Opinion ID: 2982938
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Trial & Sentencing

Text: The state prosecuted Sutton and his uncle, James Dellinger, for murdering their mutual friend, Tommy Griffin, and Griffin’s sister, Connie Branam, in February 1992. After joint trials, juries convicted Sutton and Dellinger for both murders. This habeas proceeding arises from Sutton’s conviction for Griffin’s murder. The state relied on circumstantial evidence to convict Dellinger and Sutton. The two defendants met Griffin at Howie’s Hideaway Lounge in Maryville, Tennessee, on the afternoon of February 21, 1992. According to the prosecution, what began as an afternoon of drinking and pool between friends devolved into a road-side fight, Griffin’s arrest for public intoxication, the burning of Griffin’s trailer, and Griffin’s disappearance following his release from jail. The evidence supported the following timeline of events: officers booked Griffin at 7:40 p.m.; Dellinger visited the jail forty-five minutes to an hour later to ask about Griffin’s release; the officers told Dellinger about the department’s four-hour detention policy for public-intoxication arrests; and then Dellinger returned with Sutton around 11:30 p.m. and bailed Griffin out of jail. Meanwhile, at around 9 p.m.—between Dellinger’s visits to the jail—a neighbor saw Griffin’s trailer catch fire moments after seeing Dellinger’s white truck speed by with two occupants. Griffin’s niece, Jennifer Branam, went to Dellinger’s trailer to ask about her uncle and, after a brief chat, asked Sutton and Dellinger to accompany her to Griffin’s trailer. The men declined, with Dellinger responding to the effect that they were already in enough trouble. Looking through her window after returning home, Branam saw Dellinger move a sheet-wrapped object that “resembled a shotgun” from his truck to the back of his wife’s Oldsmobile. Sutton and -2- Case No. 11-6180, Sutton v. Carpenter Dellinger left the trailer park in that car around 10 p.m. See State v. Dellinger, 79 S.W.3d 458, 462–65 (Tenn. 2002). No one saw Griffin after his release at 11:30 p.m. but, approximately twenty minutes after he left the station with Sutton and Dellinger, witnesses heard gunshots near the Blue Hole area of Little River. Three days later, passersby found Griffin’s body on the banks of Blue Hole, the victim of a gunshot wound to the head. Forensics linked 12-gauge shotgun shells lying next to Griffin’s body to shells found in Dellinger’s yard. Id. Connie Branam set out looking for her missing brother with Sutton and Dellinger on the afternoon of February 22. They stopped at the bar to ask about Griffin. Later that night, witnesses observed a fire in the woods near the Clear Fork area of Sevier County. A white truck with two passengers was spotted leaving those woods the following morning. Six days later, authorities found Connie Branam’s body, burned in her car, in the same wooded area. Investigators tied a rifle shell found in her car to a .303 rifle found in Dellinger’s trailer. Id. at 464–65. Relevant to this habeas petition, both the prosecution and the defense relied on time-ofdeath evidence. The State attempted to prove that Griffin died on the night of February 21 while still in the company of Dellinger and Sutton, and Sutton tried to prove otherwise. The district court’s opinion succinctly explains the time-of-death controversy. Dr. Eric Patrick Ellington (“Dr. Ellington”), the pathologist who conducted the autopsy on the remains of Griffin on February 25, 1992 testified that he does not make time-of-death determinations. Therefore, he did not provide a time of death. Dr. Ellington also clarified that the date on his report—February 24, 1992—was the date the body was discovered, and not the date or time of death. Although Dr. Ellington did not make a time-of-death determination, he was questioned about the factors that are considered when making such -3- Case No. 11-6180, Sutton v. Carpenter determinations. He explained that rigor mortis begins somewhere within 30 minutes to an hour after death and lasts up to 24 to 36 hours and then goes away. He specifically clarified that the time frames are not strict, but are an average length of time and are dependent on the ambient temperature and climatic conditions to which the body is exposed. Other facts which assist in determining the time of death, Dr. Ellington explained, are core body temperature, chemical test results on eyeball fluid, and the presence or absence of the stage of insect larvae. Dr. Ellington did not observe any injuries to Griffin’s body which could be attributed to carrion eaters or carnivores, did not take or have taken the core body temperature, and did not order any chemical tests performed on the fluid from the eyeball. Dr. Ellington then detailed some of his autopsy findings. Griffin’s pancreas had gross features of autolysis, meaning it had started to digest itself which happens shortly after death occurs. Both of Griffin’s lungs, his left adrenal gland, and his liver showed signs of decomposition, with the latter organ being more extensively decomposed and containing cystic areas which did not appear to be a postmortem change. Dr. Ellington also pointed out that the rate of decomposition is variable—the colder the climate the slower the rate of decomposition. The defense presented Dr. Larry Elmo Wolfe (“Dr. Wolfe”), the medical examiner and coroner in Union County, as its expert to testify about the victim’s time-of-death. Dr. Wolfe, a licensed medical doctor, though not board certified in any field of medicine, testified that Griffin died 24 to 36 hours before his body was discovered, thus placing his time of death between 3:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Sunday February 23, 1991. But the doctor conceded that, conceivably, Griffin died on Friday when the shots were heard. The State did not present any expert-time-of-death testimony during its case-in-chief given Dr. Ellington’s reluctance to determine a time of death, and the disqualification of its intended expert on the subject, Dr. Cleland Blake, due to a conflict of interest. Rather, on rebuttal, the State combated Dr. Wolfe’s estimate as to the time of death by presenting the testimony of Dr. Charles Harlan (“Dr. Harlan”) as to that issue. Dr. Harlan, a board-certified forensic pathologist, testified that he considered the reports from the first responders, the autopsy report, the photographs, the tissues on the microscopic slides, and the fact the victim was last seen alive around 11:30 p.m. on Friday, February 21, 1992, and estimated that Griffin died between 11:30 p.m. on Friday, February 21, 1992 and 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 22, 1992. -4- Case No. 11-6180, Sutton v. Carpenter During closing argument, the prosecution touted Dr. Harlan’s credentials and forensic experience as superior to those of Dr. Wolfe, who lacked training in pathology. The jury convicted Dellinger and Sutton. During the penalty phase of his trial, Sutton’s counsel presented evidence of Sutton’s employment history, his good behavior during a previous period of imprisonment, his parents’ divorce, and his reputation as a good family man who rescued his niece from a fire and supported his sister-in-law’s family while she recovered from surgery. A clinical psychologist also testified that Sutton dropped out of school in the eighth grade; had a low IQ; abused alcohol from an early age; and suffered mental and physical abuse as a child, stemming from his parents’ rocky relationship. Despite this mitigating evidence, the jury found sufficient aggravating circumstances under Tennessee law and sentenced Sutton to death. Dellinger, 79 S.W.3d at 465–66 (citing Tenn. Code Ann. § 39–13–204(i)(2)). The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) and the Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed Sutton’s conviction and sentence. Id. at 503.