Lead Opinion
This case is before the court on collateral review. In 1995, a Vanderburgh County, Indiana, Circuit Court jury convicted Matthew Wrinkles of murdering his wife, his wife’s brother, and his sister-in-law. The jury recommended and Judge Richard L. Young imposed a death sentence. Wrinkles unsuccessfully appealed his conviction and sentence to the Indiana Supreme Court, and thereafter, Judge Carl Heldt of the Vanderburgh Circuit Court denied his request for post-conviction relief. Wrinkles then filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, 28 U.S.C. § 2254, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. Wrinkles argued that his constitutional rights were violated during the trial and sentencing proceedings because, pursuant to the Indiana trial judge’s blanket policy of restraint, he was required to wear a stun belt that he alleges was visible to the jury.
Wrinkles was barred from raising a direct challenge to the constitutionality of the stun belt because he procedurally defaulted the claim in state court. Wrinkles instead claimed that he received ineffective assistance of counsel under Strickland v. Washington,
Wrinkles’s habeas claim hinges on whether the jurors saw the stun belt during the trial and the sentencing proceedings. One passage in the Indiana Supreme Court’s opinion — actually, one sentence — complicates our review. We ultimately conclude that the Indiana Supreme Court made no factual finding regarding the belt’s visibility. The last state-court decision on point — the post-conviction court decision — holds that the jurors did not see the belt. We defer to that finding and agree with the district court that Wrinkles suffered no prejudice from his counsels’ failure to object to the stun belt.
I. History
A. Factual history
By the spring of 1994, the marriage of Matthew and Debbie Wrinkles was coming to an end. On May 3, 1994, police were dispatched to the Wrinkles’ home in response to a report of gunfire. Wrinkles told the responding officers that he and Debbie were having financial and marital problems and that he would kill Debbie if she ever left him. David Plemmons, a witness to the events, would later testify that Wrinkles pointed a gun at Debbie during the argument and the gun discharged when Debbie grabbed it. According to Plemmons, Wrinkles hid the gun when the police arrived, and Debbie and Plemmons “covered” for Wrinkles by lying to the police about the incident. The Indiana Supreme Court later characterized the Wrinkles’ relationship as “stormy and often violent.” Wrinkles v. State,
In June 1994, Debbie moved herself and the children — Lindsay, age thirteen, and Seth, age eight — to the home of Mark and Natalie Fulkerson, Debbie’s brother and sister-in-law. This move marked the end of Wrinkles and Debbie’s marriage, and Debbie filed for divorce on June 30. A few weeks later, on July 20, Wrinkles and Debbie attended a provisional divorce hearing, during which it was decided that Debbie would have custody of the children and Wrinkles would have visitation rights. Wrinkles and Debbie agreed to a meet at a fast-food restaurant later that day so that Wrinkles could see his children. But Debbie did not show that afternoon as scheduled.
Wrinkles had hit a low point in his life. He had a close relationship with his children and he believed that his estranged wife and her family were conspiring to deny him access to the children. In addition to his marital problems, the automotive-repair business that he ran out of his garage was failing. Several zoning complaints had been made against his business and he was forced to shut down. Wrinkles had also been dependent on methamphetamine for- some time, and this dependence caused him to become easily agitated and paranoid. In addition to his mental and emotional decay, his drug use caused him to wither away physically. Wrinkles’s addiction kept him from sleeping, except sporadically, and he lost sixty pounds in a three-month period.
Wrinkles’s obvious decline had begun to terrify Debbie. Her friend would testify at trial that Debbie had become a “nervous wreck.” Id. at 1159. She had begun to take “medication [and] every time she heard a noise she would jump cause she was scared. And ... she had to sleep with a gun underneath her pillow [because] she was scared” of Wrinkles.
Debbie’s failure to appear with the children at the fast-food restaurant on July 20
Wrinkles drove to the Fulkerson home at approximately 2:00 a.m. on July 21, and parked his truck about one block from the home. He was wearing camouflage clothing, had painted his face, and was armed with a .357 magnum revolver and a knife. He climbed over a fence into the Fulker-sons’ backyard. He cut the telephone wires and kicked in the back door, entering the home.
Wrinkles went down the hallway and into the Fulkersons’ bedroom, where he shot Mark Fulkerson four times, killing him in front of his three-year-old son, Matthew. Debbie was awakened by the gunshots. She grabbed her gun and ran to the hallway where she confronted Wrinkles. She fired and hit him in the arm, knocking herself down in the process. At that point, Lindsay Wrinkles had also awakened and had come upon the confrontation between her parents. She saw that her father was about to shoot her mother and she “pleaded, ‘Dad, please don’t shoot Mom.’ ” Wrinkles v. State,
During the commotion, Natalie Fulker-son made her way to the living room and out the front door, in an attempt to flee. Wrinkles gave chase and caught Natalie on the front porch, shooting her in her face at close range. Natalie died on the porch. Wrinkles fled. The Fulkersons’ ten-year-old daughter, Kimberly, and her 19-year-old cousin, Tracy, ran to neighbors’ houses for help.
Wrinkles was arrested later that morning in a neighboring county and was charged with three counts of murder, pursuant to Ind.Code § 35-42-1-1(1), for knowingly killing his victims. The state filed notice of its intent to seek the death penalty on July 28, 1994. Under Indiana law, the state can seek the death penalty when a defendant commits multiple murders. Ind.Code § 35-50-2-9(b)(8).
