F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
DEC 22 1997
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
ARTURO B. DELGADO,
Petitioner-Appellant,
v. No. 97-2007
(D.C. No. CIV 94-822 BB/LFG)
LAWRENCE BARRERAS, Warden, (D. N.M.)
Penitentiary of New Mexico,
Respondent-Appellee.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before KELLY, McKAY, and BRISCOE, Circuit Judges.
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of
this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a); 10th Cir. R. 34.1.9. The case is therefore
ordered submitted without oral argument.
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. The court
generally disfavors the citation of orders and judgments; nevertheless, an order
and judgment may be cited under the terms and conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
Defendant Arturo Delgado appeals from the district court’s denial of his
petition for habeas corpus relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. 1 Delgado was
originally indicted on charges of kidnaping, criminal sexual penetration, and
aggravated battery. A New Mexico state court dismissed the kidnaping charge
because of insufficient evidence at his first trial. The jury hung, and the court
declared a mistrial. At his second trial, Delgado was convicted of the remaining
counts and was sentenced to concurrent terms of nine years and one year, with
three years suspended. On appeal, the New Mexico Court of Appeals dismissed
the battery charge because it found that the battery charge merged with the rape
charge, and it affirmed the conviction and sentence for criminal sexual
penetration.
Delgado filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal district court,
challenging his conviction on grounds of double jeopardy, insufficient evidence,
prosecutorial misconduct resulting in violation of his constitutional rights, and
ineffective assistance of counsel. The district court adopted the findings and
recommendations of the magistrate judge and dismissed the habeas petition. We
1
Because the petition was filed before the effective date of the Antiterrorism
and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, no certificate of appealability is
necessary. See United States v. Kunzman, 125 F.3d 1363, 1364 n.2 (10th Cir.
1997). We, therefore, construe Delgado’s notice of appeal as requesting a
certificate of probable cause. See Fed. R. App. P. 22(b) (prior to amendment by
AEDPA).
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review the district court’s dismissal of Delgado’s petition for writ of habeas
corpus de novo, see Sinclair v. Henman, 986 F.2d 407, 408 (10th Cir. 1993), and
we affirm.
Double Jeopardy
Delgado’s first argument for habeas relief is that his constitutional right to
be free from double jeopardy was violated when the state retried him for the same
offenses before he received appellate review on his claim of insufficient evidence
at his first trial. As Delgado concedes, this claim lacks merit under Richardson v.
United States, 468 U.S. 317, 325-26 (1984). In that case, the Court held that
declaration of a mistrial because the jury was unable to reach a verdict is not an
event that terminates jeopardy. See id. at 326. Delgado’s second trial was,
therefore, a continuation of the original jeopardy. “Regardless of the sufficiency
of the evidence at petitioner’s first trial, he has no valid double jeopardy claim to
prevent his retrial.” Id.
Prosecutor Misconduct
Next, Delgado argues that improper remarks in the prosecutor’s rebuttal
closing statement violated his constitutional rights and made his trial
fundamentally unfair. Specifically, Delgado argues that the prosecutor’s
comments on defense counsel’s failure to question the victim, Shirley Zahoney,
about the rape in her video-taped deposition violated his constitutional right to a
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presumption of innocence by impermissibly shifting the burden of proof. He also
asserts that his trial was fundamentally unfair because of the prosecutor’s
representation that defense counsel had referred to defendant as a “stalker and a
thug,” the prosecutor’s representation that defense counsel referred to Zahoney as
“an old drunk,” and the prosecutor’s improper attempt to appeal to racial
prejudice by characterizing defendant’s testimony so as to insinuate that he was
prejudiced against Native Americans and the homeless.
“While, ordinarily, claims of prosecutorial misconduct . . . are reviewed on
habeas [to determine whether the misconduct made the trial fundamentally
unfair], when the impropriety complained of effectively deprived the defendant of
a specific constitutional right, a habeas claim may be established without
requiring proof that the entire trial was thereby rendered fundamentally unfair.”
Mahorney v. Wallman, 917 F.2d 469, 472 (10th Cir. 1990). In support of his
argument that the prosecutor’s remarks impermissibly shifted the burden of proof
and denied him his constitutional entitlement to a presumption of innocence,
Delgado cites our decision in Mahorney. That case is distinguishable, and it does
not support Delgado’s argument that the prosecutor’s remarks deprived him of a
specific constitutional right. Here, the prosecutor’s rebuttal remarks were aimed
at countering Delgado’s closing statement, in which his attorney emphasized the
inconsistencies and improbabilities in Zahoney’s video-taped testimony. In
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response, the prosecutor sought to emphasize that, regardless of any
inconsistencies or improbability of Zahoney’s testimony about details, the defense
could point to no inconsistency in her account of the actual rape. To that end, the
prosecutor pointed out that defense counsel did not even question Zahoney about
the rape.
In contrast, the prosecutor in Mahorney actually told the jury that the
presumption of innocence no longer existed, that it had been removed by the
evidence, and that the defendant now stood before them guilty. 917 F.2d at 471.
