Opinion ID: 430956
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The United States Supreme Court's Decisions in the Evans Case

Text: 20 The procedural history of Evans' challenges to the constitutionality of Alabama's capital sentencing procedures, necessary to provide the context for the decisions on which the State relies, is as follows. 21 Evans and petitioner were both sentenced to death under the 1975 Alabama death penalty statute. 13 In a joint appeal, pursuant to the automatic appeal provision of the death penalty statute, 14 Evans and petitioner challenged the constitutionality of their sentencing proceedings. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed their convictions and sentences, Evans v. State, 361 So.2d 654 (1977), and the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed Evans' conviction and sentence, 361 So.2d 666 (1978). 15 Evans' petition for writ of certiorari to the Alabama Supreme Court was denied. Evans v. Alabama, 440 U.S. 930, 99 S.Ct. 1267, 59 L.Ed.2d 486 (1979). 22 Evans then filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama claiming, inter alia, that the death penalty statute's preclusion clause and sentencing procedures were unconstitutional. After an evidentiary hearing, the district court rejected Evans' claims on their merits and denied the petition. Evans v. Britton, 472 F.Supp. 707 (S.D.Ala.1979). Evans appealed, and the former Fifth Circuit reversed the district court on the grounds that the statute's preclusion clause was unconstitutional and that the harmless error rule did not apply. Evans v. Britton, 628 F.2d 400 (1980) (per curiam), modified on rehearing, 639 F.2d 221 (1981) (per curiam). The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeals on the preclusion clause issue. Hopper v. Evans, 456 U.S. 605, 102 S.Ct. 2049, 72 L.Ed.2d 367 (1982). 23 The judgment of the United States Supreme Court reinstated Evans' conviction, but his challenges to the statute's sentencing procedures remained to be decided by the Court of Appeals on remand. In July of 1982, however, after briefing and before a decision, Evans dismissed his attorneys and filed a motion with the Court of Appeals seeking leave to dismiss his appeal. This Court dismissed the appeal on October 19, 1982. 24 On October 22, 1982, the State filed a motion requesting that the Alabama Supreme Court set an execution date for Evans. Evans filed a petition in response attacking the constitutionality of the statute's sentencing procedures and requesting a new sentencing hearing. The Alabama Supreme Court denied Evans' petition, Evans v. State, 432 So.2d 463 (1983), and set Evans' execution for April 22, 1983. 25 On April 19, 1983, Evans filed a petition for certiorari in the United States Supreme Court. Later the same day, Evans filed an application for a stay of execution pending the disposition of his petition for certiorari. On April 21, 1983, Justice Powell, acting in his capacity as Circuit Justice and with the concurrence of six other members of the Court, denied Evans' application for a stay, Evans v. Alabama, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 1735, 75 L.Ed.2d 921, stating that [Evans'] constitutional challenges to Alabama's capital-sentencing procedures have been reviewed exhaustively and repetitively by several courts in both the state and federal systems, --- U.S. at ----, 103 S.Ct. at 1736, 75 L.Ed.2d at 923, and concluding that [t]here is not 'a reasonable probability that four members of this Court would find that this case merits review.'  Id. (quoting White v. Florida, 458 U.S. 1301, 103 S.Ct. 1, 73 L.Ed.2d 1385 (1982) (Powell, J. in chambers)). 26 Approximately seven hours before his scheduled execution, Evans filed a second habeas petition in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama again claiming, inter alia, that the statute's sentencing procedures were unconstitutional. The district court ordered a temporary stay of execution. The State sought an order from this Court vacating the stay, which was denied. The United States Supreme Court granted the State's application to vacate the district court's stay of execution. Alabama v. Evans, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 1736, 75 L.Ed.2d 806 (1983) (per curiam). Evans was executed on April 22, 1983. 27 The State concedes that the decision in Evans v. Alabama, denying Evans' application for a stay pending the disposition of his petition for certiorari, is not a binding decision on the merits of Evans' constitutional challenges to Alabama's sentencing procedures. We agree, 16 and hold that this decision does not decide the merits of petitioner's claims before this Court. 