Opinion ID: 772656
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Kroll's Contentions

Text: 12 Kroll insists that Massie is now incompetent to waive his habeas proceedings. Kroll asserts, in the petition which he seeks to file on Massie's behalf, that Massie's underlying conviction for murder is invalid because, inter alia, the trial court failed sua sponte to order a competency hearing for Massie despite numerous indications that Massie may have been incompetent to stand retrial in 1989. Kroll maintains that Massie was also incompetent at his 1965 murder trial and therefore evidence of that conviction should not have been admitted for special circumstance and aggravating evidence purposes at his 1989 retrial. Kroll also contends that appellate counsel, who represented Massie in his direct appeal of his 1989 conviction and thereafter, rendered ineffective assistance of counsel because counsel acquiesced in Massie's suicidal wishes and only raised the claims that Massie wanted raised even though those claims purportedly are legally frivolous. Kroll further alleges that appellate counsel were civil lawyers, inexperienced in capital habeas litigation; that appellate counsel's opening brief was so deficient that the California Supreme Court instructed counsel to raise every arguable issue; and that despite this order, counsel filed a supplemental brief challenging the Supreme Court's order to force counsel to raise claims not desired by the client. 13 Kroll includes numerous documents that allegedly show that: Massie was abused and neglected as a child; Massie was twice gang-raped in prison as a young man; Massie has a lengthy history of serious mental problems dating from before the eighth grade, continuing through his 1965 murder trial, through his 1979 trial for Naumhoff's murder, and through his 1989 retrial; Massie has been diagnosed as schizoid, manic depressive, perhaps schizophrenic; Massie was prescribed anti-psychotic medications during the 1979 trial and 1989 retrial; Massie contemplated suicide on more than one occasion during the 1989 trial; jail staff moved Massie to a special observation unit during the 1989 trial; counsel informed the trial judge in the 1989 retrial that a competency hearing would be appropriate and unless Massie were returned to regular jail housing, the attorney-client relationship would be disrupted; and the trial judge in the 1989 retrial ordered Massie returned to regular jail housing even though jail staff considered Massie a severe suicide risk.