Defense counsel objected, and the judge overruled the objection. Id. In light of
that scenario, we held that the defense was prejudiced by the direct statement
about the presumption of innocence and that the judge’s overruling of the
objection amplified the prejudice. Id. at 473-74. We do not find Mahorney
persuasive because, in this case, the prosecutor’s remarks were not a direct
statement on the presumption of innocence. In addition, the remarks were in
direct response to defense counsel’s comments in his closing statement regarding
the inconsistencies in Zahoney’s testimony. See United States v. Haar, 931 F.2d
1368, 1377 (10th Cir. 1991) (holding no impropriety in prosecutor’s remarks that
were invited by comments of defense counsel). Further, the defense made no
objection to the remarks, see Mason v. United States, 719 F.2d 1485, 1489 (10th
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Cir. 1983) (stating no objection indicates lack of serious problem), and there was
no amplification of any prejudice caused by the judge overruling an objection.
We review the three other remarks to which Delgado objects to determine
“whether the challenged statements ‘so infected the trial with unfairness as to
make the resulting conviction a denial of due process.’” Brecheen v. Reynolds,
41 F.3d 1343, 1355 (10th Cir. 1994) (quoting Donnelly v. DeChristoforo, 416
U.S. 637, 643 (1974)). After careful consideration of the pertinent surrounding
circumstances of the trial, see id., we conclude that the prosecutor’s comments
did not “so prejudice[ ] the jury against [Delgado] as to deny him the fundamental
fairness to which he is entitled under the Constitution.” Id. at 1356. The
comments were appropriately responsive to defense counsel’s closing statement,
and the reference to Zahoney’s class and race did not improperly appeal to the
jury’s bias or prejudice.
Sufficiency of the Evidence
Delgado’s third argument is that the prosecution produced insufficient
evidence at his second trial to support a conviction for criminal sexual
penetration. He maintains that the trial court erred in admitting the video-taped
deposition of Zahoney and that without her testimony, there was insufficient
evidence to convict. The district court found that, with or without Zahoney’s
video-taped testimony, there was sufficient evidence upon which a jury could
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have found, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Delgado committed the offense. We
agree. In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we do not reweigh
conflicting evidence or pass on the credibility of witnesses; we will “accept the
jury’s resolution of the evidence as long as it is within the bounds of reason.”
Messer v. Roberts, 74 F.3d 1009, 1013 (10th Cir. 1996) (quotation omitted).
“[W]e will not question the evidentiary . . . rulings of the state court unless
[Delgado] can show that, because of the court’s actions, his trial, as a whole, was
rendered fundamentally unfair.” Maes v. Thomas, 46 F.3d 979, 987 (10th Cir.)
cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1115 (1995) (quotation omitted). The prosecution satisfied
its burden of showing that Zahoney was unavailable, defense counsel was
afforded a chance to cross-examine Zahoney at the taped deposition, and her
testimony was not inherently improbable. Our review of the record shows that
admission of Zahoney’s video-taped deposition did not make the trial
fundamentally unfair.
In any event, like the district court, we also conclude that even without the
video of Zahoney’s testimony, there was sufficient evidence from which the jury
could have found Delgado guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Denise Sponsel
testified that, as she was walking up to her friend Barbara Beck’s apartment, she
heard a woman crying for help. When she went to the apartment from which she
heard the pleas, she saw Delgado on the couch, positioned on top of Zahoney and
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in between her legs. Zahoney was trying to push him off. Delgado had no clothes
on, and Zahoney was not clothed below the waist. When Sponsel came in,
Delgado’s arm was raised, as if ready to strike Zahoney, and Zahoney’s face was
bloodied. Zahoney was shaking and crying, and, after Sponsel and Beck took her
back to Beck’s apartment, Zahoney said that “[Delgado] hurt me down there,”
pointing to her vaginal area. Trial Transcript, July 28, 1993, at 20.
Beck testified that she heard a woman crying for help as she ascended the
steps to her apartment. She followed Sponsel into Delgado’s apartment and saw
Zahoney, who was crying, visibly shaking, and naked from the waist down, and
Delgado, who was on the couch laughing. She testified that Zahoney’s face was
freshly bloodied, and that Zahoney pointed to her vagina and cried: “He hurt
me. . . . He hurt me down there.” Id. at 63.
Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
Finally, Delgado argues that his Sixth Amendment right was violated
because he received ineffective assistance of counsel. Delgado maintains that his
attorney’s failure to object to prosecutorial remarks at trial and his failure to
perfect an appeal until a year after Delgado’s conviction constituted ineffective
assistance. To maintain a claim for ineffective assistance of counsel, Delgado
must show that his attorney’s performance was deficient in that it fell below an
objective standard of reasonableness, and that the deficient performance
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prejudiced his defense. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687-88
(1984). We have already held that the prosecutor’s remarks were not improper.
Therefore, Delgado’s attorney was not deficient in failing to object. Further,
Delgado’s conviction was affirmed on appeal, and he can show no prejudice
resulting from his attorney’s delay in perfecting his appeal.
The application for a certificate of probable cause is GRANTED. The
judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
Entered for the Court
Mary Beck Briscoe
Circuit Judge
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