Shauntay Wheaton v. McDaniel ( 2011 )


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  •                                                                            FILED
    NOT FOR PUBLICATION                              JAN 26 2011
    MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
    UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                       U .S. C O U R T OF APPE ALS
    FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
    SHAUNTAY JERMAINE WHEATON,                       No. 09-17626
    Petitioner - Appellant,            D.C. No. 3:06-cv-00397-LRH-
    VPC
    v.
    MCDANIEL,                                        MEMORANDUM *
    Respondent - Appellee.
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the District of Nevada
    Larry R. Hicks, District Judge, Presiding
    Argued and Submitted January 10, 2011
    San Francisco, California
    Before: HUG, SCHROEDER, and RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges.
    Petitioner Shauntay Jermaine Wheaton (Wheaton) challenges the district
    court’s denial of his habeas petition. Wheaton contends that the Nevada Supreme
    Court unreasonably applied Miranda v. Arizona, 
    384 U.S. 436
     (1966), in holding
    that his confession was voluntary. Wheaton also posits that habeas relief is
    *
    This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
    except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
    warranted because of prosecutorial misconduct and instructional error due to an
    erroneous implied malice jury instruction.
    1.    The Nevada Supreme Court’s decision that Wheaton’s confession was
    voluntary was not an unreasonable application of Miranda, as the Nevada Supreme
    Court took “into consideration the totality of all the surrounding circumstances-
    both the characteristics of the accused and the details of the interrogation.”
    Dickerson v. United States, 
    530 U.S. 428
    , 434 (2000) (citations and internal
    quotation marks omitted). Moreover, Wheaton’s voluntary statement to a
    corrections assistant was admissible independent of whether Wheaton’s confession
    was voluntary. See Saleh v. Fleming, 
    512 F.3d 548
    , 551-52 (9th Cir. 2008).
    2.    Given the state trial court’s instruction for the jury to disregard the
    prosecutor’s Biblical reference and the overwhelming evidence against Wheaton,
    the prosecutor’s isolated Biblical reference and alleged vouching did not “so
    infect[ ] the trial with unfairness as to make the resulting conviction a denial of due
    process.” Hein v. Sullivan, 
    601 F.3d 897
    , 912 (9th Cir. 2010) (citation and internal
    quotation marks omitted); see also Rhoades v. Henry, 
    598 F.3d 495
    , 510 (9th Cir.
    2010) (“We presume the jury followed the court’s instructions.”).
    2
    3.    The Nevada Supreme Court’s ruling that the implied malice instruction was
    not an impermissible mandatory presumption was reasonable. The implied malice
    instruction was a permissive inference that did not relieve the prosecution of its
    burden of proof. See Francis v. Franklin, 
    471 U.S. 307
    , 314 (1985) (“A
    permissive inference does not relieve the State of its burden of persuasion because
    it still requires the State to convince the jury that the suggested conclusion should
    be inferred based on the predicate facts proved.”). Because the jury found
    Wheaton guilty of first degree murder, the implied malice instruction did not “so
    infect[ ] the entire trial that the resulting conviction violate[d] due process, thus
    rendering the trial fundamentally unfair.” Townsend v. Knowles, 
    562 F.3d 1200
    ,
    1209 (9th Cir. 2009) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
    AFFIRMED.
    3
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 18-35258

Judges: Hug, Schroeder, Rawlinson

Filed Date: 1/26/2011

Precedential Status: Non-Precedential

Modified Date: 3/2/2024