Opinion ID: 161898
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Fields's Arrest and Guilty Plea

Text: 8 Two days after the murder, on March 4, 1993, Fields was arrested and interrogated. 5 He told the police that, thinking Schem was not home, he went to her house to steal her television. When she surprised him with a gun, he jumped at her in self-defense, and they wrestled over the weapon. The struggle spilled out onto the sidewalk, where he pulled the gun from her hands. As he did so, it went off accidentally, killing her. 9 Fields was charged with first degree felony murder, and, in the alternative, first degree malice murder. On May 7, 1993, a Bill of Particulars was filed alleging three death penalty aggravators: that Fields previously had been convicted of a felony involving the use or threat of violence (prior violent felony); that Fields committed murder to avoid lawful arrest or prosecution (murdered to avoid arrest); and that Fields was a continuing threat to society (continuing threat to society). 10 Catherine Burton, an assistant public defender, was assigned Fields's case on March 24, 1993. Burton was a relatively new attorney in the Public Defender's Office (PDO), having been there only 21/2 years. Up until five days before trial, Burton was handling the case by herself. Her repeated requests for help did not elicit a response from the PDO. Burton was intimidated by the fact that the lead prosecutor in the case was Robert (Bob) H. Macy. 11 Originally, Oklahoma Judge James Gullet had set trial for October 4, 1993. Burton asked for a continuance so she could better prepare, and the trial was reset for Monday, February 7, 1994. On Wednesday, February 2, 1994, Tim Wilson, assistant public defender and chief of the PDO's litigation division, the second most experienced death penalty lawyer at the PDO, overheard in the lunch room that Burton was going to trial by herself on the Fields case. He sought Burton out and volunteered his help. She accepted, they talked over the pleadability of the case, and she asked him to argue the motions. 12 Burton thought she had a done deal with Judge Gullet: she would convince Fields to accept a blind plea and he would be sentenced to less than death. Burton drew this conclusion from various conversations with Judge Gullet. For example, at a pretrial conference, after hearing the prosecutor recite the facts, Judge Gullet said it did not sound like a death penalty case to him. At another time, Burton was speaking ex parte with Judge Gullet about another case, when he asked her to refresh him on the facts of the Fields case. After she did, he said, If the facts are as you say they are, I will very, very, very, seriously consider giving him life or life without parole. During that same conversation, he told her he was retiring. Burton took that statement to mean that the judge was indicating that he was more inclined to sentence Fields to less than death because the judge would not have to answer to the media or worry about re-election. 13 Everyone agreed, however, that Judge Gullet never promised or guaranteed anything to Burton or Fields. Judge Gullet stated on the record that not once did I advise [Burton] that I would consider one sentencing over another sentencing. Every time that she talked with this Court, what I would advise her, I would consider all three statutory ranges of punishment[: life, life without parole, and death]. 14 Burton relayed her impressions to Fields. She tried to convince him to enter a blind plea of guilty, but he was reluctant. She drew a line on her legal pad, six inches long, and marked off what she though his chances were of receiving each of the three possible punishments from Judge Gullet: his chance of getting death was half an inch, his chance of getting life was one inch, and his chance of getting life without parole was everything else 41/2 inches. She also advised Fields that if he went to trial before a jury she believed that he would get the death penalty, and that tactically he would be far better off entering a blind guilty plea to the court. At the hearing on the motion to withdraw the plea, Burton testified that the week before trial she pulled out all the stops to convince Fields to accept the blind plea. She persuaded all of Fields's sisters, including the one who raised him, to try to convince him to enter a blind guilty plea. On Sunday, February 6, 1994, the day before trial, Burton and Wilson visited Fields and she told him that while she was fully prepared to go to trial, they both recommended that he take the blind plea because it was his best chance to avoid a death sentence. Finally they convinced him, and on Monday, February 7, 1994, Fields entered the blind guilty plea in open court. Prior to entering his plea, both his trial counsel (Burton and Wilson) and Judge Gullet told Fields that if he pled guilty, he could be sentenced to life, life without parole, or death. 15 The sentencing hearing took place March 28 - 29, 1994. The State and the defense each put on ten witnesses. Fields testified and was cross-examined. To demonstrate the prior violent felony aggravator, the government called Police Detective Robert Cannon. Cannon testified that on March 20, 1986, Fields had snatched a purse from a 58-year-old woman who was walking through a parking lot with her daughter. The daughter chased and caught Fields, who, in breaking free of her grasp, threw her to the ground. The government then introduced, without objection, a certified judgment and sentence stating Fields was convicted of first degree robbery. 16 In mitigation, the defense showed that Fields's father physically abused his mother, his mother died when he was three years old, his oldest sister raised him in a loving family, he lived in a violent neighborhood, he abused alcohol since age eight, he used drugs since age nine, and he had been addicted to alcohol and cocaine for about twenty years. Dr. Phillip Murphy, a clinical psychologist, testified that Fields is somewhat anxious and agitated, feels tension when faced with anger, and has a propensity to panic in stressful situations. He stated that Fields has a balanced personality and a slightly below normal (dull-average) I.Q. In his opinion, Fields had his emotional needs met by the loving, tight-knit family in which he was raised, and would not be a continuing threat to society. 17 After closing arguments, Judge Gullet took a thirty-minute recess to consider the evidence and make a decision. He found that the State had proven the existence of all three aggravating circumstances ((1) prior violent felony, (2) murdered to avoid arrest, and (3) continuing threat to society) and that these aggravators far outweigh[ed] any mitigating circumstances. Thus, he sentenced Fields to death by lethal injection. The court's final pronouncement of its death sentence took place one week later, on April 7, 1994.