Source: http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/nichols1066.htm
Timestamp: 2017-01-21 00:07:34
Document Index: 404536135

Matched Legal Cases: ['Art. 36', 'Art. 36', 'Art. 37', 'Art. 37', 'art. 37', 'art. 37', '§ 2254']

Joseph Bennard Nichols #1066
Executed March 7, 2007 06:19 p.m. CST by Lethal Injection in Texas
9th murderer executed in U.S. in 2007
1066th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
8th murderer executed in Texas in 2007
387th murderer executed in Texas since 1976
Nichols and Willie Ray Williams drove to Joseph’s Deli in Houston. Both men were armed and pointed handguns at deli employee Claude Shaffer, Jr., who was behind the counter. When Shaffer saw the guns he began to bend over or squat down, both Nichols and Williams opened fire. Nichols and Williams ran to the door and Nichols went out. Williams turned and fired once more at Shaffer then went behind the counter and grabbed the deli’s cash box, then ran out of the deli.Nichols and Williams then joined accomplices Charlotte Parker and Evelyn Harvey in a waiting car and drove away. Nichols told Parker and Harvey “he had shot the man” and “he thought he shot him in the chest,” and that Williams said he had run back into the deli and shot the man again. Shaffer died from a single gunshot wound. Nichols was on felony probation for Theft at the time of the murder and evidence was also presented that he had engaged in a string of robberies just before the murder. Accomplice Willie Ray Williams was also sentenced to death in a separate trial and was executed in 1995.
Citations: Nichols v. State, 754 S.W.2d 185 (Tex.Cr.App. 1988) (Direct Appeal).
Final Words: When the warden asked Nichols if he wanted to make a last statement, he answered, "Yes, yes I do." He then mentioned a supervisory corrections officer on death row by name and uttered a string of obscenities about her. Then he said, "That's all I got to say." Internet Sources:
Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Joseph Nichols)
Date Received: 03/12/82 Education: 11 years Occupation: laborer
Date of Offense: 10/13/80 County of Offense: Harris
Texas Attorney General Tuesday, February 28, 2007 - Media Advisory: Joseph Nichols Scheduled For Execution
When Shaffer saw the guns he began to bend over or squat down. Both Nichols and Williams then opened fire on Shaffer, who collapsed behind the counter. Deli employee Cindy Johnson testified that she was watching Shaffer after Nichols and Williams pointed their guns at him and that Shaffer never reached for a gun that he kept under the counter. Investigators found a fully loaded .45 semi-automatic pistol on a shelf under the counter. There were no fingerprints on it and no .45 caliber fired bullets or empty shell casings were found.
After firing at Shaffer, Nichols and Williams ran to the door and Nichols went out. Williams either exited or partially exited and then turned and fired once more at Shaffer. Williams went behind the counter and grabbed the deli’s cash box, then ran out of the deli with his gun and the cash box. Nichols and Williams then joined co-defendants Charlotte Parker and Evelyn Harvey in a waiting car and drove away. Nichols told Parker and Harvey “he had shot the man” and “he thought he shot him in the chest,” and that Williams said he had run back into the deli and shot the man again. A few days later, Williams, Nichols, Parker, and Harvey were arrested.
Shaffer died from a single gunshot wound.
Nichols was convicted of theft in 1979 and pleaded guilty to an April 1980 robbery for which he was sentenced to felony probation for nine years. Nichols was serving this probation when he killed Shaffer. Additionally, Nichols robbed a convience store on August 13, 1980, shooting the clerk in the shoulder when he did not respond fast enough to Nichols’s demand for more money. Nichols continued to demand additional money as the clerk was bleeding from his wound. Further, on October 11, 1980, two days before the deli shop murder, Nichols committed another robbery of a convenience store, aiming his pistol at the clerks. There was also evidence that when booked into jail following his arrest for the Shaffer murder, Nichols stated he would “shoot any deputy that got in his way.” Finally, there was evidence that in June 1981, while in jail awaiting trial, Nichols conspired with others to engage in an escape involving the use of a firearm and other weapons.
"2nd condemned Texas inmate in as many days executed," by Michael Graczyk. (AP March 8, 2007, 1:26AM)
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — More than 26 years after he and a friend robbed a Houston convenience store where a clerk was fatally shot, Joseph Nichols wound up in the same death house where a dozen years earlier his partner was executed for the same crime.
The similarities between Nichols and his longtime friend, Willie Ray Williams, ended in their final moments.
Williams in 1995 spoke of "love and peace of Islam" as he was executed.
Nichols, 45, described by Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials as uncooperative throughout the day, had to be carried to the death chamber, then used his final statement while strapped to the gurney Wednesday evening for a profanity-filled diatribe against a supervisory corrections officer.
"That's all I got to say," he barked.
He winked toward a window where his parents and three brothers watched. He was pronounced dead seven minutes later.
The lethal injection was the second carried out in Texas in as many days and the eighth this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
Nichols and Williams were both convicted and condemned for the Oct. 13, 1980, slaying of Claude Shaffer.
"We're feeding and clothing him all these years and his family has had all these extra years with him," Claudette Shaffer, the daughter of the shooting victim, said after watching Nichols die. "They had a chance to say goodbye. We've never had that chance. Something is askew."
Nichols' vulgar final statement, she said, "just reaffirmed the image I had of him: No feeling, no remorse, no concern for anyone."
She said she was eager to tell her 90-year-old mother, who couldn't attend the execution because of health concerns, of Nichols' death.
"She is going to be very happy," Shaffer said. "She's been waiting since 1982."
Prosecutors defended Nichols' conviction, saying Texas' law of parties makes non-triggermen just as culpable in crimes like Shaffer's murder.
Nichols' lawyer, J. Clifford Gunter III, took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which previously had rejected Nichols' appeals. Gunter argued Nichols had been deprived "of a complete and meaningful post-conviction review of his case."
Less than two hours before Nichols was to die, the high court turned down his appeal.
"There's nothing else we can do," Gunter said. "It's a sad day."
Nichols was tried twice. At the first trial, jurors were unable to agree on the death penalty and a mistrial was declared.
It's the second trial that Nichols' lawyers accused prosecutors of changing tactics, suppressing evidence and arguing he was the shooter so jurors would be more inclined to decide on a death sentence, which they did.
"They had a parties charge (to the jury)," said Roe Wilson, who handles capital case appeals for the Harris County District Attorney's Office, denying any improper manipulations of evidence. "They were told the prosecution thought Nichols was the shooter, but there was no ballistics evidence.
"And even if Nichols wasn't actually the one who hit him, under the law of parties Nichols was still guilty."
The fatal bullet could not be recovered for ballistics tests.
"I never denied being there," Nichols said recently from death row, his home since he was 20. "I'm not telling you I'm not guilty of anything."
But he insisted that when Williams fired the fatal shot, "I had already left." In the robbery, Williams "got some change," he said. "I got nothing."
