Opinion ID: 2317416
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: DeRosa's federal habeas proceedings

Text: DeRosa initiated these federal habeas proceedings on May 13, 2005, by filing motions for appointment of counsel and to proceed in forma pauperis. The district court granted those motions and appointed counsel to represent DeRosa. On December 23, 2005, DeRosa's appointed counsel filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The petition asserted twelve grounds for relief: (1) that trial counsel's failure to investigate fully and to present readily available evidence in mitigation denied DeRosa effective assistance of counsel and a fair sentence procedure; (2) the denial of DeRosa's change of venue motion deprived DeRosa of a fair trial; (3) DeRosa's right to a fair jury was violated when the trial court excused improperly a prospective juror who was able to consider all sentencing options; (4) the improper actions of the prosecutor denied DeRosa a fair trial and reliable sentencing; (5) the irrelevant and inadmissible comments of witness Janet Tolbert denied DeRosa a fair trial and sentencing determination; (6) admission of the victim-impact evidence denied DeRosa a fair trial; (7) DeRosa was deprived of a fair sentencing determination due to the trial court's failure to instruct the jury that it had to find beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstances found to exist outweighed the mitigating circumstances, and DeRosa's appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to present this claim on direct appeal; (8) the murder-to-avoid-arrest aggravating circumstance was not established by sufficient evidence and was unconstitutional as applied to DeRosa; (9) the heinous, atrocious, or cruel aggravating circumstance was not properly defined; (10) the jury was not told that DeRosa had a constitutional right not to testify; (11) the cumulative effect of numerous errors denied DeRosa a fair trial under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments; and (12) the lethal injection protocols proposed to be used by the State of Oklahoma violate the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. On September 27, 2010, the district court issued an opinion and order denying DeRosa's petition. Judgment was entered in the case that same day. DeRosa filed a timely notice of appeal and a motion for COA. On November 1, 2010, the district court granted DeRosa a COA with respect to his ineffective assistance of trial counsel claim, but denied DeRosa's motion with respect to all of the other issues asserted in the petition. We subsequently granted DeRosa a COA with respect to two additional issues: (1) whether the cumulative effect of the improper comments of the prosecuting attorney made during both phases of trial was harmless; and (2) whether allowing the jury to hear the responses of two victim-impact witnesses who testified during the penalty phase of trial was harmless constitutional error.