B. Procedural history
Based on their pre-trial investigations, Wrinkles’s attorneys’ theory of his defense centered on the fact that, at the time of the crimes, Wrinkles was in the midst of a very difficult period in his life. The attorneys decided to stress the loss of Wrinkles’s business, the break-up of his marriage, and his perception that Debbie and the Fulkersons were trying to keep his children from him. The defense argued that Wrinkles had broken into the Fulker-sons’ home with the intent of retrieving his children because he feared that he would never see them again — a paranoia magnified by his methamphetamine addiction. The paranoia was further enhanced when, according to Wrinkles, his victims confronted him with guns when he entered the home. Wrinkles also would cast Debbie as the aggressor in their confrontation in the hallway; he would testify that Debbie said, “Die, you bastard, die,” when she shot him. Wrinkles I,
Before trial commenced, the trial judge informed Wrinkles’s counsel that Wrinkles would have to wear some sort of restraining device — either shackles or a stun belt. The trial court did not make a specific finding that Wrinkles presented a risk of danger, escape, or courtroom disruption. But “the trial court apparently [had] a policy of requiring defendants to wear restraints regardless of whether they [had] previously exhibited any conduct justifying restraints.” Wrinkles II,
A jury found Wrinkles guilty of all three counts of murder, and recommended the death penalty; the trial judge sentenced Wrinkles to death. Wrinkles appealed his conviction and death sentence, raising a number of evidentiary claims and challenging both Indiana’s death-penalty statute and his own sentence. He did not, however, appeal the trial court’s blanket policy of requiring him to wear the stun belt at trial. Unpersuaded, the Indiana Supreme Court affirmed Wrinkles’s convictions and sentence (Wrinkles I).
Thereafter, Wrinkles filed a petition for post-conviction relief, in which he challenged the constitutionality of the stun belt and raised ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims, among other claims. Central to his claim for post-conviction relief were three affidavits from jurors in his trial who claimed to have seen the stun belt. The post-conviction court discounted the reliability of the affidavits and upheld Wrinkles’s convictions and sentence:
The trial court did not strip the presumption of innocence from Petitioner by requiring him to wear the belt. The purpose of the belt is to maintain control over a prisoner without the prisonerappearing restrained. Petitioner did not prove that the belt was visible or that the jury knew about it. The affidavits from three jurors that they knew about the belt from the trial court, the bailiff, and/or newspaper articles read after trial, and Petitioner’s appearance during trial are insufficient. First, the juror affidavits are inconsistent with each other. One juror stated that the jury was not told why Petitioner wore the belt, while another juror averred that the trial court told the jury about the belt to assure the jurors that they would be safe. Second, some of the juror affidavits are inconsistent with bailiff Todd Woodmansee’s affidavit that he did not tell the jury about the belt. Third, both [of Wrinkles’s attorneys] testified that the belt was not visible during trial. Fourth, the juror affidavits were not subjected to cross-examination. Because petitioner did not appear restrained during the trial, he was not stripped of the presumption of innocence.
Vanderburgh Circuit Court’s Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Judgment on Petition for Post Conviction Relief, Wrinkles v. State, No. 82C01-9407-CF-447 (Sept. 3, 1999) (emphasis in original).
After the post-conviction court rendered its decision, Wrinkles filed with that court a Motion to Correct Error, to which he attached new affidavits from additional jurors, who claimed to have seen the stun belt during trial. The post-conviction court did not grant Wrinkles’s motion, nor did it admit the additional juror affidavits into evidence.
Wrinkles then appealed the post-conviction court’s ruling to the Indiana Supreme Court. Relying on Indiana law, the supreme court in Wrinkles II prospectively banned the use of stun belts in Indiana courts. The court was specifically concerned with the mental impact on a defendant who might be afraid about the potential infliction of pain from the belt, and how this mental concern could impact the defendant’s ability to participate in his own defense. Wrinkles II,
But the Indiana Supreme Court denied Wrinkles the benefit of its holding. The court held that Wrinkles’s claim was procedurally defaulted because Wrinkles had failed to raise the issue on direct appeal. In addition, the court held that Wrinkles had not suffered from ineffective assistance of counsel when his attorneys failed to object to the use of the stun belt at his trial. ■ The court characterized Wrinkles’s attorneys’ choice to acquiesce to the stun belt as a “strategic decision”:
Before trial began, the trial court informed counsel that Wrinkles would have to wear either shackles or a stun belt during trial. Without objection counsel chose a stun belt, and Wrinkles claims they rendered ineffective assistance as a result. We disagree. Although with this opinion we declare that stun belts no longer have a place in Indiana courtrooms, that was not the case at the time of Wrinkles’ trial. Our prohibition is motivated primarily by the potential effect a stun belt may have upon the person wearing the device. However, without the benefit of this declaration, counsel were concerned about the effect on the jurors if they were to observe their client wearing a particular device. Counsel believed that the chance of the jury seeing the shackles was fairly high. On the other hand, counsel opted for the stun belt because they thought that jurors would not be able to see it. Obviously, they were later proven wrong. However, at the time the decision was made, it was a prudent one.
Thereafter, Wrinkles filed a Request for Certificate of Appealability (“C.A.”) on two issues: (1) “Whether [he] was unconstitutionally restrained by virtue of wearing a stun belt at his trial,” and (2) “Whether [his] counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel at the ‘guilt phase’ of trial.” Judge Tinder granted Wrinkles a C.A. on the issue of the constitutionality of the use of the stun belt, but denied the request as to his ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims. This appeal followed.
