OPINION
Anthony L. Walker appeals the post-conviction court's denial of his petition for post-conviction relief, Walker raises six issues, which we consolidate and restate as:
I. Whether Walker waived his freestanding claims of error; and,
II. Whether his trial counsel and appellate counsel were ineffective for failing to argue that he improperly received an enhanced sentence based upon aggravating cireumstances not found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt in light of Apprendi v. New Jersey,530 U.S. 466 ,120 S.Ct. 2348 ,147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000).
The relevant facts, as set out in Walker's direct appeal, follow:
[IJn the afternoon on June 23, 1998, Walker met James Smith in a parking lot at Falcon Creek Apartments in Indianapolis, as previously arranged, to purchase marijuana. Walker had walked to this location, while Smith had driven his mother's car. Smith sold three marijuana cigarettes to Walker at a discount. Smith then suggested that they smoke one of the cigarettes together. As they were doing so, Smith became angry and demanded that Walker pay a past debt. The two men scuffled, and at some point a handgun was brandished. Walker proceeded to shoot Smith three times, twice in the back and once in the back of the head.
Following the shooting, Walker obtained the keys to Smith's mother's car and opened the trunk. He removed the speakers from the trunk and discarded them. Walker then lifted Smith's body into the trunk and drove to Sunrise Apartments. After parking in a vacant garage, Walker removed Smith's clothing and threw them in a dumpster along with the car keys and the handgun used in the shooting. Walker also took Smith's cellular phone, which he discarded a couple weeks later, and a portable radio, which he gave to his girlfriend for her birthday.
Shortly thereafter, a maintenance man noticed the unfamiliar car and called the police. The car was subsequently towed to an impound lot. When Smith's mother went to recover the car the next evening, she discovered Smith's partially decomposed corpse in the trunk. Smith's mother did not terminate the cell phone account, and phone calls continued to appear on the billing record after his death. Police investigators eventually traced these calls to Walker and questioned him five times concerning his involvement in Smith's death. Walker gave several different stories and, in the last interview on August 6, 1998, finally confessed to the actions set forth above. He maintained, however, that he shot Smith in self-defense.
On August 7, 1998, Walker was charged with murder, felony murder, robbery as a class A felony, and auto theft. Following a three-day jury trial, the jury found him guilty of the lesser-included offense of voluntary manslaughter as a class A felony and of robbery and auto theft as charged. The trial court reduced Walker's robbery conviction to a class B felony, refusing to further reduce the conviction to a class C felony. The trial court then imposed the following executed sentence: An enhanced forty-five-year term for voluntary manslaughter; the presumptive ten-year sentence for robbery as a class B felony; and, the maximum three-year sentence for auto theft. The trial court ordered the voluntary manslaughter and robbery sentences to be served consecutively and the auto theft sentence to run concurrent to those, for an aggregate sentence of fifty-five years.
Walker v. State,
On direct appeal, Walker raised two issues: (1) whether his conviction for robbery as a class B felony violated the Indiana Double Jeopardy Clause where his
Walker filed a petition for post-convietion relief on July 30, 2003, and an amended petition on December 15, 2004. In the amended petition, Walker alleged that his trial and appellate counsel were ineffective for failing to object to his sentence based upon Apprendi v. New Jersey,
[[Image here]]
2. The Court first finds Petitioner is entitled to no relief on his claim that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the Court sentencing Petitioner beyond the presumptive without a jury's determination of aggravating factors. In order to prevail on his post-conviction claim that his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel was violated, Petitioner must establish the two components from Strickland v. Washington,466 U.S. 668 ,104 S.Ct. 2052 ,80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Wesley v. State,788 N.E.2d 1247 , 1252 (Ind.2008) (citing Williams v. Taylor,529 U.S. 362 , 390,120 S.Ct. 1495 ,146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000) (parallel citations omitted)). First, Petitioner must show that defense counsel's performance was deficient, which "requires showing that counsel's representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness and that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as 'counsel' guaranteed to the defendant by the Sixth Amendment." Id. (citing Strickland,466 U.S. at 687-88 ,104 S.Ct. 2052 ). This objective standard of reasonableness is based on "prevailing professional norms." Id. There is a strong presumption that counsel rendered adequate assistance and made all decisions by exercising reasonable professional judgment. Martin v. State766 N.E.2d 351 , 361 (Ind.2002)[sic] (citing Strickland,466 U.S. at 690 ,104 S.Ct. 2052 ). "Even the finest, most experienced criminal defense attorneys may not agree on the ideal strategy or the most effective way to represent a client." Id. Thus, counsel's representation is not rendered ineffective by isolated mistakes, poor strategy, inexperience and bad judgment. Id.
