Opinion ID: 174527
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Failure to Investigate and Present Evidence of the Relative Dominance of Roger Brewington

Text: In Claim 9(hh) of his habeas petition, Middlebrooks argues that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to present mitigating evidence of Brewington's dominance over Middlebrooks in Majors's murder. Because the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals resolved this claim on the merits on postconviction review, it is properly before us. The state court declined to decide whether trial counsel's performance was deficient and rejected the claim based on lack of prejudice. Therefore, we review the performance prong of the claim de novo but the prejudice determination under AEDPA deference. Middlebrooks's sentencing jury did hear some evidence that Brewington was the leader in the murder. This evidence came in through Middlebrooks's videotaped confession and Dr. Smalldon's testimony. In the confession, Middlebrooks described Brewington as the leader, recounting that Brewington dragged Majors into the woods, tied his hands and beat him with brass knuckles, tortured his genitals, repeatedly dropped a knife on him, and urinated in his mouth. Middlebrooks explained that Brewington challenged him to stab Majors and that after refusing initially, Middlebrooks did so only after Brewington first stabbed Majors. Middlebrooks claimed that he stabbed Majors to prove himself to Brewington and to end Majors's ordeal. Middlebrooks also said that he did not stop Brewington from torturing Majors because he was afraid of Brewington. Dr. Smalldon confirmed that Middlebrooks claimed to have stabbed Majors under pressure from Brewington and that he feared Brewington. Dr. Smalldon also reported that, according to Middlebrooks, Brewington told Majors that he would sacrifice Majors to Satan. Based on his examinations, Dr. Smalldon further opined that Middlebrooks had a weak personality and could be egged on to commit crimes. In addition to advancing this evidence, trial counsel touched briefly on the relative-dominance theory of mitigation in closing argument, stating that [o]nly when Roger Brewington, bigger, not as old in the point of chronology, but when Roger Brewington shows up, that is when the trouble starts. J.A. at 926. During postconviction proceedings, Middlebrooks advanced several additional pieces of evidence supporting his relative-dominance theory of mitigation. These included (1) a 1987 report by clinical psychologist Kenneth Anchor who examined Brewington and wrote that Brewington had poor impulse control, unsocialized, aggressive behavior, and a volatile temperament and that Brewington showed no remorse for his role in Majors's murder, J.A. at 1488-89; (2) foster care records repeatedly citing Brewington's tendency to manipulate others and to dominate the other students, J.A. at 1491; (3) testimony by a police officer at Brewington's trial that Brewington appeared to be twenty or twenty-five years old and that Brewington showed no remorse for his actions; (4) a signed statement by Brewington swearing to serve the devil; (5) racist cartoons and writings by Brewington; (6) documentation that Brewington assaulted a juvenile detention center officer in 1987; (7) admissions from Brewington that he was under the influence of cocaine and had consumed a case of beer the day of the murder; and (8) Brewington's presentence report, reflecting the State's argument for a sentencing enhancement because it is obvious that the actual acts which the defendant admitted inflicting upon the victim showed him to be a leader and not a follower, J.A. at 1474. In addition, psychologist Dr. Jay Woodman testified at the postconviction evidentiary hearing based on a prison interview with Brewington that Brewington had a domineering personality and was impervious to peer criticism or peer pressure. Postconviction Hr'g Tr. at 129, 131 (Dist. Ct. Doc. 22, Addendum 6). Dr. Woodman, who had also examined Middlebrooks, testified that Middlebrooks would be much more likely to follow someone else's lead. Id. at 132. Middlebrooks's trial counsel testified at the postconviction evidentiary hearing that they knew that Brewington looked older than he was, that they were aware of Dr. Anchor's report, that they had seen some but not all of Brewington's social-history documents, and that they had reviewed the transcripts of Brewington's trial. Although counsel intended to emphasize at resentencing that, of the players involved, [Middlebrooks] was the lesser player, J.A. at 1240, they did not present all of the evidence of Brewington's relative dominance that they did uncover or seek more evidence because they were concerned that the State would call Brewington to the stand in rebuttal. That is, trial counsel made a strategic