II. Analysis
On appeal, Wrinkles’s first argues that the district court erred in finding that his stun-belt claim was proeedurally defaulted because the default was the result of ineffective assistance of counsel. As for his freestanding constitutional claim, he argues that his Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when he was forced to wear the stun belt without an independent assessment of the need for restraints.
A. Procedural default
Before analyzing Wrinkles’s substantive § 2254 claims, we must first determine whether Wrinkles proeedurally defaulted his argument that wearing the stun belt violated his constitutional rights. Lee v. Davis,
Wrinkles sought federal habeas corpus review of federal-law issues that the Indiana Supreme Court disposed of based on adequate and independent state-law grounds. Specifically, Wrinkles’s “freestanding” stun belt claims—that his
B. Excuse for procedural default
To keep his freestanding constitutional claim alive, Wrinkles argues that his procedural default is excusable under the standard set forth in Wainwright v. Sykes,
Attorney error rising to the level of ineffective assistance of counsel can constitute cause to set aside procedural default. Franklin v. Gilmore,
“To establish ineffective assistance of counsel, the [petitioner] must show that counsel’s performance was deficient and that the deficient performance prejudiced the [petitioner].” Almonacid v. United States,
Wrinkles’s ineffective-assistance claim was preserved for collateral review. Lee,
1. Substandard performance by counsel
Wrinkles argues, and we agree, that his counsel’s performance at trial fell below prevailing norms of professional behavior. The Indiana Supreme Court correctly identified Strickland as the governing law; thus, Wrinkles will only gain relief if the court unreasonably applied the standard to the facts of his case. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2). In evaluating the reasonableness of the Indiana Supreme Court’s application of Strickland, we must ask whether the court was “objectively unreasonable,” Williams v. Taylor,
The Indiana Supreme Court held that Wrinkles’s counsels’ decision not to object to the stun belt at trial was strategic and thus adequate. The supreme court first noted that the Indiana trial court had a stated “policy” of “requiring defendants to wear restraints regardless of whether they have previously exhibited any conduct justifying restraints.” Wrinkles II,
At the time of Wrinkles’s trial, it was well established that a trial court could not restrain a criminal defendant absent a particularized justification. In Illinois v. Allen, the Supreme Court held that a defendant could forfeit his Sixth Amendment right to be present and unrestrained at his own trial.
Again in Holbrook v. Flynn,
In Wrinkles’s case, his attorneys did not object to the use of the stun belt because they concluded that the trial court was going to require restraints no matter what. But these cases make clear that particularized reasoning must support any decision to restrain a defendant. In light of the wealth of caselaw prohibiting the trial court’s blanket policy, by standing mute, Wrinkles’s counsel failed to provide adequate legal assistance. Failing to object when a trial court presents two impermissible options — shackles or a stun belt, neither supported by individualized justification — cannot be an objectively reasonable tack under prevailing norms of professional behavior. See Strickland,
2. Prejudice
Standing alone, the attorneys’ failure to request an inquiry into the justification for the stun belt is not ineffective assistance. Some prejudice is required before a trial counsel’s performance falls below the constitutional minimum. Strickland,
Wrinkles argues that he was prejudiced because, in his opinion, the jurors were aware that he was restrained by the stun belt and were thus more inclined to view him as a dangerous person. In turn, he argues, the jurors were more likely to determine that he had the requisite mindset to commit murder, instead of a lesser crime, and were more willing to vote for the death penalty. If the jurors did see the stun belt during trial, then Wrinkles could demonstrate prejudice. See Allen,
The post-conviction court determined that Wrinkles had not demonstrated that the jurors had seen the stun belt or that Wrinkles had otherwise been affected by it. The Indiana Supreme Court affirmed the post-conviction court. Wrinkles contends, however, that the supreme court made an implicit factual finding that the belt was visible to the jury. He bases his argument on a statement in Wrinkles II that indicates that Wrinkles’s attorneys “were later proven wrong.”
Before trial began, the trial court informed counsel that Wrinkles would have to wear either shackles or a stun belt during trial. Without objection counsel chose a stun belt, and Wrinkles claims they rendered ineffective assistance as a result. We disagree. Although with this opinion we declare that stun belts no longer have a place in Indiana courtrooms, that was not the case at the time of Wrinkles’ trial. Our prohibition is motivated primarily by the potential effect a stun belt may have upon the person wearing the device. However, without the benefit of this declaration, counsel were concerned about the effect on the jurors if they were to observe their client wearing a particular device. Counsel believed that the chance of the jury seeing the shackles was fairly high. On the other hand, counsel opted for the stun belt because they thought that jurors would not be able to see it. Obviously, they were later proven wrong. However, at the time the decision was made, it was a prudent one.
