Opinion ID: 792089
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Mitigation Hearing

Text: 49 Clark's argument that his counsel was ineffective at the sentencing phase of his trial also fails. Clark argues that his counsel was ineffective for failing to introduce expert evidence about Clark's organic brain syndrome, drug addiction and withdrawal, and troubled childhood. In support of this argument, Clark offers the reports and affidavits from Dr. Gelbort and Dr. Kandiko, as well as affidavits from various family members. The family-member affidavits describe Clark's father as an alcoholic womanizer, provide more unseemly details about Clark's father's death, note that Clark had discipline problems after his father's death, and state that Clark frequently got into trouble and spent time in jail. The state court determined that Clark's counsel was not ineffective for failing to call these additional witnesses because it found that the newly offered evidence was merely cumulative to that which had been presented at the mitigation hearing. The district court properly concluded that the state court's decision was not unreasonable or contrary to Supreme Court precedent. 50 A counsel's failure to make a reasonable investigation of a defendant's psychiatric history and family background, and to present mitigating evidence to the jury at sentencing, can constitute ineffective assistance. Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 522-23, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003). In assessing whether a defendant's counsel was ineffective at the mitigation hearing for failing to introduce certain evidence, the focus must be on whether the investigation supporting counsel's decision not to introduce mitigating evidence of the defendant's background was itself reasonable. Id. at 523, 123 S.Ct. 2527. In assessing the reasonableness of an attorney's investigation, the quantum of evidence known to counsel must be considered, as well as whether that evidence should have led a reasonable attorney to investigate further. Id. at 527, 123 S.Ct. 2527. 51 The state trial court determined that Clark's counsel was not deficient for failing to introduce evidence at the mitigation hearing from a neuropsychologist, a pharmacologist, and from various other witnesses. With regard to the lack of testimony from a neuropsychologist, the trial court found that [a]t most, the additional expert testimony would have bolstered evidence that was already before the trial court concerning defendant's lack of mental acumen and drug addiction. With regard to counsel's failure to interview additional friends, relatives, and professional people in regard to Clark's history, the trial court found the evidence was more of the same type of evidence that had already been considered. 52 On appeal, the Ohio appellate court agreed that Clark's counsel was not ineffective at the mitigation hearing for failing to call a neuropsychologist, a pharmacologist, and various family members. Clark, 1998 WL 484119, at  8, -. The court first found that Clark failed to establish that counsel was deficient in not presenting . . . evidence [from a neuropsychologist and pharmacologist]. Id. at . The appellate court then noted that Clark offered in mitigation . . . testimony regarding his mental state, drug addiction, and family history. Id. at . The appellate court therefore found [u]pon a review of the affidavits [from Dr. Gelbort, Dr. Kandiko, and Clark's various family members,] . . . that none of the proposed witnesses would add any information to that which had been presented to the jury. Id. at  10. Thus, the court held that even assuming that counsel should have attempted to obtain this additional evidence, because it was merely cumulative, appellant failed to demonstrate any resultant prejudice. Id. at  10. 53 The state court's holding that Clark's counsel was not deficient for failing to call a neuropsychologist, a pharmacologist, and more members of Clark's family to testify about his background was not unreasonable or contrary to Supreme Court precedent. It is clear that the defense did investigate and present evidence regarding Clark's mental health, drug abuse, and family background at the mitigation hearing. Although Clark asserts that counsel should have employed a pharmacological expert, the psychological expert that counsel did employ, Dr. Kisin, addressed Clark's drug addiction and its effect on his criminal conduct. As to the necessity of employing a neuropsychologist, it was not unreasonable for the state court to determine that Clark's counsel was not deficient for failing to recognize the need for such an expert, since Dr. Gelbort's own report admitted that Clark's deficits generally would not be recognizable to a lay person, or even to a psychologist. 3 Moreover, it does not appear that either the psychologist or psychiatrist retained by the defense to evaluate Clark suggested that Clark suffered from organic brain damage or that Clark required any additional mental health testing. 