Grant v. McKee
Opinion of the Court
Petitioner, Stephen Grant, appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We affirm.
I.
Petitioner strangled his wife to death, dismembered her body, and hid parts of the body throughout a nearby park. He reported her missing, resulting in a weeks-long search. . Petitioner retained David Griem as counsel, and Griem informed petitioner and the Macomb County Sheriffs Department that any communication with petitioner must go through him. During a search of the family residence, where police discovered the victim’s torso, petitioner fled. Police arrested petitioner near Petoskey, Michigan two days later. Despite a prior agreement to the contrary, police did not inform Griem that they had captured petitioner.
Petitioner pleaded guilty to mutilation of a dead body. However, he went to trial on his first-degree murder charge, claiming the killing was not premeditated. Petitioner moved to suppress his confession under the Fifth Amendment, arguing that his waiver was invalid because police violated their agreement that they would conduct all communication through Griem. After a suppression hearing, the trial court denied the motion. Following trial, a jury found petitioner guilty of the lesser included offense of second-degree murder.
Petitioner appealed, raising the suppression claim and others before the Michigan Court of Appeals, which affirmed his conviction and sentence. People v. Grant, No. 284100, 2009 WL 3199493, at *12 (Mich.Ct. App. Oct. 6, 2009) (per curiam). He appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, which denied leave to appeal. People v. Grant, 485 Mich. 1128, 779 N.W.2d 803 (2010). Petitioner then commenced a ha-beas action in the district court under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), 28 U.S.C. § 2254, raising the instant claim and challenging the trial court’s denial of his motion for change of venue. The petition was referred to a magistrate judge, who recommended denying the petition. The district court adopted this recommendation. Grant v. McKee, 95 F.Supp.3d 1041, 1049 (E.D.Mich. 2015). The district court granted a certificate of appealability solely on the suppression issue.
II,
We review the district court’s legal conclusions de novo, and its factual findings for clear error. Davis v. Lafler, 658 F.3d 525, 530 (6th Cir. 2011) (en banc).
When a petitioner challenges his custody pursuant to a state-court judgment, AED-PA erects a regime of respect for — and thus deference to — the state court’s decision. Such a writ
shall not be granted with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings unless the adjudication of the claim—
(1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or
(2) resulted in a decision that was . based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.
28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). Petitioner asserts that the trial court unreasonably applied clearly established federal law as deter
III.
We begin our analysis under § 2254(d)(1) by “identifying] the ‘clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States’ that governs the habeas petitioner’s claims.” Marshall v. Rodgers, — U.S. -, 133 S.Ct. 1446, 1449, 185 L.Ed.2d 540 (2013) (per curiam) (quoting 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1)). Although petitioner makes extensive arguments in reliance upon Brewer v. Williams, 430 U.S. 387, 97 S.Ct. 1232, 51 L.Ed.2d 424 (1977), he concedes that there is no precedent exactly on point. Our inquiry could end here, as there is no applicable clearly established federal law as determined by the Supreme Court. See Woods v. Donald, — U.S.-, 135 S.Ct. 1372, 1377, 191 L.Ed.2d 464 (2015) (per curiam) (“Because none of our cases confront ‘the specific question presented by this case,’ the state court’s decision could not be ‘contrary to’ any holding from this Court.” (quoting Lopez v. Smith, — U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. 1, 4, 190 L.Ed.2d 1 (2014) (per curiam))); see also United States v. Golinveaux, No. 08-2015, 2008 WL 4829710, at *7 (N.D.Iowa, Nov. 6, 2008) (declining to apply Brewer in the Fifth Amendment context because the Supreme Court considered only the defendant’s Sixth Amendment waiver claim).
Assuming for the sake of argument that Brewer applies outside the Sixth Amendment context, it is no more helpful to petitioner. In Brewer, police arrested the defendant in Davenport, Iowa for murdering a young child, and transported him to Des Moines, Iowa. Brewer, 430 U.S. at 390-91, 97 S.Ct. 1232. The defendant arranged for attorneys in both locations, who in turn reached an agreement with the officers that they would not question him during transport. Id. at 391-92, 97 S.Ct. 1232. Despite the agreement, an officer remarked, “you ... are the only person that knows where this little girl’s body is” and “the parents of this little girl should be entitled to a Christian burial for the little girl who was snatched away from them on Christmas [E]ve and murdered.” Id. at 392-93, 97 S.Ct. 1232. The defendant then led the officers to the victim’s body. Id. at 393, 97 S.Ct. 1232. The Court concluded that “[d]espite [the defendant’s] express and implicit assertions of his right to counsel, [the d]etective[ ] proceeded to elicit incriminating statements, ... did not preface this effort by telling [the defendant] that he had a right to the presence of a lawyer, and made no effort at all to ascertain whether [the defendant] wished to relinquish that right.” Id. at 405, 97 S.Ct. 1232, This, the Court held, constituted a “clear ... violation of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments,” Id. at 406, 97 S.Ct. 1232.
The Court made it clear, however, that it did not hold that a defendant “could not, without notice to counsel, have waived his
Petitioner’s argument that things would somehow have gone differently had police notified Griem of his arrest in the two-and-a-half hours between it and Griem’s resignation is pure speculation. It is also contradicted by the record. Griem testified that he decided to withdraw as counsel two days prior to petitioner’s arrest, and did not testify that that he would have continued to represent petitioner if police had advised him of the arrest prior to his televised resignation. Moreover, petitioner had previously ignored Griem’s advice not to speak with police.
Brewer did not “clearly establish” any rule of law that aids pétitioner. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). By its own disclaimer, Brewer is inapplicable to a valid waiver of the right to counsel, with or without notice to counsel. Brewer, 430 U.S. at 405-06, 97 S.Ct. 1232. The Michigan Court of Appeals ruling reaching the same conclusion therefore was not “unreasonable.” Schriro, 550 U.S. at 473, 127 S.Ct. 1933. Given the substantial difference between Brewer and the facts of this case, and the clarity of petitioner’s valid waiver, a contrary conclusion would be unreasonable. The district court rightly denied petitioner a writ of habeas corpus.
AFFIRMED.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Stephen Christopher GRANT v. Kenneth T. McKEE, Warden
- Status
- Published