Gary K. Wilson v. United States ( 2013 )

Case: 11-14376 Date Filed: 01/31/2013 Page: 1 of 8
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 11-14376
Non-Argument Calendar
________________________
D.C. Docket Nos. 1:09-cv-23473-MGC,
1:04-cr-20487-MGC-1
GARY K. WILSON,
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Petitioner-Appellant,
versus
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Respondent-Appellee.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
________________________
(January 31, 2013)
Before BARKETT, MARTIN and BLACK, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Gary K. Wilson, a federal prisoner serving a sentence of life imprisonment
Case: 11-14376 Date Filed: 01/31/2013 Page: 2 of 8
for convictions for various drug offenses, as well as conspiracy to commit robbery
and extortion, appeals the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion to
vacate. In his motion, Wilson claimed he was denied effective assistance of
counsel when his appellate counsel failed to challenge on direct appeal the trial
court’s decisions: (1) not to conduct juror inquiries, despite reports that Wilson
was staring at the jury; and (2) to keep Wilson shackled during trial without first
making individualized findings that such shackling was warranted.1 The district
court subsequently denied Wilson’s § 2255 motion, but granted a COA as to these
two specific issues. After review, we affirm the district court.2
I.
Wilson argues the district court erred in finding no juror inquiry was
required despite the fact that two jurors reported they were afraid of Wilson
because he was staring at them. He asserts that allowing fearful jurors to sit in
1
Wilson also alleged appellate counsel was ineffective because he did not challenge the trial
court’s failure to make an “appropriate inquiry” into whether an excused juror “had made comments
that might have polluted the remaining jurors.” Because this issue was not enumerated specifically
in the certificate of appealability (COA), it is not properly before us and we decline to review it.
McKay v. United States, 657 F.3d 1190, 1195 (11th Cir. 2011). Wilson additionally claimed his
appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to challenge the validity of the prior convictions used
to enhance his sentence. Because the district court declined to grant a COA as to this claim, and we
denied Wilson’s motion to expand the COA to include it, we do not further address this issue either.
2
In addressing a § 2255 motion, we review questions of law de novo, and findings of fact
for clear error. McKay, 657 F.3d at 1195. Claims of ineffective assistance of counsel are subject
to de novo review as mixed questions of law and fact. Brownlee v. Haley, 306 F.3d 1043, 1058 (11th
Cir. 2002).
2
Case: 11-14376 Date Filed: 01/31/2013 Page: 3 of 8
judgment of him was an error that appellate counsel should have addressed on
appeal, and that counsel’s failure to do so was both deficient and prejudicial.
To prevail on an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim, the defendant must
demonstrate both that: (1) his counsel’s performance was deficient, in that it fell
below an objective standard of reasonableness; and (2) that he suffered prejudice
as a result of that deficient performance. Strickland v. Washington, 104 S. Ct.
2052, 2064–67 (1984). Strickland’s two-part test governs ineffective-assistance-
of-appellate-counsel claims as well. Clark v. Crosby, 335 F.3d 1303, 1310 (11th
Cir. 2003). We have held that if a legal principle at issue is unsettled, counsel will
not have rendered deficient performance for an error in judgment in failing to raise
that issue on appeal. Black v. United States, 373 F.3d 1140, 1144 (11th Cir.
2004). An appellate counsel’s performance is prejudicial if “the neglected claim
would have [had] a reasonable probability of success on appeal.” Philmore v.
McNeil, 575 F.3d 1251, 1265 (11th Cir. 2009) (quotation omitted).
We have yet to consider in a published opinion whether a defendant’s
alleged staring at the jury constituted an “extraneous” or “extrinsic” contact such
that the district court was required to conduct further inquiry,3 and we note that
3
When a defendant raises a colorable claim of extrinsic or extraneous influence, a hearing
is required to “investigate the asserted impropriety.” See Remmer v. United States, 74 S. Ct. 450,
451 (1954) (involving a direct appeal).
3
Case: 11-14376 Date Filed: 01/31/2013 Page: 4 of 8
our sister circuits are split on the issue.4 In United States v. Khanani, 502 F.3d
1281 (11th Cir. 2007), involving a direct appeal, we considered a district court’s
conclusion that a juror could remain impartial after that juror reported she had
“locked eyes” with an unidentified man vaguely resembling the defendant “on one
occasion, giving her a sense of danger.” Id. at 1291. Because the factors as a
whole supported the district court’s conclusion that the juror was, and could
remain, impartial, we concluded that “even assuming an extrinsic contact with a
jury, in fact, occurred, it was not prejudicial.” Id. at 1292. Notably, we did not
determine whether a juror “locking eyes” with a man resembling the defendant
was in fact an “extrinsic contact.” See id.We decline to resolve the issue here. Instead, with regard to the ultimate
issue of whether Wilson’s appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise this
claim, we hold that because the “legal principle at issue is unsettled,” counsel did
not “render[] deficient performance for an error in judgment” in failing to raise it
4
See, e.g., United States v. Owens, 426 F.3d 800, 805 (6th Cir. 2005) (holding, on direct
appeal, that, “[a]lthough it was never determined whether Owens actually stared at the preoccupied
juror during his trial, a defendant is not automatically entitled to a Remmer hearing because he has
managed to insult or frighten a juror”); United States v. Lopez, 271 F.3d 472, 489 (3d Cir. 2001)
(upholding, on direct appeal, a district court’s decision not to question a juror because the
defendant’s conduct in staring at the juror did not constitute “an outside influence”). But see United
States v. Simtob, 485 F.3d 1058, 1065 (9th Cir. 2007) (holding, on direct appeal, that “because the
district court made no inquiry of the juror when the juror voiced his or her concern that the
defendant’s alleged act of eye-balling the juror made the juror feel threatened, it abused its discretion
in failing to take proper remedial action”).