"Nichols Execution: Another Texas death row travesty," by Jordan Smith. (March 1, 2007)
On the morning of Oct. 13, 1980, 19-year-old Joseph Nichols and 24-year-old Willie Ray Williams entered Joseph's Delicatessen in Houston and approached the counter where 70-year-old Claude Shaffer was at the register. Williams and Nichols each pulled out a gun and pointed it at Shaffer, in an attempt to rob the store. According to court records, Shaffer reached for a gun hidden behind the counter; as he ducked behind the counter, Nichols fired – his single bullet lodged somewhere behind a magazine rack, and he ran from the store. Williams also began to retreat but stopped at the front door. He fired at Shaffer – who was now standing, his back toward the door. The bullet killed Shaffer instantly; Williams returned to the counter, grabbed the cash box, and ran. Nichols and Williams were arrested, and each was charged with capital murder. Three months later, in January 1981, after confessing to the killing, Williams pled guilty and was sentenced to die; he was executed in January 1995. Nichols pled not guilty: He'd been involved with the robbery but did not intend for Shaffer to die, nor did he take part in the murder. Nichols was tried twice for Shaffer's murder – a deadlocked jury prompted a mistrial the first time around; the second trial ended with a guilty verdict and a death sentence. He is scheduled for execution on March 7. It might be tempting to assume that Nichols' 25-year stay on the row is an affirmation that the Texas capital punishment system functions properly – that a quarter-century behind bars means the courts have had ample opportunity to review his appeals and have concluded, based on all relevant evidence, that his execution will pass constitutional muster. But that isn't true: With less than a week until his execution, there remain serious questions about whether Nichols' execution is legally justifiable. His is a case plagued by prosecutorial misconduct and incomplete judicial review. Harris Co. officials withheld from Nichols' attorneys the true identity and whereabouts of a crucial eyewitness, Teresa Ishman, one of two deli employees working with Shaffer the morning of the murder. According to court records, Ishman told prosecutors it was Williams and not Nichols who killed Shaffer, and she confirmed that Nichols fled before the murder. Moreover, at Nichols' second trial, prosecutors completely changed the official theory of the crime in order to secure a conviction and death sentence. At Nichols' first trial, prosecutors argued that Williams fired the fatal shot – an assertion backed up by the physical evidence and the testimony of the county medical examiner – and sought to convict Nichols not as the shooter but as a party to the killing. But the jury deadlocked because Nichols wasn't the triggerman. So at the second trial, in February 1982, prosecutors argued instead that Nichols was the one who fired the fatal shot – even though Williams had already confessed to the killing and had been sentenced to die. State and federal courts have considered these omissions before, but only in "isolation," says Nichols' attorney, Clifford Gunter, with the Houston firm Bracewell & Giuliani. On Feb. 20, Gunter again appealed Nichols' case, arguing that taken together, the problems with his prosecution are so egregious that the death sentence should be overturned. "Nichols has been inadvertently subjected to a procedural quagmire that has prevented his unconstitutional conviction from being fully reviewed," Gunter argues. "As a result, no court has ever addressed all of the constitutional violations that led to Nichols' conviction for a crime he did not commit … a crime for which the confessed murderer … has already been executed." In short, the court has never ruled whether the individual instances of misconduct could have the cumulative effect of rendering his punishment unconstitutional. In Williams' case, Harris Co. prosecutors asserted that the evidence conclusively proved him the killer: "That is all there is to it. It is scientific. It is consistent. It is complete. It is final, and it is in evidence," they argued – evidence they offered again during Nichols' first trial. At Nichols' second trial, however, prosecutors abandoned all that evidence and argued that Nichols was the shooter; this strategy was possible only because the state continued to conceal eyewitness Ishman from the defense, argues Gunter. Instead, prosecutors offered only the testimony of another deli employee, Cindy Johnson, who claimed Nichols fired the fatal shot. (According to Ishman, Gunter later discovered, there was no way Johnson could've seen anything because she hid in the bathroom once the robbery began.) By hiding Ishman, the prosecution was able to convince jurors Nichols was the shooter: "And I'll tell you that it was [Nichols'] hand that did the killing," declared the prosecutor. "How do you know that? [Johnson] saw it. She told you." A federal district judge first overturned Nichols' conviction based on the state's changed theory of the crime (a due process violation), but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, ruling that the error wasn't severe enough to "undermine confidence" in the guilty verdict. In a subsequent proceeding, the court similarly ruled that hiding Ishman from the defense was not so egregious as to undermine the verdict. While Gunter hopes that the courts will now finally consider the errors' cumulative effect and will throw out Nichols' death sentence, given the complicated nature of the rules governing death-case appeals, it seems unlikely. In fact, "the rules against successive petitions are so onerous" that it is unlikely the courts will consider anything more than whether the appeal was filed properly, says UT law professor Jordan Steiker. "By successfully hiding their misconduct, the prosecution gets the benefit of a process designed to 'streamline' appeals. It is one of the ways that court doctrine rewards prosecutorial misconduct." Gunter has also filed a petition with the Board of Pardons and Paroles, asking that Nichols' death sentence be commuted to life behind bars – ordinarily, Steiker says, that would be the way to go with a case like Nichols'. "If we had any sort of clemency process, this would be the perfect kind of case," where the executive branch would step in to correct an injustice the courts are ill-equipped to handle. But, he said, "That's not Texas." For sure, the BPP isn't known for righting wrongs – still, Nichols' life might depend on its taking seriously the responsibility to avert an injustice. "To be frank, we are … accusing the State of having deliberately manipulated the justice system … in order to get a second death sentence," reads Gunter's petition. "Executing Nichols would in effect condone" that manipulation, he continued. "When does it end? It should end now." Dallas Morning News
"2nd condemned Texas inmate in as many days set to die," by Michael Graczyk. (AP 03/07/2007)
Condemned inmate Joseph Nichols acknowledges being in a Houston convenience store more than a quarter century ago, accompanied by a friend and attempting to hold up the place. What baffles Nichols, however, is why he's likely to die Wednesday evening when his friend pleaded guilty to fatally shooting the 70-year-old store clerk — who died of a single bullet wound — and already has been executed for the slaying. "I was there, I don't deny that," Nichols said recently from death row, where he's been locked up for 25 years for the 1980 death of Claude Shaffer. "I never told them, word for word, that I killed this man." Nichols, 45, would be the eighth prisoner executed this year in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state, and the second in as many nights taken to the death house at the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Tuesday evening, Robert Perez, 48, who prosecutors said was a high-ranking officer in the notorious Mexican Mafia prison gang, received lethal injection for a double killing in San Antonio in 1994. Nichols was convicted and condemned for the Shaffer slaying, although he and his lawyers, along with death penalty opponents, cited what they contended were questionable tactics in Harris County's prosecution of Nichols. Willie Williams, Nichols' partner on Oct. 13, 1980, was convicted of the same crime and was executed 12 years ago. "One bullet and two shooters," said Nichols' lawyer, J. Clifford Gunter III. "There's no getting around that." Gunter went to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing in a late appeal that prosecutorial misconduct and legal appeals procedures left Nichols "in a procedural quagmire" that barred his conviction from being fully reviewed. Roe Wilson, who handles capital case appeals for the Harris County district attorney's office, said it made no difference if Nichols didn't actually fire the fatal shot. Nichols originally was tried under the Texas law of parties, which makes one defendant as culpable as his partner in a crime, but jurors were unable to reach agreement on the death penalty and a mistrial was declared. Nichols missed by 30 days a change in Texas law that would have given him an automatic life term when jurors were unable to reach unanimity on a death sentence. Instead, he was tried a second time. In that trial, Nichols' lawyers accused prosecutors of changing tactics and arguing he was the shooter so jurors would be more inclined to decide on a death sentence, which they did. "They had a parties charge (to the jury)," Wilson said, denying any improper manipulations of evidence. "They were told the prosecution thought Nichols was the shooter, but there was no ballistics evidence." Both Nichols and Williams told police they shot toward Shaffer, and jurors heard testimony from a girlfriend of one of the shooters that when Nichols returned to their car outside the store, he said he thought he shot the victim in the chest. "They knew both people said: 'I shot toward him,'" Wilson said, referring to the jury. "And even if Nichols wasn't actually the one who hit him, under the law of parties Nichols was still guilty." The fatal bullet could not be recovered for ballistics tests. Nichols was 20 when he arrived on death row. "Honestly, I thought I'd be dead at 25," he said, describing his years in prison as good and positive. "I was able to grow and do a few things, experience life and meet different people. Think about it: You've got people in other parts of the world in a worse position." If he had received a life term, under guidelines then in place, he could have become eligible for parole after 20 years. "I've already served a life sentence," he said. On Tuesday evening, Perez, who had been linked to more than a dozen slayings in the mid 1990s in San Antonio, told his wife, two sons and a brother, who watched through a window, that he loved them "and never forget." And as the drugs were being administered, he remarked: "I got my boots on, like the cowboys." Seven minutes later he was pronounced dead. Three more Texas inmates have execution dates this month and are among at least a dozen with dates this year. Next on the schedule is Charles Nealy, 42, set to die March 20 for the slaying of convenience store clerk Jiten Bhakta, 25, in Dallas in 1997. A second store employee also was killed in the robbery. Reuters News
"Man executed after 25 years on Texas death row." (Wed Mar 7, 2007 11:15PM EST)
Lawyers for Nichols and death penalty opponents fought Nichols' executions on grounds that Shaffer had one bullet wound in his body, yet Houston prosecutors accused both Williams and Nichols in their separate trials of being the shooter.
