Opinion ID: 440199
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Effective Assistance Claim.

Text: 21 In his brief, Smith argues that his trial counsel was ineffective. He lists the following errors and omissions at the guilt/innocence phase of the trial: 22 1. Failure to seek a Richardson hearing and challenge the admissibility of the testimony of Patricia Johnson under the rule of sequestration; 23 2. Failure to use Patricia or Wesley Johnson's pretrial statements for impeachment; 24 3. Failure to interview Smith adequately; and 25 4. Failure to depose Wesley Johnson before trial. 26 Smith also contends that his attorney, during the penalty phase:1. Failed to adduce appropriate mitigating evidence or properly use that evidence in closing argument; 27 2. Failed to seek jury instructions on reasonable doubt or object to other instructions; 28 3. Failed to understand the bifurcated proceeding; and 29 4. Failed to challenge the use of the heinous, atrocious, and cruel aggravating circumstance. 30 In Strickland v. Washington, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), the Supreme Court set forth the test under which we review claims of ineffective assistance. See also Jarrell v. Balkcom, 735 F.2d 1242, 1261 (11th Cir.1984). The petitioner must show both that his attorney failed to render reasonably effective assistance, id. at 2064, and that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different, id. at 2068. With some exceptions not applicable here, see id. at 2067; see also United States v. Cronic, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 2039, 80 L.Ed.2d 657 (1984), the inquiry is two-pronged. The petitioner must show both ineffective assistance and resulting prejudice. 31 In this case, only one of Smith's claims--that counsel should have more effectively impeached the Johnsons--merits discussion and possible relief. The claimed failure of his attorney to understand the bifurcated proceeding and act as an advocate is related to the failure to impeach issue. The other claims are either unsupported by the record or simply do not merit relief. 5 32 Counsel's failure to depose Johnson does not warrant relief or a hearing; given the numerous inconsistent statements made by Johnson and his wife, counsel probably had no need to conduct such a deposition. Had a deposition produced testimony detrimental to Smith, it would have been available to the state as evidence to disprove recent fabrication. (The state Rule 3.850 court held that Smith's counsel had available all the statements we have set forth above.) We are unable, without an evidentiary hearing, to reach a conclusion concerning ineffectiveness in light of counsel's failure to cross-examine Wesley or Patricia Johnson by using their pretrial statements, however. 6 The district court concluded that the attorney failed to use the statements for a valid strategic reason: he preferred to emphasize Johnson's plea bargain for impeachment purposes. Without a hearing, 7 we cannot hold this to be a valid reason for counsel's failure to use the Johnsons' statements not implicating Smith. Use of these statements would have been totally consistent with counsel's assumed strategy of showing that Johnson implicated Smith only to save himself from the electric chair. 33 We also hold that counsel's failure to use the statements may well have resulted in prejudice under the test in Strickland v. Washington. The entire case of the state, with the exception of plaster casts of a tire track and a shoe print, 8 was based on the testimony of Wesley Johnson as buttressed by Patricia Johnson's testimony during the state's rebuttal case. When first questioned, however, neither witness implicated Smith: the September 6 statements 9 of both witnesses omit any reference to Smith. Only after Patricia Johnson conferred with Wesley on September 10 did Wesley implicate Smith--stating that Smith was involved, but that a plea bargain discussion must occur before he would provide any further information. 34 Two conclusions may be drawn from these facts. The first is that Wesley and Patricia Johnson framed Smith, as Wesley's recantations would indicate. This conclusion is supported by the timing and order of the statements, and, to some extent, by Johnson's admission on September 6 that he locked his first victim in the car trunk and set the car on fire. Smith's attorney might well have argued that Johnson--who had a history of similar murders--implicated Smith to avoid the chair, as Johnson stated in his note. The second, contradictory conclusion is that Wesley simply omitted any reference to Smith for some unknown reason--and later told the truth. This interpretation is supported by Johnson's suspicious reference to a second car in his September 6 statement without elaborating concerning its source or its driver. Nevertheless, the choice between the two interpretations would have been one the jury could have made either way had they heard the facts. The jury's choice could well have affected the outcome of the trial. 35 The failure of counsel to use the statements to impeach the Johnsons may not only have affected the outcome of the guilt/innocence phase, it may have changed the outcome of the penalty trial. As we have previously noted, jurors may well vote against the imposition of the death penalty due to the existence of whimsical doubt. In rejecting the contention that the Constitution requires different juries at the penalty and guilt phases of capital trial, we stated: 36 The fact that jurors have determined guilt beyond a reasonable doubt does not necessarily mean that no juror entertained any doubt whatsoever. There may be no reasonable doubt--doubt based upon reason--and yet some genuine doubt exists. It may reflect a mere possibility; it may be but the whimsy of one juror or several. Yet this whimsical doubt--this absence of absolute certainty--can be real. 37 The capital defendant whose guilt seems abundantly demonstrated may be neither obstructing justice nor engaged in an exercise in futility when his counsel mounts a vigorous defense on the merits. It may be proffered in the slight hope of unanticipated success; it might seek to persuade one or more to prevent unanimity for conviction; it is more likely to produce only whimsical doubt. Even the latter serves the defendant, for the juror entertaining doubt which does not rise to reasonable doubt can be expected to resist those who would impose the irremedial penalty of death. 38 Smith v. Balkcom, 660 F.2d 573, 580-81 (5th Cir. Unit B 1981), modified, 677 F.2d 20, cert. denied, 459 U.S. 882, 103 S.Ct. 181, 74 L.Ed.2d 148 (1982). In this case, use of Wesley and Patricia Johnson's prior inconsistent statements might have created a whimsical doubt that would discourage the court and advisory jury from recommending the death penalty. 39 Of course, counsel may have elected to choose another strategy at the penalty portion of Smith's trial. If he did so, however, the record does not reveal the content of the strategy. For example, in counsel's closing statement at the penalty phase, 10 he evidenced no reasonable strategy. Counsel stated (in full): 40 MR. HADDOCK: May it please the Court? Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last time we will be before you. The most trying circumstances, the fact that will be sent back to you will be cumulative of what you have already decided, that the defendant is guilty. Now, with little help except from you--and you are not here to help me, you are here to do the right thing--I have to ask that you take into consideration all of the things that have been said, all of the things that have been admitted into evidence. In particular, consideration to the statements of Dr. Kaplan pertaining to Mr. Smith. 41 Weigh those, because they weigh heavily upon everybody in this room. Add them up. If they indicate to you that this man, who has made a statement that you can take or leave--because you have taken and left some of his statements--that he would spend the rest of his life in a penitentiary. Whether this man should die or be given the right to live until, God willing, someday this state will provide a place for him. 42 If the state desires to do so, on remand it is free to introduce evidence before the district court showing that trial counsel's failure to utilize the Johnsons' statements at either the guilt/innocence or penalty phases of the trial was prompted by reasonable trial strategy. 43