Kinley v. Bradshaw

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO

EASTERN DIVISION

Juan A.L. Kinley,

Petitioner, Case No. 3:03-cv-127

Vv. Judge Michael H. Watson

Margaret Bradshaw, Warden, Magistrate Judge Michael R. Merz

Respondent.

OPINION AND ORDER

Final judgment dismissing this capital habeas corpus action was entered

on October 2, 2014. ECF Nos. 85 and 86. This matter is back before the Court

on a remand order by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit,

which instructed this Court “to reconsider its October 2, 2014 order with respect

to petitioner’s Sixteenth and Seventeenth grounds for relief in light of new

deposition testimony,” provided the Court with jurisdiction to do so, and clarified

that this Court “should issue an additional ruling on petitioner’s Sixteenth and

Seventeenth grounds for relief once it has reconsidered these claims in light of

the new deposition testimony.” ECF No. 139. Also before the Court is

Petitioner's Motion to Hold these Proceedings in Abeyance Pending the

Exhaustion of State Court Remedies. ECF No. 142. For the following reasons,

Petitioner’s motion to hold these proceedings in abeyance is DENIED as

unwarranted, and, upon reconsideration of Petitioner's claims in light of the new

deposition testimony, Petitioner's sixteenth and seventeenth grounds for relief

are DENIED as without merit.

|. Background

On October 2, 2014, this Court issued an Opinion and Order denying

Petitioner’s claims and dismissing his habeas corpus action with prejudice. ECF

No. 85. In grounds sixteen and seventeen, Petitioner argued that his rights to

due process and a fair trial were violated because a material prosecution

witness, Donald Merriman (“Merriman”), provided false and/or inaccurate

testimony and because the state knowingly solicited and presented that false

testimony at trial.

At Petitioner's trial, Merriman testified that he had spoken with Petitioner in

January of 1989. Merriman testified that Petitioner asked him during that

conversation whether he had ever killed anyone and then confessed that he

(Petitioner) had killed his girlfriend and her son, Thelma and David Miller.

Petitioner argued that Merriman’s trial testimony was false and that Merriman

admitted, by way of two affidavits obtained by Petitioner’s postconviction counsel

in 1996, that the January 1989, conversation never happened and that Merriman

had not seen Petitioner in years before they were jailed together in March 1989.

Merriman also averred that he provided the fabricated testimony in order to

receive favorable treatment in two criminal cases he had pending. Relatedly,

Petitioner further argued that the prosecution knowingly solicited and presented

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 2 of 41

Merriman’s false testimony, in regards both to the alleged conversation with

Petitioner and to Merriman’s denial that he was testifying in order to obtain

favorable treatment in his own criminal cases.

This Court rejected Petitioner’s claims, explaining:

[Pletitioner’s arguments, however persuasive on their face, are long

on conjecture but short on substance. Petitioner's arguments are no

substitute for evidence. And without evidence, the arguments fall

short of demonstrating that a credibility determination made by the

state courts in postconviction was unreasonable in light of the

evidence presented. Petitioner's arguments also fail to constitute

clear and convincing evidence sufficient to rebut the presumption of

correctness to which the state courts’ credibility determination is

entitled.

Opinion and Order, ECF No. 85, at PagelD 783. The Court concluded that the

state courts’ postconviction decisions rejecting Petitioner's claims did not involve

unreasonable factual determinations in light of the evidence presented within the

meaning of 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2) and that Petitioner had not rebutted the

presumption of correctness afforded those factual determinations by clear and

convincing evidence as required by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1). /d. at PagelD 783-

84. The Court reasoned that the factual determinations at issue concerned an

assessment of Merriman’s credibility vis-a-vis the different testimony he provided

at different times and that the state trial court in postconviction had the benefit of

something that neither the state appellate court nor this Court had the benefit of:

in-court perspective. At this point, a recitation of the various iterations of

Merriman’s testimony is in order.

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 3 of 41

First, as noted above, at Petitioner’s 1991 trial, Merriman testified that he

had encountered Petitioner in late January of 1989 and that, while they were

talking and having a few drinks, Petitioner asked Merriman whether he

(Merriman) had ever killed anyone. According to Merriman, Petitioner then

proceeded to admit that he (Petitioner) had killed his girlfriend and her son.

Merriman further testified that when he learned about the murders while in jail in

March of 1989, he told the police about the January 1989 conversation because

it was the right thing to do. Merriman denied that he tried to bargain for favorable

treatment in his unrelated criminal case, claiming he knew that the prosecutor did

not make deals. ECF No. 104-1, at PagelD 7326-46.

Then, in an affidavit signed on June 19, 1996, which was obtained (and

drafted) by Petitioner’s postconviction counsel, Merriman detailed how he sent a

note to his jailer in March of 1989 offering information about Petitioner and how

he received assurances from the prosecutor's office and a detective of favorable

treatment in two criminal cases against him if he testified against Petitioner

consistently with what he had indicated to authorities he would say. ECF No. 44-

4, at PagelD 181-82.

And then, in another affidavit signed on September 4, 1996, which was

also obtained (and drafted) by Petitioner's postconviction counsel, Merriman

attested:

[O]n March 6, 1991, | testified on behalf of the State against Juan

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 4 of 41

Kinley. | testified that Juan Kinley had told me that he killed Thelma

and David Miller. That testimony was given solely to help my own

case and to facilitate my receiving a reduced sentence. Juan Kinley

and | did not have a conversation in January of 1989. In fact, until |

saw him in jail after he was arrested, | had not seen him in years.

ECF No. 44-3, at PagelD 169.

In opposing Petitioner’s false testimony claims, the state submitted an

affidavit by David E. Smith (“Smith”), an assistant Clark County Prosecutor who

prosecuted both Petitioner in his capital murder trial and Merriman in his forgery

criminal case. ECF No. 102-10, at PagelD 3681-82. Smith averred, among

other things, that he never arranged any deals and was not aware of anyone else

arranging deals with Merriman whereby Merriman would receive favorable

treatment in his criminal cases (one for forgeries and the other for grand theft) in

exchange for his testimony against Petitioner.

After the trial court rejected Petitioner's postconviction action without

holding a hearing, the Court of Appeals determined that Petitioner was entitled to

an evidentiary hearing on, among other issues, the credibility of Merriman’s

affidavits recanting his trial testimony. Court of Appeals Decision, ECF No. 102-

14, at PagelD 4564-66, 4569. According to Petitioner's brief on appeal following

the trial court’s evidentiary hearing, postconviction counsel spent several hours

with Merriman at a Veterans Administration hospital in Dayton in April of 2000,

during which Merriman assured counsel that he was willing to testify at the

evidentiary hearing that he had lied at trial about Petitioner’s alleged confession.

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 5 of 41

ECF No. 102-14, at PagelD 4655. But, when it came time for the trial court to

conduct the evidentiary hearing, Merriman was nowhere to be found. /d.

So then, during the evidentiary hearing, four Clark County Prosecutors—

Stephen Schumaker, David Smith, Darnell Carter, and Stephen Collins—testified

about conversations they purportedly had with Merriman in January of 1997 at

the Warren Correctional Institution while they were there speaking to witnesses

in a different capital prosecution. Postconviction Hearing Transcript, ECF No.

104-2, at PagelD 8604-8746; 8750-63. All four testified that Merriman had told

them in January of 1997 that his trial testimony had been true and that he had

signed the 1996 affidavits recanting his trial testimony only because Petitioner's

postconviction counsel had appealed to Merriman’s conscience and so that

Petitioner's postconviction counsel would leave him alone. /d. Schumaker,

Smith, and Carter also testified that no deals or promises of leniency had been

provided or offered to Merriman in exchange for his testimony at Petitioner's trial.