The Texas Coalition to Abolish The Death Penalty accused state prosecutors of presenting false evidence and suppressing favorable eyewitness testimony at trial.
On Tuesday, Texas put to death Robert Perez, 48, for killing two men in a 1994 gang dispute.
The state has 11 more executions scheduled this year, including three in March. There are 389 people on Texas death row.
Joseph Bennard Nichols, 45, was executed by lethal injection on 7 March 2007 in Huntsville, Texas for the robbery and murder of a store employee. On 13 October 1980, Nichols, then 19, Willie Williams, 24, Charlotte Parker, and Evelyn Harvey drove to a spot near Joseph's Delicatessen and Grocery in Houston. Williams and Nichols went inside, both carrying guns. Williams had a .380 semi-automatic pistol, and Nichols had a snub-nosed .38-caliber revolver. Both men went to the back of the store first, then approached the counter. Nichols got a corndog. Williams set a quart of beer on the counter near the cash register. Both men then drew their guns and pointed them at Claude Shaffer, 70, who was behind the counter. When Shaffer saw the guns, he tried to get down, but the gunmen opened fire. They then ran to the door. Nichols exited, but Williams stopped at the door, then went back inside and fired once more at Shaffer. Williams then went behind the counter, grabbed the cash box, and ran back out and joined Parker and Harvey in the car. They drove around to the side of the building to pick up Nichols, then drove off. The four were arrested a few days later. Shaffer died from a single gunshot wound. The question of who fired the fatal shot was an important issue at Williams' and Nichols' trials and in appeals. The Harris County Medical Examiner, Dr. Espinola, testified that Shaffer died from a shot that entered his upper back, below his left shoulder and exited from the right side of his chest. He testified that the victim also had a superficial wound on the right side of his head, which was "consistent with a grazing type of gunshot wound," but could also have been caused by hitting his head on the corner of a hard object in a fall, and, in any case, was not a serious injury. There were no bullets or bullet fragments found in the victim's body. Investigators found two empty .380 cartridge cases from Williams' pistol in the deli and an intact, misfired .380 round (with a firing pin indentation on the cartridge rim) just outside the door. A .38-caliber unjacketed lead bullet was found in a stack of comic books behind the counter. At Nichols' trial, Williams, who had already pleaded guilty at his own trial, testified that Nichols drew his gun first, then Williams drew his. Shaffer then bent down, and Nichols said something to the effect of "don't go for the gun" or "don't be doing it." Shaffer came up with a gun, but before he could shoot, Nichols fired his gun at him. Williams testified that he pulled the trigger on his gun, but it misfired. Williams said that he saw no blood and that Shaffer was still squatting behind the counter when he re-entered the deli and shot at him again. Nichols did not testify, but in a statement he gave to police, he said, "he came up with a pistol ... so we reacted and shot." Cindy Johnson, another deli employee who was the only other person in the store, testified that when Nichols and Williams were at the counter, Nichols shot first, but Williams also shot, and two or three shots were fired at that time. She said that after those shots, Shaffer collapsed and there was blood on his head. She also testified that Shaffer never reached for a gun that was kept behind the counter, although in an earlier sworn statement, she said he did reach for it. A .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol was found on a shelf behind the counter, but it was fully-loaded and had not been fired, and there were no fingerprints on it. Charlotte Parker testified that after Williams and Nichols were in the car, Nichols said, "I think I hit him in the chest," and that Williams said he shot him in the shoulder. The defense argued that Nichols was not guilty of murder even under the law of parties, because Williams fired the fatal shot when he re-entered the deli, which was an independent decision Williams made after Nichols had already left. The prosecution argued that because the victim was crouching behind the counter and the bullet went through his torso, the shot couldn't have been fired from the door area. The state also argued that even if Williams did fire the fatal shot, Nichols, who planned the robbery, chose the location, and fired a gun at the victim, was responsible under the law of parties. Nichols had a previous conviction for theft in 1979, and he pleaded guilty to an April 1980 robbery and was sentenced to nine years' probation. In August 1980, he robbed a convenience store, shooting the clerk. On 11 October, two days before the deli murder, he committed another convenience store armed robbery. Nichols' first trial ended in a mistrial. The jury found him guilty, but could not agree on the sentence because of doubts over whether he fired the fatal shot. Under existing law, Nichols was retried. (A month later, a change in the law went into effect that a life sentence would automatically be imposed if the jury could not agree on a sentence in a capital murder case.) On retrial in March 1982, Nichols was convicted and sentenced to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in April 1988. In August 1992, a U.S. district judge vacated Nichols' conviction and ordered a new trial. The court ruled that the jury should have been instructed to consider whether Nichols fired the fatal shot. The court also said that the state contradicted itself by arguing that Nichols was the shooter, whereas previously, at Williams' trial, the state argued that Williams was the shooter. In November 1995, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court's decision and reinstated Nichols' conviction and death sentence, ruling that the jury did not need to be instructed to consider whether Nichols fired the fatal shot. The appeals court also ruled that the district court's decision to grant Nichols a new trial on the basis of the prosecution's statements at Williams' trial was unsupported by law or precedent. All of Nichols' subsequent appeals were denied. Willie Ray Williams was convicted in January 1981 of capital murder, after pleading guilty, and was sentenced to death. He was executed in 1995. "I'm not telling you I'm not guilty of anything," Nichols said in an interview from death row, but when Williams fired the fatal shot, "I had already left." He said that in the robbery, Williams "got some change. I got nothing." Of his 25 years on death row, Nichols said, "Honestly, I thought I'd be dead at 25," and that his time on death row was good and positive. "I was able to grow and do a few things, experience life and meet different people." "I don't want to die, but I've come to terms. No doubt, I'm regretful." According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's director of public information, Michelle Lyons, Nichols did not resist being taken from his cell to the death chamber, but he "didn't cooperate either" and had to be carried and strapped to the gurney by the five-man tie-down team. Earlier in the day, Nichols was "uncooperative and belligerent," Lyons said. At his execution, when the warden asked Nichols if he wanted to make a last statement, he answered, "Yes, yes I do." He then mentioned a supervisory corrections officer on death row by name and uttered a string of obscenities about her. Then he said, "That's all I got to say." He then winked toward his parents and three brothers, who witnessed his execution from a viewing room. The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:19.
