Opinion ID: 1784402
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Davis's Background and Upbringing

Text: Davis contends that his trial counsel was ineffective at his penalty phase because his trial counsel only began preparing for the penalty phase after the jury found Davis guilty, trial counsel's billing records indicated that he spent less than eleven hours preparing for the penalty phase, the only investigation conducted by trial counsel was an interview of Davis and Davis's mother the day before the penalty phase, and trial counsel admitted that he never contemplated calling anyone other than Davis's mother to testify at the penalty phase. As to the timing and amount of trial counsel's preparation for Davis's penalty phase, we have held that the finding as to whether counsel was adequately prepared does not revolve solely around the amount of time counsel spends on the case or the number of days which he or she spends preparing for mitigation. Instead, this must be a case-by-case analysis. State v. Lewis, 838 So.2d 1102, 1113 n. 9 (Fla.2002). Accordingly, a comparison of the evidence presented at the penalty phase with the evidence presented at Davis's postconviction evidentiary hearing is essential in assessing counsel's performance. At the penalty phase, trial counsel only presented the testimony of Davis. Trial counsel testified at the evidentiary hearing that it was his strategy to present Davis's mother to testify with regard to the circumstances surrounding his upbringing. However, Davis's mother never testified due to Davis's last-minute decision that she not be called as a witness to avoid forcing her through the trauma of trial testimony. [4] Faced with this last-minute decision, trial counsel suggested an alternative approach, with the full agreement of Davis, whereby he would take the stand at the penalty phase in lieu of his mother. During Davis's testimony, trial counsel elicited only a very general description of his family background and upbringing. Davis also testified that he wished to hell [the crime] had never happened and that he had made the conscious decision not to call his mother to testify at the penalty phase to spare her the pain of that experience. Trial counsel used this testimony to Davis's advantage by arguing to the jury in closing that Davis had the guts and decency not to put [his mother] up there in the box and that his decision not to call his mother was a profound gesture on his part and one worthy of consideration. When trial counsel was asked at the evidentiary hearing why a more complete history had not been elicited from Davis during his testimony he responded that Davis told him he did not want mitigating evidence presented and said, I want the electric chair. I want to stay alive ten or eleven years on death row. That's good enough for me. Faced with these statements from Davis and Davis's decision not to have his mother testify at the penalty phase, trial counsel reasonably determined that his best alternative was to have Davis testify in an effort to place before the jury Davis's decision to spare his mother the trauma of being forced to testify. Given the last-minute circumstances and the predicament that trial counsel faced as a result of Davis's decision and instruction that his mother not testify, we conclude that trial counsel's actions were not unreasonable, and that counsel was not deficient for selecting an alternative and making the best strategic decision available under a most difficult situation that had been created by Davis himself. Davis also alleges that trial counsel's inadequate investigation resulted in his failure to discover a wealth of available mitigating evidence and that the mitigation of which trial counsel was aware was never presented at the penalty phase. Davis now alleges that by interviewing his family members and friends, trial counsel would have learned that each person had different details to convey that would have provided mitigating information. Specifically, Davis asserts that evidence of his tragic upbringing and substance abuse should have been presented. Pursuant to Strickland, trial counsel has an obligation to conduct a reasonable investigation into mitigation. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 691, 104 S.Ct. 2052. When evaluating claims that counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate or present mitigating evidence, this Court has phrased the defendant's burden as showing that counsel's ineffectiveness deprived the defendant of a reliable penalty phase proceeding. Asay v. State, 769 So.2d 974, 985 (Fla.2000) (quoting Rutherford v. State, 727 So.2d 216, 223 (Fla.1998)). Moreover, as the United States Supreme Court recently stated in Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003): [C]ounsel has a duty to make reasonable investigations or to make a reasonable decision that makes particular investigations unnecessary.... [A] particular decision not to investigate must be directly assessed for reasonableness in all the circumstances, applying a heavy measure of deference to counsel's judgments. . . . . . . . [O]ur principal concern in deciding whether [counsel] exercised reasonable