Second, Petitioner must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. Wesley,
Petitioner relies on Apprendi v. New Jersey,
Because Blakely represents a new rule that was sufficiently novel that it would not have been generally predicted, much less envisioned to invalidate part of Indiana's sentencing structure, requiring a defendant or counsel to have prognosticated the outcome of Blakely or of today's decision would be unjust.
[Id. at 689]. Our Supreme Court went on to say "not raising a Blakely claim before its issuance would fall within the range of effective lawyering." Id. at [691]. Petitioner is entitled to no relief on his claim.
3. Nor is Petitioner entitled to relief on his claim that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to challenge his sentence on these grounds. The standard for gauging appellate counsel's performance is the same as that for trial counsel from Strickland v. Washington,466 U.S. 668 ,104 S.Ct. 2052 ,80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Allen v. State,749 N.E.2d 1158 , 1166-67 (Ind.2001). In other words, Petitioner must prove that appellate counsel performed deficiently and that he was prejudiced as a result. Id. When reviewing an appellate counsel's strategic decision to include or exclude issues, courts should be particularly deferential "unless such a decision was unquestionably unreasonable" because deciding which issues to raise on appeal is one of the most important strategic decisions of appellate counsel. Stevens v. State,770 N.E.2d 739 , 760 (Ind.2002). To prove ineffective assistance of appellate counsel, a defendant must "show from the information available in the trial record or otherwise known to appellate counsel that appellate counsel failed to present a significant andobvious issue and that this failure cannot be explained by any reasonable strategy." Id. (quoting Ben-Yisrayl v. State, 738 N.E.2d 253 , 261 (Ind.2000)). Just as trial counsel was not ineffective for failing to raise a Blakely claim, nor is appellate counsel. As our Supreme Court stated in Smylie, "a trial lawyer or an appellate lawyer would not be ineffective for proceeding without adding a Blakely claim before Blakely was decided." Smylie, [823 N.E.2d at 690 ]. Petitioner is entitled to no relief on this claim.
4. The Court also finds that Petitioner is entitled to no relief on his freestanding claim that the Court erred in using aggravating factors not determined by a jury to enhance Petitioner's sentence. Petitioner raised no claim regarding his sentence in his direct appeal, and the Court finds that Petitioner has procedurally defaulted such claims now. Bunch v. State,778 N.E.2d 1285 , 1289 (Ind.2002). Moreover, Petitioner cannot avoid his default by calling these alleged errors "fundamental." Concepcion v. State,796 N.E.2d 1256 , 1258-59 (Ind.Ct.App.2003) (citing Sanders v. State,765 N.E.2d 591 , 592 (Ind.2002)). In a recent decision of our Supreme Court, the Court held that "[the fundamental error doctrine will not ... be available to attempt retroactive application of Blakely through post-conviction relief." Smylie, [823 N.E.2d at 689 n. 16]. Petitioner is entitled to no relief on this claim.
5. The law is with the State and against the Petitioner.
Appellant's Appendix at 163-165. Thus, the post-conviction court denied Walker's petition for post-conviction relief.
Before discussing Walker's allegations of error, we note the general standard under which we review a post-convietion court's denial of a petition for post-conviction relief. The petitioner in a post-conviction proceeding bears the burden of establishing grounds for relief by a preponderance of the evidence. Fisher v. State,
L.
The first issue is whether Walker waived his freestanding claims of error. Walker first argues that the trial court erred by sentencing him to an enhanced sentence based upon aggravating circumstances not found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt in light of Apprendi. Although the Apprendi issue was raised in Walker's amended petition for post-convietion relief, Walker abandoned this issue at the post-conviction hearing. Walker's counsel informed the post-conviction court
Walker also argues that the trial court erred by denying his motion to suppress because his statements to the police were coerced and he was not advised of his Miranda rights, that his Fifth Amendment rights were "violated when he was forced to be a witness against himself, through the testimony" of the police detectives, and that he "was denied a fair trial when he was denied his Substantive Constitutional right to be heard at his trial." Appellant's Brief at 1-2. Although these claims were presented in Walker's pro se petition for post-conviction relief, these claims were abandoned in Walker's amended petition for post-conviction relief and were not presented to the post-conviction court.
Because Walker did not present these claims to the post-conviction court, the claims are unavailable here. "Issues not raised in the petition for post-conviction relief may not be raised for the first time on post-conviction appeal." Allen v. State,
IL.