On October 13, 1980, Nichols, Willie Ray Williams and two women drove to an apartment building in Houston, Texas, intending to rob a nearby grocery store. Committing the robbery was Nichols’ idea. Armed with guns, Nichols and Williams entered the grocery. Seventy-year old Claude Shaffer, Jr. was working as a deli clerk behind the counter. Nichols pointed his gun at Claude, and Claude made a movement that Nichols interpreted as gun retrieval. Nichols then shot at Claude Shaffer. Williams also shot at Claude while fleeing the store, but he returned to the counter to take the cash box. Claude was killed by one bullet to the back. The women drove Nichols and Williams away from the scene. The quartet were arrested soon thereafter. At the punishment phase of Nichols's trial, the state submitted evidence that Nichols had been convicted of theft in 1979, and had pleaded guilty in May 1980 to an April 1980 robbery for which he was sentenced in July 1980 to nine years’ felony probation, which he was serving when he committed the instant offense. Additionally, it was shown that on August 13, 1980, Nichols committed an armed robbery of a convenience store, shooting the clerk in the shoulder when he did not respond speedily enough to Nichols’ demand for more money. Nichols continued to demand more money as the clerk was bleeding from his wound. Further, on October 11, 1980, two days before the present offense, Nichols committed another robbery of a convenience store, aiming his pistol at the clerks. There was also evidence that when booked into jail following his arrest for the instant offense, Nichols had stated he would “shoot any deputy that got in his way.” Finally, there was evidence that in June 1981, while in jail awaiting trial, Nichols conspired with others to engage in an escape involving the use of a firearm and other weapons. The defense called fifteen witnesses. Many testified they thought Nichols could be rehabilitated, that he was nineteen at the time of the offense, and that at school he had had average grades, had been an excellent athlete, and had presented no disciplinary problems. His parents divorced when he was seven, but both maintained a good relationship with him. He married, and dropped out of school, at about age seventeen to support his young child. His parents thought he had gotten into trouble due to the pressure he was under to support his young child and because he got in with a bad crowd. Nichols's accomplice, Willie Ray Williams, was also sentenced to death in the robbery and was executed in January 1995. National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Joseph Nichols, TX, March 7
Joseph Nichols is scheduled for execution on March 7. Nichols was convicted of killing Claude Shaffer during an Oct. 1980 robbery at a Houston deli. Willie Ray Williams, also convicted of killing Schaffer, was executed in Jan. 1995.
The state of Texas should not execute Joseph Nichols. Executing Nichols would violate the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and would constitute the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. Furthermore, Nichols was not the triggerman. Schaffer died of a single shot to the back, and Williams confessed to shooting him after Nichols exited the store. Nichols’ first trial was dismissed after jurors could not unanimously agree upon a punishment. Also, Nichols claims ineffective assistance of counsel.
Please write to Gov. Rick Perry on behalf of Joseph Nichols!
Defendant was convicted in the 178th Judicial District Court, Harris County, Dan E. Walton, J., of capital murder, and he appealed. The Court of Criminal Appeals, White, J., held that: (1) defendant voluntarily chose to waive his constitutional rights and confess; (2) although trial court erred in excusing prospective juror on its own motion, such error was not reversible; (3) failure of trial court to sua sponte charge jury that law of parties may not be applied to punishment special issues was not fundamental error; and (4) evidence supported jury's affirmative findings on special issues at punishment phase.
Clinton and Campbell, JJ., concurred in result.
Teague, J., dissented with statement.
The relevant facts may be briefly stated. On October 13, 1980, at approximately 9:00 a.m., appellant and Willie Ray Williams entered Joseph's Delicatessen and Grocery with the plan to commit a robbery. As they approached the cash register, both men pulled guns on Claude Shaffer, the seventy year old victim. Shaffer bent down behind the counter, and it is controverted whether he was reaching for an unloaded pistol kept behind the store counter or whether he was simply taking cover. Appellant stated “Don't try it” and opened fire on Shaffer. It is unclear whether appellant's shots hit Shaffer. Appellant and Williams then turned and started to flee. As they reached the door, Williams turned and shot at Shaffer. Again, it is unclear which shot contacted the victim. Both men fled but, after running out of the Deli, Williams stopped and went back into the Deli, alone. Williams took the cash box from behind the counter where the victim had been standing and ran out of the store. Both men were picked up by two females in a blue Toyota.
“I ran out of the store and through the alley and around to the back of the apartment complex. I ran around to the front of the apartments and I didn't see the car and I stood in the middle of the street looking around for the car, and then they came around the corner. I jumped in the car and we went straight home on Prudence.
“On Wednesday I took the gun back to the dude that I got it from. I don't know his name. He just hangs on the corner of Calumet and Live Oak. I want to say that we did not mean to kill the man. When he come up from behind the counter, he had pulled a gun on us.” [/s/] Joseph Nichols.
In his eleventh point of error (first point of error in counsel Lane's brief), appellant contends that the trial court fundamentally erred by failing to charge the jury at punishment that they could not rely on the law of parties in answering the special issues in violation of Green v. State, 682 S.W.2d 271 (Tex.Cr.App.1984) cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1034, 105 S.Ct. 1407, 84 L.Ed.2d 794 (1985). Appellant concedes, however, that he failed to request or object to the absence of such a charge. The failure to object to the charge waives all but fundamental error. Art. 36.19, V.A.C.C.P.; Duffy v. State, 567 S.W.2d 197, 204 (Tex.Cr.App.1978) cert. denied, 439 U.S. 991, 99 S.Ct. 593, 58 L.Ed.2d 666 (1978). The error, to constitute fundamental proportion, must be egregious and create such harm that it deprives appellant a fair and impartial trial. Art. 36.19, supra; Almanza v. State, 686 S.W.2d 157, 171-172 (Tex.Cr.App.1985). After a careful review of the totality of the record, we find no such error or harm.
First, the failure of the trial court to sua sponte charge the jury that the law of parties may not be applied to the special issues does not constitute fundamental error. In Green v. State, supra, this Court reversed prior caselaw to follow the 8th Amendment requirements announced by the U.S. Supreme Court in Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982). The Enmund Court held that there must be some proof that the defendant either killed, attempted or intended to kill or contemplated a killing before a death sentence could be imposed. Enmund, supra. In Green, we determined that application of Enmund required that the law of parties could not be applied to the punishment issues in a capital murder case. Green, supra at 287. In dicta we further noted:
Upon request by a capital murder defendant or the State, the jury is to be instructed at the punishment phase that only the conduct of the defendant can be considered at the punishment phase, and that the instructions pertaining to the law of parties at the guilt stage cannot be considered. Appellant did not request any such charge in this case.FN11 Green, supra at 287, n. 4. Appellant seizes upon this language from Green to argue that it was fundamental error for the court to omit an “anti-parties” charge at punishment. However, such a charge is not required by Green, supra, or Enmund, supra, nor is it mandated by any Texas statute. See, Stewart v. State, 686 S.W.2d 118, 124 (Tex.Cr.App.1984) cert. denied, 474 U.S. 866, 106 S.Ct. 190, 88 L.Ed.2d 159 (1985). While it is abundantly clear that an “anti-parties” charge would be acceptable and, in fact, applauded by this Court, see, 8 McCormick and Blackwell, Texas Criminal Forms and Trial Manual, Sec. 81.15, p. 289 (9th Ed.1985) and 3 Texas Criminal Practice Guide, Sec. 75.103, p. 75-58.1, the failure to give such a charge, absent a request or objection, does not constitute fundamental error.
FN12. We note that appellant's trial took place in 1982, two years prior to our decision in Green, supra.
FN13. See our discussion of appellant's fifth, sixth and seventh points of error, post, wherein we address the sufficiency of the evidence to support the three special issues.