4 It was not unreasonable for Clark's counsel, untrained in the field of mental health, to rely on the opinions of these professionals. 5 This conclusion is supported by this court's decision in Campbell, 260 F.3d at 555-56. In Campbell, a defendant seeking habeas relief alleged that his counsel was ineffective for failing to suspect that he may have suffered from [post-traumatic stress disorder] based on the facts and circumstances of his case. Id. at 555. This court rejected the defendant's argument, relying heavily on the fact that counsel had the defendant examined by a trained psychologist who failed to detect evidence of the defendant's possible mental disorder. Id. at 555-56. The court noted that there was no evidence that [the trained psychologist] was incompetent, or that [counsel] had any reason to question [the expert's] professional qualifications. Id. at 555. Thus, the court found that it was objectively reasonable for . . . counsel to rely upon [the trained psychologist's] diagnosis and . . . trial counsel's failure to independently diagnose PTDS was not unreasonable. Id. 54 The Fourth Circuit reached a similar conclusion in Pruett, 996 F.2d 1560. In Pruett, a petitioner alleged that he was entitled to post-conviction relief because his attorney was ineffective for failing to investigate or present mitigating evidence of mental illness, developmental problems, organic brain damage, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Id. at 1573. In rejecting the petitioner's argument, the Fourth Circuit noted that counsel had in fact consulted with a psychiatrist, who concluded that Pruett did not suffer from any of the alleged mental illnesses or abnormalities. Id. at 1573-74. The court stated that, under such circumstances, counsel was not ineffective for failing to discover the mental defect. Id. at 1574. The court went on to explain that [a]n attorney is not required to be so expert in psychiatry. Id. See also Easley v. Dretke, 122 Fed.Appx.124, 127-30 (5th Cir.2005) (holding that counsel was not ineffective for failing to discover and present evidence that the defendant suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder because counsel had investigated the defendant's history and had no reason to suspect the existence of PTSD). In this case, Clark was examined by a psychiatrist and a psychologist. Neither expert concluded that Clark suffered from organic brain damage, nor did either suggest that Clark needed further neurological testing. Under such circumstances, Clark's counsel was not ineffective for failing independently to discover the need for additional neurological testing. 55 Finally, as to the additional evidence concerning Clark's family history, it is clear that evidence of Clark's background was introduced by Dr. Kisin and by Clark's mother. Our cases reject a requirement that any later-identified cumulative mitigating evidence must have been introduced in order for counsel to be effective. As this court recently explained, to establish prejudice, the new evidence that a habeas petitioner presents must differ in a substantial way—in strength and subject matter—from the evidence actually presented at sentencing. Hill v. Mitchell, 400 F.3d 308, 319 (6th Cir.2005). This court also held in Smith v. Mitchell, 348 F.3d 177, 200-02 (6th Cir.2003), that a petitioner was not prejudiced by his counsel's failure to introduce additional mitigating evidence at sentencing where new evidence sought to be introduced was merely cumulative to that which had already been presented at mitigation. 6 56 The state court's determination that Clark did not suffer any prejudice as a result of his counsel's allegedly deficient performance was also a reasonable application of federal law and provides an independent basis for affirmance. While the opinions of Dr. Gelbort and Dr. Kandiko, as well as the affidavits from Clark's family, provide further mitigating details about Clark, they do not significantly expand upon the information that was available to the jury. Dr. Kisin and Clark's mother testified about the death of Clark's father and the effect it had on Clark's childhood. Dr. Kisin also addressed Clark's drug addiction and its effect on Clark's criminal activity, although not to the extent set forth in Dr. Kandiko's affidavit. Also, while Dr. Kisin did not diagnose Clark as suffering from an organic brain syndrome, Dr. Kisin did testify about Clark's borderline intelligence level and his dull affect. He also testified at length about Clark's drug use and its effects. The fact that Dr. Kisin's precise characterization of Clark's mental health deficiencies was presented in one sentence — that Clark at best, operates on a dull normal level of intelligence and at worst in a borderline retarded way — does not diminish the overall impact of the psychologist's mitigation testimony, the direct portion of which covered approximately twenty pages of transcript. Dr. Kisin's testimony virtually coincides