After the evidentiary hearing, the state trial court again rejected Petitioner's

postconviction action. ECF No. 102-12, at PagelD 4312-16. The Court of

Appeals affirmed that decision, ECF No. 102-14, at PagelD 4742-52, and the

Ohio Supreme Court declined to exercise jurisdiction over Petitioner's appeal

without opinion, ECF No. 102-15, at PagelD 5064.

Finally, in a 2006 deposition conducted during these habeas corpus

proceedings, Merriman essentially reiterated the veracity of his 1996 affidavits

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 6 of 41

and again recanted his trial testimony. ECF No. 44-1, at PagelD 191-95.

As noted above, this Court did not consider Merriman’s 2006 deposition,

concluding that Cullen v. Pinholster, 563 U.S. 170, 181-82 (2011), precluded

review. In Pinholster, the Supreme Court held that in determining whether a

state court’s merits adjudication was unreasonable as set forth in 28 U.S.C.

§ 2254(d)', a habeas court must confine its review to the evidence that the state

court had before it.2, Because the state courts that rejected Petitioner's claims in

postconviction did not have Merriman’s 2006 deposition before them, this Court

concluded that it, likewise, could not consider the deposition when assessing the

reasonableness of those postconviction decisions. Opinion, ECF No. 85, at

PagelD 775, 781; see also Report, ECF No. 67, at PagelD 570-71; Supplemental

Report, ECF No. 77, at PagelD 676-77. And, as noted above, this Court

1 □□ U.S.C. § 2254(d) provides—

(d) An application for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a person in custody

pursuant to the judgment of a State court 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.

2 Although Pinholster addressed only § 2254(d)(1), it assumed without discussion that

review under § 2254(d)(2) is also limited to the existing state-court record, in light of the

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 7 of 41

determined that those decisions were not unreasonable, which put an end to any

further review by the Court.

ll. Motion to Hold Proceedings in Abeyance

While the Sixth Circuit's remand was under consideration by this Court,

Petitioner moved to hold these proceedings in abeyance, arguing that a recent

decision by the Supreme Court of Ohio expands the scope of the successive

postconviction and motion for new trial remedies that Petitioner had previously

pursued, thus rendering his sixteenth and seventeenth claims unexhausted.

ECF No. 142. The Court must resolve that matter before addressing the Sixth

Circuit’s remand. Because the Court is not persuaded that Petitioner’s claims

have been rendered unexhausted, the Court disagrees that abeyance is

warranted.

Petitioner argues that a recent decision by the Supreme Court of Ohio,

State v. Bethel, 192 N.E.3d 470, 483-84 (Ohio 2022), created new procedural

avenues for Petitioner to present his sixteenth and seventeenth grounds for relief

in state court. Specifically, Petitioner argues that Bethe/ lowered the standard of

proof for satisfying Ohio’s successor postconviction jurisdictional prerequisites,

Ohio Rev. Code § 2953.23(A)(1)(b), and also removed a time limitation for

seeking a new trial based on newly discovered evidence pursuant to Ohio

Criminal Rule 33. Citing a bevy of mostly non-binding decisions, Petitioner

fear, language. the siatute. Pinholster, 563 U.S. at 185 n.7. Page 8 of 41

contends that “[flederal courts have consistently held that a once-exhausted

claim can become unexhausted when a state court, after the completion of the

initial exhaustion of a claim, enacts a new or modified state court procedure

relevant to the prior adjudication of the claim.” ECF No. 142, at PagelD 9260-

62.

Respondent argues in opposition not only that stay and abeyance is

precluded by controlling Supreme Court precedent, Rhines v. Weber, 544 U.S.

269 (2005), as well as by Ohio’s res judicata rule, but also that another stay-and-

abeyance to relitigate claims sixteen and seventeen at this late juncture would

seriously undermine the state’s interests in finality. ECF No. 144, at PagelD

9274-75.

As Petitioner acknowledges, this Court recently considered and rejected

essentially the same arguments in Were (n.k.a. Mateen) v. Warden, Case No.

1:10-cv-698, ECF No. 192 (S.D. Ohio Mar. 15, 2023). See also Conway, Ill v.

Warden Houk, Case No. 2:07-cv-947, ECF No. 229 (S.D. Ohio Mar. 15, 2023)

(Marbley, C.J.). Petitioner attempts to distinguish his case from (Were) Mateen

and Conway, arguing first that those cases did not directly address how the

revised procedures created by Bethe/ rendered once-exhausted claims now

unexhausted. But this argument ignores the fact that this Court squarely rejected

the argument that Bethel rendered Mateen’s previously exhausted claims newly

unexhausted. Specifically, the Court noted that the allegations forming the basis

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 9 of 41

of the habeas claims that Mateen presented once in a successor state

postconviction action and sought to re-present in a second successor

postconviction action were identical and that Mateen was not required (or

permitted, the Court would add) to repetitively present his federal claims to the

state courts once he had done so in one full round of the state’s established

procedures. Were (Mateen), Case No. 1:10-cv-698, ECF No. 192, at PagelD

30323-25. Nothing about the Cunningham v. Hudson, 756 F.3d 477, 484 (6th

Cir. 2014), decision relied upon by Petitioner in his Reply (ECF No. 145, at

PagelD 9286), nor the decisions cited by Petitioner in his Motion (ECF No. 142,

at PagelD 9260-62), persuades this Court otherwise.

Petitioner also attempts to distinguish Mateen and Conway by arguing that

those litigants were denied relief in the state courts on the basis of jurisdictional

gatekeeping rather than the merits and because the finding that Ohio's successor

postconviction statute and Ohio R. Crim. 33 were no longer adequate and

independent state grounds to enforce procedural default cleared the way for

Mateen and Conway to obtain a merits ruling in habeas corpus. ECF No. 145, at

PagelD 9287. First, the Court flatly rejects any suggestion that Petitioner's

successor postconviction petition was disposed of any differently than Mateen’s

and Conway’s were. Notwithstanding merits pronouncements that the state

courts offered in discussing the claims raised, all three cases were expressly and

unmistakably dismissed for want of jurisdiction due to the applicants’ failure to

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 10 of 41

satisfy the statutory jurisdictional requirements set forth in Ohio Revised Code

Section 2953.23(A)(1). Were (Mateen), Case No. 1:10-cv-698, ECF No. 192, at

PagelD 30317-18; Conway, Case No. 2:07-cv-947, ECF No. 229, at PagelD

16064. In fact, Petitioner conceded that his most recent successor

postconviction action was dismissed on this jurisdictional basis when he argued

that res judicata would not bar another round of successive postconviction

proceedings since the prior successive postconviction action was dismissed for

want of jurisdiction instead of on the merits. ECF No. 145, at PagelD 9283.

Second, Petitioner fails to demonstrate that he should be permitted to

pursue a second successive postconviction action because of the differential

treatment he will receive from Mateen and Conway, who, he argues, will be

entitled to a merits ruling while he will not. If anything, Petitioner is arguably

better situated than Mateen and Conway to receive a merits ruling, since the

Sixth Circuit expressly remanded Petitioner's case for this Court to reconsider its

merits ruling on claims sixteen and seventeen in light of the 2006 Merriman

deposition and to issue a new merits ruling. Thus, Petitioner fails to demonstrate

that he will somehow be deprived of a merits ruling sufficient to warrant the stay-

and-abeyance he requests.