FN15. Appellant, acknowledging the general rule that failure to object waives error, goes on to argue that the cumulative effect of all of the unobjected to arguments constitutes fundamental harm. We find this argument untenable. See, McIlveen v. State, 559 S.W.2d 815, 823 (Tex.Cr.App.1977). Not only did the contested arguments not, in and of themselves, cause egregious harm, but the majority of the arguments were, in fact, proper. See, Alejandro v. State, 493 S.W.2d 230 (Tex.Cr.App.1973). For example, the argument challenged in appellant's twelfth point of error, concerning the prosecutor's assessment of appellant's intent or expectation of harm, is not a comment on appellant's failure to testify, but a reasonable deduction from the evidence showing that appellant planned the robbery, entered the store with a loaded gun, pointed and fired at close range. See, Rogers v. State, 598 S.W.2d 258, 263-264 (Tex.Cr.App.1980). Likewise, the thirteenth point attacks the prosecutor's reference to a plea bargain given to an accomplice witness as an argument outside the record when, in fact, this argument was an invited response based on facts fully in the record, as introduced by appellant, and initially argued by appellant. Further, the argument challenged in the fourteenth point is not an improper plea for conformance to community expectations, but a proper “you” and “they” textbook plea for law enforcement. Haynes v. State, 627 S.W.2d 710, 714 (Tex.Cr.App.1982). See, 23 Tex.Jur.3d, sec. 2910, p. 715-718. Finally, in appellant's eighteenth point, the argument that appellant would kill to escape from jail is not an argument outside the record, but a reasonable deduction supported by the evidence that appellant attempted an armed escape while pending trial.
In point of error number five, appellant contends that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the jury's affirmative finding to special issue number one FN16 Specifically, appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support deliberateness.
FN16. “[W]hether the conduct of the defendant that caused the death of the deceased was committed deliberately and with the reasonable expectation that the death of the deceased or another would result....” Art. 37.071(b)(1), V.A.C.C.P.
The evidence adduced relevant to deliberateness is as follows. Appellant confessed to his participation in the robbery during the course of which a man was killed. He instigated and planned the robbery, picked the store to be “hit”, entered the store with a loaded .38 snub-nose revolver, pointed it at the elderly victim and demanded money. When the victim crouched down behind the counter, appellant stated “Don't try it” and opened fire. Although it is disputed as to which defendant's shots caused the fatal wound, FN18 it is clear that appellant fired the first shot at close range. Additionally, it was shown at punishment that appellant had committed numerous prior robberies, one in which he shot the victim. This evidences the fact that the instant killing was done by an experienced robber rather than an excited amateur. A few days after the commission of the offense appellant returned the gun to its owner, thus probative of further pre-planning by appellant to commit the instant offense-hence the need to borrow the gun.
FN18. In appellant's co-defendant's case, Williams, supra, we stated that Wiliams fired the fatal shot. This assumption was based upon Williams' guilty plea and statements accepting responsibility for the murder. However, there is no conclusory proof that the single deadly chest wound was fired by Williams. In fact, evidence adduced in the instant case points toward appellant having fired the deadly shot. Just after the shooting, appellant told the driver of the getaway car that he had to shoot the victim. Appellant also told another accomplice that he fired the first shot which he thought hit the victim in the chest. Additionally, as argued by the prosecution, the angle of the chest wound was consistent with appellant's position during the robbery. It is factually unknown and evidentiarily improvable who fired the fatal shot, but this does not negate the deliberateness of appellant's individual actions. Santana v. State, 714 S.W.2d 1 (Tex.Cr.App.1986).
In our opinion affirming appellant's co-defendant's case, Williams, supra, we stated,
In Smith v. State, 540 S.W.2d 693 (Tex.Cr.App.1976) [cert. denied, 430 U.S. 922, 97 S.Ct. 1341, 51 L.Ed.2d 601 (1977) ], the defendant entered a grocery store, pointed a gun at the attendant and told him he was being robbed. The attendant made a motion ‘behind his jacket’ and the defendant called to his co-defendant, after his own gun misfired. The co-defendant shot and killed the attendant. The two defendants then took the money and left.
In Smith the evidence was sufficient to support a deliberateness finding even for the defendant who did not actually shoot the victim. The facts of the instant case are more compelling than those in Smith. [citation omitted] We find the evidence sufficient to support the jury's affirmative finding on the issue of deliberateness.FN19
FN19. Although Smith, supra, was decided prior to our decision in Green, supra, it is still viable authority. In Green we approvingly cited Smith stating,
“In Smith this Court found the evidence sufficient to support the affirmative answers to the special issues based upon facts concerning the defendant's individual conduct.” Green, supra at 286.
In his sixth point of error, appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the jury's affirmative finding to the second special issue.FN20 Factors to be considered in determining the sufficiency of the evidence to support future dangerousness are the facts of the instant offense, appellant's prior criminal record and any mitigating circumstances. Keeton v. State, 724 S.W.2d 58, 61 (Tex.Cr.App.1987); Livingston, supra at 340 and cases cited therein.
FN20. [W]hether there is a probability that the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society....” Art. 37.071(b)(2), V.A.C.C.P.
Appellant's criminal history exhibits a propensity for violent offenses. In early 1979, appellant was convicted of theft. On July 7, 1980, appellant was placed on nine years' felony probation for a robbery conviction. It was during this probationary period that appellant committed the instant capital murder. On August 13, 1980 appellant committed an attempted capital murder while robbing a clerk at a Stop-N-Go convenience store. The facts of this robbery are particularly violent in that appellant demanded money at gunpoint and, when the clerk gave all he had, appellant demanded more. When the clerk was not looking for the additional money quickly enough, appellant shot him in the left shoulder, just above the heart. According to the victim, blood was “shooting out” from his body and appellant remained unthwarted, in the same position and continued to demand money. On October 11, 1980 just two days prior to the instant capital murder, appellant committed another aggravated robbery at a convenience store wherein he took the clerks' wallets and the money from the cash registers at gunpoint. Finally, on June 14, 1981, while in jail pending trial for the instant offense, appellant took part in a contemplatedly violent escape plan involving a loaded gun, homemade knives and tear gas. Appellant's jail report reflects that he tried to take over and run the cell block and that he had a “poor attitude, very cocky, states at booking that he will shoot any deputy that got in his way. Subject has very aggressive attitude and potential agitator.”
Appellant was nineteen years old at the time of committing the instant offense and, unlike many capital defendants, had 13 character witnesses willing to testify for him at punishment. The testimony adduced from these witnesses was that, while in high school, appellant was an outstanding athlete, had average grades and presented no known disciplinary problems. Appellant had dropped out of high school at age 17 to support his wife who had just had a baby. Several family friends testified that they thought appellant could be rehabilitated. Appellant's nineteen year old wife testified that appellant had a small child and should be given another chance. His parents testified that they got divorced when appellant was seven but both had a good relationship with their son. They felt that appellant was in trouble because of the pressures of supporting a family and because he fell in with a bad crowd.
There is evidence to support the jury's determination that appellant would commit criminal acts of violence in the future constituting a continuing threat to society. Appellant's statement that he would “shoot any[one] that got in his way” is borne out through his prior criminal history and the facts of the instant capital murder. A reasonable jury could have found that appellant had a proven propensity for aggravated robberies wherein he exhibited no hesitation to open fire on the chosen victim which was not outweighed by the mitigating factors of his young age, family pressures and possible amendability to rehabilitation. Further, it was reasonable for a jury to have not found the “bad crowd” argument extensively mitigating in light of the fact that some of the prior aggravated offenses were committed by appellant, acting alone, and, in the offenses in which he acted with others, he took an instigative and leadership role. Appellant's sixth point of error is overruled.
* * * The judgment of conviction is affirmed.
Holding: The Court of Appeals, Edith H. Jones, Chief Circuit Judge, held that testimony of witness whose location and identity were not disclosed by the prosecution was not material, as required for a Brady violation.
