Opinion ID: 463559
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Right to an Evidentiary Hearing on the Constitutionality

Text: 7 of the Death Penalty 8 In his federal habeas petition, Spencer alleges that Georgia administers its death penalty statute in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution. Similar allegations had been rejected on petitioner's direct appeal and in his state habeas proceedings. Specifically, he contends that the death penalty in Georgia is disproportionately applied on the basis of the race of defendants and the race of victims. 9 On January 26, 1981, the district court held a hearing to determine the necessity of conducting an evidentiary hearing on this issue. At that time, counsel for petitioner proffered that significant social science research and analysis of the pattern and practice of the imposition of capital sentences in Georgia had recently become available, and that this work had not been available at the time of petitioner's state habeas hearing in 1977. Petitioner further proffered that these studies showed racial and geographic arbitrariness in the imposition of capital sentences based on the race of defendants and race of the victims. The district court denied an evidentiary hearing and dismissed the claim, determining that the claim was effectively foreclosed by the decisions in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976), Spinkellink v. Wainwright, 578 F.2d 582 (5th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 976, 99 S.Ct. 1548, 59 L.Ed.2d 796 (1979), and Smith v. Balkcom, 660 F.2d 573 (5th Cir. Unit B 1981), modified, 671 F.2d 858 (5th Cir. Unit B), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 882, 103 S.Ct. 181, 74 L.Ed.2d 148 (1982). Mitchell v. Hopper, 538 F.Supp. at 90-91. 10 Petitioner subsequently filed a timely Rule 59 motion to alter or amend the judgment, alleging newly discovered evidence. In this motion, petitioner proffered the fact that Professor David C. Baldus had just completed detailed statistical research on Georgia's capital sentencing patterns. According to the proffer, the Baldus study reinforced and expanded upon the evidence of racial discrimination identified in earlier studies. The district court denied the motion, concluding that the gist of petitioner's contention has been determined as a matter of law by the Eleventh Circuit in Spinkellink and Smith. 11 On appeal, petitioner requests a remand for an evidentiary hearing in which he would be allowed to introduce the statistical data and reports proffered to the district court. Whether he should be allowed such an evidentiary hearing was the issue on which we granted rehearing en banc. 12 In his briefs and at oral argument, petitioner placed primary reliance on the Baldus study, which is argued to constitute the most thorough and sophisticated study yet completed on the Georgia capital sentencing system. The evidence proffered by Spencer in this case had already been introduced into the district court record in McCleskey v. Zant, 580 F.Supp. 338 (N.D.Ga.1984), when this case was argued en banc. 2 The district court rendered its decision in McCleskey shortly after oral argument in this case, and appeals were taken immediately. Because the evidence on which Spencer's proffer relied would be more fully developed in the record on appeal in McCleskey, we postponed our resolution of this case pending our en banc analysis and resolution of McCleskey. 13 Spencer's contentions on this point are now directly controlled by our recent decision in McCleskey v. Kemp, 753 F.2d 877 (11th Cir.1985) (en banc ). In that case this court held that even if the Baldus study proved all the facts it was argued to prove, it would remain legally insufficient to support an eighth or fourteenth amendment challenge to the Georgia capital sentencing system alleging that the system was being arbitrarily and discriminatorily applied. Since what the Baldus study is contended by petitioner to prove is insufficient to support an eighth or fourteenth amendment challenge to the operation of the Georgia system, petitioner is not entitled to an evidentiary hearing for the taking of that evidence. Petitioner did not raise any allegations of intentional or purposeful discrimination against him in his sentencing; we therefore affirm the district court's denial of an evidentiary hearing.