Petitioner's reliance on a recent decision by the Honorable Edmund A.

Sargus, Jr., Pickens v. Shoop, Case No. 1:19-cv-558 (ECF No. 58), 2022 WL

2802411 (S.D. Ohio July 18, 2022), is misplaced. ECF No. 142, at PagelD 9263.

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 11 of 41

Judge Sargus agreed that Bethel lessened the burden of proof for establishing

successive postconviction action jurisdictional requirements and for seeking a

new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence, and it granted Pickens’

motion for a stay and abeyance. But there, unlike here, the Brady claim that

Pickens sought to present in a successive postconviction action was newly

discovered and had never been presented to the state courts. /d. at *2.

Additionally, the Respondent-Warden argued that Pickens’ Brady claim was

unexhausted.

Because federal district courts may not adjudicate a mixed habeas petition

that contains both exhausted and unexhausted claims, the Supreme Court in

Rhines v. Weber, 544 U.S. at 275-76, held that district courts have discretion, in

limited circumstances, to stay habeas proceedings and hold them in abeyance to

allow a petitioner with a mixed petition to return to state court to exhaust his

unexhausted claims. But stay-and-abeyance is not warranted here because

Petitioner’s sixteenth and seventeenth claims are not unexhausted, and the

instant Petition is thus not mixed. Petitioner's motion to stay, ECF No. 142, is

DENIED.*

3 Petitioner also requests the Court to extend the appointment of his habeas counsel to

represent Petitioner throughout his state court proceedings. ECF No. 142, at PagelD

9256. Because the Court has denied Petitioner's motion to stay, the Court also denies

Petitioner's motion to extend counsel's appointment.

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 12 of 41

lll. Remand Order and Pinholster

As noted above, this Court issued final judgment denying Petitioner's

claims and dismissing his case on October 2, 2014. ECF Nos. 85 and 86. While

he was appealing the judgment to the Sixth Circuit, Petitioner sought and

obtained a stay of the appeal so that he could return to the state courts to re-

present grounds sixteen and seventeen, as well as Merriman’s 2006 deposition,

to the state courts in a successive postconviction action. USCA No. 14-4063,

Docs. 11 and 15. Once he completed those state court proceedings, Petitioner

sought and obtained an order remanding his case back to this Court to

reconsider grounds sixteen and seventeen in light of the 2006 Merriman

deposition that this Court previously ruled it could not consider. ECF No. 93. On

July 12, 2021, this Court issued an Opinion and Order denying Petitioner's

motion for relief from judgment and essentially returning the case to the Sixth

Circuit for want of jurisdiction and for clarification of the remand. ECF No. 138.

Specifically, the Court issued an indicative ruling pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil

Procedure 62.1 stating that it would reconsider grounds sixteen and seventeen in

light of the 2006 Merriman deposition if it had jurisdiction and if the Sixth Circuit

stated in the remand order that this Court’s doing so would not be inconsistent

with Pinholster. Id. at PagelD 9246. Kinley then sought and obtained the instant

order for remand. USCA No. 14-4063, Docs. 64 and 67.

Notwithstanding the arguments presented to the Sixth Circuit by the

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 13 of 41

parties, both for and against Pinholster’s precluding consideration of Merriman’s

2006 habeas corpus deposition, neither the Sixth Circuit's original remand order

nor the instant remand order specified why Pinholster does not preclude this

Court from considering that deposition. And it is not for this Court to speculate

what the reason or reasons might be; it is only for this Court to try in earnest to

comply with the remand order, which the Court does below.

IV. Reconsideration Merits Ruling on Grounds Sixteen and

Seventeen

A. Previous Decisions

In rejecting Petitioner’s sixteenth and seventeenth grounds, this Court

emphasized that the state courts’ credibility determination was entitled to

deference.

Petitioner presented these claims to the state courts in his postconviction

action. The trial court, in denying Petitioner's postconviction petition following an

evidentiary hearing, stated that it had had “first hand knowledge” of the credibility

of Merriman’s trial testimony, ECF No. 102-12, at PagelD 4312. To be clear, the

judge who rejected Petitioner's postconviction actions and presided over the

postconviction evidentiary hearing did not preside over Petitioner's trial—the only

state court proceeding during which Merriman provided live testimony. Petitioner

was tried before a three-judge panel that consisted of presiding judge Gerald F.

Lorig, as well as judges Douglas W. Geyer and Robert D. Nichols. Petitioner's

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 14 of 41

postconviction action was initially assigned to Judge Lorig, but he was replaced

by Judge Richard J. O’Neill in an October 21, 1996 order on Petitioner's motion

to recuse Judge Lorig. Then, retired Jackson County Judge Thomas W. Mitchell

replaced Judge O’Neill in a November 12, 1998 order on Petitioner's motion to

recuse all Clark County common pleas judges. It was Judge Mitchell who denied

Petitioner's initial postconviction action, presided over Petitioner's postconviction

evidentiary hearing following the court of appeals’ remand, and who again denied

Petitioner's postconviction action. ECF No. 102-9, at PagelD 3223-24; ECF No.

102-12, at PagelD 4312-16.

Upon consideration of the trial record, as well as testimony, evidence, and

arguments presented in postconviction, Judge Mitchell said the following about

Merriman’s credibility:

Mr. Merriman had originally testified under oath that Defendant

[Kinley] had confessed to him of committing the crime. This

undoubtedly had some influence on the trier of the facts. Mr.

Merriman in two subsequent affidavits produced by the Public

Defender recants his original testimony.

In an interview with the prosecutor he reaffirmed his original

testimony and said his affidavits given to the Public Defender were

false. Defendant, however, later gave a similar affidavit to the Public

Defender who tried to enter it into evidence as an exception to the

hearsay rule. The Court allowed it for whatever value that it might

have even though it was hearsay and the witness previously avoided

the hearing and was obviously a perjurer, a convicted felon and a

fugitive.

His testimony, with or without the affidavit is scarcely credible or

worthy of belief.

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 15 of 41

ECF No. 102-12, at PagelD 4314. After recounting the prosecutors’ testimony

denying that Merriman was offered anything for his testimony in Petitioner's case,

the trial court concluded as follows:

One last word about the so called affidavits of Donald Merriman.

An examination shows these affidavits to have been previously

prepared and Mr. Merriman’s signature obtained by the Public

Defender, a very dubious procedure at best.

Both the affidavit of Mr. Doughty [concerning Petitioner's jury

waiver] and Mr. Merriman were subject to the hearsay rule and

neither witness could be cross-examined as to the information

contained thereon. Defendant failed to prove that Donald

Merriman[’s] original testimony was false.

This Court had no opportunity to test Donald Merriman[’s] credibility

because he did not show up for the hearing.

The Court finds that the Defendant did not meet the burden of

proving any violation of his Constitutional rights under Ohio Revised

Code, Section 2933.21.

These objections will be overruled and the petition dismissed.

ECF No. 102-12, at PagelD 4316.