professional judgmen[t] is not whether counsel should have presented a mitigation case. Rather, we focus on whether the investigation supporting counsel's decision not to introduce mitigating evidence . . . was itself reasonable. In assessing counsel's investigation, we must conduct an objective review of their performance, measured for reasonableness under prevailing professional norms, which includes a context-dependent consideration of the challenged conduct as seen from counsel's perspective at the time. Id. at 521-23, 123 S.Ct. 2527 (citations omitted) (fifth alteration in original) (first emphasis supplied) (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688-89, 691, 104 S.Ct. 2052). Davis's trial counsel testified at the evidentiary hearing that he was aware of Davis's difficult upbringing and the circumstances surrounding his family life and that it was his strategy at the penalty phase to call Davis's mother to testify regarding those facts. We find it significant that Davis's trial counsel had the full benefit of information obtained by the public defender's office, which included matters pertaining to Davis's background and upbringing. Specifically, trial counsel testified at the evidentiary hearing that the file he received from the public defender's office in Davis's case already contained records regarding his medical history, educational background, and other general background information surrounding his life. Moreover, trial counsel testified that he interviewed Davis and Davis's mother to gain an understanding of his life. Based on the information in the public defender's file that was reviewed and considered by trial counsel coupled with the additional information garnered by trial counsel through interviews of Davis's mother and Davis, we conclude that the investigation into Davis's background for mitigating evidence that was conducted here was neither inadequate nor unreasonable. The United States Supreme Court's decision in Rompilla v. Beard, 545 U.S. 374, 125 S.Ct. 2456, 162 L.Ed.2d 360 (2005), its most recent discussion of this issue, does not require a different conclusion. In Rompilla, the High Court concluded that defense counsel's conduct in preparation for the sentencing phase fell below the level of reasonable performance that is required by Wiggins and Strickland where defense counsel failed to review the court file on Rompilla's prior conviction. See id. at 2463-64. The Court stressed that it was not creating a per se rule requiring defense counsel to do a complete review of the file on any prior conviction. Id. at 2467. Rather, the Court noted that the facts before it demonstrated that [c]ounsel knew that the Commonwealth intended to seek the death penalty by proving Rompilla had a significant history of felony convictions indicating the use or threat of violence, an aggravator under state law. Counsel further knew that the Commonwealth would attempt to establish this history by proving Rompilla's prior conviction for rape and assault, and would emphasize his violent character by introducing a transcript of the rape victim's testimony given in that earlier trial. There is no question that defense counsel were on notice, since they acknowledge that a plea letter, written by one of them four days prior to trial, mentioned the prosecutor's plans. It is also undisputed that the prior conviction file was a public document, readily available for the asking at the very courthouse where Rompilla was to be tried. Id. at 2464 (citations omitted). In concluding that trial counsel's performance was deficient, the Court noted that counsel did not look at any part of that file, including the transcript, until warned by the prosecution a second time, the day before the evidentiary sentencing phase began. Id. Although the facts of Rompilla led the Court to the conclusion that defense counsel's performance was unreasonable, the Court held that [o]ther situations, where a defense lawyer is not charged with knowledge that the prosecutor intends to use a prior conviction in this way, might well warrant a different assessment. Id. at 2467. The facts of the instant matter are entirely distinguishable from those present in Rompilla. As noted above, defense counsel in the present case reviewed all of the materials that were in his possession in preparation for Davis's penalty phase trial. Moreover, unlike Rompilla, there is no indication that there was material here that trial counsel was aware the State was going to use in aggravation that was not obtained and reviewed by trial counsel prior to the penalty phase trial. Moreover, unlike defense counsel in Rompilla, Davis's trial counsel reviewed records in the public defender's file transmitted to him regarding Davis's medical history, educational background, and other general background information surrounding his life. A thorough reading of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Rompilla reveals that it is inapplicable to the facts of the instant matter. Unlike defense counsel's deficient performance in Rompilla, trial counsel's investigation in the instant matter was within the level of reasonable performance that is required by Strickland