Federal Criminal Law Opinions

CHRISTOPHER LEE PRICE, Petitioner-Appellant, v. RICHARD F. ALLEN, Respondent-Appellee. 11th Circuit. Case No. 09-11716. May 10, 2012. Appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (No. 03-01912-CV-LSC-JEO).

(Before TJOFLAT, BARKETT and WILSON, Circuit Judges.)

[Original Opinion at 23 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C877a]
(PER CURIAM.) We previously issued an opinion in this case, Price v. Allen, No. 09-11716, slip op. (11th Cir. March 30, 2012). On Price’s motion for panel rehearing, we hereby vacate our earlier opinion and substitute this one in its place to more fully address Price’s claim regarding the prosecutor’s statements on future dangerousness during the penalty phase of his trial.

Christopher Lee Price appeals from the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL

BACKGROUND
Price was convicted on February 5, 1993 for the capital felony murder of William Lynn, a minister in the small town of Fayette County, Alabama, that occurred during the course of a robbery at Lynn’s home. A detailed description of the facts of this crime can be found in the Alabama state court’s decision in Price’s direct criminal appeal. See Price v. State, 725 So. 2d 1003, 1011-12 (Ala. Crim. App. 1997). Price was tried and found guilty for capital murder and robbery and the jury voted ten to two to recommend a death sentence for the murder, which the state trial court followed, sentencing Price to death. On direct appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama1 and Alabama Supreme Court2 affirmed Price’s conviction and sentence, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari review.3

Price commenced his state habeas court proceedings by filing a petition for post-conviction relief pursuant to Rule 32 of the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure. Upon the state’s motion and after having the opportunity to amend his petition, the state habeas court dismissed Price’s petition in part and denied it in part, which the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed. The Alabama Supreme Court denied certiorari review.

Concurrent with his request for discretionary review in the Alabama Supreme Court, Price filed in federal court for a writ of habeas corpus, which was stayed until the conclusion of his state habeas proceedings. Upon review by the district court, Price’s federal habeas petition was denied in part and dismissed in part. We granted Price’s request for a Certificate of Appealability on the following issues:

· whether the state trial court erred in denying Price’s motion for a change of venue;

· whether Price’s counsel was ineffective in litigating a change of venue motion;

· whether the prosecution’s comments during the penalty phase about Price’s future dangerousness constituted reversible error;

· whether Price’s counsel was ineffective during the penalty phase of his trial; and

· whether the district court erred in denying Price’s request for an evidentiary hearing.

II. APPLICABLE STANDARDS

OF REVIEW
We review the district court’s conclusions on legal questions and mixed questions of law and fact de novo and its factual findings for clear error. Rhode v. Hall, 582 F.3d 1273, 1279 (11th Cir. 2009) [22 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C143a], cert. denied, 130 S. Ct. 3399 (2010). However, our review of a state court’s decision4 is limited by the terms of 28 U.S.C. § 2254, as amended by the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (“AEDPA”), Pub. L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1218 (1996). See 28 U.S.C. § 2254; Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 402-03 (2000).

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SCOTT MANSFIELD, Petitioner-Appellee, v. SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA, Respondents-Appellants. 11th Circuit. Case No. 09-12312. May 9, 2012. Appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida (No. 05-01466-GAP-KRS).

(Before EDMONDSON, MARCUS and PRYOR, Circuit Judges.)

(MARCUS, Circuit Judge.) In this capital case, the State of Florida appeals the district court’s order granting habeas relief to petitioner Scott Mansfield on his claim that the admission at trial of a videotape of his custodial interrogation by law enforcement officers, when he never received any Miranda warnings, yielded prejudicial constitutional error. On direct appeal, the Florida Supreme Court determined that the admission of the videotaped interrogation was error, but concluded that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The district court disagreed, determining that the Florida Supreme Court’s harmless error determination was an objectively unreasonable application of clearly established federal law and that the admission of the videotape had a substantial and injurious effect on the jury’s verdict.

After thorough review of the record, and having had the benefit of oral argument, we reverse the judgment of the district court. As we see it, the district court essentially engaged in its own factfinding process, failing to accept as correct (as it was obliged to do) some of the unrebutted factual findings of the Florida Supreme Court that credited significant pieces of the State’s case against Mansfield. The district court also afforded precious little weight to other pieces of evidence that the Florida Supreme Court fairly relied upon, and ignored entirely still other evidence incriminating Mansfield. Viewing the entirety of the evidence in light of the full record and according proper deference to the Florida Supreme Court’s factfinding process, we are constrained to conclude that the admission of the videotaped interrogation amounted to harmless error under the “actual prejudice” standard for collateral review set forth by the Supreme Court in Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 637 (1993). Accordingly, we reverse the district court’s order granting habeas relief.

I.
Mansfield was convicted of the first degree murder of Sara Robles. The underlying facts, which we glean from the trial testimony and the opinion of the Florida Supreme Court addressing Mansfield’s direct appeal of his conviction and sentence, Mansfield v. State, 758 So. 2d 636 (Fla. 2000) [25 Fla. L. Weekly S245a] (“Mansfield I”), are these.

On October 15, 1995, at approximately 3:00 a.m., Sara Robles was brutally murdered. Her body was discovered later that morning, lying adjacent to a Winn-Dixie grocery store in Kissimmee, Florida. Her breasts and pelvic area had been mutilated, and further examination revealed that her nipples had been cut off, as well as portions of her labia minora, labia majora, and clitoris. Robles was found wearing a watch that was cracked and stopped at 3:00 a.m. Food stamps were strewn around her body, and a pager was found less than eight feet away. The police also found two gold chains: one by the pager, and the other on Robles’ body.

The police investigation that followed determined that Robles and a male matching Mansfield’s description had been at a nearby bar called Rosie’s Pub, located in the same shopping plaza as the Winn-Dixie, in the early morning hours on the day of the murder. The police interviewed a bartender at Rosie’s Pub, who indicated that Robles, Mansfield, and a third individual, William Finneran, left the bar shortly after 2:00 a.m. The police also interviewed Finneran, who testified at trial that he left the bar at the same time as Mansfield and Robles and that he last saw the two just outside the Winn-Dixie before they entered the store.

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