The Court of Appeals for Clark County affirmed on appeal. Regarding

Merriman, the appellate court stated:

Kinley’s second argument is that the trial court erred in not granting

him relief on his claim that one of the witnesses, Donald Merriman,

committed perjury at Kinley’s trial. Merriman testified at Kinley’s trial

that Kinley had confessed to him that he had killed his girlfriend and

her son. Merriman was the only person to whom Kinley allegedly

confessed the crime. Kinley argues that Merriman perjured himself

at Kinley’s trial in exchange for leniency from the state in connection

with sentencing on a conviction for grand theft. In support of this

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 16 of 41

contention, Kinley introduced two affidavits signed by Merriman, in

which he stated that he had lied at Kinley’s trial and had done so in

order to obtain leniency from the state. The affidavits were procured

by Assistant State Public Defender Kathryn Sandford, who visited

Merriman in prison in connection with the postconviction

proceedings. Kinley also notes that Merriman received only sixty

days in jail on a charge that carried a maximum of eighteen months

and that this was despite his not originally appearing for his

sentencing on February 28, 1991. Furthermore, Kinley contends

that nothing was done to compel Merriman to appear. It was during

this time that Merriman testified at Kinley’s trial, but he was not

arrested at that time. He was finally brought in for sentencing on

May 15, 1991, at which time he was given sixty days when the

prosecutor on the case, Darnell Carter, reminded Judge Lorig that

Merriman had testified in Kinley’s case. Kinley’s attorneys were

unable to locate Merriman to have him testify at the postconviction

relief hearing.

The state, in an affidavit by [Assistant Prosecutor David] Smith, one

of the prosecutors on Kinley’s case, denied that Merriman was

promised leniency in exchange for his testimony. Carter testified

that he had not known Merriman was going to testify at Kinley’s trial

and that he had arranged for Merriman to turn himself in when he

had seen him at the barber shop. Carter even testified that, due to

Merriman’s failure to appear for sentencing, he had been inclined to

recommend more than the six months he had intended to

recommend. However, upon being made aware of Merriman’s

testimony in Kinley’s trial, Carter decided to recommend six months.

Judge Lorig then decided to sentence Merriman to sixty days.

Also, in 1997, [prosecutors] Schumaker, Smith, Carter, and Collins

visited Merriman in prison. Schumaker, Smith, and Collins testified

that they had questioned Merriman regarding the two affidavits and

that he had told them that his trial testimony had been true and that

he had signed the affidavits because Sandford had “played upon his

conscience” and so Sandford would leave him alone. Smith and

Schumaker also testified that they had told Merriman that he did not

have to worry about perjury charges.

As with Kinley’s first argument [about his jury waiver], we are

dealing with a credibility determination by the trial court. Kinley’s

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 17 of 41

argument relies on 1) Merriman’s affidavits and 2) the suspicious

nature of Merriman’s sentencing. However, the state presented

evidence that Merriman had recanted his affidavits. Also, two

prosecutors, Carter and Smith, denied that there was a deal. Kinley

attempts to impeach the credibility of Merriman’s statements to the

prosecutors, arguing that Merriman would have been afraid of

perjury charges when talking to the prosecutors. However,

Schumaker and Smith testified that they told him he did not have to

worry about perjury charges. Kinley attempts to impeach Carter's

credibility by arguing that he allowed Merriman to remain at liberty

despite his surfacing to testify in Kinley’s trial and despite seeing

Merriman at a barber shop. However, Carter testified that he had

not known Merriman was going to testify. To impeach Carter's

testimony, we have only Kinley’s speculation that Carter must have

known Merriman was going to testify given the small close-knit

nature of the prosecutor’s office. However, this is not sufficient for

us to second guess the trial court’s conclusion that Carter was

credible.

As with Kinley’s first argument, the trial court could have decided in

favor of either side based on the evidence. However, the trial court

determined that the state’s evidence was more credible. Without

being able to observe Merriman on the stand, the trial court was left

with weighing Merriman’s testimony at trial and his statements to the

prosecutors while he was in prison against his affidavits recanting

his trial testimony, the admissibility of which is questionable. Even

assuming that the affidavits were admissible, we cannot find that the

trial court erred in deciding that the evidence presented by Kinley did

not prove that Merriman had lied at trial or that the state had

promised him leniency. Clearly, Merriman has lied at least once

regarding Kinley. However, it is impossible for this court to

determine which of Merriman’s statements were lies and which were

the truth. Furthermore, while there is evidence that Merriman was

given a lighter sentence after the fact because of his testimony,

there is no evidence of a promise of leniency to Merriman prior to his

testimony. The trial court decided that Merriman’s affidavits were

not credible and concluded that his trial testimony was credible.

Such credibility determinations are within the discretion of the trial

court. We therefore find that the trial court's decision was not

against the manifest weight of the evidence on Kinley’s claim that

Merriman gave perjured testimony at Kinley’s trial.

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 18 of 41

ECF No. 102-14, at PagelD 4749-52.

As noted above, in rejecting Petitioner's sixteenth and seventeenth

grounds, this Court repeatedly emphasized that the state courts’ credibility

determination was entitled to deference:

The state court was confronted with a question of credibility. In

essence, the court was required to determine which version of Mr.

Merriman’s testimony to believe. It is clear that Mr. Merriman lied at

least once about his testimony at Mr. Kinley’s trial; that is, either it

was true or not true and that he either did or did not receive

consideration from the state for providing that testimony. While the

post-conviction court had Mr. Merriman’s un-cross-examined

affidavit testimony before it, the court also had Mr. Merriman’s cross-

examined trial testimony as well as the in-court cross-examined

testimony of the three prosecutors who met with Mr. Merriman in the

Warren Correctional Facility. When assessing witness credibility, a

habeas court’s review becomes more deferential, as appellate courts

are in no position to second guess credibility findings made by the

trier-of-fact. See Seymour v. Walker, 224 F.3d 542, 551-52 (6th Cir.

2000), cert. denied, 532 U.S. 989 (2001). In view of the conflicting

evidence before the post-conviction court as well as a habeas

court's deferential review, this Court cannot say that the state court's

decision was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in

light of the evidence presented in the state court proceeding.

Report and Recommendations, ECF No. 67, at PagelD 572.

Pinholster plainly precludes this Court from considering the

Merriman deposition. Without that evidence, the state courts’

credibility decision is entitled to deference.

Supplemental Report and Recommendations, ECF No. 77, at PagelD 677.

As the Magistrate Judge noted, front and center in Petitioner's

claim is a credibility determination made by the state trial court and

affirmed by the state appellate court as to which version of Donald

Merriman’s story to believe.

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 19 of 41

In’ sum, the foregoing supports the Magistrate Judge’s

determination that the state trial court’s credibility determination

enjoys a presumption of correctness which Petitioner failed to rebut

by clear and convincing evidence, and that the state court's

determination was not objectively unreasonable in light of the

evidence that was presented in postconviction.

Opinion and Order, ECF No. 85, at PagelD 783, 789.

B. Legal Standards

1. Standard of Review

In its original decision rejecting Petitioner’s claims, this Court stated that its

review of the central issue, i.e., the state courts’ credibility determination, was

governed by “two unquestioned standards”:

1. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2), a federal habeas court may

not grant relief on a claim adjudicated on the merits by the state

court unless the state court’s decision involved a_ factual

determination that was unreasonable in light of the evidence

presented at the state court proceeding; and

2. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1), a factual finding made by a

state court shall be presumed correct unless rebutted by clear and

convincing evidence.

Opinion and Order, ECF No. 85, at PagelD 783-84. The Court is left to assume

from the remand order that the latter still applies, but the former does not. That

is, the Court construes the remand order as directing the Court to review grounds

sixteen and seventeen de novo.

