FILED
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
September 25, 2013
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
No. 13-8054
(D.C. Nos. 2:12-CV-00111-CAB and
ROBERT SUMMERS,
2:09-CR-00099-WFD-2)
(D. Wyo.)
Defendant-Appellant.
ORDER DENYING CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY *
Before HARTZ, O’BRIEN, and GORSUCH, Circuit Judges.
After a jury convicted Robert Summers of conspiracy to possess
methamphetamine with intent to distribute, a result this court affirmed on direct
appeal, Mr. Summers filed a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. In his motion,
Mr. Summers alleged that his right to effective assistance of counsel at trial had
been denied. The district court disagreed, issued a detailed memorandum and
order denying Mr. Summers’s request, and denied Mr. Summers’s request for a
certificate of appealability (COA).
*
This order is not binding precedent except under the doctrines of law of
the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its
persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.
Now before us, Mr. Summers renews his request for a COA. To succeed,
he must make a “substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right.” 28
U.S.C. § 2253(c)(2). And to do that, he must demonstrate “reasonable jurists
could debate whether (or, for that matter, agree that) the petition should have
been resolved in a different manner or that the issues presented were adequate to
deserve encouragement to proceed further.” Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473,
484 (2000) (internal quotation marks omitted).
Our review of the case leads us to agree with the district court that Mr.
Summers has not crossed that threshold. To succeed on a claim of ineffective
assistance, a petitioner must demonstrate two things. First, he must show that his
attorney’s performance “fell below an objective standard of reasonableness.”
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 688 (1984). Second, he must prove that
“there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the
result of the proceeding would have been different.” Id. at 694. Mr. Summers
offers a variety of theories why, in his view, his counsel’s performance meets the
test set forth in Strickland. The district court addressed each theory in depth and
found each wanting under Strickland’s standards. We agree with its reasoning in
full.
For example, Mr. Summers argues that his counsel failed to object to a
“massive amount” of improper evidence. Aplt. Br. at 2. He points to twenty
pieces of evidence that he believes counsel should have objected to on grounds of
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hearsay, lack of foundation, or speculation. But as the district court noted, even
if Mr. Summers’s attorney had objected, almost all of the evidence would have
been held admissible. As for any testimony that might have been excluded,
moreover, Mr. Summers has failed to show how its absence would have changed
the outcome of his case.
Alternatively, Mr. Summers contends that his counsel failed to conduct an
adequate voir dire. But this court has held that “[a]n attorney’s actions during
voir dire are considered to be matters of trial strategy,” which “cannot be the
basis” of an ineffective assistance claim “unless counsel’s decision is shown to be
so ill chosen that it permeates the entire trial with obvious unfairness.” Nguyen v.
Reynolds, 131 F.3d 1340, 1349 (10th Cir. 1997). The record does not permit such
a conclusion in this case. Mr. Summers complains that his attorney asked
prospective jurors only a handful of questions. But it turns out that counsel had
good reason for his abridged voir dire: the judge had already performed a lengthy
interrogation of the prospective jurors. The judge’s own voir dire, moreover,
incorporated questions provided by attorneys from both sides. And after the
judge was satisfied, he gave each attorney only fifteen minutes to pose his own
questions, a situation Mr. Summers can’t reasonably fault his counsel for. In
these circumstances, we do not believe that counsel’s voir dire fell below
Strickland’s objective standard of reasonableness.
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Mr. Summers says his trial counsel failed to present an adequate opening
statement. But counsel’s statement, though brief, appears to have been grounded
in a reasonable trial strategy: Mr. Summers’s attorney sought to prime the jury
for his argument that the government simply didn’t have enough evidence to
prove Mr. Summers’s guilt. In addition, this court has held that even failing to
give any opening statement at all is not automatically proof of ineffective
assistance. See Clayton v. Gibson, 199 F.3d 1162, 1178 (10th Cir. 1999). Yet
that seems to be exactly the sort of inference Mr. Summers wishes us to draw.
Mr. Summers accuses his attorney of failing to establish the actual dates of
his prior incarceration and release. This was a significant failing, Mr. Summers
says, because he was in jail during portions of the alleged conspiracy and couldn’t
have played any part in that conspiracy while incarcerated. But while counsel did
not establish at trial the exact dates Mr. Summers was incarcerated, counsel did
show his client was in prison at various points throughout this conspiracy.
Problematically too for Mr. Summers, it is undisputed that he was out of jail
during much of the alleged conspiracy, and he offers no reason why the time he
did spend behind bars would have precluded any participation by him in the
alleged conspiracy. Even had counsel performed as Mr. Summers says he should
have, we cannot see how this would have altered the outcome of the trial.
Lastly, Mr. Summers argues that his attorney refused to allow him to
testify. This accusation, if true, would certainly satisfy Strickland’s “deficient
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performance” requirement. See Cannon v. Mullin, 383 F.3d 1152, 1171 (10th Cir.
2004). But as the district court noted, Mr. Summers cannot show prejudice. Mr.
Summers says he wished to testify that he wasn’t a drug dealer — only a drug
user — and that he couldn’t have participated in this conspiracy because he was
in jail. The difficulty is, the government presented overwhelming evidence from
many sources — including from several people who purchased drugs from Mr.
Summers — that would have directly contradicted Mr. Summers’s testimony. In
addition, had Mr. Summers testified there is little doubt that the government
would have introduced his prior conviction for methamphetamine distribution,
casting further doubt on his claim that he never sold drugs. In light of the totality
of the evidence presented and the potential impeachment evidence the government
possessed, we do not see any reasonable probability that the result of the trial
might have been different had Mr. Summers testified along the lines he now
proposes.
The application for a COA is denied and the appeal is dismissed.
ENTERED FOR THE COURT
Neil M. Gorsuch
Circuit Judge
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