Opinion ID: 2156664
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Penalty Phase/Sentencing Hearing

Text: Harrison also argues that his trial counsel were ineffective during the penalty phase of his trial and at his sentencing hearing. The only evidence presented by Harrison during the penalty phase was fifty-four pages of military records. These records indicated that he had been injured while serving in Vietnam. Other portions of the records indicated that Harrison was the product of broken home and that his father had attempted to sodomize him as a child. [17] The records also discussed Harrison's problems as a juvenile and noted that he had family problems and had been a runaway. Although these records were admitted into evidence during the penalty phase, trial counsel did not specifically argue during closing argument that either Harrison's military service or difficult childhood was a mitigating factor. Instead, trial counsel argued to the jury that it should be merciful and recommend against the death penalty because Harrison would very likely be in prison for the rest of his life. During the sentencing hearing, counsel presented letters from Harrison's mother and his two sisters. These letters discussed Harrison's service in Vietnam and its effect on him. The letters also discussed Harrison's extensive abuse as a child: He suffered sexual, physical, mental and emotional abuse. I remember that little boy[`]s screams. I saw the torment. The trial court also considered the presentence report which noted that Harrison's grandmother and father consistently abused him both physically and mentally and that he was placed in a county children's home. Another portion of the report noted that Harrison reported that, as a child, he was abused physically, sexually, and mentally. The presentence report also discussed Harrison's service in Vietnam, indicating that he was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, a 24-hour Purple Heart and a 48-hour Purple Heart. During the sentencing hearing, Harrison's trial counsel argued that his military service and disturbed childhood were mitigating circumstances. Trial counsel relayed that, as a result of his Vietnam service, Harrison slept with a bayonet under his pillow. On one occasion when Harrison's half-brother woke him up, Harrison was so startled that he thought he was still in Vietnam and went after him with the bayonet. Moreover, trial counsel related stories about Harrison's difficult childhood, noting that Harrison had been molested as a child and had been beaten with a bicycle or dog chain by his grandmother. The grandmother had sawed his bicycle in half because he refused to allow his brothers to borrow it and had often refused him dessertfor no reasonwhile his other siblings were given it. The trial court's sentencing statement indicates that it considered these mitigating factors: It is hard for me to put myself in your place as a child rejected by his parents. Physically, sexually and emotionally abused from place to place and from home to home and none of them really a home. It is really difficult for me to put myself in your position and think about how difficult it must have been. The trial court also found Harrison's Vietnam service to be mitigating: Many people dodged the draft in Vietnam. Lied about it. Were cowardly, sat home and let other people do their work but you went and you are to be commended for that because service to your country is very important. So I have considered that strongly. After weighing the mitigating circumstances against the aggravating circumstances, the trial court imposed the death sentence for the murders of both Tia and Jordan.
Harrison contends that trial counsel were ineffective for failing to present additional mitigating evidence to the jury during the penalty phase. At the postconviction hearing, Harrison presented a variety of evidence that he now argues should have been presented to the jury during his penalty phase and to the trial court at his sentencing hearing. This evidence included: (1) extensive sexual and emotional abuse as a child; (2) traumatic experiences during his service in Vietnam and the alleged intensification of his childhood post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); and (3) repeated rapes while an inmate in the Virginia Department of Corrections. [18] The postconviction court found that trial counsel were not ineffective for failing to present this evidence. In particular, the postconviction court noted that Harrison's unfortunate childhood experiences, his military experience and his experience with previous incarceration were known to the Jury and the Trial Judge. In addition, the postconviction court found that the testimony from the postconviction hearing was cumulative except for (1) damaging revelations of Harrison's childhood fascination with setting fires; (2) sex slave matters (during his incarceration in Virginia) that were neither exculpatory nor mitigating as to the murders of children by arson; and (3) the revelation that Harrison killed an unarmed mother and child during his service in Vietnam. Harrison contends that the postconviction court took testimony out of context and construed some of the most compelling mitigating evidence in an aggravating light. Although Harrison is correct in his assertion that at least some of postconviction evidence may fairly be categorized as mitigating, this by no means compels us to conclude that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel by virtue of his trial counsel's failure to present all of this evidence or that the postconviction court's finding of trial counsel effectiveness is erroneous. This Court realizes the potential importance of presenting mitigating evidence, especially in capital cases. We have previously found the failure to present mitigating evidence to constitute the ineffective assistance of counsel, warranting the vacation of a death sentence. See, e.g., Burris v. State, 558 N.E.2d 1067 (Ind.1990); Smith v. State, 547 N.E.2d 817 (Ind.1989). Our opinions in both Burris and Smith, however, were predicated in large part upon trial counsel's failure to investigate mitigating evidence. Burris, 558 N.E.2d at 1074-76 (reversing a death sentence based on the inconsistent presentation of intoxication as a mitigator, the failure to investigate mitigating evidence, and the availability of substantial mitigation evidence as demonstrated by its presentation at the postconviction hearing); Smith, 547 N.E.2d at 822 (reversing a death sentence because of counsel's failure to prepare for the penalty phase). Indeed, we noted in Burris that an attorney who makes a reasonable decision not to present evidence that his client had an exceptionally unhappy and unstable childhood after some investigation of the client's background, complies with the dictates of Strickland.  