Opinion ID: 767895
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Perillo's Federal Habeas Corpus Petition and Skelton's

Text: Continuing Relationship with Fletcher 69 Perillo filed this, her first federal habeas, on May 4, 1994. Perillo's petition is controlled by pre-AEDPA law because it was filed before the effective date of AEDPA, see Lindh v. Murphy, 117 S. Ct. 2059 (1007), and because Texas has not opted into the separate provisions of AEDPA making the statute retroactive for death penalty cases,see Green v. Johnson, 116 F.3d 1115, 1120 (5th Cir. 1997). In August 1994, without permitting discovery or an evidentiary hearing, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Director and denied relief. The district court's disposition of Perillo's claim, like that of the state habeas court, relied heavily upon the credibility of Skelton's affidavit testimony. Perillo appealed.
70 On appeal, this Court was particularly concerned about the fact that Perillo had not been given an opportunity to develop her claim, either in the state habeas court or the federal habeas court. We noted that Perillo has not had the opportunity to depose or cross-examine Skelton. Perillo has not even been able to get Fletcher's affidavit. Perillo I, 79 F.3d at 445. We were also disturbed by the fact that Skelton continued to be Perillo's chief obstacle in obtaining information from Fletcher, as well as by the tone of Skelton's vitriolic and unprofessional affidavits. Id. 7 71 Perillo argued that Skelton's prior and concurrent representation of Fletcher gave rise to an actual conflict that adversely affected Skelton's interests, either during Skelton's concurrent representation of Fletcher in California or during Skelton's cross-examination of Fletcher at Perillo's trial. We agreed, holding that Perillo had not received a full and fair hearing of her claim in the state habeas court, see Perillo I, 79 F.3d at 445-46 & n.7, and that Perillo had alleged facts which, if proven true, would entitle her to relief, see id. at 447-51. Accordingly, we vacated the judgment of the district court and remanded for discovery and an evidentiary hearing. See id. at 451.
72
73 The district court held its first evidentiary hearing on November 25 and 26, 1996. The Court heard evidence from Skelton, Fletcher (by video), Scott (Perillo's counsel at her first capital murder trial), Gray (Fletcher's putative counsel for conflicts at Perillo's trial), Perillo, Bill Warren (Perillo's expert on conflict law), Pelton (Skelton's co-counsel for Perillo's second capital murder trial), Crowley (lead prosecutor for Perillo's second capital murder trial), and Gotshall (junior prosecutor for Perillo's second capital murder trial), all of whom testified to the facts developed supra. In addition, both sides offered a substantial amount of documentary evidence in the form of exhibits. 74 Skelton repeated his affidavit testimony that there could be no actual conflict because Fletcher wanted to help Perillo, and no adverse effect because demonstrating Fletcher's culpability in the crime, i.e. that Linda was a lying California bitch who tugged on the rope with Perillo, would not have saved Perillo from the death penalty. Skelton's basic premise was that the quality of his advocacy was immaterial because Perillo's confession was insurmountable. Post-hearing briefs were filed by both parties. 75 On August 5, 1997, the district court entered an order denying habeas relief. The district court relied heavily upon Skelton's testimony, expressly finding that Skelton's testimony was credible. The district court further agreed with Skelton that no amount of hostility toward or discrediting of Fletcher could have diminished, much less neutralized, the compelling force of Perillo's own confession. In so holding, the district court seems to have confused Strickland's standard, which requires a showing of actual prejudice with respect to the outcome of the trial and Cuyler's less stringent standard, which places the focus upon whether counsel's performance was compromised by an actual conflict of interest. 76 2. The second evidentiary hearing and decision 77 On August 19, 1997, Perillo filed a motion to reopen the evidence and for reconsideration. The primary issue at this point was Skelton's credibility. Skelton's credibility was key to such important issues as whether Fletcher had in fact conveyed any confidential information to Skelton when he represented her, and whether Skelton knew that Perillo's version of the facts implicated Fletcher in the actual murders, a fact which might have aided Perillo's defense, but would almost certainly have opened Fletcher up to perjury charges. Perillo pointed out that Skelton's testimony conflicted with that of other witnesses, including Robert Scott and Will Gray, and with documents admitted into evidence. Perillo also pointed out that Skelton was disbarred for lying to a client the day after the district court's decision relying upon Skelton's credibility to deny relief. 78 Perillo tendered evidence that Skelton's August 1997 disbarment resulted from his decision to lie to a client about the status of the client's criminal appeal from federal conviction. Unfortunately for Skelton, the client tape recorded Skelton's assertions that the client's appeal was pending, that Skelton had presented oral argument to an interested Fifth Circuit panel, and later, that the client's conviction had been affirmed on appeal. In fact, the client's appeal had been dismissed for want of prosecution months before Skelton began telling the client about the fictitious oral argument and affirmance. There are tape recordings of these conversations in the record. Even when the client confronted Skelton about the appeal being dismissed months before, Skelton told the client he had attended oral argument and that some unidentified lawyer named Greg must have dropped the ball. Perillo argued that the newly discovered evidence was highly probative with respect to Skelton's credibility. Perillo also reargued her substantive arguments for relief. 