Sexton v. BeaudreauxSexton v. Beaudreaux
In this case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a denial of federal habeas relief,
I
Respondent Nicholas Beaudreaux shot and killed Wayne Drummond during a late-night argument in 2006. Dayo Esho and Brandon Crowder were both witnesses to the shooting. The next day, Crowder told the police that he knew the shooter from middle school, but did not know the shooter‘s name. Esho described the shooter, but also did not know his name. Seventeen months later, Crowder was arrested for an unrelated crime. While Crowder was in custody, police showed him a middle-school yearbook with Beaudreaux‘s picture, as well as a photo lineup including Beaudreaux. Crowder identified Beaudreaux as the shooter in the Drummond murder.
Officers interviewed Esho the next day. They first spoke with him during his lunch break. They showed him
Beaudreaux was tried in 2009 for first-degree murder and attempted second-degree robbery. Esho and Crowder both testified against Beaudreaux and both identified him as Drummond‘s shooter. The jury found Beaudreaux guilty, and the trial court sentenced him to a term of 50 years to life. Beaudreaux‘s conviction was affirmed on direct appeal, and his first state habeas petition was denied.
A divided panel of the Ninth Circuit reversed. The panel majority spent most of its opinion conducting a de novo analysis of the merits of the would-be suppression motion—relying in part on arguments and theories that Beaudreaux had not presented to the state court in his second state habeas petition. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 1a–7a; Record ER 153–ER 154. It first determined that counsel‘s failure to file the suppression motion constituted deficient performance. See App. to Pet. for Cert. 3a. The circumstances surrounding Esho‘s pretrial identification were “unduly suggestive,” according to the Ninth Circuit, because only Beaudreaux‘s picture was in both photo lineups. Id., at 4a. And, relying on Ninth Circuit precedent, the panel majority found that the preliminary hearing was unduly suggestive as well. Ibid. (quoting Johnson v. Sublett, 63 F. 3d 926, 929 (CA9 1995)). The panel majority next concluded that, under the totality of the circumstances, Esho‘s identification was not reliable enough to overcome the suggestiveness of the procedures. App. to Pet. for Cert. 5a. The panel majority then determined that counsel‘s failure to file the suppression motion prejudiced Beaudreaux, given the weakness of the State‘s case. Id., at 5a–6a. After conducting this de novo analysis of Beaudreaux‘s ineffectiveness claim, the panel majority asserted that the state court‘s denial of this claim was not just wrong, but objectively unreasonable under
II
Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), a federal court cannot grant habeas relief “with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings unless the adjudication of the claim . . . resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by” this Court, or “a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.”
A
To prove ineffective assistance of counsel, a petitioner must demonstrate both deficient performance and prejudice. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U. S. 668, 687 (1984). The state court‘s denial of relief in this case was not an unreasonable application of Strickland. A fairminded jurist could conclude that counsel‘s performance was not deficient because counsel reasonably could have determined that the motion to suppress would have failed. See
This Court has previously described “the approach appropriately used to determine whether the Due Process Clause requires suppression of an eyewitness identification tainted by police arrangement.” Perry v. New Hampshire, 565 U. S. 228, 238 (2012). In particular, the Court has said that “due process concerns arise only when law enforcement officers use[d] an identification procedure that is both suggestive and unnecessary.” Id., at 238–239 (citing Manson v. Brathwaite, 432 U. S. 98, 107, 109 (1977), and Neil v. Biggers, 409 U. S. 188, 198 (1972); emphasis added). To be “‘impermissibly suggestive,‘” the procedure must “‘give rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.‘” Id., at 197 (quoting Simmons v. United States, 390 U. S. 377, 384 (1968)). It is not enough that the procedure “may have in some respects fallen short of the ideal.” Id., at 385–386. Even when an unnecessarily suggestive procedure was used, “suppression of the resulting identification is not the inevitable consequence.” Perry, 565 U. S., at 239. Instead, “the Due Process Clause requires courts to assess, on a case-by-case basis, whether improper police conduct created a ‘substantial likelihood of misidentification.‘” Ibid. (quoting Biggers, supra, at 201). “[R]eliability [of the eyewitness identification] is the linchpin’ of that evaluation.” Perry, supra, at 239 (quoting Manson, 432 U. S., at 114; alterations in original). The factors affecting reliability include “the opportunity of the witness to view the criminal at the time of the crime, the witness’ degree of attention, the accuracy of his prior description of the criminal, the level of certainty demonstrated at the confrontation, and the
In this case, there is at least one theory that could have led a fairminded jurist to conclude that the suppression motion would have failed. See Richter, supra, at 102.3 The state court could have reasonably concluded that Beaudreaux failed to prove that, “under the ‘totality of the circumstances,‘” the identification was not “reliable.” Biggers, supra, at 199. Beaudreaux‘s claim was facially deficient because his state habeas petition failed to even address this requirement. See Record ER 153–ER 154. And the state court could have reasonably concluded that the totality of the circumstances tipped against Beaudreaux. True, Esho gave a vague initial description of the shooter, see Manson, supra, at 115 (noting the detailed physical description the witness gave “minutes after“), and there was a 17-month delay between the shooting and the identification, see Biggers, supra, at 201 (determining that “a lapse of seven months . . . would be a seriously negative factor in most cases“). But, as the3
B
The Ninth Circuit‘s opinion was not just wrong. It also committed fundamental errors that this Court has repeatedly admonished courts to avoid.
First, the Ninth Circuit effectively inverted the rule established in Richter. Instead of considering the “arguments or theories [that] could have supported” the state court‘s summary decision, 562 U. S., at 102, the Ninth Circuit considered arguments against the state court‘s decision that Beaudreaux never even made in his state habeas petition.
Additionally, the Ninth Circuit failed to assess Beaudreaux‘s ineffectiveness claim with the appropriate amount of deference. The Ninth Circuit essentially evaluated the merits de novo, only tacking on a perfunctory statement at the end of its analysis asserting that the state court‘s decision was unreasonable. But deference to the state court should have been near its apex in this case, which involves a Strickland claim based on a motion that turns on general, fact-driven standards such as sugges-
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The petition for a writ of certiorari and respondent‘s motion to proceed in forma pauperis are granted. The judgment of the United States Courts of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
JUSTICE BREYER dissents.