decision not to investigate and present further evidence of Brewington's dominant role in the murder. The record provides a basis for counsel's concern about provoking harmful testimony from Brewington. Brewington had given a statement to the police indicating that Middlebrooks told Majors to remove his clothes, that Middlebrooks made the decision to kill Majors, and that Middlebrooks was responsible for both stabs to Majors's body. See Middlebrooks, 2003 WL 61244, at . Moreover, Brewington maintained at his own trial that Middlebrooks had dropped the knife on Majors, seemed to enjoy himself while tormenting Majors, and did all of the fatal stabbing. In light of these facts, we conclude that Middlebrooks has not overcome the presumption that trial counsel's strategy was reasonable. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Middlebrooks makes a second, more compelling argument that his trial counsel rendered constitutionally ineffective assistance. At the postconviction hearing, Middlebrooks's trial counsel testified that they likely had not seen Brewington's presentence report and did not know that the State had requested a leadership enhancement for Brewington. Middlebrooks contends that had the jury been informed (1) that the State had sought a sentencing enhancement based on role at Brewington's sentencing, and (2) that Brewington received a life sentence, the jury would not have returned the death penalty. This argument is not without force. Under Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978), a sentencing jury is able to consider as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death. Id. at 604, 98 S.Ct. 2954 (emphasis omitted). Ohio has opened the field even more widely than required by Lockett, specifying as mitigating [a]ny other factors that are relevant to the issue of whether the offender should be sentenced to death. Ohio Rev.Code § 2929.04(B)(7). And the Supreme Court has recognized that some states treat the universe of mitigation evidence as encompassing information that a more culpable co-defendant received a lighter sentence. See Parker v. Dugger, 498 U.S. 308, 314-16, 111 S.Ct. 731, 112 L.Ed.2d 812 (1991) (describing fact that co-defendant pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as proper mitigation evidence in Florida); see also Meyer v. Branker, 506 F.3d 358, 375-76 (4th Cir.2007) (holding that states may, but are not constitutionally required to, permit consideration of such evidence as mitigating); Beardslee v. Woodford, 358 F.3d 560, 579 (9th Cir.2004) (same). Thus, counsel's failure to inform the jury that the prosecution viewed Brewington as the chief perpetrator and that Brewington received a life term might have constituted deficient performance. Furthermore, the argument is not vitiated by the fact that minors were ineligible for the death penalty in Tennessee at the time of Brewington's sentencing. See Tenn.Code Ann. § 37-1-134(a)(1). The jury might have judged Middlebrooks to be less death-worthy than Brewington, and it might have opted to sentence Middlebrooks to life to avoid the injustice of punishing the follower more severely than the leader. Even if Middlebrooks's counsel rendered deficient performance in failing to highlight the State's view of Brewington, however, we cannot say that that failure prejudiced Middlebrooks in the constitutional sense. The prosecution put on substantial evidence in support of a death sentence, emphasizing the evidence that Majors was tortured for hours before dying: bruises, lacerations, and burns covered his body; the perpetrators had urinated in his mouth; a knife had been dropped on him repeatedly; an X with a vertical line through it had been carved into Majors's chest while he was still alive; and the two stab wounds caused him to bleed to death while he was still conscious. Middlebrooks presented some evidence that Brewington was the leading figure in the murder (in addition to other mitigation evidence concerning Middlebrooks's mental health). The additional evidence that even the State considered Brewington the leader and that Brewington received a life sentence certainly would have buttressed Middlebrooks's case for life, but the issue is whether there is a reasonable probability that it would have led the jury ultimately to choose life over death. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals answered that question in the negative. It concluded that no degree of finger-pointing to the sixteen-year-old co-defendant would have affected the jury's verdict in light of the hours of torture to the young victim which ended when the petitioner viciously stabbed the victim. Middlebrooks, 2003 WL 61244, at . Constrained by AEDPA, we must affirm because we cannot say that the state court's application of Strickland's prejudice prong was unreasonable.