Opinion ID: 1587240
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Duct Tape Evidence

Text: In Bradley's first claim, he argues that trial counsel was ineffective by failing to fully examine the duct tape evidence and use it to properly formulate his defense theory. He asserts that the alibi defense chosen by counsel was flawed and that had trial counsel properly investigated the evidence, he would have realized that Mrs. Jones moved about the house and the garage before calling 911. During this time, Bradley argues, Mrs. Jones could have obtained a tire iron from her car in the garage and used it to finish off her husband. Had trial counsel understood and properly used this knowledge, Bradley maintains, he would have chosen the independent act theory and contended that Mrs. Jones was the actual murderer because she struck the final blow. On this claim, the postconviction court ruled that there was evidence to support the alibi defense and that counsel made a reasonable tactical choice in utilizing that theory. Further, the court found that use of the alibi defense was approved by Bradley himself. The court also found that counsel did use the independent act theory as a backup defense and noted that an independent act instruction was included in the instructions given to the jury at the conclusion of the guilt phase. [9] At the postconviction evidentiary hearing, Bradley's trial counsel, Alan Chipperfield, testified that he had been an attorney since 1976, worked as a public defender for twenty-two years, and handled many capital cases before Bradley's trial. He testified that Bradley's case was his seventy-fifth death case and the fifteenth death case he had taken to the penalty phase. Trial counsel had organized and given many seminars on how to handle death cases and was still on the steering committee for planning each year's seminar. When asked why he chose an alibi theory of defense over the independent act theory, trial counsel responded that since Bradley's wife planned to testify that Bradley was at home with her at the time of the murder, and the police had no physical evidence linking Bradley to the murder, counsel concluded that an alibi defense was the better theory. Trial counsel also explained that it would have been very difficult to present a defense that Bradley had assaulted but not killed the victim and that the victim's wife had done so, while at the same time arguing that he was not even at the house. Moreover, trial counsel explained that a palm print found at the scene did not match any of the defendants or the victim, which allowed the defense to focus on the possibility that an unknown person had committed the murder. Trial counsel also pointed out that the testimony of the McWhite brothers contained numerous contradictions, and he spent a good deal of time at trial arguing that the brothers were lying. The State had records for Bradley's cell phone showing that numerous calls had been made to the Jones home around the time of the murder, which the State contended showed the final planning of the murder. Trial counsel testified that he felt it was significant that he was able to present Bradley's sister, Cindy, to testify that she, and not Bradley, had used Bradley's cell phone that night to make the calls to her friend Mrs. Jones around the time of the murder. In support of her husband's alibi defense, Mrs. Bradley testified at trial that on November 7, 1995, her husband came home from work about 7 p.m., but left again at approximately 8 p.m. for about forty-five to fifty minutes to buy some snacks. According to Mrs. Bradley, her husband returned home with the snacks about 8:45 or 8:50 p.m. and they watched a movie from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Trial counsel also elicited testimony from Mrs. Bradley that Charles Shoup, a man for whom Bradley did landscaping work, called at about 8 p.m., as Bradley was leaving to go to buy the snacks. Mrs. Bradley testified that she answered the telephone and then handed it to her husband, who spoke with Shoup. According to Mrs. Bradley, the two did not talk long because Bradley told Shoup that he was just leaving and would call him back later. Trial counsel did not, however, rely solely on Mrs. Bradley's testimony. Trial counsel also called Shoup to testify. Although Shoup called the Bradley home often, he did not specifically remember calling on November 7, 1995, or talking to Bradley. Shoup's telephone records were submitted and showed a thirty-second call from Shoup's telephone to the Bradley home at 7:54 p.m. At trial, the defense called an investigator to testify that the distance between the McWhite brothers' residence and the Jones residence was twenty-two miles. The investigator testified that it would have been impossible for Bradley to have been home at 7:54 p.m. to talk to Shoup, then drive to the brothers' residence to pick them up, drive to the Jones' home, murder Mr. Jones, drop the brothers off, pick up snacks, and be back home by 8:45 or 8:50 p.m. to watch a movie. Due to the distance between the houses, trial counsel argued to the jury that forty-five minutes was not enough time for Bradley to have committed the murder. Evidence showed that all of the duct tape used in the assault was from the same roll. Tape from that same roll was found wadded up in the garage, and trial counsel argued to the jury that the wadded up tape was the tape used to bind Mrs. Jones' hands and that she must have left it in the garage when she went there to retrieve the tool she used to strike her husband. He also commented on the fact that the shower was wet and argued that there would have been no reason for the shower to be wet unless Mrs. Jones had taken a shower to wash off the blood she had gotten on herself after beating her husband to death. Since there was evidence presented at trial that an L-shaped wound was found on the victim's skull that was arguably inconsistent with being caused by the Zulu war stick, trial counsel employed his fall-back independent act theory during his final argument to argue that the L-shaped injury was incurred when Mrs. Jones struck Mr. Jones with the tire iron or some other metal object. Trial counsel also pointed out that spots found in the car in the garage, a teal Buick, tested positive for possible blood under a luminol test and asked the jury rhetorically, What did Mrs. Jones go into the car for? He argued that Mrs. Jones had the opportunity to get rid of the murder weapon before the police arrived by throwing it in the lake near her home and that, although it had been searched, the lake was large and the police could have missed it. Trial counsel further pointed out that according to the McWhites' testimony, the position that Mr. Jones was found in was different from that in which they left him. Moreover, during closing argument, trial counsel suggested that if the jury did not believe Bradley was at home with his wife, they should believe the McWhite brothers' testimony that their intent was only to rough up the victim and that Bradley's intent was the same. It is in the context of this trial scenario that we examine Bradley's claim that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate and use the duct tape evidence in his defense.