The remand order requires the Court to reconsider its decision rejecting

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 20 of 41

grounds sixteen and seventeen in view of evidence—the 2006 Merriman

deposition—that the state courts did not have before them in rejecting the claims

during Petitioner’s initial postconviction action. That flies in the face of the

Supreme Court’s Pinholster decision, which, as noted above, held that in

determining whether a state court's merits adjudication was unreasonable as set

forth in 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), a habeas court must confine its review to the

evidence that the state court had before it. The Court thus construes its directive

as being to reconsider whether grounds sixteen and/or seventeen are

meritorious, and not to determine whether the state courts’ initial postconviction

decisions rejecting the claim were based on an unreasonable factual finding.

The Court cannot presume that the remand order, in directing the Court to

reconsider grounds sixteen and seventeen in view of the 2006 Merriman

deposition, was directing the Court to consider whether the state courts’ decision

rejecting those claims in Petitioner's successive postconviction proceedings—

during which the Merriman deposition was presented—constituted a merits

adjudication whose reasonableness the Court should assess en route to

reconsidering the merits of grounds sixteen and seventeen. For, in those

successive postconviction proceedings, notwithstanding whatever merits

pronouncements the state courts offered, the state courts ultimately and

unmistakably denied Petitioner's claims not on the merits, but for want of

jurisdiction due to Petitioner's failure to satisfy the statutory requirements for filing

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 21 of 41

a successive postconviction action. That would mean that the claims were

denied as procedurally defaulted, leaving this Court with no adjudication on the

merits requiring § 2254(d) deference.

The Sixth Circuit addressed this very scenario in Gumm v. Mitchell, 775

F.3d 345, 362 (6th Cir. 2014), and held that “[d]Je novo review is appropriate in

this case because the state court did not adjudicate this claim on the merits and

did not address the issue in an opinion in which the court had jurisdiction over the

matter.” (emphasis added). The Sixth Circuit went to explain:

This Court and others have held that where a state court decides a

petitioner’s claim on alternative grounds, one on the merits and the

other on a procedural bar ruling, a federal habeas court may still

review that court’s merits analysis and apply AEDPA deference to

that adjudication. (citations omitted). However, this case is not such

a case. Instead, the Ohio courts have clearly indicated that

§ 2953.23 denies courts subject matter jurisdiction over claims that

cannot meet the statute’s stringent requirements. The Ohio courts

have interpreted their own law to conclude that where a court lacks

jurisdiction, any judgment on the merits is rendered void ab initio.

This Court should not reinterpret an issue of state law that has

already been interpreted by the state courts. (citations omitted).

Therefore, we apply de novo review to Petitioner's Brady claim.

Id. (emphasis added). Because Petitioner's successive postconviction

proceedings did not yield an adjudication on the merits, this Court will apply de

novo review to grounds sixteen and seventeen.

Of course, de novo review is not without its own constraints. The Sixth

Circuit has held that a constitutional violation at trial does not warrant habeas

corpus relief if the error was harmless. See, e.g., Campbell v. Bradshaw, 674

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 22 of 41

F.3d 578, 596 (6th Cir. 2012) (“The question is thus whether the trial court’s error

was harmless or prejudicial. An error is not harmless if it had a substantial and

injurious effect or influence in determining the outcome of the case.” (citing

Brecht v. Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 623 (1993); and Doan v. Carter, 548 F.3d

449, 459 (6th Cir. 2008))).

Additionally, as noted above, § 2254(e)(1) still applies because its

language, unlike § 2254(d)’s language, does not require an adjudication on the

merits (or any other occurrence other than the finding of a fact for that matter) to

trigger its applicability. And the Supreme Court has issued no subsequent

decision, such as Pinholster vis-a-vis § 2254(d), saying otherwise. Section

2254(e)(1) provides:

In a proceeding instituted by an application for a writ of habeas

corpus by a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State

court, a determination of a factual issue made by a State court shall

be presumed correct. The applicant shall have the burden of

rebutting the presumption of correctness by clear and convincing

evidence.

28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1). As the Court noted in its previous decision denying

relief, the “clear and convincing” standard is an exacting one to meet. Opinion

and Order, ECF No. 85, at PagelD 785-86 (collecting cases).

2. Grounds Sixteen and Seventeen

Petitioner argues in his sixteenth ground for relief that his rights to due

process and a fair trial were violated because a material witness for the State of

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 23 of 41

Ohio, Merriman, gave false and/or inaccurate testimony against Petitioner.

Petition, ECF No. 2, at PagelD 893. Petitioner argues in ground seventeen that

his convictions and sentences are unreliable and violate his rights to due process

and a fair trial because the State of Ohio elicited said false testimony at the trial.

Id., at PagelD 895.

To establish the denial of due process or prosecutorial misconduct from

the admission of allegedly false testimony, the petitioner has the burden to show,

among other things, that the testimony at issue was actually false. United States

v. Lochmondy, 890 F.2d 817, 822 (6th Cir. 1989).

3. Recantations and Credibility Determinations

No less so now than when this Court initially rejected Petitioner’s claims is

the fact that, in general, courts view with suspicion subsequent recantations,

even under oath, of prior testimony. The Sixth Circuit is no exception. In Welsh

v. Lafler, 444 F. App’x 844 (6th Cir. 2011), the circuit determined, upon de novo

review no less, that the victim’s sworn recantation of testimony was insufficient to

warrant habeas corpus relief:

Nevertheless, T.B.’s sworn recantation must be viewed with

caution. Knickerbocker v. Wolfenbarger, 212 Fed.Appx. 426, 433

(6th Cir. 2007), cert. denied, 552 U.S. 896, 128 S.Ct. 233, 169

L.Ed.2d 162 (2007) (unpublished opinion) (“Affidavits by trial

witnesses recanting their testimony are viewed with ‘extreme

suspicion.””) (quoting United States v. Willis, 257 F.3d 636, 645 (6th

Cir. 2001)). This Circuit has previously held that “[e]ven if accepted,

a post-trial recantation is generally not sufficient to grant habeas

relief absent constitutional error.” Bower v. Curtis, 118 Fed.Appx.

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 24 of 41

901, 908 (6th Cir. 2004) (unpublished opinion). T.B.’s affidavit has

never been corroborated with other evidence of innocence. See id.

Moreover, the affidavit itself is troubling because it includes

inconsistencies, such as the statement that T.B. and W.B. did not

frequently stay over at Welsh’s house on the weekends. Welsh

himself explicitly contradicted this statement at trial. Thus, the Court

concludes that the recantation here is an insufficient basis upon

which to grant habeas relief regardless of the standard of review

applied. Cf. Souter v. Jones, 395 F.3d 577, 590-97 (6th Cir. 2005)

(discussing instance where recantation of expert testimony “rais[ed]

sufficient doubt about [defendant’s] guilt and that underminfed]

confidence” in the jury’s verdict).

Welsh, 444 F. App’x at 850.

In Carter v. Mitchell, 443 F.3d 517, 539 (6th Cir. 2006), the Sixth Circuit

was faced with recantations that, like Merriman’s herein, were themselves

retracted—though, unlike Merriman’s, were not subsequently doubled-down on

and were considered in the context of excusing procedural default upon a

showing of actual innocence. The Sixth Circuit found the affidavits at issue to be

“of little value, as they merely recant their trial testimony.” /d. (quoting Dobbert v.

Wainwright, 468 U.S. 1231, 1233-34 (1984) (Brennan, J., dissenting from denial

of certiorari) (“Recantation testimony is properly viewed with great suspicion. It

upsets society’s interest in the finality of convictions, is very often unreliable and

given for suspect motives, and most often serves merely to impeach cumulative

evidence rather than to undermine confidence in the accuracy of the

conviction.”)) (additional citations omitted).

