Anderson

Petitioner, Jerome Alvin Anderson, appeals the district court’s order denying his petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 . Anderson challenges his conviction of special circumstance murder on the grounds that (1) he was denied his constitutional right to remain silent; and (2) he was denied due process by the introduction of his involuntary confession into evidence, and by the exclusion of evidence of coercion in the interrogation process.

Facts

Anderson and the victim, Robert Clark, were friends. On the morning of July 9, 1997, a mutual acquaintance, Patricia Kuykendall, discovered that her car had been stolen. Anderson visited Kuyken-dall’s apartment that day and informed Kuykendall that Clark had a habit of borrowing cars, duplicating keys and stealing them later.

Anderson left to bring Clark back to Kuykendall’s apartment. Kuykendall and petitioner confronted Clark about the car. Clark denied involvement in the theft. As Kuykendall called the police, Clark left. About ten minutes later, Anderson and Kuykendall’s roommate, Abe Santos, followed after Clark.

At about 12:30 or 1:00 p.m. on that afternoon, an employee at Carl’s Jr. waited on three…

dissenting:

It is likely that few Americans can profess fluency in the Bill of Rights, but the *1214 Fifth Amendment is surely an exception. 1 From television shows like “Law & Order” to movies such as “Guys and Dolls,” we are steeped in the culture that knows a person in custody has “the right to remain silent.” Miranda is practically a household word. And surely, when a criminal defendant says, “I plead the Fifth,” it doesn’t take a trained linguist, a Ph.D, or a lawyer to know what he meant.

Here, Anderson said, “I don’t even wanna talk about this no more,” “Uh! I’m through with this,” and “I plead the Fifth.” The officer did not stop questioning but instead responded, “Plead the Fifth. What’s that?”, continued the questioning, and ultimately obtained a confession. It is rare to see such a pristine invocation of the Fifth Amendment and extraordinary to see such flagrant disregard of the right to remain silent. Under even the narrowest construction of AEDPA, 2 the state court erred in failing to recognize this constitutional violation. I respectfully dissent from the majority’s view that there was some ambiguity in Anderson’s unequivocal invocation of the Fifth Amendment such…

Facts

Anderson and the victim, Robert Clark, were friends. On the morning of July 9, 1997, a mutual acquaintance, Patricia Kuykendall, discovered that her car had been stolen. Ander- son visited Kuykendall’s apartment that day and informed Kuykendall that Clark had a habit of borrowing cars, duplicat- ing keys and stealing them later.

Anderson left to bring Clark back to Kuykendall’s apart- ment. Kuykendall and petitioner confronted Clark about the car. Clark denied involvement in the theft. As Kuykendall cal- led the police, Clark left. About ten minutes later, Anderson and Kuykendall’s roommate, Abe Santos, followed after Clark.

At about 12:30 or 1:00 p.m. on that afternoon, an employee at Carl’s Jr. waited on three people in a white Ford Mustang at the drive-through window. The employee identified Ander- son as the driver. At about 1:05 p.m. witnesses noticed a white Mustang with black trim and tinted windows on East Stillwater Road. One witness specifically saw Anderson standing behind the car and two other men standing by the car.

Clark’s body was discovered by the side of East Stillwater Road at about 2:30 p.m. He had been shot in the head four times. A methamphetamine…