Opinion ID: 573090
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Youth.

Text: 47 Whether youth, in general, may be given full consideration under the Texas scheme has recently been decided in this circuit. In Graham v. Collins, 950 F.2d 1009 (5th Cir.1992) (en banc ), the court held that the Texas scheme allowed full consideration of youth as a mitigating circumstance. 48 Wilkerson says his youth is more than a chronological fact. Age represents a time and condition of life when a person may be most susceptible to influence and to psychological damage ... [and] lack[ing] the experience, perspective, and judgment expected of adults. Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 115-16, 102 S.Ct. 869, 877, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982). Youth, he urges, involves not only a measured span of time, but also the qualities of youth or mental age. Wilkerson alleges that he has impairments of a long-standing nature which affect his mental age and the quality of his youth. 49 When Penry v. Lynaugh, 832 F.2d 915, 925-26 (5th Cir.1987), aff'd in part, rev'd in part, and remanded, 492 U.S. 302, 109 S.Ct. 2934, 106 L.Ed.2d 256 (1989), was remanded to this court, we concluded, 882 F.2d 141 (5th Cir.1989), that the Texas special issues did not permit the jury to consider the mitigating effect of evidence concerning the defendant's retardation, arrested emotional development, and troubled youth. Penry was shown to have limited mental ability at a competency hearing before trial. There was testimony at that hearing that Penry was beaten as a child and behaved strangely as both a child and a teenager. At the guilt/innocence phase of his trial, the three testifying psychiatrists disagreed as to the degree and cause of Penry's mental limitations. But, all agreed that Penry had mental limitations and that his problems manifested themselves, among other ways, in an inability to learn from his mistakes. 832 F.2d at 917. Penry was over 20 years old at the time of the crime. 832 F.2d at 925 n. 8. 50 Wilkerson claims that his habeas corpus petition demonstrates that he suffers from a serious, long-standing mental impairment that was first diagnosed when he was seven years old. He alleges that a recent neuropsychological evaluation confirms that he is borderline mentally retarded and suffers from serious brain dysfunction and cognitive impairments, including severely impaired auditory processing and that he is functionally illiterate. Wilkerson argues that this recent evaluation is consistent with the results of a much earlier psychological evaluation performed when he was in the first grade. The state replies that Wilkerson's school report does not show him to be mentally retarded though it discloses his level of intelligence is low. The state points out that Wilkerson's strongest scores were in the test areas dealing with day-to-day problems. 51 More significant than the degree of difference in the mental and emotional state of the two defendants is the fact that the serious physical and psychological deficits asserted by Penry were established in the record. Here, Wilkerson's much more attenuated problems must be the subject of conjecture built upon a school report prepared when Wilkerson was in the first grade. No psychiatric testimony was offered at trial, as was done in Penry. Instead, Wilkerson refers to a recent psychological evaluation which he first tendered in support of his motion for a hearing in the state habeas corpus proceedings. 52 In De Luna v. Lynaugh, 890 F.2d 720, 722 (5th Cir.1989), we affirmed the denial of habeas corpus relief to a defendant who, at trial, had offered no evidence arguably within Penry. The defendant, De Luna, 21 years old at the time of the crime, made no claim of childhood abuse or substance use which significantly reduced his mental capacities nor did he offer evidence of mental retardation. We apply that same reasoning here. A defendant cannot claim factors exist in his case which are not covered by the Texas special issues unless he has offered proof of those factors at trial. To demonstrate that the trial court committed constitutional error in conducting his trial a defendant must afford that court the right to consider and rule on such proof. 53 In argument to the jury at the punishment phase, Wilkerson's trial counsel urged, without objection, his chronological age of nineteen years as a reason not to impose a death sentence. Obviously, counsel thought Wilkerson's age could receive full consideration under the Texas special issues. Nothing in the record indicates the jury failed to give due consideration to argument of counsel. 54 In Ex Parte Jewel Richard McGee, Jr., 817 S.W.2d 77 (Tex.Cr.App.1991), Texas rejected a claim that a 19 year old defendant's relative youth could not be considered by the jury under the future dangerousness special issue. See also Lackey v. State, 819 S.W.2d 111 (Tex.Cr.App.1991) (on rehearing). 55 It is not necessary for us to rule on whether the second special issue permits consideration of Wilkerson's mental age claim. We hold it was too conjectural to establish a federal constitutional basis for habeas corpus relief. 56