Source: https://casetext.com/case/ellis-v-lynaugh-2
Timestamp: 2019-02-22 02:24:33
Document Index: 10877540

Matched Legal Cases: ['art. 37', '§ 2254', '§ 2254', '§ 2254', 'art. 19', '§ 2254']

Ellis v. Lynaugh, 873 F.2d 830 | Casetext
Ellis v. Lynaugh
873 F.2d 830 (5th Cir. 1989)
Ellisv.Lynaugh
…denied, 506 U.S. 957, 113 S.Ct. 417, 121 L.Ed.2d 340 (1992); Wilkerson v. Collins, 950 F.2d 1054, 1064 (5th…
In March 1983, a grand jury in Harris County returned an indictment charging Edward Ellis with the murder by asphyxiation of Bertie Elizabeth Eakins while he was in the course of committing burglary. A jury found Ellis guilty as charged and returned affirmative answers to the special punishment issues submitted pursuant to Tex. Code Crim.Proc. art. 37.071 (Vernon Supp. 1989). The trial court, as required by law, sentenced Ellis to death by lethal injection. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed. Ellis v. State, 726 S.W.2d 39 (Tex.Crim.App. 1986), cert. denied, 480 U.S. 926, 107 S.Ct. 1388, 94 L.Ed.2d 702 (1987). After the state courts denied his application for writ of habeas corpus, Ellis sought relief in federal court. In July 1988, the district court denied Ellis's petition for writ of habeas corpus but granted a certificate of probable cause.
Ellis contends that two prospective jurors, Holstead and Bradshaw, were excluded improperly from serving on the jury on the basis of their opposition to the death penalty in violation of Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed. 2d 776 (1968) and Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38, 100 S.Ct. 2521, 65 L.Ed.2d 581 (1980) and that Bradshaw's exclusion was not harmless error as found by the district court.
The Supreme Court reexamined the Witherspoon standard in Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38, 100 S.Ct. 2521, 65 L.Ed.2d 581 (1980). In deciding whether certain potential jurors had been excluded properly pursuant to the Texas statute at issue, the Court discussed its prior opinions, including Witherspoon, and concluded that
[t]his line of cases establishes the general proposition that a juror may not be challenged for cause based on his views about capital punishment unless those views would prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath. The State may insist, however, that jurors will consider and decide the facts impartially and conscientiously apply the law as charged by the court.
Recognizing that the already difficult task of distinguishing between prospective jurors whose opposition to capital punishment would impair their impartiality and those whose opposition could be set aside effectively had been made more difficult "by the fact that the standard applied in Adams differ[ed] markedly from the language of [ Witherspoon]," the Supreme Court undertook to clarify the issue in Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 421, 105 S.Ct. 844, 850, 83 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985). In so doing, the Court reaffirmed the above quoted standard from Adams as the proper standard for determining when a prospective juror may be excluded for cause because of his or her views on capital punishment. The Court noted that the Adams standard not only dispensed with Witherspoon's reference to "automatic" decisionmaking but also did not require that a juror's bias be proved with "unmistakable clarity." Id. at 424, 105 S.Ct. at 852.
Id. at 424-26, 105 S.Ct. 852-53 (footnote omitted). Thus, in a proceeding under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, the trial court's factual determination that a potential juror is disqualified is entitled to a presumption of correctness, absent one of the specifically enumerated exceptions contained in 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). Id. at 429, 105 S.Ct. at 855. With this in mind, we turn to those claims before us.
A. The way I feel about it — say, if he did take someone's life, taking his life is not going to bring him back. So that's the eye for an eye thing and I just —
Q. [Prosecutor] ... But if you are selected for a jury, if you are qualified for a jury, you have to take an oath to follow the law and once you have taken an oath it's not like a job that you can quit and say, "Hey, this is not what I bargained for. I will find me another job. Can't do it." You are stuck until the end of trial. You may end up doing something that does violence to your insides or your conscience or your soul or your morals or ethics or whatever and we don't want that to happen but the law will not require you to take that oath if you cannot live up to the oath. Do you see what I am saying — if it is going to do violence to you.
A. That's where —
A. Can I say yes? I could answer yes to both of them but I don't think, you know, he should get — they should get punished but, you know, death.
THE VENIREMAN: I would not take the oath. Either I don't understand or you don't understand. What I am saying if I had to take the oath for some reason and I was in that situation and I saw the facts and it was true I would say yes. But — I would try to avoid taking the oath because I just can't see sentencing someone to death if the situation arose.