In 1982, a Texas jury convicted and sentenced to death Joseph Bennard Nichols for the 1980 capital murder of Claude Shaffer, Jr. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (“TCCA”) affirmed Nichols' conviction on April 13, 1988. Nichols v. Texas, 754 S.W.2d 185 (Tex.Crim.App.1988), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 1019, 109 S.Ct. 819, 102 L.Ed.2d 808 (1989). Nichols filed his first state habeas application on May 23, 1991, which the TCCA denied later that year. In January of 1992, Nichols filed his first federal habeas petition. During an evidentiary hearing granted by the district court, Nichols contended that the State had suppressed information concerning a material, exculpatory witness in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). The district court ordered the State to release and retry Nichols and expressly preserved Nichols' Brady claim for state exhaustion purposes. Nichols v. Collins, 802 F.Supp. 66, 79 (S.D.Tex.1992). This court reversed the district court's grant of habeas relief. Nichols v. Scott, 69 F.3d 1255 (5th Cir.1995), cert. denied, 518 U.S. 1022, 116 S.Ct. 2559, 135 L.Ed.2d 1076 (1996).
In February 1982, Nichols was tried before another jury on the same indictment. Generally the same evidence was presented as at his first trial in July 1981. The prosecutor was the same as in that first trial. In the guilt/innocence phase, Williams was called as a defense witness but claimed his Fifth Amendment privilege and refused to testify. The defense then put in evidence Williams' testimony as given at Nichols' first trial. At the close of the evidence on the guilt/innocence stage of the trial, the trial court extensively instructed the jury on the Texas law of parties (see note 9, supra ) such that the jury could, depending on what else it found, find Nichols guilty as charged either for personally having fired the fatal shot or for the fatal shot fired by Williams, if that was done pursuant to and in furtherance of their conspiracy to rob the deli and should have been anticipated by Nichols as a result of carrying out the conspiracy. The defense argued, as it had at Nichols' first trial, that Williams fired the fatal shot from the deli door as he exited and came back in, and that this was, in the words of the charge, “the separate act of Willie Ray Williams, acting independently,” for which Nichols would not be responsible. The state primarily argued that Nichols fired the fatal shot. But, it also argued extensively, in the alternative, that even if Williams had fired the fatal shot, Nichols was guilty of capital murder under the law of parties. The jury returned its verdict finding Nichols guilty of capital murder.
At the subsequent punishment phase the state submitted evidence that Nichols had been convicted of theft in 1979, and had pleaded guilty in May 1980 to an April 1980 robbery for which he was sentenced in July 1980 to nine years' felony probation, which he was serving when he committed the instant offense. Additionally, it was shown that on August 13, 1980, Nichols committed an armed robbery of a convenience store, shooting the clerk in the shoulder when he did not respond speedily enough to Nichols' demand for more money. Nichols continued to demand more money as the clerk was bleeding from his wound. Further, on October 11, 1980, two days before the present offense, Nichols committed another robbery of a convenience store, aiming his pistol at the clerks. There was also evidence that when booked into jail following his arrest for the instant offense, Nichols had stated he would “shoot any deputy that got in his way.” Finally, there was evidence that in June 1981, while in jail awaiting trial, Nichols conspired with others to engage in an escape involving the use of a firearm and other weapons. The defense called fifteen witnesses. Many testified they thought Nichols could be rehabilitated, that he was nineteen at the time of the offense, and that at school he had had average grades, had been an excellent athlete, and had presented no disciplinary problems. His parents divorced when he was seven, but both maintained a good relationship with him. He married, and dropped out of school, at about age seventeen to support his young child. His parents thought he had gotten into trouble due to the pressure he was under to support his young child and because he got in with a bad crowd.
The court submitted the three punishment special issues to the jury (see note 6, supra ). No instruction was given respecting the law of parties. The defense argued, among other things, that the fatal shot was fired by Williams, and that any shooting was in reaction to Shaffer's having grabbed his gun. Emphasis was put on Nichols' youth, his family, his character witnesses, and his potential for rehabilitation. The state argued that Nichols fired the fatal shot, but did not argue any of the special issues solely on that theory. It stressed Nichols' prior offenses and conduct in jail. Neither side argued that the verdict of guilty established or meant that Nichols fired the fatal shot, or that any of the special issues were to be answered by reference to Williams', rather than Nichols', state of mind or conduct or the like. On February 26, 1982, the jury returned its verdict answering all three special issues in the affirmative, and the court sentenced Nichols to death.
Nichols did not testify at either stage of his February 1982 trial.
The charge also submitted the lesser included offense of murder.
‘This lawsuit, if you really boil it down, concerns itself with parties, the law of parties given to you in number five and number six of this charge. Note that in parties to be guilty of capital murder as a party to it, a defendant does not have to fire the fatal shot that killed somebody.’ (Emphasis added).
‘The Judge has instructed you to find the defendant guilty of capital murder if you believe from the evidence, number one, that he's involved in a conspiracy to rob, number two, that at the time of the robbery he was doing something to help or make that robbery successful, that there was a murder and that somebody had the specific intent to kill somebody, either Jojo had it or Willie had it, either one. It doesn't matter. That the murder was done in furtherance of the original plan of the robbery, to help it in some way or to get away, immediate flight therefrom. And you must believe that this murder was an offense that the defendant should have anticipated.
If you believe those five things from the evidence it will be your duty to find that man guilty of capital murder.' (Emphasis added).
Additionally the prosecutor argued:
‘The defense is saying that what you really have here is a situation where there are cracks in the law and we want you to let Jojo Nichols slip through these cracks and get away. Well, the legislature thought about that. They're not completely dumb up there. Somebody told them what to do. And they have the law of parties. It fills in the cracks. It's like the mortar in a brick wall. You guys are all responsible when you go in there with loaded guns under certain conditions. Was there a conspiracy to rob, rob them of anything, money, guns, anything else. Was there a conspiracy to rob. The defense admits that, yes, there was. When the robbery occurred, was Jojo doing anything to promote or assist that robbery? The defense admits, yes, he was pointing a gun, telling you to put money in the sack and fired a gun. The defense admits it. He fired a gun before he ran out that door.
‘Was his conduct deliberate. He doesn't have to fire the fatal shot. But was his conduct deliberate. You bet it was deliberate. It was even more than that. He planned that robbery. He picked that store. It was a premeditated robbery. He thought about the fact that he's going to need a gun when he went in there. You know that he meant to use it because it was loaded and you know he fired that gun into an innocent man.’ (Emphasis added).
Nichols v. Scott, 69 F.3d at 1262-64 (footnotes omitted).
It should also be noted that Nichols (in his confession), Williams (through his prior testimony), and deli employee Cindy Johnson all testified about the series of events and shots inside the deli during the robbery. Nichols told his confederates as they drove from the scene that he thought he had shot Shaffer in the chest and that Williams shot Shaffer in the shoulder. Williams' testimony was that when he and Nichols drew guns on Shaffer, Shaffer pointed a gun at them, and Nichols shot at Shaffer first; Williams shot at Shaffer as Williams was fleeing toward the door. Johnson had given an initial police statement indicating that Shaffer squatted behind the counter reaching for a gun. At trial, however, she disavowed this statement as a mistake and testified firmly instead that Shaffer did not reach for anything. Finally, the medical examiner's testimony tended to support the State's theory that Nichols shot Shaffer, although the fatal bullet was not identified and this conclusion was based on inference from the bullet's trajectory through Shaffer's body.
The current habeas petition involves the State's alleged suppression of Ishman's location and identity. The following facts were developed in the state habeas hearing. Ishman, a deli employee, was also inside the store during the robbery and shooting. She left the scene just as the police arrived. The deli owner, Dean McDaniel, informed police of Ishman's departure. An officer, running outside to catch Ishman, saw a black female enter a vehicle but was unable to stop her at that time. McDaniel informed the police that Ishman asked not to work at the deli right after the shooting, that she requested employment at another establishment he owned, and that he fired her instead. Nichols' defense counsel were aware of McDaniel's statements concerning Ishman.
