Opinion ID: 856125
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Post-Conviction Relief Proceedings

Text: On direct appeal, the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and capital sentence. State v. Miles, 918 P.2d 1028 (Ariz. 1996). Petitioner did not petition for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, but he did file a state court petition for post-conviction relief (“PCR”) under Rule 32 of the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure. The Arizona Superior Court denied Petitioner’s PCR petition, rejecting his ineffective assistance of counsel claims on the merits. With respect to Sattler’s failure to focus on addiction, the state court concluded both that Sattler’s performance was not deficient and that Petitioner failed to demonstrate prejudice. With respect to the other two claims in this case, the state court concluded only that Sattler’s performance was not deficient—it made no determination as to prejudice. The Arizona Supreme Court denied the petition for review of the PCR decision. Before denying Petitioner’s PCR petition, the Arizona Superior Court, however, ordered an evidentiary hearing. In preparation for that hearing, Petitioner underwent more extensive psychological testing. Dr. Joseph Geffen, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, prepared a report describing Petitioner as using drugs to “self-medicat[e]” and as having resorted to crime because of “his perceived need for drugs without which he cannot cope.” Dr. Levy had described Petitioner’s drug use similarly, as self-medication, in his pre-sentence evaluation, but did not connect Petitioner’s motivation for his crimes to a need to acquire drugs. In preparation for the state hearing, Petitioner’s counsel hired an investigator to probe further into his social history. The investigator produced a detailed report, containing 14 MILES V . RYAN information gleaned from interviews with many people who knew Petitioner and his mother during his youth. The additional history confirms that Petitioner’s mother was an alcoholic and suggests that she may also have used heroin, or at least socialized with those who did. The investigation revealed that his mother worked as a prostitute and perhaps ran her own whorehouse out of her home. When Petitioner was approximately 11 years old, his mother began work at a nursing home (and may have given up prostitution); there, she rose to become an administrator, a position she held until Petitioner’s last year of high school, when she was fired for drinking on the job. Additionally, the report characterized Petitioner’s hometown of Winslow, Arizona, as being segregated, corrupt, and rife with prostitution, crime, drugs, and gambling. The investigation confirmed that Petitioner and his mother suffered at least some alienation due to their mixed-race household. The additional social history also suggests that Petitioner’s mother was an “extremely protective mother” who made him the center of her life. She was “infatuated” with her son and “coddle[d]” him. She slept in the same bed as Petitioner until he was 14 years old. She “read to him constantly and sang to him when she fed him,” past an age considered “normal” by a friend. The additional social history reveals that, although Petitioner’s mother disciplined him by spanking him with a hairbrush when he was 4 or 5 years old, she later discontinued the practice and did not physically abuse him.9 She bought Petitioner “everything he 9 Petitioner now disputes this finding and recently filed an affidavit stating that his mother routinely physically abused him when he was between the ages of 4 and 14 years old by beating him with “belts, extension cords, paddles, switches, and her fists.” Because this evidence MILES V . RYAN 15 wanted” and, when he developed buck teeth, for which other children teased him, she arranged for him to get braces. The additional social history report went on to discuss Petitioner’s relationships with his community. He went to church twice a week for Bible study until at least his junior high school years, receiving a ride from a local bus ministry. When he was in junior high school, his basketball coach frequently drove him home from practices. He became good friends with a local family, spending a great deal of time at their home; indeed, they treated him like their own child. Notably, he remained in contact with members of that family well into adulthood—two of them were character witnesses at his sentencing hearing. According to those two witnesses, Petitioner stayed in touch with them after leaving Winslow and visited them to introduce his wife. One of the witnesses was a close friend when she and Petitioner were both living in Tucson; she was present for the birth of his daughter. The additional social history investigation also looked into Petitioner’s high school years, during which he played on the basketball team and earned a varsity letter in his senior year, helping to win the state championship. He had a closeknit group of five friends, and he was popular with girls.