Wrinkles II,
Wrinkles believes the “Obviously, they were later proven wrong” sentence amounts to a finding of fact by the Indiana Supreme Court that the jurors saw the stun belt. We disagree with that interpretation of the sentence. To begin, we do not believe the Indiana Supreme Court would have made a factual finding in this manner, especially as it affirmed the post-conviction court and did not overturn any of the post-conviction court’s factual findings. More importantly, we do not read this statement to reveal anything about the stun belt’s visibility. Rather, the statement reflects the Indiana Supreme Court’s opinion that Wrinkles’s attorneys could not be faulted for having taken into account only the potential visibility of a particular restraint in deciding whether to object to a court’s use of the restraint — because Indiana law at the time focused on the harm stemming from visible restraints.
a. Indiana law on factual findings
In the “deferential and limited review” of 28 U.S.C. § 2254, “state court factual findings are presumed correct.” Williams v. Bartow,
Notably, Wrinkles did not raise as issues on appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court the post-conviction court’s denial of his post-judgment motions and request for leave to amend his petition based on the additional juror affidavits. In Indiana, a motion to correct error does not allow a party to present evidence it merely neglected to present at trial, Roach v. State,
Having not appealed the post-conviction court’s refusal to admit the additional affidavits into evidence, Wrinkles’s reliance on the additional affidavits in his post-conviction appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court seems analogous to the petitioner’s reliance on similar affidavits in Patton v. State,
If under state law the Indiana Supreme Court would not have looked at the additional affidavits in its direct review of the post-conviction court’s findings, see Roach,
The Wrinkles II opinion itself suggests that the Indiana Supreme Court adopted the post-conviction court’s findings of fact in toto. The supreme court acknowledged the post-conviction court’s factual findings and identified the standard of review called for under Indiana law:
In the present case, the post-conviction court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law in accordance with Indiana PosWConvietion Rule 1(6). A post-conviction court’s findings and judgment will be reversed only upon a showing of clear error — that which leaves us with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made.
Wrinkles II,
The Wrinkles II court did not reverse the findings of the post-conviction court, either explicitly or implicitly. The Indiana Supreme Court has repeatedly noted that a post-conviction court’s findings of fact are accepted unless “clearly erroneous,” and that the “postconviction court is the sole judge of the weight of the evidence and the credibility of witnesses.” Fisher v. State,
b. Our reading of “Obviously, they were later proven wrong.”
Despite a degree of ambiguity surrounding the “Obviously, they were later proven wrong” sentence in Wrinkles II, we conclude that the Indiana Supreme Court was commenting on the process by which Wrinkles’s attorneys decided not to object to the stun-belt restraint — as opposed to commenting on the belt’s visibility. In the disputed passage, the court first explained that it had just invalidated the use of stun belts based on a type of prejudice unavailable to Wrinkles’s counsel at the time of trial — the “potential effect . \. upon the person wearing the device.” The court then set out the choice of restraint facing Wrinkles’s attorneys at trial in light of the
In rejecting Wrinkles’s claim that he had received ineffective assistance of counsel, the court stated, in relevant part:
Before trial began, the trial court informed counsel that Wrinkles would have to wear either shackles or a stun belt during trial. Without objection counsel chose a stun belt, and Wrinkles claims they rendered ineffective assistance as a result. We disagree. Although with this opinion we declare that stun belts no longer have a place in Indiana courtrooms, that was not the case at the time of Wrinkles’ trial. Our prohibition is motivated primarily by the potential effect a stun belt may have upon the person wearing the device. However, without the benefit of this declaration, counsel were concerned about the effect on the jurors if they were to observe their client wearing a particular device. Counsel believed that the chance of the jury seeing the shackles was fairly high. On the other hand, counsel opted for the stun belt because they thought the jurors would not be able to see it. Obviously, they were later proven wrong. However, at the time the decision was made, it was a prudent one.
Wrinkles II,
The last few sentences of this quoted section — particularly the sentence “[ojbvi-ously, they were later proven wrong” — are not entirely unproblematic. One could read this second-to-last sentence as referring back to the court’s statement that “the jurors would not be able to see it,” with the “it” referring to the stun belt. So read, this could be seen as an implicit finding that the jurors had in fact seen the stun belt and that Wrinkles’s attorneys “were later proven wrong” about their contrary assumption. In turn, this would suggest that the stun belt may have prejudiced the defendant.
We cannot conclude that this is the appropriate reading for two reasons: (1) the quoted section is more consistent with a discussion of the choice facing Wrinkles’s attorneys in light of the then-established prejudice associated with restraints; and (2) Indiana law as well as subsequent guidance by the Indiana Supreme Court sheds light on the more plausible reading. Parsing the above-quoted section, the paragraph begins:
Before trial began, the trial court informed counsel that Wrinkles would have to wear either shackles or a stun belt during trial. Without objection counsel chose a stun belt, and Wrinkles claims they rendered ineffective assistance as a result. We disagree. Although with this opinion we declare that stun belts no longer have a place in Indiana courtrooms, that was not the case at the time of Wrinkles’ trial.
Our prohibition is motivated primarily by the potential effect a stun belt may have upon the person wearing the device. However, without the benefit of this declaration, counsel were concerned about the effect on the jurors if they were to observe their client wearing a particular device.
Id. In Wrinkles II, the court reasoned that the prejudice from a stun belt resulted not from the jury being able to see the defendant in restraints, but from “the potential effect a stun belt may have upon the person wearing the device.” This form of prejudice marked a departure from preexisting case law, which had only discussed prejudice in terms of the defendant’s visibility before the jury in restraints. Id. at 1193-95; see also Stephenson v. Indiana,
The question then became whether effective counsel would have accounted for the new form of prejudice just identified in banning stun belts. But the supreme court said no; the failure to object was not ineffective assistance. In reaching this conclusion, the court first recreated the decision facing Wrinkles’s counsel in choosing the restraint to be used:
Counsel believed that the chance of the jury seeing the shackles was fairly high. On the other hand, counsel opted for the stun belt because they thought the jurors would not be able to see it.
