. 1098.
To summarize applicable Supreme Court precedent: due process requires the state to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, every fact necessary to constitute the crime with which a defendant is charged. In re Winship, 397 U.S. at 364, 90 S.Ct. 1068. Due process does not, however, require the state to disprove every possible fact that would mitigate or excuse the defendant‘s culpability. Patterson, 432 U.S. at 207, 97 S.Ct. 2319. Nor does a state legislature violate a defendant‘s due process rights when it allocates the burden of proving an affirmative defense to the defendant when the defense merely excuses conduct that would otherwise be punishable. Martin, 480 U.S. at 237, 107 S.Ct. 1098. But when a “defense” necessarily negates an element of an offense, it is not a true affirmative defense, and the legislature may not allocate to the defendant the burden of proving the defense. Mullaney, 421 U.S. at 699-701, 95 S.Ct. 1881.
Iromuanya argues that his “sudden-quarrel provocation” defense would have negated an element of the offense of attempted second-degree-murder in violation of the Mullaney rule, and that the step instruction, precluding consideration of sudden-quarrel provocation until an acquittal on second-degree-murder, violates due process as explicated by the Martin dicta, quoted above. However, the Nebraska Supreme Court‘s determination that there was no due process violation in connection with the sudden-quarrel instructions was not an unreasonable application of Supreme Court precedent. The state was required to prove all the elements of second-degree-murder at the time of Iromuanya‘s trial, in keeping with In re Winship. Sudden-quarrel provocation did not negate any element of second-degree-murder as contemplated by Mullaney because it (manslaughter) was not considered an intentional crime at the time of trial. Therefore, the finding of a sudden quarrel would not negate proof of intent, an element of second-degree murder. As the Ronald Smith court acknowledged, the argument about the step instruction was foreclosed by Nebraska law at the time of Iromuanya‘s trial. 806 N.W.2d at 390.
It is the state‘s prerogative to define the elements of its crimes. Bounds v. Delo, 151 F.3d 1116, 1118 (8th Cir. 1998) (“The elements of state law crimes are defined by state law.“); cf. Patterson, 432 U.S. at 201, 97 S.Ct. 2319 (“It goes without saying that preventing and dealing with crime is much more the business of the States than it is of the Federal Government. . . .“). After Jones, there was no requirement of an intention to kill in com-
So under Jones, the district court correctly instructed the jurors that they could not consider a sudden quarrel provocation in deciding whether Iromuanya was guilty or not guilty of attempted second degree murder for shooting at Jenkins. It is true that we have recently overruled our decision in Jones and held that sudden quarrel manslaughter is an intentional killing. But this decision was issued well after Iromuanya‘s trial and direct appeal.
806 N.W.2d at 435 (footnotes omitted). Had Iromuanya‘s trial occurred after Ronald Smith, the case that overruled Jones, Iromuanya‘s jury likely would have been instructed differently. But while Ronald Smith changed Nebraska manslaughter law, it did so on Ronald Smith‘s direct appeal, and this change was not retroactively applied to other cases pending on collateral review. William Smith II, 822 N.W.2d at 415-16 (noting that Ronald Smith “did not announce a new constitutional rule“). Indeed, the change in law announced in Ronald Smith did not even help Ronald Smith, as the court found that there was no evidence of sudden-quarrel provocation introduced at trial, and thus he was not prejudiced by the newly erroneous step jury instruction. Ronald Smith, 806 N.W.2d at 395.
To the extent Iromuanya implicitly complains about Ronald Smith not applying retroactively, this again is a state law problem, not a federal due process problem. See Estelle v. McGuire, 502 U.S. 62, 71-72, 112 S.Ct. 475, 116 L.Ed.2d 385 (1991). A federal court may grant habeas relief on the basis of a faulty state law jury instruction only if the erroneous instruction “so infected the entire trial that the resulting conviction violates due process.” Id. at 72, 112 S.Ct. 475 (quoting Cupp v. Naughten, 414 U.S. 141, 147, 94 S.Ct. 396, 38 L.Ed.2d 368 (1973)). The stringent Estelle standard cannot be met here, because similar to Ronald Smith, there was likely a lack of evidence from which the jury could have concluded4 that Iromuanya committed sudden-quarrel manslaughter instead of second-degree murder. See Ronald Smith, 806 N.W.2d at 395. The Nebraska Supreme Court‘s factual recitation of Iromuanya‘s case indicates that sudden-quarrel provocation was not really an issue during Iromuanya‘s trial. The jury heard Iromuanya‘s videotaped statement that while he was angry that he had been accused of stealing the shot glasses, he did not intend to hit Jenkins, but just wanted to scare him away. Further, Iromuanya admitted that when he fired the shot, he knew that he was no longer suspected of stealing the shot glasses. Most importantly, five minutes had passed between the initial shoving match between Iromuanya
III. CONCLUSION
The Nebraska Supreme Court determined that due process was not offended by either the lack of jury instructions, or the step jury instruction, with regard to sudden-quarrel manslaughter. This adjudication was not contrary to, nor did it involve an unreasonable application of, clearly established Supreme Court precedent. The adjudication also was not based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the state court proceedings. We affirm.
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Norman Bernard WEAVER, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 16-2859
United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
Submitted: April 3, 2017 Filed: August 7, 2017
Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied September 5, 2017