Opinion ID: 759483
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Instructions on expert testimony, insanity, and parole ineligibility

Text: 138 Coe claims that certain matters of jury instruction--on the treatment of expert testimony, on the disposition of a defendant acquitted by reason of insanity, and on parole ineligibility--were improper. However, these claims are procedurally barred. Coe raised them for the first time in his third state motion for post-conviction relief. The state trial court held that these claims were procedurally barred, because Coe should have raised them earlier. The state trial court's statement suffices as a clear and express statement. 139 Coe points to the ambiguity of the court of appeals's affirmance, which treated the issues as part of a group that were waived, previously determined on direct appeal, and/or time barred. Given the trial court's treatment of the claims, however, this does not serve to undo the procedural bar. See Ylst v. Nunnemaker, 501 U.S. 797, 803, 111 S.Ct. 2590, 115 L.Ed.2d 706 (1991) ([W]here, as here, the last reasoned opinion on the claim explicitly imposes a procedural default, we will presume that a later decision rejecting the claim did not silently disregard that bar and consider the merits.). 140 Coe has appealed to the state supreme court, but if that court somehow has a basis to reverse this procedural finding (and Coe has given us no basis to conclude that it does), we would hold instead that Coe had not yet exhausted his state remedies. Even in the unlikely event that the supreme court clearly rejects the lower courts' finding of procedural bar (consistent with Ylst ), we would still reject Coe's claims, on the merits. 141 The trial court gave the following instruction on expert testimony: 142 Expert testimony has been introduced in this case. You should consider this proof in connection with all the other proof in the case, and give it the same consideration as all the other proof, governed by the rules and tests in arriving at the truth. However, expert testimony should be received with caution, while this testimony is sometimes the only means or the best way to arrive at the truth, yet, it is largely a field of speculation beset with many theories and uncertainties, and requires patient and intelligent consideration to determine its truthfulness or falsity. 143 The instructions for treating general witnesses were not as skeptical, mainly telling the jurors that they were the ultimate decisionmakers, and so should treat the evidence carefully. Another portion of the instructions, on lay witnesses, noted that untrained people are not always good at realizing when someone is mentally diseased or defective, which would seem to bolster the testimony of the experts. 144 Coe claims that this instruction on expert witnesses repudiated his expert testimony, which was an essential part of his insanity defense. He does not explain why he feels that this instruction affected his experts any more negatively than the state's. Given that both sides' evidence on Coe's insanity relied heavily on expert testimony, we will not conclude that this instruction unfairly prejudiced Coe. Coe did have the burden of proof on insanity, to be sure, but we cannot see how directing the jurors toward skepticism and patient and intelligent consideration served to deprive[ ][Coe] of the benefit of [the experts'] testimony. Quercia v. United States, 289 U.S. 466, 471, 53 S.Ct. 698, 77 L.Ed. 1321 (1933). 145 Furthermore, as the district court noted, Tennessee has long used such skeptical instructions. See, e.g., Edwards v. State, 540 S.W.2d 641, 647 (Tenn.1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1061, 97 S.Ct. 784, 50 L.Ed.2d 777 (1977). Though it recently softened this language, the Tennessee Court of Appeals noted that it was doing so only prospectively, and noted further that much psychological testimony is still speculative, State v. Givens, No. 01C01-9110-CC-00312, 1993 WL 31710, at  3 (Tenn.Crim.App. Feb.11, 1993). There is no basis under federal law for attacking these old Tennessee instructions, and so we cannot in this collateral proceeding overrule Tennessee's own law of instructions and evidence. 146 Regarding the insanity instructions, Coe argues that the jury was given extraneous information that biased it in favor of finding him guilty. That is, the jury was allegedly led to believe that if Coe were found not guilty by reason of insanity, he might be able to reenter society after a very short period of time. The instructions do, indeed, suggest this possibility, though the requisite safeguards (institutionalization and evaluation) are mentioned too. 147 Coe is correct that the Supreme Court has held, in the context of the federal system, that such instructions should generally not be given, unless, to take one example, a witness or prosecutor stated to the jury that the defendant will go free if acquitted by reason of insanity. Shannon v. United States, 512 U.S. 573, 587-88, 114 S.Ct. 2419, 129 L.Ed.2d 459 (1994). The Court also noted in Shannon that the opposite problem may arise, just as Coe has argued--a juror may vote to convict so as to prevent the insane acquitee from going free after the limited hospitalization and evaluation provided for in the statutes. Id. at 586, 114 S.Ct. 2419. Nevertheless, the Court counseled against working under the assumption that jurors will not follow their general instruction to base their decisions on the law and facts, and not on extraneous consequences. 148 For our purposes, the important fact is that the Court's decision in Shannon to limit these instructions came as both a federal prudential matter and a federal statutory one. Id. at 579-84, 114 S.Ct. 2419. Because bright-line rules of constitutional law were not at issue (in Shannon or any other case), Coe has not sufficiently demonstrated that the state courts in this case violated a principle of federal law that bound them. 149 As for parole eligibility, Coe argues that the jury should have been informed that, if he was given a life sentence for the murder, he would not be eligible for parole until he was 113 years old. That is, since his life sentences for rape and kidnapping meant that, under Tennessee law, he would have served 30 years on each sentence before he could be paroled, a life sentence for the murder would have been, effectively, a sentence of life without parole. Knowing this, Coe argues, the jury might have seen a life sentence as a more serious punishment, and therefore sufficient in lieu of a death sentence. 150 The sole grounding of the district court's rejection of this claim was that the claim was based on a new rule under Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989). We agree that Teague would foreclose this claim if the procedural bar did not, since Coe relies on a case, Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U.S. 154, 114 S.Ct. 2187, 129 L.Ed.2d 133 (1994), that was decided well after Coe's conviction became final in 1984, and was not sufficiently dictated by prior precedent. See O'Dell v. Netherland, 521 U.S. 151, 117 S.Ct. 1969, 1977-79, 138 L.Ed.2d 351 (1997) (holding that Simmons announced a new rule and retrospective application of the rule was barred by Teague ). 151 Coe's claim fails anyway. There is no reason to assume or conclude that the sentencing judge in Coe's alternative scenario would have ordered Coe to serve his three life sentences consecutively instead of concurrently. See TENN. R.CRIM. P. 32(c)(1) (according such discretion to the trial court). Put another way, a juror would not necessarily have been wrong to believe that a death sentence was the only way to make sure that Coe never left prison alive. 152 Coe cites Simmons, in which three justices (and three more, concurring in the result) held that a jury should have been told of the defendant's parole ineligibility. There are three important differences between that case and this one, however. First of all, the defendant in Simmons, if convicted, was definitely going to be ineligible for parole. Simmons, 512 U.S. at 156, 114 S.Ct. 2187. Second, the prosecution's appeal to the jury for a death sentence was explicitly based on the defendant's future dangerousness, with the implication being that only death would protect the public for sure. Id. at 162, 114 S.Ct. 2187. Finally, the defendant in that case specifically requested the instruction at trial. Ibid. Simmons therefore does not apply to this case.