THE COURT: What you are saying —
THE VENIREMAN: If that's what I have to do because —
THE COURT: But you don't have to. If your feelings are so strong — we are trying to find out how strong your feelings really are and we are not arguing about it.
We do not believe that the trial court's conduct in this case was improper. As we previously noted, the trial court explained to the venire members at the outset that those individuals who had a compelling conscientious objection to the law would not be forced to take an oath to follow that law. We believe this was a justifiable, accurate instruction. After Bradshaw told the prosecutor that he would always vote no to one of the special punishment issues to prevent the death penalty from being imposed, he told defense counsel that, if required to be on the jury, he would answer the special issues truthfully. Ellis suggests that Bradshaw's responses to defense counsel's questions somehow trump the answers given to the prosecutor and that, since those responses seemed to qualify him as a juror under Witt, no further questions should have been asked. We disagree. Given the conflict, the trial judge "ha[d] the right, within certain limitations, to pursue a line of questioning designed to flush out [Bradshaw's] true views." O'Bryan v. Estelle, 714 F.2d 365, 382 (5th Cir. 1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1013, 104 S.Ct. 1015, 79 L.Ed.2d 245 (1984).
Were we to conclude that the trial judge engaged in impermissible conduct, we would not be able to conclude, as did the district court, that such was harmless error. See Gray v. Mississippi, 481 U.S. 648, 107 S.Ct. 2045, 2055-57, 95 L.Ed.2d 622 (1987).
Bradshaw's responses to defense counsel's questions are best understood in the context in which they were given. Defense counsel had asked Bradshaw to assume that he had already taken the oath — to assume that he had sworn to return a verdict based on the law and evidence. Quite understandably, then, when defense counsel asked him what he would do if the evidence convinced him beyond a reasonable doubt that the punishment issues should be answered affirmatively, Bradshaw answered that he would answer truthfully. To do so undoubtedly would do violence to his conscience; not to do so, however, would subject him to the criminal consequences of violating his oath.
When the court began asking Bradshaw questions of its own in an effort to resolve the conflict in his answers, it became apparent that he was still operating under the same assumption imposed by defense counsel. Bradshaw told the court that, if he had to take the oath for some reason, he would answer the questions truthfully. The trial court, seeing Bradshaw's confusion, reminded him that no one would be forced to take the oath if to do so would do violence to that person's conscience and soul. It was against this backdrop that Bradshaw stated that he would refuse to take the oath. We see no error here. See Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 595-96, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 2960, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978). Contrary to Ellis's assertion that the trial court's remarks were designed to suggest an escape hatch for a troublesome venireman, we believe that the court's comments were intended to and did enable Bradshaw to give a clear statement of his position so that the trial court could better assess his qualifications. Because the trial court clearly could have been "left with the definite impression that [Bradshaw] would be unable to faithfully and impartially apply the law," Witt, 469 U.S. at 426, 105 S.Ct. at 853, we hold that the state's challenge for cause was granted properly.
Because we have determined that the trial court did not engage in improper questioning of Bradshaw, we do not address Ellis's claim that the trial court's findings are entitled to no presumption of correctness under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).
In the recent case of Harris v. Reed, ___ U.S. ___, 109 S.Ct. 1038, 103 L.Ed.2d 308 (1989), the Supreme Court made clear that the "plain statement rule" of Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201 (1983), applies to cases on federal habeas review. Under Long, review of an issue of federal law is barred if the state court's opinion contains a "plain statement" that its decision rests upon adequate and independent state grounds. 463 U.S. at 1041, 103 S.Ct. at 3476. If a state court's reasons for rejecting a claim are ambiguous, however, federal review is not precluded. Id., 103 S.Ct. at 3476-77. In Harris, the Supreme Court recognized that the problem of ambiguous state court references to state law is common to both direct and habeas review. It therefore adopted "a common solution" to this problem: "a procedural default does not bar consideration of a federal claim on either direct or habeas review unless the last state court rendering a judgment in the case `clearly and expressly' states that its judgment rests on a state procedural bar." Harris, ___ U.S. at ___-___, 109 S.Ct. at 1043 (quoting Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320, 327, 105 S.Ct. 2633, 2638, 86 L.Ed.2d 231 (1985)). The Court noted that, as before, when a state court addresses the merits of a claim as an alternative basis for denying relief, a federal court is bound by the state court's reliance on the procedural bar. Harris, ___ U.S. at ___ n. 10, 109 S.Ct. at 1044 n. 10.