Wrinkles II,
Immediately following the court’s articulation of these two options and the rationale behind the attorneys’ choice, the court continued,
Obviously they were later proven wrong. However, at the time the decision was made, it was a prudent one.
Id. This first sentence refers back to the court’s statement that “counsel opted for the stun belt because they thought the jurors would not be able to see it.” Wrinkles’s attorneys opted for the form of restraint that they thought would minimize prejudice — the “effect on the jurors.” But the court had just held that its decision was instead “motivated primarily by the potential effect a stun belt may have upon the person wearing the device,” not the “effect on the jurors.” Thus, “[o]bviously, they were later proven wrong” to have evaluated the choice of restraint through the lens of juror-prejudice alone. Nonetheless, because the attorneys could not be faulted for failing to predict the form of prejudice announced in Wrinkles II, “at the time the decision was made, it was a prudent one.”
Placing Wrinkles II within the larger context of Indiana law — both procedural law and a subsequent interpretation laid out by the Indiana Supreme Court — reinforces this reading. When reviewing a state-court decision in federal courts, the
Here, Indiana procedural law and a subsequent supreme court decision support the conclusion that the above reading of Wrinkles II is the proper one. First, as discussed above, it is implausible to view the “Obviously” statement as an implicit factual finding by the the supreme court. Under Indiana law, the supreme court would not have examined additional affidavits contained in a motion to correct error. And the rest of Wrinkles II is more consistent with a blanket affirmance than with an affirmance despite a factual finding contrary to the post-conviction court’s. This latter scenario is especially unlikely given that the supreme court was reviewing only for clear error.
But more importantly, this court must credit the Indiana Supreme Court’s later interpretation of Wrinkles II in resolving the ambiguity contained in the disputed passage. Tibbs,
A scenario comparable to the case at hand presented itself to the Supreme Court in Tibbs v. Florida,
In Stephenson v. Indiana,
At the time of Stephenson’s trial in 1996 and 1997, no Indiana ruling had addressed the use of stun belts. As in Wrinkles, counsel cannot be faulted for selecting the belt over more visible shackles, given that the case law addressing the issue had largely focused on the visibility of the restraint, and not, as Wrinkles later pointed out, on the belt’s potential effect on the defendant’s demeanor and ability to participate in the defense.
Id. at 1032. The court went on to characterize the decision made by Wrinkles’s attorneys as a “tactical decision.” The “only real issue” in Wrinkles’s trial was sentencing, so “[t]he decision to challenge the belt [there] arguably fell into the tactical range, balancing the likelihood of success against the risk of alienating the judge by challenging an announced ‘policy.’ ” Id. Because in Stephenson’s case, guilt was “vigorously disputed,” a “tactical” classification could not apply. The- court went on to hold that the “use of a stun belt, if perceived by the jury, produces all the results that shackling does.” After a careful examination of the post-conviction record, the Stephenson court concluded that the jurors had been aware of the stun belt. Nonetheless, the court upheld Stephenson’s convictions and death sentence because he had not demonstrated the requisite amount of “prejudice” to establish his ineffective-assistance claim.
This discussion of Wrinkles II in Stephenson indicates that the above reading is the appropriate one. The section discussing the Wrinkles II decision tracks the Indiana Supreme Court’s reasoning in the exact manner discussed above. The court recreated the decision facing Wrinkles’s attorneys in light of the established form of prejudice at the time. The court again recognized that Wrinkles’s attorneys viewed their decision at trial in light of the “visibility of the restraint,” and not the “belt’s potential effect" on the defendant’s demeanor and ability to participate -in the defense.” And just as it had in Wrinkles II, the court concluded that Wrinkles’s counsel could not be faulted for failing to predict the prejudice the court would credit in banning the stun belt.
Even with the benefit of this reading, the Indiana Supreme Court unreasonably applied Strickland in evaluating Wrinkles’s attorneys’ performance in Wrinkles II. The failure to object itself fell below what is expected under professional norms, regardless of the theory of prejudice. A blanket policy of restraint cannot be squared with the case law at the time of trial. But notwithstanding the propriety of the court’s conclusion, it is evident that the court did not make a finding that the jurors had seen the stun belt. Instead, the court in Wrinkles II was reconstructing the decision made by Wrinkles’s counsel based on the then-established form of prejudice associated with the stun belt.
In light of the nature of the court’s reasoning in Wrinkles II, the discussion in Stephenson, and the implausibility under Indiana law of the Indiana Supreme Court making implicit factual findings, we conclude that the Indiana Supreme Court did not make a finding of fact that the jurors had seen the stun belt. The controlling
III. Conclusion
The decision of the district court is Affirmed.
Notes
. Wrinkles also seeks an expansion of the C.A. to include his non-stun-belt ineffective-assistance-of-counsel arguments. For the reasons stated by the district court, we deny his request to expand the C.A. to include the additional claims on appeal. See Herrera v. United States, 96 F.3d 1010, 1013 (7th Cir.1996).