The state habeas court found that the State knew Ishman/McGee's true name, location, and Social Security number, and, thus, also knew that Ishman could not be served at the address used on the subpoena. However, the state habeas court refused to find that the State failed to disclose Ishman as a witness or that the State knew the substance of Ishman's testimony before Nichols' trial. The state habeas court also found that although Ishman had informed a prosecutor, prior to the Williams trial, that she saw Shaffer draw a gun before Nichols and Williams fired their guns, there was also credible evidence that Ishman failed to provide this information to the police or to the prosecutor responsible for Nichols' trial. The state habeas court further found that, as part of the State's argument that Nichols fired the fatal shot, the State relied heavily on the testimony of Cindy Johnson. However, the state court rejected Nichols' proposed finding that the jury focused on whether Shaffer pulled a weapon. Finally, the state habeas court concluded that Nichols failed to show that Ishman's testimony would have been material in light of the record as a whole.FN5
So stripped to its essence both Johnson and Ishman stated that both Nichols and Williams were pointing pistols at Shaffer, and shortly thereafter multiple shots were fired by one or both robbers. Johnson testified that as she ran toward the back of the store she saw Shaffer go down; this was a detail that Ishman did not address. Both Johnson and Ishman heard one or more shots fired after they ran to the back of the deli. This is presumably the shot Williams fired after he came back into the store to grab the cash box. As far as the initial shots that were fired-which both Johnson and Ishman claimed to have witnessed-both thought that Nichols and Williams fired shots at Shaffer. Under these circumstances we conclude that had the State disclosed Ishman's identity and location so that she could have been called by Nichols as a witness, her testimony would not have contradicted Johnson's testimony in any material way insofar as establishing whether Nichols rather than Williams fired the fatal shot.
Because we are unpersuaded that the absence of Ishman's testimony undermines confidence in the reliability of the jury's guilt and punishment verdicts, we affirm the district court's conclusion that the state courts did not act contrary to or unreasonably apply Supreme Court precedents regarding Brady violations in finding Ishman's testimony immaterial. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the judgment denying habeas relief.
Following affirmance of his conviction for murder, 754 S.W.2d 185, and denial of habeas corpus in the state court, prisoner under sentence of death sought federal habeas corpus. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, David Hittner, J., 802 F.Supp. 66, granted writ in part and denied writ in part. Appeals were taken. The Court of Appeals, Garwood, Circuit Judge, held that: (1) instructions and specials issues at punishment phase did not preclude jury from adequately considering mitigating effect of defendant's claimed nontriggerman status; (2) defendant was not party to trial of codefendant and, thus, was not in jeopardy in codefendant's trial and result of codefendant's trial could not collaterally estop state in prosecution of defendant; (3) state habeas fact-findings were entitled to presumption of correctness; (4) prosecutor's allegedly improper arguments did not warrant habeas relief; and (5) trial defense counsel was not ineffective.
When Shaffer saw the guns he began to bend over or squat down. Nichols then said something to the effect of “don't go for the gun” or “don't be doing it.” Nichols then shot at Shaffer, and immediately thereafter Williams pulled the trigger on his gun, but it is unclear whether it then discharged.FN1 Shaffer then either fell or squatted down behind the counter. Nichols and Williams ran to the door. Nichols exited. Williams either exited or partially exited and then, according to his testimony at Nichols' trial, turned and fired once at Shaffer, who was still squatting behind the counter. Williams testified that Shaffer fell back, that he (Williams) went behind the counter to Shaffer, turned him over, grabbed the deli's cash box, and ran out of the deli, carrying his gun and the cash box.FN2 He was picked up by Parker and Harvey, got into the car with them, and they drove around the side of the deli building where they saw Nichols, who then got in the car with them. Harvey testified that Nichols told them “he had shot the man” and “he thought he shot him in the chest,” and that Williams said he had run back into the deli and shot the man. Parker testified that Nichols said “I think I hit him in the chest,” and that Williams said “he [Williams] shot the man in the shoulder.” FN3 A few days later, Williams, Nichols, Parker, and Harvey were arrested.
FN1. Nichols' statement (Nichols did not testify) says “we”-he and Williams-then shot at Shaffer. Nichols' and Williams' statements were given October 17, 1980, after their arrests earlier that day. Williams' statement mentions only Nichols shooting at this time. Williams' testimony at Nichols' trial is that Nichols drew his gun first, that Williams then drew his, each pointing them at Shaffer; that Nichols fired his gun; that Williams then pulled the trigger on his gun, but nothing happened and it did not discharge (Williams' testimony at his own trial does not mention his pulling the trigger on his gun at this time). Williams testified at Nichols' trial that Nichols fired only once and that “he [Nichols] was aiming at the man [Shaffer]” and “wasn't aiming it behind him or somewhere else or aiming it at the floor or anything” but “was aiming at that man.” However, Williams testified that he thought Nichols missed Shaffer because Shaffer, who was squatting, did not go down and Williams saw no blood.
James Rivera (Rivera), standing at a nearby bus stop, saw Nichols and Williams enter the deli, shortly thereafter heard two or three noises like “backfires,” turned, and then saw Nichols and Williams run out of the deli.
Nichols' statement says “We pulled our guns on the dude behind the cash register and told him to put the money in the sak [sic]. The man behind the counter started bending over behind the counter ... and then he came up with a pistol ... so we reacted and shot.” Williams' testimony at Nichols' trial was that after Nichols and he pulled their guns on Shaffer, Shaffer bent down and came up with a gun from under the counter, pointed it at Williams, whereupon Nichols fired; Shaffer, according to Williams' testimony, never fired (and there is no evidence that he did). At his own trial, Williams testified that “before he [Shaffer] got it [the gun] all the way up, Joe [Nichols] fired” and then Shaffer “went down” in “a squatting position.” Johnson testified that she was watching Shaffer, who was looking at her, after Nichols and Williams had pointed their guns at him and that Shaffer never touched a gun and did not reach for a gun; she admitted, however, that in an earlier sworn statement she had said that after “one of the men pulled a gun” Shaffer, who kept a gun under the counter, “reached for his gun and both of the black men shot Claude.” Other evidence showed that the gun, a .45 semi-automatic pistol, belonged to another deli employee, and was found just after the robbery in its accustomed place on a shelf under the counter, with a fully-loaded clip in the handle but no shell in the chamber; there were no fingerprints on it (Williams testified that when he went back in and got the cash box, he looked for Shaffer's gun but did not see it). No .45 caliber fired bullets or empty shell casings were found.
The testimony of the Harris County Medical Examiner, Dr. Espinola, established without contradiction that Shaffer died from a single gunshot wound that entered his “left upper back about seven and three fourths [inches] to the left of the midline and three and one half inches below the top of the shoulder” and exited-without hitting any bones or “hard objects” within the body-“on the right side of the chest, 18 and one half inches from the right of the midline and 11 inches below the top of the shoulder.” The wound would have caused “almost immediate disability” or “collapse.” Shaffer also had a superficial two and a quarter inch slanting laceration on the right side of his head, which was “consistent with a grazing type of gunshot wound” and “could also be consistent with a person that hit their head on the corner of an object or anything like that in a fall.” The head wound was not disabling. No bullet or bullet fragment was found in or on Shaffer's body. Two empty .380 cartridge cases-ejected from Williams' pistol-were found in the deli, as was also a whole .380 brass-jacketed projectile or bullet, which had been fired from Williams' weapon. A whole, unfired .380 brass-jacketed bullet and cartridge (with firing pin indentation on the cartridge rim) was found just outside the deli door. Lead bullet fragments were found on the inside of the deli door and near there on the floor along with brass jacket fragments. Also found in the deli-in a stack of comic books behind the counter-was a whole lead bullet that had been fired from a .38-caliber weapon. This was a revolver-type bullet that had never been jacketed.FN4
In January 1981, Williams pleaded guilty to a charge of capital murder of Shaffer,FN5 and, accordingly, the trial court directed the jury to return a verdict of guilty at the guilt/innocence phase of his trial. As evidence of his guilt, the state presented Williams' written confession, as well as the testimony of several witnesses including Dr. Espinola. Pursuant to the court's direction, the jury returned a verdict of guilty. At the subsequent punishment phase of Williams' trial, the defense presented Williams' testimony and the testimony of five witnesses concerning Williams' nonviolent character. The defense also called Nichols during the punishment phase, but Nichols asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege and declined to testify. The punishment charge included no instruction respecting the law of parties. The jury returned a verdict at the punishment phase of Williams' trial answering in the affirmative each of the three special issues then provided for by Tex.Code Crim.Proc. art. 37.071(b).FN6 Pursuant to art. 37.071(e), Williams was accordingly sentenced to death. His conviction and sentence were affirmed on appeal. Williams v. State, 674 S.W.2d 315 (Tex.Crim.App.1984).