28 The State claims, however, that the decision in Alabama v. Evans, granting the State's application to vacate the stay of execution, is such a determination on the merits of Evans' sentencing procedure claims and controls petitioner's present challenge to Alabama's capital sentencing procedures. We disagree. 29 The decision in Alabama v. Evans does not support the State's argument that it was intended as a binding decision on the merits of Evans' sentencing procedure claims. First, we note that the opinion in Alabama v. Evans was rendered as a ruling on an application to vacate a stay. 17 Second, we find no textual support in the opinion itself for the State's argument. The merits of Evans' sentencing proceeding claims were not discussed by the Court in Alabama v. Evans. Instead, the Court quoted Justice Powell's statement in Evans v. Alabama, that Evans' constitutional challenges to Alabama's capital-sentencing proceedings have been reviewed exhaustively and repetitively by several courts in both the state and federal systems, --- U.S. at ----, 103 S.Ct. at 1738, 75 L.Ed.2d at 808, and noted that: 30 [T]he District Court found that counsel for petitioner conceded that all issues raised in the petition were raised in the petition previously filed before [the United States District Court] except for the issue asserted in section 12 of the petition. Thus, in the latest petition for habeas corpus, all but one of the grounds presented have been presented before and rejected. --- U.S. at ----, 103 S.Ct. at 1738, 75 L.Ed.2d at 808-809 (emphasis supplied). 31 The Court granted the State's application to vacate the stay on the grounds that: 32 [Evans'] petition for writ of habeas corpus filed on April 21, 1983, thus seeks to litigate several issues conclusively resolved in prior proceedings and a claim never before raised. This new claim, challenging the validity of one of the aggravating circumstances found to exist in this case, is a question of law as to which no further hearing is required. --- U.S. at ----, 103 S.Ct. at 1739, 75 L.Ed.2d at 809 (emphasis supplied). 33 The similarity between the Court's analysis of Evans' sentencing proceeding claims in Alabama v. Evans and Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1, 83 S.Ct. 1068, 10 L.Ed.2d 148 (1963), is apparent. 18 Under Sanders, an issue may be conclusively resolved for purposes of a successor habeas petition if it has been presented before and rejected on its merits, and the ends of justice would not be served by reaching the merits of the successor petition. Id. at 15, 83 S.Ct. at 1077. The petitioner's failure to appeal an adverse ruling on his prior habeas petition is a factor considered in the ends of justice calculus of the Sanders test. Johnson v. Wainwright, 702 F.2d 909 (11th Cir.1983); Bass v. Wainwright, 675 F.2d 1204 (11th Cir.1982). A court's refusal to entertain an issue raised in a state prisoner's successor habeas petition on the ground that the issue has been conclusively resolved because it has previously been presented, decided on its merits, rejected, and on appeal from that rejection voluntarily dismissed, is clearly not a decision on the merits. 19 Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. at 18, 83 S.Ct. at 1078. 34 In addition to the procedural posture of Alabama v. Evans as a decision on an application to vacate a stay, the lack of discussion of Evans' sentencing procedure claims, and the similarity between the Court's analysis of Evans' sentencing procedure claims and principles governing successor habeas petitions, we find further evidence that the decision was not intended as one on the merits of Evans' sentencing procedure claims in Justice Marshall's dissent: The execution of Evans prior to a decision of his claims on the merits will ensure that such certainty [of the legality of Evans' execution] is never achieved. --- U.S. at ----, 103 S.Ct. at 1740, 75 L.Ed.2d at 812 (emphasis supplied). 35 In sum, we find no evidence in Alabama v. Evans to support the State's claim that the United States Supreme Court reached the merits of Evans' sentencing procedure claims and determined that the Alabama capital sentencing procedures were constitutional. Therefore, since petitioner, unlike Evans, 20 appeals from the denial of his first habeas corpus petition, we hold that the decision in Alabama v. Evans does not preclude our consideration of the merits of his challenge to the 1975 Alabama death penalty statute's sentencing procedures. 36