. The Supreme Court has recognized an additional way to avoid procedural default if the default would result in a "fundamental miscarriage!] of justice.” Murray v. Carrier,
. Wrinkles also claims that the Indiana Supreme Court recognized that the stun belt was "conspicuous to at least seven jurors.” However, Wrinkles takes this quotation in Wrinkles II out of context. The full sentence is one of three in a paragraph the Indiana Supreme Court uses solely to summarize Wrinkles's ineffective-assistance-of-counsel argument with respect to the stun belt. The entire sentence reads: “Wrinkles asserts that utilization of the stun belt, which was conspicuous to at least seven jurors, undermined his presumption of innocence and made him appear dangerous and uncontrollable in front of the jurors who would help decide whether he would live or die.” Wrinkles II,
We cannot fathom the notion that, in the middle of three paraphrasing sentences, the Wrinkles II court would have perfunctorily inserted a clause containing a factual finding, without indicating it as such. Courts often present a party's argument in order to present the issue it will proceed to consider, and it is apparent that the Indiana Supreme Court was doing this in Wrinkles II. Consequently, we reject Wrinkles’s argument that this clause is a finding of fact by the Wrinkles II court that the stun belt was visible to jurors.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
I agree with my colleagues that Matthew Wrinkles’s trial attorneys were deficient in failing to object to the trial court’s insistence on the use. of restraints absent judicial findings that Wrinkles presented a security threat or otherwise required physical restraints. I cannot agree, however, that Wrinkles was not prejudiced by counsels’ error. The natural reading of the opinion of the Indiana Supreme Court in Wrinkles II is that several jurors were aware of the stun belt during the trial. In light of that finding, Wrinkles has shown both the inherent prejudice that accompanies visible restraints and other detriments specific to his case. Only through a tortured interpretation of the Indiana Supreme Court’s opinion, with which not even the respondent agrees, does the majority conclude that Wrinkles was not prejudiced by his attorneys’ error. I would not wager a man’s life on the correctness of the majority’s grammatical parsing, and therefore I respectfully dissent.
During the state postconviction proceedings, Wrinkles submitted affidavits from two jurors who attested that, during the trial, they were “aware” that Wrinkles was wearing a shock belt. One juror “believe[d]” that a bailiff told the jurors of the belt and the other was unsure how he became aware but “believe[d]” the judge told the jurors. A third juror (juror Kraft) attested that she was aware of the belt and even saw it on Wrinkles during the trial; she described the belt as looking like a cummerbund. Kraft also stated that she may have become aware of the belt after the trial from a newspaper article. Despite ample time to investigate and prepare counter-affidavits, the state submitted only one, from one of the three bailiffs who worked at Wrinkles’s trial. The bailiff attested that he never communicated to the jurors that Wrinkles was wearing a stun belt. Nothing, however, contradicted the three jurors’ testimony that they knew about the belt; only how each learned of it remained open to question. Despite the testimony by all three jurors that they knew about the stun belt, and with nothing in the record to the contrary, the postcon-viction court found that the jurors were not aware of the stun belt. The court reasoned that the affidavits were not credible because of inconsistencies and because the jurors were not subject to cross-examination.
Wrinkles argued on appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court that the finding that the jurors were unaware of the stun belt was erroneous. In its opinion, the Indiana Supreme Court implicitly accepted that argument by making statements inconsistent with the postconviction court’s finding. If the jurors knew about the stun belt, we must presume that Wrinkles was prejudiced, and so the interpretation of the supreme court’s statements on this subject is the linchpin of this case. ■
In its first reference to the issue, the Indiana Supreme Court stated: “Wrinkles asserts that utilization of the stun belt, which was conspicuous to at least seven jurors, undermined his presumption of innocence and made him appear dangerous and uncontrollable in front of the jurors who would help decide whether he would live or die.” Wrinkles v. State,
The court’s second mention of the critical factual issue is not ambiguous. It first states that Wrinkles’s counsel, lacking the guidance of the later decision to ban stun belts outright, reasonably chose between shackles and stun belt based on the effect each might have on the jurors. Id. at 1195. The court continues: “Counsel believed that the chance of the jury seeing the shackles was fairly high. On the other hand, counsel opted for the stun belt because they thought that jurors would not be able to see it. Obviously, they were later proven wrong. However, at the time the decision was made, it was a prudent one.” Id. (emphasis added). Given the preceding sentence, the. italicized sentence must be read as an acknowledgment by the supreme court that, despite counsels’ pretrial predictions that the stun belt would go undetected, some jurors indeed were aware of it.
The majority, however, concludes that the attorneys were “later proven wrong” in their decision to evaluate “the choice of restraint through the lens of juror-prejudice alone.” Ante at 820.’ In order to arrive at this tortured result, my colleagues devote no less than ten pages to what they describe, fittingly,. as “Our
Then my colleagues, who accuse Wrinkles of taking the statement out of context, proceed to rearrange the entire paragraph to reach the conclusion that the Indiana Supreme Court was explaining why “counsel’s decision to choose the stun belt was a ‘prudent one’ even though the attorney’s were ‘later proven wrong’ to examine their choice solely based on ‘the effect of the jurors.’ ” Ante at 819. Not only does this interpretation strain common sense, it is inconsistent with the supreme court’s analysis of counsels’ decision. As the majority concedes, the Indiana Supreme Court erroneously concluded that counsel were not deficient for failing to object to the stun belt because in light of the trial court’s supposed policy of requiring restraints, “an objection to wearing restraints would not have been sustained by the trial judge even if made.” Wrinkles II,
Given this view, it would make no sense for the Indiana Supreme Court to in the same breath conclude that counsel were “later proven wrong” to have evaluated the situation solely through the lens of Wrinkles’s appearance before the jury. Quoting a piece of the disputed sentence and then adding on its own “clarification” the majority comes up with the following conclusion: “Thus, ‘[ojbviously, they were later proven wrong’ to have evaluated the choice of restraint through the lens of juror-prejudice alone. Nonetheless, because the attorneys could not be faulted for failing to predict the form of prejudice announced in Wrinkles II,’ at the time the decision was made, it was a prudent one.’ ” Ante at 820. But being “proven wrong” about the possibility that the defendant would be prejudiced by the jury seeing him restrained is a nearly nonsensical concept. After all, the fact that the Indiana Supreme Court emphasized the effect of the restraint on the defendant (a form of prejudice long-recognized, not, as both the Indiana Supreme Court and my colleagues seem to believe, a novel proposition) as opposed to the prejudice occasioned by the jury seeing the belt does not mean that prejudice from a visible restraint is no longer a legitimate concern of counsel— i.e., that counsel would be “wrong,” as the majority suggests, for considering that form of prejudice. That borders on the absurd.