79 In March 1998, the district court granted Perillo's motion to reopen the evidence and for reconsideration. In the same order, the district court vacated its earlier judgment denying relief. The district court again granted discovery and set a second evidentiary hearing for May 21, 1998. At this hearing, Skelton admitted that he lied to his client about the appeal made the subject of the disciplinary proceedings against him. The two tape recorded conversations were played. Skelton also testified that there are times when you cannot be truthful with a client. Skelton had previously testified to the same effect in another disbarment proceeding, in which Skelton offered testimony defending another lawyer who delayed telling a criminal defendant that charges had been dropped for a number of months to keep leverage over the client for the collection of a fee. Skelton's testimony established that his license had been reinstated, pending final disposition of the disciplinary proceedings. 8 The hearing ended with the arguments of counsel relating to the relative importance of Skelton's credibility. 80 This time there were no post-hearing briefs, and on June 18, 1998, the district court entered a final judgment vacating Perillo's conviction and her death sentence. The district court found: 81 Skelton's credibility is questionable. During his testimony in this proceeding he admitted to and defended his practice of sometimes lying to his clients. One such episode, which he attempted to explain but did not defend, is the basis for current State Bar disciplinary proceedings against him, in which his disbarment has been sought. 82 The district court phrased its findings to express doubt about the veracity of Skelton's representations that he never spoke to his client Fletcher about the facts of her case at her trial, or when he negotiated immunity for her during Briddle's trial, or when she returned to testify against Briddle and stayed in his home, or at any other time prior to the evening before her testimony in Perillo's second trial. The district court further noted the substantial personal relationship between Skelton and Fletcher, that had arisen out of Skelton's successful defense of Fletcher and his later participation as her surrogate father at her wedding. The district court agreed with our Court's prior statement that Skelton's close friendship with Fletcher, while not necessary to the decision, confirms the reality of the conflict of interest position in which Skelton placed himself. Perillo I, 79 F.3d at 451 n.13. 83 With respect to the actual conflict issue, the district court held that Skelton owed Fletcher a continuing duty of loyalty based upon his former and concurrent representation of Fletcher. Had Skelton impeached Fletcher's testimony, she could have been prosecuted for perjury. By not impeaching Fletcher's testimony, Skelton made a choice not to pursue a plausible defensive strategy that could have had significant impact with respect to Perillo's punishment. 84 The district court persuasively contrasted Skelton's decision to secure independent counsel for Fletcher on the potential for conflicts with Skelton's failure to likewise protect or inform his other client, Perillo, about either the details of Skelton's former representation of Fletcher or the details of Skelton's ongoing relationship with Fletcher, let alone her rights in the event of a conflict of interest. The district court further found, as a matter of fact, (1) that Skelton guided Fletcher's cross- examination with leading questions throughout, (2) that Skelton elicited details concerning his former representation of Fletcher, (3) that Skelton elicited testimony that Fletcher had met with the victim's mother about possibly helping in the prosecution of Briddle, (4) that Skelton made a careful record of the fact that he had not discussed the facts of the case with Fletcher before the previous evening, and (5) that Skelton's cross-examination revealed a host of extraneous bad acts by Perillo and essentially repeated the most damaging portions of the state's direct. Despite Perillo's persistent demands that Skelton cross-examine Fletcher regarding her more extensive involvement in the crime, which neither Skelton nor Pelton deny, Skelton did not attempt to discredit or minimize Fletcher's testimony in any way. The district court discounted Skelton's assertion that Fletcher wanted to help Perillo, citing Fletcher's testimony that she was pleased with the outcome of Perillo's trial. 85 With respect to adverse effect, the district court found that Skelton's conflict affected his performance as Perillo's counsel, both on the issue of guilt and on the issue of punishment. The district court identified at least three plausible alternative defensive strategies or tactics that could have been employed, but were not because of Skelton's conflict of interest. Those three were: (1) adducing evidence that Fletcher had blood on her jeans when arrested, indicating a more active role in the murders and thereby impeaching Fletcher's credibility; (2) pointing out to the jury that Perillo turned Fletcher and Briddle in to the police, giving Fletcher a motive for incriminating Perillo; and(3) impeaching Fletcher's testimony with her prior inconsistent statement to Denver Police that she last saw Banks when he let her off on the freeway, and that as far as she knew, Banks was alive and well. The district court also identified at least two points where Skelton's performance was impaired as a result of the conflict: (1) when Skelton permitted Fletcher to further incriminate Perillo by eliciting testimony from Fletcher regarding Perillo's alleged participation in a variety of extraneous offenses; and (2) when Skelton protected Fletcher from a rigorous cross-examination by reviewing his cross-examination with Fletcher prior to her testimony. The district court found that each of these examples of adverse effect was proven by a preponderance of the evidence. 86 The Director filed a motion for reconsideration which was denied. The Director's timely notice of appeal followed.