and Wiggins. See Rompilla, 125 S.Ct. at 2463 ([T]he duty to investigate does not force defense lawyers to scour the globe on the off-chance something will turn up; reasonably diligent counsel may draw a line when they have good reason to think further investigation would be a waste.) (citing Wiggins, 539 U.S. at 525, 123 S.Ct. 2527; Strickland, 466 U.S. at 699, 104 S.Ct. 2052). Moreover, a review of the mitigating evidence presented at the evidentiary hearing in this posttrial review demonstrates that the matters now asserted were either cumulative to that which trial counsel anticipated presenting through Davis's mother or exposed negative information pertaining to Davis's prior criminal conduct and drug abusetopics trial counsel made a reasonable strategic decision to avoid. [5] Trial counsel was fully aware of the pertinent information these witnesses possessed and any testimony that could have been elicited from these witnesses at the penalty phase would have been cumulative to the anticipated testimony of Davis's mother. Therefore, at the time of trial, once counsel secured Davis's mother to testify with regard to all of the pertinent information, his decision to forego further pursuit of other members of Davis's family and friends was not an unreasonable decision or approach. See Ventura v. State, 794 So.2d 553, 570 (Fla.2001) (finding that penalty phase counsel was not deficient for failing to procure the testimony of witnesses for the penalty phase whose testimony would have mirrored the testimony that was offered at that proceeding); Downs v. State, 740 So.2d 506, 516 (Fla.1999) (affirming the trial court's denial of the defendant's claims that counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate and present additional mitigating evidence where the additional evidence was cumulative to that presented during sentencing); Rutherford v. State, 727 So.2d 216, 224-25 (Fla.1998) (same); Valle v. State, 705 So.2d 1331, 1334-35 (Fla.1997) (same). Trial counsel testified at the evidentiary hearing that it was also his strategy to avoid presenting potentially mitigating evidence that carried negative factors that would cast Davis in a negative light before the jury. Specifically, trial counsel agreed that he would not have wanted to use information about [Davis] being troubled, becom[ing] a drug addict. Trial counsel was well aware of Davis's alcohol and substance abuse problems, as he testified with regard to his review of Davis's mental health report, which contained such information. Therefore, the substance of the testimony offered at the evidentiary hearing regarding this subject was known to trial counsel at the time of the penalty phase. Davis's trial counsel was not ineffective in exercising his decision to discontinue further investigation into matters that were already known to him and that he had strategically determined should not be presented to the jury. See Wiggins, 539 U.S. at 521-22, 123 S.Ct. 2527 ([A] particular decision not to investigate must be directly assessed for reasonableness in all the circumstances, applying a heavy measure of deference to counsel's judgments.) (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 691, 104 S.Ct. 2052); see also Ruffin v. State, 420 So.2d 591, 593 (Fla.1982) (concluding that the Court should not use hindsight to second-guess counsel's strategy). Additionally, facts presented through the testimony of Davis's family members and friends at the evidentiary hearing regarding his family's poor economic situation and his father's abusive behavior and alcoholism were known to trial counsel through Davis and Davis's mother, and were therefore cumulative to that which trial counsel anticipated presenting through Davis's mother's testimony. In fact, several witnesses presented by Davis at the evidentiary hearing testified and recognized that Davis's mother would have been totally aware of the substance of their testimony and that she probably would have been even more familiar with all of those facts than the witnesses themselves. Given that trial counsel was aware of this information, we cannot conclude that trial counsel's investigation fell below the objective standard of reasonableness by which attorney performance is measured. See Wiggins, 539 U.S. at 521, 123 S.Ct. 2527. We conclude that counsel was not deficient in making the decision not to interview these witnesses when the information they testified to at the evidentiary hearing was already known to trial counsel at the time of the penalty phase. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 691, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Moreover, with regard to the testimony of Davis's older brother Michael, we agree with the trial court's observation that this witness grew up in the same household under the same circumstances as the defendant. And yet, he overcame this and established a stable life. The jury would have contrasted this with the defendant's lack of effort to overcome his circumstances. Davis has failed to establish how his trial counsel's performance was deficient in relation to the above witnesses. Postconviction counsel's presentation of Tracy Davis (Tracy), Davis's second-oldest brother, merits special attention. Tracy testified at the evidentiary hearing with regard to the financial circumstances of his family, his father's alcoholism, and his father's abusive behavior, physically and mentally, towards his family. Additionally, Tracy testified that Davis was developing a drug habit and that he felt responsible for getting Davis involved with drugs and into trouble with the law. Tracy also admitted to having anally raped Davis when Davis was approximately six years old. The trial court determined that Tracy would not have been available to testify at Davis's penalty phase. Our review of that determination on this record reveals that Tracy's testimony regarding his availability was unclear at best. On cross-examination, Tracy stated that he was not sure if his family knew how to contact him during Davis's trial because he was on the run from a parole violation. However, Tracy stated that he would have come to Florida to testify even though he would have faced the possibility of being arrested and extradited back to Illinois. We conclude that the trial court's finding that Tracy was unavailable to testify at the time of Davis's penalty phase is adequately supported by competent evidence in the record. Moreover, even if we were to conclude that Tracy was available to testify at the penalty phase, the record demonstrates that White was not deficient for failing to secure his testimony. Similar to other members of Davis's family, the majority of Tracy's testimony regarding Davis's home life and his father's substance abuse and abusive behavior was already known to White through Davis and his mother. White anticipated calling Davis's mother to testify to these facts at the penalty phase. We conclude that trial counsel's performance was not deficient for failing to secure this additional witness to provide testimony that would have been cumulative to that which he anticipated eliciting from Davis's mother. As to Tracy's testimony regarding Davis's substance abuse and criminal activity, Davis has failed to show that his attorney would have presented that testimony at the penalty phase given his strategic decision to avoid revealing such negative information to the jury. With regard to Tracy's testimony that he anally raped Davis when Davis was six, the trial court accurately noted that this testimony was suspect at best. Moreover, Davis never mentioned this information at any time to his trial counsel or his mental health expert, and no other member of the family seemed to know anything about this subject. In fact, Davis specifically denied having ever been sexually molested as a child or in prison when asked by his mental health expert. We cannot conclude that trial counsel was deficient for failing to pursue such mitigation when Davis himself failed to inform either counsel or mental health experts about this matter. See Stewart v. State, 801 So.2d 59, 67 (Fla.2001) (holding that the defendant's failure to communicate instances of childhood abuse to defense counsel or defense psychiatrist precludes claim that counsel was deficient for failing to pursue such mitigation). In summary, we hold that trial counsel was not deficient for failing to secure Tracy's testimony, considering that the information regarding Davis's upbringing was known to his mother, that Davis has not shown that Tracy was available to testify at the time of his penalty phase, that trial counsel's strategy was to avoid presenting negative information regarding Davis, and that Davis in fact denied prior sexual abuse. Moreover, even if we were to assume that trial counsel was ineffective in performance and investigation, Davis has totally failed to establish the required element that his trial counsel's performance prejudiced him. In its sentencing order, the trial court found four aggravating factors and no mitigating circumstances. Given the facts of the crime and the overwhelming aggravating factors that were found to exist, along with the absence of mitigating circumstances, our confidence in the outcome of the proceedings below has not been undermined as Davis has totally failed to establish a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052; see also Hodges v. State, 885 So.2d 338, 350-51 (Fla.2004) (affirming death sentence even in light of postconviction evidence regarding defendant's impoverished and abusive upbringing where trial court found two aggravators, that the murder was committed to disrupt or hinder law enforcement and CCP); Asay v. State, 769 So.2d 974, 988 (Fla.2000) (holding that there was no reasonable probability that evidence of the defendant's abusive childhood and history of substance abuse would have led to a recommendation of life where the State established three aggravators: the murder was committed by a person under sentence of imprisonment; defendant had been previously convicted of a capital felony; and CCP); Breedlove v. State, 692 So.2d 874, 878 (Fla.1997) (holding that the aggravating circumstances of prior violent felony, murder committed during the course of a burglary, and HAC overwhelmed the mitigation testimony presented concerning childhood beatings and alcohol abuse).