As factual findings go, credibility determinations enjoy “special deference.”

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 25 of 41

See Allen v. Mitchell, 953 F.3d 858, 863 (6th Cir. 2020) (“First, because the

determination of juror impartiality is ‘essentially one of credibility, . . . the trial

court's resolution of such questions is entitled . . . to special deference.” (citing

Patton v. Yount, 467 U.S. 1025, 1038 (1984))); see also Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537

U.S. 322, 339-40 (2003) (addressing deference accorded to trial court's

determination of a prosecutor’s intent following a Batson challenge); Bryan v.

Bobby, 843 F.3d 1099, 1106 (6th Cir. 2015) (“A state-court determination that a

veniremember’s views [on capital punishment] fall afoul of Witt is a factual

finding, state-court resolution of which is presumed correct.”); Mack v. Bradshaw,

Case No. 1:04-cv-829, 2021 WL 4477882, at *27—28 (N.D. Ohio Sep. 30, 2021)

(addressing “special deference” accorded to trial court's determination of a

potential juror’s impartiality). Of course, as the Court noted earlier, the judge who

presided over Petitioner's trial, during which Merriman testified, was not the judge

who presided over Petitioner's postconviction proceedings—during which

Merriman’s affidavits, but not live testimony, were entered into evidence. That

judge did, however, hear the in-court, sworn testimony of the four prosecutors

who recounted their conversations with Merriman in 1997 about his trial

testimony and 1996 affidavits.

C. Analysis

The Court recounts again the evidence that the state courts and this Court

previously considered when assessing the credibility of Petitioner's evidence and

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 26 of 41

the state’s evidence vis-a-vis Petitioner’s sixteenth and seventeenth grounds for

relief: Merriman’s 1991 trial testimony; Merriman’s 1996 postconviction affidavits;

the 2000 postconviction hearing testimony of Clark County prosecutors Stephen

Schumaker, David Smith, Darnell Carter, and Stephen Collins; and the

disposition of Merriman’s two criminal cases. Added now for this Court's

consideration is Merriman’s 2006 deposition, which, as explained below, caselaw

dictates that the Court consider cumulatively with the other evidence.

As explained earlier, this Court must review grounds sixteen and

seventeen de novo, since the Court was directed to reconsider the merits of

these claims with the benefit of evidence that the state courts did not have when

those courts rejected these claims in postconviction—Merriman’s 2006

deposition. But as also noted above, this Court’s review is still circumscribed by

28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1), which means that this Court must presume as correct

any factual determination made by the state courts, unless Petitioner rebuts that

presumption of correctness by clear and convincing evidence. And the state

courts found that the state’s evidence (crediting Merriman’s trial testimony over

his subsequent recantations) was more credible than Petitioner’s evidence with

respect to Merriman’s varying accounts. That credibility determination will be

presumed correct, absent a showing of clear and convincing evidence by

Petitioner to rebut it.

Of the “clear and convincing” standard, the Supreme Court has stated that

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 27 of 41

“[t]he standard is demanding but not insatiable[,] and that “deference does not by

definition preclude relief.” Miller-El v. Dretke, 545 U.S. 231, 240 (2005) (quoting

Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 340 (2003)). In the Miller-E/ cases, the

Supreme Court found the cumulative evidence of discrimination, vis-a-vis a

Batson challenge, “too powerful to conclude anything but discrimination,” and

rejected the court of appeals’ finding that the “clear and convincing” standard had

not been met as a “dismissive and strained interpretation” of the evidence. That

evidence, viewed cumulatively, included numbers demonstrating that the

prosecutors used their peremptory challenges to strike 91% of the eligible

African-American venire members; examples of the prosecutors using a

proffered reason for striking black panelists while allowing similar nonblacks to

serve; the prosecution’s shuffling of the entire venire panel, enquiry into views on

the death penalty, and questioning about minimum acceptable sentences; and

“widely known evidence of the general policy” of that prosecutor's office to

exclude black venire members from juries at the time Miller-El’s jury was

selected. /d. at 241-65.

In Bowling v. Parker, 344 F.3d 487, 519 (6th Cir. 2003), addressing claims

of improper jury selection, the Sixth Circuit said of the “clear and convincing

standard’ that “[t]he question is not whether the trial judge was wrong or right in

his determination of [juror] impartiality, but merely whether his decision was ‘fairly

supported by the record.” (emphasis added) (cleaned up). Recently, the Sixth

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 28 of 41

Circuit concluded that mere “disagreements with the inferences reached by the

state court” did not establish clear and convincing evidence that those factual

findings were erroneous. Chinn v. Warden, Chillicothe Correctional Institution,

24 F.4th 1096, 1106 (6th Cir. 2022).

In Haight v. Parker, Case No. 3:02-cv-206-S, 2015 WL 13548182, at *12

(W.D. Kentucky Jul. 17, 2015), the district court concluded that “[a] clear factual

error constitutes an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the

evidence presented if the state court’s determination of facts is in conflict with

clear and convincing evidence to the contrary.” (emphasis added) (citing

Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 528-29 (2003)). In McKee v. Hart, Case No.

5:16-cv-410-HRW-HAI, 2017 WL 2371833, at *4 (E.D. Ky. Apr. 6, 2017), the

district court stated that “words alone are not ‘clear and convincing evidence’ of

what they assert.” (cleaned up). Similarly, in Render v. Warden, Southern Ohio

Correctional Facility, 889 F. Supp. 2d 1014, 1021 (S.D. Ohio 2012), a court within

this district concluded that the petitioner’s “self-interested contradictory account

of his police interrogation” was “insufficient to constitute ‘clear and convincing

evidence’ rebutting the trial court’s assessment of the witnesses’ credibility in

favor of’ the interrogating officer.

Under none of the definitions set forth above can this Court find that the

evidence, now including Merriman’s 2006 deposition, clearly and convincingly

rebuts the state court’s credibility determination that Merriman’s recantations of

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 29 of 41

his trial testimony were not to be trusted. Trial Court Postconviction Decision,

ECF No. 102-12, at PagelD 4314, 4316; Appellate Court Postconviction

Decision, ECF No. 102-14, at PagelD 4749-52.

As a preliminary matter, neither the fact that the 2006 deposition is the

most recent version of Merriman’s testimony, nor the fact that it renders more

versions in favor of Petitioner than not, exempts the deposition from the

suspicion that is generally (and, in the words of Justice Brennan, “properly”)

afforded recantations. Multiple recantations do not constitute clear and

convincing evidence, especially not here, and cannot sustain the extraordinary

remedy of habeas corpus relief. See Bower v. Curtis, 118 F. App’x at 908

(“[elven if accepted, a post-trial recantation is generally not sufficient to grant

habeas relief absent constitutional error.”); see also Welsh, 444 F. App’x at 850

(same); Davis v. Bradshaw, 900 F.3d 315, 329-30 (6th Cir. 2018) (finding

unreliable recantation offered to demonstrate actual innocence exception).

Considerations for assessing the credibility of a subsequent recantation of

prior sworn testimony include motives that may have prompted the recantation,

timing/delay of the recantation, possible motives (other than truth) for the original

sworn testimony, and inconsistencies within the witness’s account or between

the witness’s account and other witnesses’s accounts and the evidence. Hyman

v. Brown, 927 F.3d 639, 660 (2nd Cir. 2019). Courts are loath to credit a

recantation that is uncorroborated by any additional evidence, see, e.g., Jones v.