The next issue is whether Walker's trial counsel and appellate counsel were ineffective for failing to raise a sentencing argument based upon Apprendi. We apply the same standard of review to claims of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel as we apply to claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Wiliams v. State,
A. Trial Counsel.
Walker argues that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to .the enhancement of his sentence based upon aggravators not found beyond a rea
On June 26, 2000, the United States Supreme Court held in Apprendi,
In analyzing the Indiana sentencing scheme in light of Blakely, the Indiana Supreme Court noted that "[wlhile many who read Apprendi deduced that 'statutory maximum' meant 'statutory maximum,' the Blakely majority chose to define it as 'the maximum sentence a judge may impose solely on the basis of the facts reflected in the jury verdict or admitted by the defendant'" Smylie v. State,
While Blakely certainly states that it is merely an application of "the rule we expressed in Apprendi v. New Jersey,"542 U.S. at 301 ,124 S.Ct. at 2536 , it is clear that Blakely went beyond Appren-di by defining the term "statutory maximum." As the Seventh Cireuit recently said, it "alters courts' understanding of 'statutory maximum'" and therefore runs contrary to the decisions of "every federal court of appeals [that had previously] held that Apprendi did not apply to guideline calculations made within the statutory maximum." Simpson v. United States,376 F.3d 679 , 681 (7th Cir.2004){collecting cases). Because Blakely radically reshaped our understanding of a critical element of eriminal procedure, and ran contrary to established precedent, we conclude that it represents a new rule of criminal procedure.
Smylie,
The Indiana Supreme Court ultimately held that, "as a new rule of constitutional procedure," Blakely would be applied "retroactively to all cases on direct review at the time Blakely was announced," but "a defendant need not have objected at trial in order to raise a Blakely claim on appeal inasmuch as not raising a Blakely claim before its issuance would fall within the range of effective lawyering." 3
Walker was sentenced in December 2000, six months after Apprendi was decided, but several years before Blakely or Smylie were decided. Under Walker's argument, his trial counsel would have been required to interpret Apprendi in a manner that would have predicted the United States Supreme Court's opinion in Blakely and the Indiana Supreme Court's opinion in Smylie. As the Indiana Supreme Court noted in Smylie: "'An attorney is not required to anticipate changes in the law and object accordingly' in order to be considered effective." Smylie,
B. Appellate Counsel.
Walker argues that his appellate counsel was ineffective because he failed to argue that Walker was sentenced to an enhanced sentence based upon aggravating circumstances not found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt in light of Apprendi.
5
The post-conviction court re
As previously noted, we apply the same standard of review to claims of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel as we apply to claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Williams,
The Apprendi argument was not significant or obvious from the face of the record. As we noted above, under Walker's argument, his appellate counsel would have been required to interpret Apprendi in a manner that would have predicted the United States Supreme Court's opinion in Blakely and the Indiana Supreme Court's opinion in Smylie. Blakely represented a new interpretation of "statutory maximum" than that described in Apprendi. Smylie,
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the post-conviction court's denial of Walker's petition for post-conviction relief.
Affirmed.
Notes
. We direct Walker's attention to Ind. Appellate Rule 46(A)(10), which requires an appellant's brief to "include any written opinion, memorandum of decision or findings of fact and conclusions thereon relating to the issues raised on appeal:"
. Walker also argues that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to interview and call certain witnesses, failing to allow Walker to testify, failing to pursue the motion to suppress, and failing to object to the admission of Walker's statements to the police. "Issues not raised in the petition for post-conviction relief may not be raised for the first time on post-conviction appeal." Allen,
. Walker also appears to argue that he should be permitted to make a tardy Blakely claim because he raised a sentencing issue in his direct appeal. Appellant's Brief at 7. However, as the Indiana Supreme Court made clear in Smylie the rule allowing retroactive application of Blakely applied to cases on "direct review at the time Blakely was announced."
. We also note that the Indiana Supreme Court held in Smylie:
Under our holding today, Blakely claimants who have appealed their sentences will be allowed to add a tardy Blakely claim and thus have no need to claim, "fundamental error." The fundamental error doctrine will not, as caselaw holds, be available to attempt retroactive application of Blakely through post-conviction relief.
Smylie,
. Walker also argues that his appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to "challenge that defense counsel did not tender any instruction, especially Sudden Heat; he did not challenge that Walker' [sic] was forced to be a witness against himself; that his client was tricked, and coerced to give a false confession, ... failing to investigate the case or interview any witnesses prior to filing his brief, not even his client; he failed to raise the issue that the Court did not give a voluntarily [sic] manslaughter, involuntarily [sic]} manslaughter; sudden heat, Reckless Homicide and homicide instruction, nor did he turn in a complete record, there was no voir dier [sic],
