Opinion ID: 1574330
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Prior Procedural History

Text: In 1990, Bowling was convicted in the Fayette Circuit Court for the murders of Edward and Ernestine Earley, and the assault of their two-year-old child. Bowling was sentenced to death for each of the two murders. His convictions and sentences were affirmed on direct appeal. Bowling v. Commonwealth, 873 S.W.2d 175 (Ky.1993), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 862, 115 S.Ct. 176, 130 L.Ed.2d 112 (1994). His RCr 11.42 motion was denied and that decision was also affirmed on appeal. Bowling v. Commonwealth, 981 S.W.2d 545 (Ky.1998), cert. denied, 527 U.S. 1026, 119 S.Ct. 2375, 144 L.Ed.2d 778 (1999). His petition in federal district court for a writ of habeas corpus, 28 U.S.C. § 2254, was denied, Bowling v. Parker, 138 F.Supp.2d 821 (E.D.Ky.2001), and that decision was affirmed on appeal, Bowling v. Parker, 344 F.3d 487 (6th Cir.2003), cert. denied sub nom., Bowling v. Haeberlin, 543 U.S. 842, 125 S.Ct. 281, 160 L.Ed.2d 68 (2004), thus exhausting all of his conventional avenues of appeal. The Governor of Kentucky signed a death warrant scheduling Bowling's execution for November 30, 2004. KRS 431.240(4). However, both this Court and the Franklin Circuit Court issued orders staying the execution pending resolution of Bowling's challenge to Kentucky's method of lethal injection and his petition to vacate his death sentence based on mental retardation. In Bowling v. Commonwealth, 163 S.W.3d 361 (Ky.2005), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 652, 163 L.Ed.2d 528 (2005), this Court upheld the trial court's denial of Bowling's CR 60.02/CR 60.03 motion based on mental retardation. Specifically, Bowling relied upon the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 122 S.Ct. 2242, 153 L.Ed.2d 335 (2002), that the Eighth Amendment's proscription against cruel and unusual punishment places a substantive restriction on the State's power to take the life of a mentally retarded offender. Id. at 321, 122 S.Ct. at 2252, 153 L.Ed.2d at 350; Bowling, 163 S.W.3d at 366. Noting that at the time of Atkins, Kentucky already had in effect a statute affording the same protection created by Atkins, KRS 532.140, [1] we held that Atkins was only retroactive to any condemned mentally retarded offender tried prior to the effective date of KRS 532.140. Bowling, 163 S.W.3d at 371. Because Bowling was tried after the effective date of the exemption statutes and had not raised the mental retardation issue at trial, he was held to have procedurally defaulted the issue: The Commonwealth did not prevent Appellant from presenting his mental retardation claim; he simply did not assert it at his trial or in his RCr 11.42 motion. Kentucky's exemption statute, KRS 532.140(1), was enacted effective July 13, 1990. Appellant's trial began on December 10, 1990. During the interim, Appellant was examined by two psychologists, one appointed by the trial court and the other selected by his attorneys. Each psychologist administered a separate IQ test, the results of which measured Appellant's IQ at 86 and 87, respectively. Thus, Appellant was afforded both the opportunity to assert his mental retardation claim and the expert witnesses necessary to prove it (if it was provable). He chose not to assert the claim at trial and thereby waived it. Accord Winston v. Commonwealth, 268 Va. 564, 604 S.E.2d 21, 51 (2004) (Winston's remaining claims concerning the subject of mental retardation are waived because he deliberately declined to raise a claim of mental retardation under the statutory provisions that apply to him and his trial.). Compare Head v. Hill, 277 Ga. 255, 587 S.E.2d 613, 620 (2003) (defendant could have litigated the issue of his alleged mental retardation at trial but chose not to do so, thus, he was not denied the right to litigate the issue; he had such a right and waived it); with Rogers v. State, 276 Ga. 67, 575 S.E.2d 879, 880 (2003) (defendant who was tried before effective date of mental retardation exemption statute could not be held to have waived claim to exemption). Id. at 371-72. Bowling thereafter informed the Sixth Circuit that he had exhausted his mental retardation claims in state court. On September 2, 2005, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit denied Bowling's motion for leave to file a successive habeas corpus petition to re-litigate the mental retardation claim. The Court further upheld the U.S. District Court's order denying Bowling's FRCP 60(b) motion to reopen his previously ruled-upon habeas corpus petition, and concluded that the FRCP 60(b) motion was the functional equivalent to a successive habeas petition. In Re: Bowling, 422 F.3d 434 (6th Cir.2005). On December 2, 2005, the Sixth Circuit denied Bowling's motion for leave to file a petition for an en banc rehearing of his mental retardation claim.