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 30 of 41

Taylor, 763 F.3d 1242, 1248 (9th Cir. 2014), or to find credible a witness who

made numerous contradictory statements, see, e.g., Graves v. Cockrell, 351

F.3d 143, 153 (5th Cir. 2003).

These indicators of reliability have been employed in the Sixth Circuit.

See Davis, 900 F.3d at 329-30 (corroboration vis-a-vis changed story); Freeman

v. Trombley, 483 F. App’x 51, 63 (6th Cir. 2012) (timing, corroboration, refuted by

other affiants); Turner v. Romanowski, 409 F. App’x 922, 930 (6th Cir. 2011)

(reasonable juror’s dilemma in determining whether he was lying then or now);

Giles v. Wolfenbarger, 239 F. App’x 145, 147-48 (6th Cir. 2007) (discounting

recantation evidence where there was no evidence concerning authenticity,

motivation of affiant, circumstances of execution of affidavit, timing, consistency

with other evidence); Stines v. United States, 571 F. App’x 384, 388-89 (6th Cir.

2014) (finding “inherently incredible” recanting testimony ten years after trial

testimony, evasiveness and incompleteness, consistency of prior testimony with

evidence at trial); Cleveland v. Bradshaw, 65 F. Supp. 3d 499, 523 (N.D. Ohio

2014) (self-interested motives, consistency with trial evidence, specificity); Hasan

v. Ishee, Case No. 1:03-cv-288, 2018 WL 898970, at *24-25 (S.D. Ohio West.

Div. Feb. 15, 2018) (timing); Thomas v. United States, CV. No. 2:03-cv-02416-

JPM-tmp, 2015 WL 5076969, at *180 (W.D. Tenn. Aug. 27, 2015) (timing,

motives).

At the heart of determining whether grounds sixteen and seventeen

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 31 of 41

warrant relief—over the hurdle of the state courts’ credibility determinations—are

multiple recantations and retractions. As noted above, courts view with suspicion

multiple recantations and retractions. See, e.g, Graves, 351 F.3d at 153. This

Court faces the impossible question that is inevitably posed by recantations:

Was Merriman lying then, or is he lying now?

Consider the following. In 1991, Merriman testified at Petitioner's trial that

Petitioner admitted to killing his girlfriend and her son. He also testified that he

received no deals in exchange for that testimony. In 1996, Merriman changed

course, averring in two affidavits drafted by Petitioner's postconviction counsel

that Merriman lied when he testified that Petitioner made any such confession

and that Merriman further lied by testifying at trial that his testimony was not

motivated by hopes of receiving leniency in his own criminal cases (i.e., recanting

his trial testimony). In 1997, while incarcerated, Merriman changed course

again—telling four Clark County prosecutors that his recanting affidavits were

false and his original trial testimony was true. In other words, he retracted his

recantation. Then, in 2000, while at a VA hospital in Dayton, Merriman switched

gears yet again by assuring Petitioner's postconviction counsel that his recanting

affidavits were true, that his original trial testimony was made up, and that he was

willing to testify to the same at Petitioner’s postconviction hearing. In sum, at the

VA hospital, Merriman retracted his retraction of his recantation. Merriman did

not end up testifying at the postconviction hearing and instead deliberately made

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 32 of 41

himself unavailable for the same. Finally, in 2006, when he was deposed for this

habeas corpus proceeding, Merriman again declared that his 1996 affidavits

were true and his trial testimony was false—thus reiterating his retraction of his

retraction of his recantations.

What is this Court to do with all these versions of testimony? See, e.g.,

United States v. Davis, 767 F. App’x 714, 733-34 (11th Cir. 2019) (“when a

witness retracts a recantation, the witness’s version of events remains exactly as

it was at trial.”) (citations omitted and cleaned up). Merriman’s multiple

recantations and retractions make it difficult to determine which version is more

credible and certainly add little to the clear-and-convincing standard that

Petitioner must satisfy to rebut the state courts’ credibility determinations.

Nor is the Court persuaded that the dispositions of Merriman’s two criminal

cases—a 1989 forgery case and a 1990 grand theft case—raise an inference

that he was promised leniency in exchange for testifying against Petitioner at

Petitioner's trial. Merriman’s forgery case involved five counts; he pleaded guilty

to three and served one year in prison. But he was out of prison by the time he

testified at Petitioner’s trial. Trial Transcript, ECF No. 104-1, at PagelD 7333-34;

Postconviction Hearing Transcript, ECF No. 104-2, at PagelD 8687. In the grand

theft case, Merriman pleaded guilty to the indictment as charged on January 24,

1991, and was scheduled to be sentenced on February 28, 1991, but he failed to

appear and was not sentenced until May 15, 1991. Postconviction Hearing

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 33 of 41

Transcript, ECF No. 104-2, at PagelD 8721-25. Although Merriman could have

received eighteen months’ imprisonment in that case, the prosecutor

recommended only six months (in keeping with his original promised

recommendation), despite Merriman’s failure to appear for the original

sentencing date, after learning that Merriman had previously provided testimony

that was beneficial to the state. /d. at PagelD 8737-39. The prosecutor made

clear, however, that no promise relating to Merriman testifying against Petitioner

had been made to secure Merriman’s plea on January 24, 1991. /d. at PagelD

8740. The trial judge did not accept the prosecutor's six-month recommendation

and instead sentenced Merriman to just sixty days.

Nothing about the pleas and sentences raises red flags that Merriman was

promised leniency in exchange for testifying against Petitioner. The forgery case

was completely disposed of before Merriman testified at Petitioner's trial, and

even though Merriman was sentenced on the grand theft charge after he testified

at Petitioner’s trial, Merriman pleaded guilty to the grand theft charge before he

testified at Petitioner's trial. That the prosecutor decided after the fact to adhere

to his recommendation of six months, and that the trial court decided after the

fact to give Merriman just sixty days, in consideration of Merriman’s having

testified at Petitioner’s trial does not establish that those considerations were

given in exchange for Merriman’s testimony at Petitioner’s trial, sufficient to

contribute to a showing of clear and convincing evidence to question Merriman’s

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 34 of 41

in-court, under-oath, cross-examined testimony at Petitioner’s trial that Merriman

was not providing testimony in order to receive a “deal” from the prosecution.

Trial Transcript, ECF No. 104-1, at PagelD 7333-34, 7346.

The substance of Merriman’s 2006 deposition adds little to the calculus.

Merriman’s recollections were muddled (perhaps understandably, given the

passage of time), and he was unable to provide any elaboration, explanation, or

corroboration about the version of events he was espousing at that time.

Further, his 1996 affidavits recanting his trial testimony, and his 2006 deposition

retracting his statements to prosecutors disavowing those 1996 affidavits, were

not offered of his own volition but rather were sought out by Petitioner’s counsel.

That undercuts Merriman’s claims at various times that he recanted out of

conscience. It is clear throughout Merriman’s 2006 deposition that his

“understanding” of any consideration he would receive for testimony implicating

Petitioner was imprecise and based on Merriman’s personal assumptions and

not on any representations relayed by his attorney(ies). Three prosecutors who

testified at the postconviction hearing (that Merriman intentionally dodged)

denied that they made any deals or promises in exchange for Merriman testifying

against Petitioner or were aware of anyone else promising such deals. ECF No.

104-2, at PagelD 8651-51 (Schumaker); at PagelD 8684—85 (Smith); at PagelD

8740-41 (Carter). And the Clark County Sheriffs Office detective who

investigated the murders of Thelma and David Miller, Ronald Rude, denied the

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 35 of 41

allegation in paragraph seven of Merriman’s June 19, 1996, affidavit that he

(Detective Rude) assured Merriman that Merriman would receive favorable

treatment for testifying against Petitioner. ECF No. 104-2, at PagelD 8749.