558 N.E.2d at 1075 (citing Burger v. Kemp, 483 U.S. 776, 794-95, 107 S.Ct. 3114, 97 L.Ed.2d 638 (1987)). Although trial counsel's investigation into mitigating evidence in Harrison's case may not have been as extensive as that undertaken by trial counsel in Burger, it nonetheless satisfies the Sixth Amendment. Swain, a former trial judge, testified that he was primarily responsible for the penalty phase and sentencing. When asked about his attempts to secure records from Harrison's background, Swain testified that he attempted to get records from the Virginia prison system and did secure Harrison's military records. In response to a question about the defense theory at the penalty phase, Swain testified that he wanted to use Harrison's mother and stepfather as witnesses. However, Harrison would not allow us to use his mother as she was ill. Swain also indicated that he did not want to use Harrison's mother as a witness because she was never what I thought a stable witness, so I was really quite worried about how she would testify. The postconviction court foundand Harrison does not disputethat not calling Harrison's stepfather was a reasonable decision because he had told a police officer that he believed Mr. Harrison had committed the murders and that Mr. Harrison was a pathological liar. Harrison does not specifically argue in this appeal that his trial counsel should have called his mother and stepfather as penalty phase witnesses. [19] Instead, he suggests that other witnesses should have been called. His sister, Linda Hart, testified at postconviction regarding several incidents from Harrison's difficult childhood. However, she also testified that he had set a mattress on fire while she was in the bed and had set fire to a house when he was a child. The postconviction court found that Hart's testimony, if presented at trial, would have confirmed behavioral characteristics of Mr. Harrison that may have bolstered the State's case. Similarly, postconviction testimony of Robert Kaplan and Pamela Porter, who both testified that Harrison suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, had it been presented at trial, would have included information potentially damaging to Harrison, including drug and alcohol abuse and poor impulse control. The testimony of Timothy Hermsen, who served in the Marines with Harrison in Vietnam, would have provided some insight into Harrison's battlefield experiences and the resulting residual problems, but the presentation of evidence of prison rapes would have further drawn the jury's attention to Harrison's prior crimes and lengthy incarceration. The jury was plainly presented with less mitigating evidence during the penalty phase than was offered to the trial court at the sentencing hearing. Although the reasoning behind the decision not to present more mitigating evidence and not to argue mitigating evidence to the jury during the penalty phase is not entirely clear from the postconviction testimony of Swain, it is clear that (1) some investigation was conducted into mitigating evidence regarding Harrison's childhood and Vietnam service and (2) the presentation of additional mitigating evidence would have likely resulted in the jury's being exposed to information that also casts Harrison in a negative light. Instead of facing this risk, trial counsel argued that the jury should be merciful in not recommending the death penalty and that Harrison would very likely be spending the rest of his life in prison. This is not a case in which defense counsel failed to conduct any investigation into mitigating evidence. Strickland discussed counsel's duty to investigate at some length: strategic choices made after thorough investigation of law and facts relevant to plausible options are virtually unchallengeable; and strategic choices made after less than complete investigation are reasonable precisely to the extent that reasonable professional judgments support the limitations on investigation. In other words, counsel has a duty to make reasonable investigations or to make a reasonable decision that makes particular investigations unnecessary. In any ineffectiveness case, 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. 466 U.S. at 690-91. Harrison's military service and difficult childhood were investigated by trial counsel and presented, to some extent, to the jury by records secured by trial counsel. In view of the problematic nature of the testimony of Harrison's mother and stepfather, trial counsel cannot be deemed unreasonable for failing to seek the testimony of these witnesses. Counsel's decision to rely on a plea for mercy and argument that Harrison would be spending the rest of his life in prison, rather than arguing mitigating evidence, fails to establish deficient performance under these circumstances. Cf. Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 168, 186-87, 106 S.Ct. 2464, 91 L.Ed.2d 144 (1986) (finding no deficient performance for failing to present any mitigating evidence and instead relying on a simple plea for mercy during the sentencing phase of capital trial by noting that the mitigating evidence would have been accompanied or countered by negative information about the defendant). In sum, the postconviction court found that the mitigating evidence offered at the postconviction hearing was cumulative except for negative information revealed about Harrison and that, to the extent any of the new matters were mitigating, they did not outweigh the aggravating circumstances proved beyond a reasonable doubt. The evidence does not lead unmistakably and unerringly to the opposite conclusion reached by the postconviction court. See Spranger, 650 N.E.2d at 1119-20.
As discussed above, trial counsel presented and argued mitigating evidence at Harrison's sentencing hearing. At the sentencing hearing the trial court attached considerable weight to the aggravating circumstances, concluding that they far outweigh the mitigating factors. Moreover, the postconviction court found that the mitigating evidence presented at the postconviction hearing did not outweigh the aggravating factors proved beyond a reasonable doubt by evidence at trial and sentencing. Harrison has not demonstrated in this appeal that the evidence leads unerringly and unmistakably to an opposite conclusion. Id.