Opinion ID: 707605
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mitigating Effect of Nichols' Role in the Offense Beyond Scope of Special Issues

Text: 18 Respondent argues that the district court erred in concluding that the mitigating effect of Nichols' claimed nontriggerman status was beyond the scope of the special issues. Respondent asserts that the district court's conclusion is contrary to Fifth Circuit precedent and that, even if it were not, the court ignored a state procedural bar based on Nichols' failure to object to the charge on this basis or to request an anti-parties instruction at the sentencing phase of his state trial. 19 The Court of Criminal Appeals on direct appeal rejected Nichols' point of error complaining of the failure to give an anti-parties charge at the punishment phase of the trial because Nichols failed to request or object to the absence of such a charge. Nichols, 754 S.W.2d at 198-199. The Court recognized that the law of parties did not apply at the punishment stage, but held that the punishment special issues adequately covered the requirements of Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982), 21 and Green v. State, 682 S.W.2d 271 (Tex.Crim.App.1984), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1034, 105 S.Ct. 1407, 84 L.Ed.2d 794 (1985). 22 The Court found that 20 ... appellant was not egregiously harmed by the lack of such a charge. Although the jury was charged on the law of parties at the guilt stage, it cannot be presumed that they considered the same during punishment. To the contrary, the careful trial court, while not having the benefit of the Green decision at the time of trial, voir dired the jury on the fact that the law of parties, while applicable at guilt, was not applicable to the punishment special issues. Moreover, the special issues themselves incorporate the Enmund- Green requirements by directly focusing upon solely the defendant's culpability. 21 . . . . . 22 While a prophylactic 'anti-parties' instruction should be given at punishment, upon request, the absence of such an instruction in the instant case did not constitute egregious error or harm. Nichols at 199 (footnote omitted). 23 The state habeas court specifically rejected Nichols' claim that the punishment special issues, combined with the failure to give an anti-parties instruction at the punishment phase, unconstitutionally prevented the jury from adequately considering and giving favorable effect to his claimed nontriggerman status, on the basis that such claim was procedurally barred by Nichols' failure to object to the punishment charge on that basis or to request an anti-parties or other special punishment instruction in that respect. 23 The Court of Criminal Appeals determined that the state habeas court's findings were proper and denied relief on that basis. 24 We conclude that Nichols has not shown cause for his procedural default in this respect, and further has not demonstrated prejudice, so his claim in this regard is procedurally barred, as respondent asserted below. This holding is plainly mandated by our holding in Buxton v. Collins, 925 F.2d 816, 820-822 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 1128, 111 S.Ct. 1095, 112 L.Ed.2d 1197 (1991), as well as by the principles of Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977), and Engle v. Isaac, 456 U.S. 107, 102 S.Ct. 1558, 71 L.Ed.2d 783 (1982), and their progeny. 24 25 Moreover, and apart from any procedural bar, Nichols' claim fails on the merits. In Harris v. Collins, 990 F.2d 185, 189 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 3069, 125 L.Ed.2d 746 (1993), a case where a capital defendant's conviction may have rested on the law of parties, we specifically held that if the jury believed the defendant did not strike the fatal blow this was a matter they could consider as favorable to a negative answer to both the first and second punishment issues. See also Bridge v. Collins, 963 F.2d 767, 770 (5th Cir.1992), and Drew v. Collins, 964 F.2d 411, 421 (5th Cir.1992). 25 Further, in Stewart v. Collins, 978 F.2d 199, 201 (5th Cir.1992), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1951, 123 L.Ed.2d 656 (1993), we held that the jury at the punishment stage could adequately consider the defendant's asserted nontriggerman role in the capital murder and his lack of intent to kill as supportive of negative answers to each of the first and second punishment special issues. More recently, in Jacobs v. Scott, 31 F.3d 1319, 1326 & n. 13 (5th Cir.1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 711, 130 L.Ed.2d 618 (1995), we again held that the first and second punishment special issues adequately allowed the jury to give mitigating effect to claimed nontriggerman status, notwithstanding the absence of an anti-parties instruction at sentencing. 26 See also, e.g., Skillern v. Estelle, 720 F.2d 839, 843 (5th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 873, 105 S.Ct. 224, 83 L.Ed.2d 153 (1984); Johnson v. McCotter, 804 F.2d 300 (5th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1071, 107 S.Ct. 1262, 94 L.Ed.2d 124 (1987); Andrews v. Collins, 21 F.3d 612, 630-31 (5th Cir.1994). 26 We further note that no law of parties instruction was given at the punishment phase, and that neither the prosecution nor the defense ever argued or asserted that the law of parties applied at the punishment phase or that the finding of guilty meant that the jury in answering any of the punishment issues had to assume that Nichols fired the fatal shot or that Williams' conduct and state of mind, rather than Nichols', was the relevant consideration in answering any of the punishment issues. The defense stressed in argument at the punishment phase that Williams, not Nichols, fired the fatal shot. It is apparent, considering the entire record, from voir dire through sentencing, that all concerned operated on the assumption that the law of parties did not apply at sentencing. Moreover, as the court below found, some jurors in Nichols' first trial did take into account in voting for a negative answer to the second special issue their belief that Nichols was not the triggerman, notwithstanding that the law of parties was instructed on at the guilt/innocence stage and no anti-parties instruction was given at the punishment phase. We are convinced that there is no reasonable likelihood, Estelle v. McGuire, 502 U.S. 62, 72, 112 S.Ct. 475, 482, 116 L.Ed.2d 385 (1991); Johnson v. Texas, --- U.S. ----, ----, 113 S.Ct. 2658, 2669, 125 L.Ed.2d 290 (1993), that the punishment phase jury in Nichols' February 1982 trial applied or understood the punishment phase instructions or special issues as other than allowing them to consider Nichols' claimed nontriggerman status as a factor that could favor a negative answer to the first and second sentencing issues. The mitigating aspect of the evidence of Nichols' claimed nontriggerman status was within 'the effective reach of the sentencer.'  Johnson at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2669 (quoting Graham v. Collins, 506 U.S. 461, ----, 113 S.Ct. 892, 901, 122 L.Ed.2d 260 (1993)). 27 We hold that Nichols is entitled to no relief on his claim that the instructions and special issues at the punishment phase precluded the jury from adequately considering or giving mitigating effect to his claimed nontriggerman status, and that the district court erred in holding to the contrary.