In the state habeas corpus proceeding, the trial court held that Ellis had not preserved properly his claims for review. The court based its holding on the fact that Ellis had failed to raise the sufficiency of the evidence argument on direct appeal as required by Ex parte McWilliams, 634 S.W.2d 815, 818 (Tex.Crim.App. 1980), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1036, 103 S.Ct. 447, 74 L.Ed.2d 602 (1982), and that he had failed to object to the composition of the grand jury at the earliest time possible as required by state law. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc.Ann. art. 19.27 (Vernon 1977); Muniz v. State, 672 S.W.2d 804, 807 (Tex.Crim.App. 1984). The trial court then found, in the alternative, that each of Ellis's contentions failed on its merits. The Court of Criminal Appeals denied relief without written order.
The indictment alleged that Ellis "caused the death of Bertie Elizabeth Eakins by asphyxiating the complainant in a manner and means unknown to the Grand Jury." Given this allegation the state was required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the grand jury, after efforts to do so, was unable to find out the manner and means by which the victim was asphyxiated. See Brown v. State, 704 S.W.2d 506, 508 (Tex.App.-Dallas 1986, pet. ref'd) (citing Clark v. State, 151 Tex.Crim. 383, 208 S.W.2d 637, 638 (App. 1948)). Ellis contends that the state's evidence was insufficient in this regard. If this raises a federal due process question, it lacks merit because the state proved by convincing evidence that the grand jury was indeed unable to discover the manner and means by which the asphyxiation occurred.
Ellis contends that Harris County systematically excludes Hispanics from serving as grand jurors and as grand jury foremen and that this violated his constitutional rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. In order to secure federal habeas relief on this ground, the petitioner must show (1) that he is a member of a race or identifiable group singled out for different treatment under the state laws, as written or applied, (2) the degree of underrepresentation of his group by comparing the proportion of the group in the total population to the proportion called to serve as grand jurors over a significant period of time, and (3) that the selection procedures employed are susceptible to abuse or are not racially neutral. Castaneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 494, 97 S.Ct. 1272, 1280, 51 L.Ed.2d 498 (1977). The state concedes that Hispanics constitute a recognizable class singled out for different treatment under the law and that the Texas "key man" method of selecting grand jurors is recognized as susceptible to abuse as applied. It argues, however, that Ellis failed to present competent evidence that showed that Hispanics have not been represented on Harris County grand juries over a significant period time in proportion to their numbers in the general population. We agree. The "evidence" Ellis presented in support of his claim was conclusory at best. This court has held that mere conclusory allegations of discrimination are insufficient to entitle an individual to relief. Enriquez v. Procunier, 752 F.2d 111, 115 (5th Cir. 1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1126, 105 S.Ct. 2658, 86 L.Ed.2d 274 (1985).
Because Ellis uses the same arguments and authorities to support each of his claims, we discuss these issues together.
Ellis's own figures on composition of the grand jury do not entitle him to relief. Ellis contends that Hispanics comprised only 13.7% of those summoned for grand jury duty from February 1978 to November 1982. The state census bureau's figures, offered by the state in response to Ellis's habeas corpus application. show that in 1980 Hispanics comprised 15.3% of the Harris County population. This disparity (1.6%) is insufficient to support an inference of intentional discrimination.
Ellis asserts that the trial court erred in failing to define the term "deliberately" in its instructions to the jury. This argument is meritless. Both this court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals have held that the word "deliberately" in its common meaning is sufficiently clear to allow the jury to decide the special issues on punishment. Thompson v. Lynaugh, 821 F.2d 1054, 1060 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 483 U.S. 1035, 108 S.Ct. 5, 97 L.Ed.2d 794 (1987); King v. State, 553 S.W.2d 105, 107 (Tex.Crim.App. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1088, 98 S.Ct. 1284, 55 L.Ed.2d 793 (1978).
Ellis next alleges that his attorneys rendered ineffective assistance both at trial and on appeal. To prevail on such a claim, a defendant must show that counsel's performance was deficient — or unreasonable in light of prevailing professional norms — and that the deficiency prejudiced the defense. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687-88, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2064, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). We are extremely deferential in our scrutiny of counsel's performance and make every effort to eliminate "the distorting effects of hindsight." Id. at 689, 104 S.Ct. at 2065. We measure appellate counsel's effectiveness by this same standard. Wicker v. McCotter, 783 F.2d 487, 497 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 478 U.S. 1010, 106 S.Ct. 3310, 92 L.Ed.2d 723 (1986).