Nichols was also indicted for the capital murder of Shaffer.FN7 In July 1981, Nichols was tried before a jury on his plea of not guilty. Williams testified as a defense witness at the guilt/innocence stage of this trial, and his testimony was generally consistent with his prior testimony and statement. FN8 The jury charge at the guilt/innocence stage included instructions on the Texas law of parties.FN9 Based in large part on Williams' testimony, the defense argued that the fatal shot was fired by Williams from the deli door when he came back in and got the cash box, and that Nichols was not guilty under the law of parties because the planned robbery was over and Williams was acting independently. The state argued that Williams' testimony that he shot Shaffer from the door when he came back in was not worthy of belief “because he's got to shoot through the cash register and all that junk to get here.” The state also argued that Nichols told Harvey that “he shot first, that he shot the man in the chest, in the chest area, the body, not in the head, not in the leg, not in the arm, but in the chest area, the body. That's what the defendant did.” However, the main thrust of the state's argument was that regardless of who fired the fatal shot, and regardless of whether Williams' testimony was credited, Nichols was guilty under the law of parties. The jury returned a verdict finding Nichols guilty of capital murder. The punishment stage of the trial then ensued, testimony was presented by the state and the defense, and the case was submitted to the jury on the three statutory special issues (see note 6, supra ). The punishment charge included no instruction on the law of parties. After considerable deliberation, the jury foreman announced that the jury had arrived at a verdict on two of the special issues, and tendered to the court a verdict form in which the first and third special issues were each answered “yes,” and the second special issue (future dangerousness) was not answered. The court ruled the verdict was incomplete, refused to accept it, and returned the jury for further deliberations. The jury eventually sent a note stating “the jury is still unable to reach a verdict on the remaining special issue.” Thereafter, defense counsel moved for a mistrial because the jury could not reach a verdict. The court explained to Nichols personally that if a mistrial were declared then the matter would be retried before another jury. After ascertaining that Nichols understood and that he personally requested and moved for a mistrial, the court, on July 31, 1981, called the jury back in, announced that a mistrial had been declared, and formally discharged the jury.
In February 1982, Nichols was tried before another jury on the same indictment. Generally the same evidence was presented as at his first trial in July 1981. The prosecutor was the same as in that first trial. In the guilt/innocence phase, Williams was called as a defense witness but claimed his Fifth Amendment privilege and refused to testify. The defense then put in evidence Williams' testimony as given at Nichols' first trial.FN10 At the close of the evidence on the guilt/innocence stage of the trial, the trial court extensively instructed the jury on the Texas law of parties (see note 9, supra ) such that the jury could, depending on what else it found, find Nichols guilty as charged either for personally having fired the fatal shot or for the fatal shot fired by Williams, if that was done pursuant to and in furtherance of their conspiracy to rob the deli and should have been anticipated by Nichols as a result of carrying out the conspiracy.FN11 The defense argued, as it had at Nichols' first trial, that Williams fired the fatal shot from the deli door as he exited and came back in, and that this was, in the words of the charge, “the separate act of Willie Ray Williams, acting independently,” for which Nichols would not be responsible. The state primarily argued that Nichols fired the fatal shot. But, it also argued extensively, in the alternative, that even if Williams had fired the fatal shot, Nichols was guilty of capital murder under the law of parties.FN12 The jury returned its verdict finding Nichols guilty of capital murder.
The court submitted the three punishment special issues to the jury (see note 6, supra ). No instruction was given respecting the law of parties. The defense argued, among other things, that the fatal shot was fired by Williams, and that any shooting was in reaction to Shaffer's having grabbed his gun. Emphasis was put on Nichols' youth, his family, his character witnesses, and his potential for rehabilitation. The state argued that Nichols fired the fatal shot, but did not argue any of the special issues solely on that theory. FN13 It stressed Nichols' prior offenses and conduct in jail. Neither side argued that the verdict of guilty established or meant that Nichols fired the fatal shot, or that any of the special issues were to be answered by reference to Williams', rather than Nichols', state of mind or conduct or the like. On February 26, 1982, the jury returned its verdict answering all three special issues in the affirmative, and the court sentenced Nichols to death.
FN13. For example, in respect to the first special issue, dealing with deliberateness, the prosecutor argued:
“Was his conduct deliberate. He doesn't have to fire the fatal shot. But was his conduct deliberate. You bet it was deliberate. It was even more than that. He planned that robbery. He picked that store. It was a premeditated robbery. He thought about the fact that he's going to need a gun when he went in there. You know that he meant to use it because it was loaded and you know he fired that gun into an innocent man.” (Emphasis added).
In May 1989, Nichols, now represented by new counsel, two attorneys of a leading Houston law firm, filed an 86-page application for habeas corpus in the Texas trial court. Amended applications were filed on June 9, 1989, January 8, 1990, and June 6, 1990, the latter being some 123 pages long. The state filed an answer and amended answer supported by affidavits. On October 19 and November 2, 1990, the Texas trial court conducted an evidentiary hearing on Nichols' claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and his statistical challenge to the Texas death penalty statute as unconstitutional in its application. The trial court on June 28, 1991, entered an order recommending denial of all relief and adopting verbatim the state's amended proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. On December 12, 1991, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied all relief in an order stating in relevant part: “The trial court, after holding an evidentiary hearing, has entered findings of fact and conclusions of law and recommended the relief sought be denied. This Court has reviewed the record with respect to the allegations now made by applicant and finds that the findings and conclusions entered by the trial court are supported by the record. The relief sought is denied.”
The district court held an evidentiary hearing in March 1992.FN15 On August 31, 1992, the district court granted habeas relief and ordered Nichols released or retried within 120 days.FN16 The district court based its decision to grant relief on its conclusions that (1) the major mitigating thrust of Nichols' claimed nontriggerman role in the offense was beyond the scope of any of the punishment special issues; (2) by arguing that Nichols fired the shot that killed Shaffer after obtaining a death sentence against Williams for killing Shaffer, the state violated principles of constitutional collateral estoppel; and (3) the foregoing two conclusions, taken in combination with certain aspects of the state habeas proceedings, resulted in denial of Nichols' due process rights. Nichols, 802 F.Supp. at 71-79. The district court determined, however, that the referenced aspects of the state habeas proceeding did not preclude the state habeas court's findings from being accorded the presumption of correctness called for by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), id. at 70, except the district court declined to accord that presumption to the finding that “ ‘[t]he jury was presented with overwhelming evidence that both applicant [Nichols] and Williams shot Shaffer,’ ” “because the record, as a whole, does not fairly support such factual determination” in that “the only conclusion which the record supports is that both Williams and Nichols shot at Shaffer but that either Williams or Nichols actually shot Shaffer.” Id. at 75 (original emphasis).FN17