with Dr. Gelbort's conclusion that Clark has undergone neuropsychological evaluation and demonstrates low average intellect. While Dr. Gelbort's affidavit also states that Clark suffers from a cognitive dysfunction that causes him to have difficulty with cognitively complex tasks, it is reasonable to conclude that an individual functioning at a dull normal or borderline retarded level would also have difficulty comprehending complex tasks. Thus, while Dr. Kisin did not specifically state the cause of Clark's mental deficiencies, Dr. Kisin's testimony that Clark operated at a dull normal or borderline retarded level described the effects of Clark's mental deficiencies. Under such circumstances, we cannot say that the state court's decision that such evidence would have been merely cumulative is objectively unreasonable. See Williams, 529 U.S. at 413, 120 S.Ct. 1495. 57 In cases such as Hill, 400 F.3d 308 (6th Cir.2005), and Smith v. Mitchell, 348 F.3d 177 (6th Cir.2003), this court has reached similar conclusions. In Hill, this court held that a defendant was not prejudiced by his counsel's retention of a psychologist, Dr. Friedman, one day before the mitigation hearing because the mitigation theory that the psychologist did present . . . did not differ in material ways from the new evidence that the defendant sought to introduce. 400 F.3d at 311. Dr. Friedman testified at Hill's mitigation hearing that Hill was addicted to cocaine, that intoxication affected Hill's actions at the time of the murder, and that many crack addicts who consume large amounts of cocaine may enter a mental state called cocaine psychosis in which they become irrational, violent, and aggressive. Id. at 312. In his petition for post-conviction relief, Hill presented the affidavits of Dr. Julia Hawgood, a psychiatrist, and Dr. Gary Sales, a psychologist, to demonstrate how a properly prepared expert could have (and should have) testified. Id. at 316. This court, however, determined that Hill could not establish prejudice because the affidavits of Dr. Sales and Dr. Hawgood were not materially different from the testimony introduced by Dr. Friedman. Id. at 317-18. The court reached this conclusion despite the fact that Dr. Friedman's testimony was more abbreviated than Dr. Sales' and that Dr. Hawgood's affidavit provided more information than what had been presented by Dr. Friedman. Id. at 317. 58 This case is similar in many ways to Smith v. Mitchell, 348 F.3d 177 (6th Cir.2003), in which we rejected a claim similar to Clark's. In Smith a clinical psychologist, Dr. Schmidtgoessling, had testified at mitigation regarding Smith's developmental history, his extensive history of substance abuse, and his low average to borderline range of intellectual functioning. Id. at 192. In support of his application for post-conviction relief, Smith offered the affidavits of three mental health experts as evidence of Smith's disadvantaged childhood, of his borderline retarded range I.Q., and that he suffered from a diffuse organic brain impairment that was present at the time of the crime. Id. at 196-98. Unsuccessful in state post-conviction proceedings and in the federal district court on habeas, Smith appealed to this court. This court rejected a claim that Smith's counsel had been ineffective for failing to produce additional mitigating evidence. We rejected Smith's claim because not presenting the additional evidence was neither ineffective nor prejudicial under Strickland — all of this evidence had been presented at mitigation. Id. at 200. We explained that the only allegedly new mitigating evidence that Smith presents is that he suffers from organic brain damage. Id. at 201. The post-trial evidence, however, boiled down to testimony that Smith had  mild diffuse cerebral dysfunction. Id. at 202. Similarly, in the case at bar the evidence from Dr. Gelbort was limited to a brief statement that Clark exhibits an Organic Brain Syndrome (OBS) at the time of testing  (emphasis added), accompanied by the opinion that the condition likely was congenital and exacerbated by events occurring after the crime. While the Gelbort report focuses primarily on Clark's deteriorated mental health at the time of the confession and at the time of trial, the report does state conclusorily at two points that the patient's behavior has . . . been affected by the Organic Brain Syndrome/cognitive dysfunction and the data show that there were significant cognitive deficits which would have been caused by other etiologies [than hypoxia] and which would have been present at the time of the criminal act. As in Smith, that evidence is not compelling. . . because it is not conclusive. 348 F.3d at 201-02. Also as in Smith, the evidence is not sufficient to support the related argument that the evidence showed that Clark's trial counsel should have obtained a neurological examination. The Gelbort report, after all, stated specifically that even a psychologist not trained in neuropsychology . . . could and likely would overlook the deficits. The Smith case thus lends further support to our conclusion that the reasoning of the Ohio Court of Appeals did not unreasonably apply Supreme Court precedent in rejecting Clark's ineffective assistance of counsel claim. 