Ellis maintains that he received ineffective assistance at trial due to counsel's failure (1) to investigate the case adequately, (2) to present the defense of insanity, (3) to ascertain the names and addresses of witnesses against Ellis and to interview the same, (4) to object to the racial composition of the petit and grand juries, (5) to request a jury instruction on lesser included offenses, and (6) to request a jury instruction on the term "deliberately." In his state court petition for habeas relief, Ellis alleged these same deficiencies on the part of his attorneys. The trial court ordered defense counsel to submit affidavits in response to the claims and, based on those affidavits, the trial court made numerous findings of fact concerning the attorneys' performance. According to 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), we presume the state court's findings to be correct.
Finally, Ellis contends that the district court erred in failing to hold an evidentiary hearing to explore his claims that he received ineffective assistance of counsel and that Harris County systematically excluded Hispanics from grand juries. To receive a federal evidentiary hearing, the burden is on the habeas corpus petitioner to allege facts which, if proved, would entitle him to relief. Wilson v. Butler, 825 F.2d 879, 880 (5th Cir. 1987), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 108 S.Ct. 1059, 98 L.Ed.2d 1021 (1988). The court need not "`blindly accept speculative and inconcrete claims' as the basis upon which to order a hearing." Lavernia v. Lynaugh, 845 F.2d 493, 501 (5th Cir. 1988) (quoting Baldwin v. Blackburn, 653 F.2d 942, 947 (5th Cir. 1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 950, 102 S.Ct. 2021, 72 L.Ed.2d 475 (1982)). Nor is a hearing required when the record is complete or the petitioner raised only legal claims that can be resolved without the taking of additional evidence. Id.
[49] JOHNSON, Circuit Judge, dissenting:
The majority today concludes that the trial court properly excused venireman Bradshaw for cause. This conclusion, in this writer's mind, is erroneously based on the assumption that the trial court "clearly could have been `left with the definite impression that [Bradshaw] would be unable to faithfully and impartially apply the law.'" Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 426, 105 S.Ct. 844, 853, 83 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985). The above rule of law which was first enunciated by the Supreme Court in Witt does not disturb the essence of the earlier holdings of the Supreme Court in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968), and Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38, 100 S.Ct. 2521, 65 L.Ed.2d 581 (1980) to the effect that a juror shall not be challenged for cause unless his "views [on capital punishment] would prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath." Witt, 469 U.S. at 420, 105 S.Ct. at 850 (quoting Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38 at 45, 100 S.Ct. at 2526). Against the backdrop of the above standards, the record in this case compels the conclusion that venireman Bradshaw, had he been sworn to take the oath as a juror, would have performed his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath. I therefore respectfully dissent from the conclusion of the majority that venireman Bradshaw was properly excused for cause.
On the basis of the above testimony of Bradshaw, I am unable to join in the conclusion of the majority that Bradshaw could have given the trial court the " definite impression that he would be unable to faithfully and impartially apply the law." Witt, 469 U.S. at 426, 105 S.Ct. at 853. (emphasis supplied). To the contrary, Bradshaw's responses concerning his ability to faithfully and impartially apply the law if selected and sworn as a juror, indicate a remarkable objectivity, honesty and respect for the law particularly when viewed in the light of his admitted reservations regarding capital punishment.
In sum, the guarantees afforded a capital defendant by the sixth amendment must not be eroded in the guise of what is characterized as a line of questioning designed to "flush out [a potential juror's] true views." The recognition by the Supreme Court that the "voir dire practice of `death qualification' — the exclusion for cause, in capital cases, of jurors opposed to capital punishment — can dangerously erode this `inestimate safeguard [against the overzealous prosecutor and the biased judge]' by creating unrepresentative juries `uncommonly willing to condemn a man to die'," Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 439, 105 S.Ct. 844, 860 (Brennan, J., dissenting), is as vital today as it was during Witherspoon's trial. Witherspoon, 391 U.S. 510, 521, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 1776. So long as a potential juror expresses a willingness to abide by the law regardless of his personal views on capital punishment, that juror should not be challenged for cause. Indeed, in the instant case, juror Bradshaw evinced not only a willingness, had he been sworn as a juror, to adhere to the law, but a categorical and resolute determination to do so. It is for this reason that I must respectfully dissent.