4
Case: 11-14376 Date Filed: 01/31/2013 Page: 5 of 8
on appeal. Black, 373 F.3d at 1144, 1146 (noting that a reasonable attorney in the
position of appellate counsel could have concluded a “hypothetical scenario”
considered in a case “was simply dicta and did not provide binding authority”).
Similarly, even assuming counsel’s performance was deficient for failing to raise
the issue on direct appeal, Wilson could not establish that, but for the deficient
performance the outcome of his appeal would have been different. Strickland, 104
S. Ct. at 2068. The very fact that the issue remains undecided in this Circuit, and
the other circuits are split on the issue, weighs against the argument that Wilson
would have prevailed on appeal had counsel raised the issue.
II.
Wilson next argues there was no record evidence to permit the trial court to
make the required specific and individualized assessment that it was necessary to
shackle him during trial. Further, he contends the post hoc findings by the district
court in denying the motion to vacate—that he and his codefendants were
shackled because of reports they were attempting to threaten and intimidate trial
witnesses—were insufficient under the Supreme Court’s decision in Deck v.
Missouri, 125 S. Ct. 2007 (2005). Ultimately, he asserts the shackles prejudiced
him at trial, and had the issue been raised on appeal, there was a reasonable
possibility that it would have changed the outcome.
5
Case: 11-14376 Date Filed: 01/31/2013 Page: 6 of 8
In Deck, the Supreme Court stated that “the Fifth and Fourteenth
Amendments prohibit the use of physical restraints visible to the jury absent a trial
court determination, in the exercise of its discretion, that they are justified by a
state interest specific to a particular trial.” Id. at 2012 (emphasis added). In
United States v. Baker, 432 F.3d 1189 (11th Cir. 2005), we held that the district
court’s failure to make “express defendant-by-defendant findings” pursuant to
Deck was not an abuse of discretion because of the defendants’ “individual
criminal histories, including many violent crimes, the violent crimes for which
they were in fact indicted, the sheer number of defendants on trial, the fact that
each of the defendants had a full opportunity to respond to the court’s concerns
and raise alternative proposals, and the lack of any record evidence that the jury
could see the shackles.” Id. at 1245–46.
Wilson did not assert in his motion to vacate that his shackles were visible,
or that the shackles in any way prevented him from participating in his own
defense or in communicating with his attorney, and there was no evidence to
support any such contention. Instead, he conceded his shackles were covered by a
cloth that was draped over the defense table, and the Government presented
evidence that the court conferred with court security and decided to change
courtrooms for trial to prevent the jury from seeing Wilson in shackles. Moreover,
6
Case: 11-14376 Date Filed: 01/31/2013 Page: 7 of 8
he did not dispute that the trial court received reports of threats by him and his
codefendants, he had an extensive criminal history, the crimes for which the
defendants were indicted were violent, and there were a large number of
defendants in the case. Additionally, there was no evidence that defense counsel
lacked an opportunity to object or raise alternative proposals to the shackling.
Nevertheless, even assuming appellate counsel’s representation was
deficient for failing to raise the issue on direct appeal, the district court did not err
in denying Wilson’s motion to vacate. The second prong of Strickland required
Wilson to show that the outcome of his appeal would have been different had
appellate counsel raised the shackling issue on appeal. See Marquard v. Sec’y for
Dep’t of Corrs., 429 F.3d 1278, 1313-14 (11th Cir. 2005) (noting that a defendant
who argues his counsel was ineffective for failing to object to shackles bears the
burden to establish a reasonable probability that, but for his trial counsel’s failure
to object to shackling, there would have been a different result). As discussed
above, Wilson did not dispute that there existed ample justification to support the
trial court’s decision to order him shackled, and there was no evidence the jury
ever saw the restraints or that they prevented him from communicating with his
attorney, so Wilson cannot show he was prejudiced by appellate counsel’s failure
to raise this issue. See id.; Baker, 432 F.3d at 1245-46.
7
Case: 11-14376 Date Filed: 01/31/2013 Page: 8 of 8
AFFIRMED.
8