Opinion ID: 75958
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Additional Mitigation Witnesses

Text: 81 Robinson's 3.850 counsel located several people from Robinson's background who would have testified during resentencing, but most of them had not seen Robinson for some time. The 3.850 court heard testimony from two of them, Ethel Byrd and Warner Byrd. Robinson proffered affidavits from the other potential mitigation witnesses. 82 Ethel Byrd knew Robinson well as a boy, yet had not seen him since Robinson was about 20 years old. Ethel's testimony focused on the physical abuse Robinson suffered while growing up. Ethel witnessed Robinson's grandfather, known as Baby Boy, beat Robinson with belts, electric cords, or whatever, at the early age of 5. Baby Boy was a farm labor contractor who had Robinson working in the fields, under horrible conditions, by around 5 or 6 years old. If Robinson stopped picking crops, then he got a beating. Ethel testified that Robinson's grandmother, Janie, drank whisky quite often, and that she had occasionally seen Janie intoxicated. According to Ethel, Baby Boy and Janie treated their natural son, Troy Hester, considerably better than Robinson. Unlike Troy, Robinson did not have new clothes or shoes. 83 Warner Byrd, Ethel's son, grew up with Robinson. Much of Warner's testimony comported with Ethel's concerning Robinson's work in the fields, the conditions in those fields, and the generally poor childhood Robinson had. Warner testified about the school which he and Robinson attended. That school had no recreational facilities, and Robinson was required to cut the wood for the school's fire each morning. To keep warm in the winter, you wore a lot of clothes, because even with a fire, the school did not stay warm. Warner remembered Janie's drinking and had seen Baby Boy beat Robinson to the point that he drew blood. 84 Robinson's 3.850 counsel also filed affidavits from potential mitigation witnesses. Generally, the affidavits attested to Robinson's good deeds for others, 25 kindness towards friends and family, 26 history of hard work, 27 and good behavior in prison, 28 as well as to the difficulties of life in the migrant farm system. 29 Certain affidavits recounted the physical abuse suffered by Robinson and other difficult aspects of his childhood. 30 The affidavit of Winifred Lovett indicated that she had visited Robinson over at the adult jail, but Lovett did not state in her affidavit how old she believed Robinson was at that time. 31 85 Lovett, as well as others, also testified about the role alcohol generally played in Robinson's life, particularly when he was growing up. For example, Lovett and Robinson used to drink beer together growing up, and several affidavits indicated that Robinson's grandmother Janie was a big drinker. Jack Humphrey, a labor contractor who knew Robinson growing up in the early 1960s, testified that [o]n the weekends, all the young one's [in the labor camp], including [Robinson], would drink beer and wine. Baby Boy Hester 32 described Robinson as a binge drinker, but his affidavit does not indicate when he had last seen Robinson, or at what point in Robinson's life he had seen these binges. William Maddox, Robinson's employer in the years before St. George's murder, heard that Robinson drank, but admitted that he had never once seen Robinson drink. None of the affidavits procured by Robinson's 3.850 counsel specifically address the amount of alcohol Robinson reported drinking before he murdered St. George.