In sum, Merriman’s 2006 deposition contributes very little to the clear-and-

convincing standard that Petitioner must satisfy to rebut the presumption of

correctness afforded to the state courts’ credibility determinations.

As noted above, delay is another element that contributes to courts’

wariness of recantations. “Long-delayed affidavits, like those offered here, which

seek|] to exonerate a petitioner and shift the blame for the crime to another

person are ‘treated with a fair degree of skepticism.” Strayhorn v. Booker, 718

F. Supp. 2d 846, 874 (E.D. Mich. 2010) (quoting Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390,

423 (1993)). After noting that recantations generally are viewed with “extreme

suspicion,” the district court in Strayhorn observed that “[t]he affidavit submitted

by petitioner does not explain why the witnesses waited nearly two years after

petitioner’s trial to come forward.” Strayhorn, 718 F.Supp. 2d at 874. The Court

notes that, here, Merriman’s affidavits recanting his testimony came more than

six years after Petitioner's trial (and came about due to Petitioner's

postconviction counsel seeking them, not Merriman’s proactively offering them).

Another factor for assessing reliability is whether there was a suspect

motive for the recantation, such as to avoid prosecution, and whether,

concomitantly, the original statement or testimony was given without immunity

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 36 of 41

and overwhelmingly against the affiant’s penal interests. Carriger v. Stewart, 132

F.3d 463, 475 (9th Cir. 1997). Here, Merriman’s motivation(s) are difficult to pin

down. Merriman’s trial testimony was either the truth or was motivated by an

assumption or hope for leniency in pending criminal cases. His 1996

postconviction affidavits were either true or signed to get postconviction counsel

to leave him alone. That the former would have placed Merriman at risk for being

charged with perjury can be discounted since, as he testified at his 2006

deposition, he was under the assumption at that time that it was actually

testifying at the postconviction hearing, and not merely signing the two affidavits,

that subjected him to perjury. Deposition Transcript, ECF No. 44-1, at PagelD

202-03. It is thus similarly unlikely that the retractions of his recantations that

Merriman made to prosecutors in 1997 were motivated by avoiding perjury

charges stemming from trial testimony. In his 2006 deposition, Merriman testified

that he was recanting his trial testimony even at the risk of being charged with

perjury because he had changed his life around, “got saved in church,” needed to

tell the truth, and could not let Petitioner be executed on the basis of a lie or have

that on his conscience. /d., at PagelD 222. Again, these multiple changing

stories make it difficult to pin down Merriman’s motivations.

Examples of courts finding recantations credible show how short the

instant case falls. In Gable v. Williams, 49 F.4th 1315, 1323-24 (9th Cir. 2022),

for example, the federal appellate court credited subsequent recantations of

Case No. 3:03-cv-127 Page 37 of 41

sworn statements where nearly every witness who had implicated the defendant

recanted their statement, where there was substantial evidence of a third party's

guilt, and where the recantations were consistent with and supported by the

evidence presented at trial. In Howell v. Superintendent Albion SCI, 978 F.3d 54,

60-61 (3rd Cir. 2020), the federal appellate court reversed a district court's

categorical rejection of a recantation and remanded the case for an evidentiary

hearing, where two witnesses recanted their testimony implicating the petitioner

and implicated an alternative suspect who confessed to the crime under oath.

Again, the Court acknowledges that Merriman’s deposition took place in

2006—seventeen years after his professed reunion with Petitioner in prison,

fifteen years after he testified at Petitioner’s trial, and ten years after he provided

affidavits to Petitioner’s postconviction counsel. But this Court is tasked with

determining whether all of the evidence, now including Merriman’s deposition,

constitutes clear and convincing evidence to rebut the presumption of

correctness to which the state courts’ credibility determinations, favoring

Merriman’s trial testimony and discrediting his recantations, are entitled. That

countenances against eliding deficiencies and gaps in Merriman’s 2006

deposition just because of the passage of time. After careful consideration, this

Court cannot find clear and convincing evidence sufficient to rebut the

presumption of correctness.

In the alternative, even if unbound by a presumption of correctness, the

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Court would not be persuaded that Petitioner is entitled to relief. The Court

agrees with findings by the state courts that Merriman’s trial testimony likely had

an impact on jurors, as it was the only evidence of an admission of guilt by

Petitioner. But, there was other evidence of Petitioner’s guilt independent of

Merriman’s testimony. Shortly before the murders, Petitioner committed acts of

violence, and made threats, against Thelma Miller that were witnessed by others

and testified to at trial, to wit: Darlene McKeachie, Lisa Tuttle, Cindy Spencer,

and Ron Hildenbrand. Victor Bishop, who spent time with Petitioner before and

after the murders, testified about Petitioner's having money in a flowered bank

envelope and a set of car keys that Petitioner did not have earlier in the day.

Despite initially denying that he had ever been at the residence where the

murders were committed, two witnesses, Randy Maggard and Kim Funderberg,

identified the vehicle belonging to Petitioner’s mother that Petitioner had been

driving in the area of the residence on the day of the murders, prompting

Petitioner to eventually admit that he had visited the residence. Human blood

was found in that car and on Petitioner's jacket, and DNA in the blood on the

jacket matched David Miller. A machete consistent with having caused the

victims’ wounds, missing from the garage of the residence where the murders

occurred, was found, blood-stained, hidden in a couch in an alley near

Petitioner's residence. In view of other evidence of Petitioner's guilt independent

of Merriman’s testimony, and the general suspicion with which recantations are

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viewed by courts even without any presumption of correctness, see, e.g.,

Carriger, 132 F.3d at 483 (“Appellate courts, even on direct review, look upon

recantations with extreme suspicion” (Kosinski, J., dissenting)), the Court is not

persuaded claims sixteen and/or seventeen can sustain habeas corpus relief.

V. Conclusion

This Court laments the increasing manner in which courts in habeas

corpus are hamstrung by decisions such as Pinholster and appreciates the

opportunity to consider Petitioner's claims untethered by those harsh limitations.

And the Court is mindful of the gravity of this matter—Petitioner is, after all,

facing a sentence of death. The Court still cannot help but come back to an

observation by the state appellate court in affirming the denial of postconviction

relief: “Clearly, Merriman has lied at least once regarding Kinley. However, it is

impossible for this court to determine which of Merriman’s statements were lies

and which were the truth.” ECF No. 102-14, at PagelD 4751 (emphasis added).

The Magistrate Judge in these proceedings similarly remarked: “In essence, the

[trial] court was required to determine which version of Mr. Merriman’s testimony

to believe. It is clear that Mr. Merriman lied at least once about his testimony at

Mr. Kinley’s trial; that is, either it was true or not true and that he either did or did

not receive consideration from the state for providing that testimony.” ECF No.

67, at PagelD 572. The position in which the Court now finds itself, vis-a-vis

assessing which version of Merriman’s story to believe, is no less impossible—

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even with the addition of Merriman’s 2006 deposition. That dilemma precludes

the grant of habeas corpus relief.

For the foregoing reasons, the Court denies Petitioner’s sixteenth and

seventeenth grounds for relief as without merit, and the Court reiterates its

conclusion that the habeas corpus petition should be dismissed with prejudice.

IT IS SO ORDERED. fi Mj, : ;

MICHAEL H. WATSON, JUDGE

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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