Opinion ID: 2323099
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence related to the penalty phase

Text: The postconviction proceedings revealed that several witnesses could have provided testimony to strengthen Swan's mitigation case. The State rebutted some of that evidence. Documentation also was introduced at the postconviction proceedings. We now summarize that evidence.
Griffin is Swan's maternal half brother; that is, Patricia Swan was both Swan's and Griffin's mother. Griffin, who is six years younger than Swan and had not seen Swan in approximately twenty years, testified that defense counsel did not contact him at the time of Swan's trial. Griffin testified about the conditions under which he and Swan grew up. Specifically, Griffin and Swan were subjected to relentless mental, verbal, and physical abuse, they were locked up in rooms ... like caged animals, and the only consistent part of their lives was merciless beatings. Griffin also testified that Swan, as Griffin's older brother, tried to protect Griffin from the beatings. Griffin recalled that Swan was once punished for that effort by being hit in the head with a cast iron skillet. Griffin recalled that Swan was asleep for a long time after that blow to the head. Griffin and Swan were subjected to sexual abuse as well, and Griffin's mother and her friends often abused drugs and alcohol in front of Griffin and Swan.
Griffin-Surratte is Swan's step-aunt. Her brother is Chuckie Griffin, the father of Charles E. Griffin, Jr. Griffin-Surratte described her brotherSwan's stepfatheras follows: He's violent. He[] does drugs even to this day. He drinks. He loves to beat women. He's a mean, mean, nasty person. Griffin-Surratte testified that Chuckie Griffin was a member of a local motorcycle gang. Griffin-Surratte described Patricia SwanSwan's motheras follows: She's mean. Mean, nasty, always liked to fight. Was not a good mother at all. According to Griffin-Surratte, Patricia Swan was a drug user and hung around members of local motorcycle gangs. Griffin-Surratte recalled that she would often visit the apartment shared by Chuckie Griffin, Patricia Swan, Ralph Swan, and later Charles Griffin, Jr. The apartment was often the venue for wild drug parties. At those parties, Griffin-Surratte explained, there was drugs being done, a lot of fighting, a lot of hitting, a lot of yelling. Swan witnessed these activities. Griffin-Surratte also described instances when Patricia Swan physically abused Swan, recalling that she always observed bruises or cuts on Swan's head or body.
Reverend Weaver was the senior pastor of the Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Middletown, Delaware and Swan's friend when the two were in the second and third grade. Weaver testified that during their friendship he observed bruises on Swan's body, bruises Weaver described as very significant. Weaver recalled that Swan would show them and tell him that he received them from Patricia Swan.
Swan's father, Tucker, who had testified at the penalty phase of Swan's trial, provided additional testimony at the postconviction proceedings. Tucker testified that he had seen Patricia Swan under the influence of drugs and alcohol while she was pregnant with Swan, and that Patricia Swan associated with members of a local motorcycle gang, including Griffin, while she was raising Swan. When Swan was still a young boy, Tucker observed Patricia Swan physically abuse Swan and that he also observed bruises on Swan's body. Swan told Tucker that Griffin physically abused him too and that Patricia Swan had once hit Swan in the head with a frying pan. Tucker testified that he did not provide this information to the jury at the trial because he was never asked about it.
Armstrong is a board certified neuropsychologist, who administered a full battery of neuropsychological tests to measure Swan's brain function. Armstrong concluded from those tests that Swan exhibited a diffuse pattern of brain injury, consistent with fetal alcohol exposure, childhood abuse and neglect, and head injuries. Armstrong testified that those neuropsychological deficits impaired Swan's functioning in numerous ways and that those deficits intensify when Swan is under physiological or psychological stress. Swan's deficits, Armstrong testified, were present in 1996. Armstrong also administered other tests, from which she concluded that Swan was not attempting to exaggerate his symptoms.
Dudley is a board certified psychiatrist, who conducted a forensic evaluation of Swan that included clinical interviews with Swan and several of his family members. Dudley believed that Swan provided reliable information in the interviews, and concluded that Swan's childhood history was among the worst and most clinically significant physical and psychological abuse he has encountered. Based on his observations, Dudley opined that Swan was tortured instead of nurtured during his childhood. Dudley diagnosed Swan with post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic depression, and cognitive disorder NOS, and explained that those disorders impaired Swan's judgment and decision-making.
The State presented Steven Samuel to rebut Armstrong's and Dudley's conclusions. Samuel, a licensed psychologist in the state of Pennsylvania, interviewed Swan twice and administered a number of tests. Samuel concluded that Swan's scoring profile was consistent with malingering, that is, that Swan tried to look very, very disturbed on the test[s]. Samuel opined that he could not agree with Armstrong's and Dudley's conclusions because Swan demonstrated malingering, and had been in prison a long period of time before the tests were administered. Samuel also concluded that he could not definitively opine about Swan's condition at the time of the murder: [Swan's] records are replete with information about his personality, his character, his legal history and so on, but there's nothing to support the conclusion that he had a psychiatric or a cognitive disorder at [the] time [of the murder]. As for the alleged neuropsychological deficits, Samuel opined: I don't believe those deficits would have interfered with his behavior on that day.
Swan presented documents showing that he lived in an unstable home during his youth. For example, Swan attended three different kindergartens and eleven different schools in eleven years. After missing numerous days of school in the first and second grade, Swan was required to repeat the second grade. The documents also demonstrated a pattern of inconsistent achievement. Texas Department of Corrections records from 1993 revealed that Swan seem[ed] to be [at a] [h]igh [r]isk for suicidal ideation. Those records also revealed that Swan had his skull x-rayed after being struck in the back of the head with a tire tool.