The majority claims its strained interpretation is the more plausible one in light
The majority’s unlikely interpretation also ignores the procedural context. First, the factual issue was squarely presented to the Indiana Supreme Court. Second, the court suggested that it reviewed all seven juror affidavits despite the postconviction court’s refusal to do so; it referred to the belt being conspicuous to “at least seven” jurors. See Wrinkles II,
The majority protests that such a conclusion cannot be drawn because, “[h]ere, Wrinkles did not appeal the post-conviction court’s refusal to admit the additional affidavits into evidence,” ante at 817 (emphasis in original). Not only is this line of argument a red herring, it is simply untrue. In fact, Wrinkles did appeal the post-conviction court’s refusal to admit the additional affidavits. Specifically, Wrinkles’s brief on appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court states that “Wrinkles attempted to admit affidavits from four additional jurors who knew Wrinkles was restrained. The post-conviction court erroneously denied Wrinkles’ motion to supplement the record with these affidavits.” (Brief for Petitioner-Appellant at 19 n. 6, Wrinkles v. Indiana, No. 82C01-9407-CF-447.) The fact that, contrary to the majority’s repeated insistence otherwise, see ante at 817, Wrinkles placed the issue before the Indiana Supreme Court makes the court’s reference to the jurors’ awareness of the belt all the more straightforward.
Moreover, whether the Indiana Supreme Court did or did not formally admit the additional affidavits is in no way as determinative as my colleagues suggest. The three affidavits that were originally admitted all establish the jurors’ knowledge of the stun belt; and Wrinkles vigorously argued to the supreme court in a properly preserved appeal that the postconviction court’s contrary finding was clearly erroneous. Those three affidavits alone estab
The Indiana Supreme Court’s discussion of Wrinkles II in Stephenson likewise does nothing to undercut the plain language of the disputed passage. In a confusing passage devoted to “explaining” why “obviously, they were later proven wrong” means wrong about some other issue than the one identified in the preceding sentence, the majority resorts to yet another Indiana Supreme Court case on stun belts. But it is unclear how Stephenson, which does indeed discuss Wrinkles II, sheds any light on whether the court believed the jurors knew about the stun belt in Wrinkles’s case. The majority first explains its reliance on Stephenson by analogizing it to a situation where “an ensuing state supreme court decision affects a disputed finding in a previous decision.” Ante at 821. But the examples cited provide no precedent for resorting to a later opinion to clarify a state court’s finding of fact in an earlier, unrelated proceeding. The supposedly “comparable” case relied on by the majority — Tibbs—demonstrates the point. There the United States Supreme Court referred to a later pronouncement by the Florida Supreme Court to resolve ambiguity in the earlier opinion in the same case; to be sure, subsequent pronouncements in the same case may illuminate the basis of a state court decision — as in Tibbs when a case is reversed and then retried and the court in the second appeal comments on its rationale in the first appeal. But using an unrelated subsequent state court opinion to interpret the meaning of case-specific language in a previous case strikes me as, if not unprecedented (certainly the majority points to no truly analogous scenario), highly unusual.