59 The Supreme Court's recent decision in Rompilla v. Beard, ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 2456, 162 L.Ed.2d 360 (2005), does not require a different result. In Rompilla, the Supreme Court granted the petitioner's motion for habeas relief after finding the petitioner's counsel ineffective for failing to find mitigating evidence. In particular, the Supreme Court held that even when a capital defendant's family members and the defendant himself have suggested that no mitigating evidence is available, his lawyer is bound to make reasonable efforts to obtain and review material that counsel knows the prosecution will probably rely on as evidence of aggravation at the sentencing phase of trial. Id. at 2460. The holding of Rompilla, however, simply does not apply to the present case. In Rompilla, the Court found Rompilla's counsel ineffective for failing to review a file containing information about Rompilla's past convictions, which the defense knew the prosecutor intended to rely upon at trial. The Supreme Court found one point to be clear and dispositive: the lawyers were deficient in failing to examine the court file on Rompilla's prior conviction. Id. at 2463. Numerous times throughout the Rompilla opinion, the Court noted that its holding is based on the notion that defense counsel must obtain [available] information that the State has and will use against the defendant. Id. at 2465. In this case, there was nothing so obvious as the prosecutor's intended use of the file at issue in Rompilla to put Clark's defense counsel on notice that there was additional mitigating evidence to be reviewed or discovered. 60 Furthermore, the presence of prejudice from the lawyer's failure to review the file in Rompilla was so overwhelming that the state did not even contest prejudice. Id. at 2468-69. The evidence of Clark's organic brain disorder is not even close in scope or nature to what new mitigating evidence counsel in Rompilla would have discovered had they explored leads found in the file containing information about Rompilla's prior convictions. In Rompilla, defense counsel failed to discover not only evidence that Rompilla suffered from an organic brain disorder, but also evidence that Rompilla was the child of severe alcoholics, that Rompilla had frequently witnessed his father beating his mother, that on one occasion Rompilla's mother stabbed his father, that Rompilla was beaten when he was young, that Rompilla's father locked him in a small wire mesh dog pen filled with excrement, that Rompilla was raised in a house with no heat or plumbing, and that Rompilla attended school in rags. While Clark also suffered from a disadvantaged childhood, evidence of Clark's traumatic childhood was introduced at the mitigation stage of his hearing, unlike in Rompilla. The failure of Rompilla's counsel to discover an abundance of additional mitigating evidence relating to Rompilla's childhood, in addition to Rompilla's organic brain disorder, makes Rompilla clearly distinguishable from the present case. 61 Finally, our court's recent decision in Harries v. Bell, 417 F.3d 631 (6th Cir.2005), is also distinguishable. In Harries we affirmed the grant of habeas corpus on the basis of ineffective assistance of counsel at the mitigation stage, where 62 Counsel limited their investigation to contacting by telephone Harries's mother and brother, sending requests for information to some of the institutions in which Harries had been confined, and interviewing Harries, Harries's co-defendant, and two state witnesses. Although counsel requested two court-ordered competency evaluations, they declined to seek the assistance of a mental health expert or conduct a thorough investigation of Harries's mental health, even after Harries's mother alerted them that Harries suffered from mental illness. Nor did counsel adequately investigate Harries's family background, despite indications of Harries's troubled childhood. 63 Id. 417 F.3d at 638. This contrasts starkly with the efforts of Clark's counsel, who elicited testimony of a mental health expert, including extensive testimony regarding Clark's troubled childhood. In Harries the showing of prejudice was also far stronger than in Clark's case. Evidence that Harries's counsel did not put before the jury included not only damage to the frontal lobe of Harries's brain resulting from childhood blows, but also extensive evidence of his traumatic childhood, including the significant physical abuse Harries suffered at the hands of his mother, stepfather, and grandmother, and exposure to remarkable family violence. Id. 417 F.3d at 638-39. The scope and depth of the never-presented mitigation evidence in Harries was extraordinary; in Clark's case it was minimal.