At all events, Stephenson is hardly so illuminating as the majority suggests. My colleagues point out that Stephenson “tracks” the reasoning from Wrinkles II by recreating the decision facing Wrinkles’s counsel at the time and their concern with whether the jury would see the belt as opposed to what effect the device would have on Wrinkles. But the fact that the Indiana Supreme Court repeated in Stephenson its mistake in Wrinkles — excusing counsels’ objectively deficient performance — sheds no light on the meaning of “obviously, they were later proven wrong.” Notably, the court in Stephenson concluded that the jurors in that case did see the defendant’s stun belt. But despite the discussion that “tracks” its reasoning in Wrinkles II, the court nowhere distinguishes Wrinkles II on the basis that the jurors in that case did not know about the
Finally, the majority places great weight on the fact that the Indiana Supreme Court was considering the “choice of restraint facing Wrinkles’s attorneys at trial in light of the only theory of prejudice then available — the ‘effect on the jurors.’ ” Ante at 819. But neither the majority nor the Indiana Supreme Court is correct that the jury’s diminished impartiality was the only legally recognized form of prejudice at the time of Wrinkles’s trial. Both the United States Supreme Court and lower courts have long recognized that the harm flowing from visible restraints is threefold. In addition to the potential effect on the jury’s impartiality, the Supreme Court in 1970 recognized that restraints may interfere with the accused’s right to assist in his defense. See Illinois v. Allen,
Thus, there is no basis for the majority’s attempt to explain away the clear import of the phrase “[ojbviously, they were later proven wrong” by reasoning that the Indiana Supreme Court must have been excusing counsels’ failure to predict that the effect on a defendant would one day become a legal rationale forbidding the use of restraints at trial. That rationale was available to counsel at the time of Wrinkles’s trial. And the fact that counsel failed to “predict” what was in fact a long-settled rule of law is not remotely surprising: lead trial counsel testified at the post-conviction hearing that, “I did not know that there was a law about shackling.” If anything, the Indiana Supreme Court’s failure to acknowledge the longstanding recognition that restraints also prejudice the accused’s ability to participate in his defense simply reaffirms that the Indiana Supreme Court unreasonably applied clearly established law. Cf. Williams v. Taylor,
It is well established that our obligation to defer to the factual findings of state courts extends to appellate courts. See Sumner v. Mata,
Of course, even finding that some jurors were aware of the stun belt did not lead the Indiana Supreme Court to conclude that Wrinkles’s attorneys were deficient for failing to object. That conclusion, rightly rejected by my colleagues, is largely based on the court’s determination that any objection would have been futile due to the trial court’s practice of routinely requiring restraints, as well as the fact that Wrinkles’s guilt was not in question. I will not dwell on the erroneousness of that analysis, but it is worth emphasizing that counsel’s obligation to object for the record was more, not less, urgent where the judge imposed an extralegal burden on Wrinkles without even attempting to justify it. Moreover, counsels’ failure to object— whatever the probable ruling — contributed in large part to the procedural hurdles Wrinkles now must clear in order to get relief, compounding their error. The majority appropriately concludes, therefore, that Wrinkles’s counsel were deficient for
After parting ways with the Indiana Supreme Court on the first prong of Strickland, however, the majority then relies on its strange interpretation of that Court’s factual finding to conclude that Wrinkles was not prejudiced by his attorneys’ failure to object. “Without evidence that the jurors saw the stun belt, or that he was otherwise affected by the stun belt throughout trial, Wrinkles cannot demonstrate prejudice.”
It has long been established that visible restraints are so prejudicial that they are permissible only where a “special need” is present. Deck,
Wrinkles’s situation cannot be distinguished from the line of cases addressing visible restraints because the stun belt was “visible” in the only meaningful sense to any juror who was aware that he was restrained. See Roche v. Davis,
Given the jurors’ awareness of the belt, every type of prejudice that the Supreme Court has associated with the use of restraints is implicated in this case. First, the message sent by restraints — that the judicial system itself already believes the defendant to be uncontrollably dangerous — undermines the presumption of innocence. Deck,
Second, physical restraints can interfere with the defendant’s ability to participate in his own defense. Id. at 631,
The prejudice inflicted by restraints is particularly dangerous in a case such as this, where any one factor could have been decisive for the jury in both the guilt and penalty phases given the nature and strength of Wrinkles’s defense. As appellate counsel explained, the use of the belt negated the entire theory of the defense: that Wrinkles was not a dangerous or violent person by nature but had “snapped” under extreme circumstances such as the bitter separation from his family, a recent involuntary commitment to a psychiatric facility, and a severe drug addiction. Indeed, sufficient evidence was adduced at trial to instruct the jury on voluntary manslaughter (which entails “sudden heat”) and reckless homicide in addition to knowing murder. Surely a presumption that Wrinkles was so dangerous as to require restraints would make a conviction for knowing murder more likely than it might have been based on the evidence alone. See Harrell,
Finally, even if I could accept my colleagues’ strained characterization of the Indiana Supreme Court’s statements on the visibility of the stun belt, I would find it difficult to accept their reflexive conclusion that Wrinkles was not prejudiced. The jurors’ awareness of the restraint aside, Wrinkles also argues that he could not fully and meaningfully participate in his trial while strapped to a torture device. This argument was a logical application of existing Supreme Court precedent on restraints, and competent counsel would surely have raised it in response to the trial court’s illegal “policy.” The majority dismissively concludes that Wrinkles did not present “evidence” that the stun belt “affected his abilities to participate in his own defense,” ante at 823. Not only did he present such evidence (see discussion ante at 830-31), in my view a court need not abandon its common sense when considering whether being forced to wear, with no justification, a device that delivers an unstoppable, 8-second, 50,000-volt shock might affect a defendant’s participation and demeanor, and, relatedly, the jury’s impressions of him. For this reason, and more importantly because of the
. The court also did not explain why it credited the bailiff's affidavit, which was also not subject to cross-examination. The affidavits are duly sworn under the penalty of perjury. They were prepared four years after the trial.
. As the majority points out, ante at 815 n. 4, the supreme court otherwise consistently used such language as “Wrinkles contends” or "He claims” immediately preceding his arguments.
. Notably, although the majority emphasizes the bailiff's affidavit, his sworn testimony that he was “sequestered with the jury for the entire duration of the trial’’ was later shown to be inaccurate. That bailiff eventually submitted a supplemental affidavit clarifying that he was temporarily absent from the trial and another bailiff took over his duties during that time. Nor was this bailiff the only one assigned to the trial; thus there is little to the postconviction court's suggestion that the bailiff’s affidavit contradicted Kenneth Ranes’s affidavit that he believed "the bailiff” told jurors about the stun belt.
. I have already commented that the majority’s interpretation of the Indiana Supreme Court's statements on this matter strains credulity. But, in the face of the juror affidavits admitted into the record, the majority's statement that Wrinkles is “without evidence” that jurors knew about (the more appropriate term than "saw”) the stun belt is wholly inaccurate.