Opinion ID: 3134665
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to Present Sufficient Evidence of a Voluntary

Text: Manslaughter Defense Defendant argues that trial counsel was ineffective during the Goodman trial for failing to present sufficient evidence to support defendant’s voluntary manslaughter theory of defense. At the time of the offense, the homicide statute provided that a person commits voluntary manslaughter if at the time of the killing he either had an actual but unreasonable belief regarding the need for self-defense, or was acting under a sudden and intense passion resulting from serious provocation. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 9–2. (footnote: 1) Serious provocation is conduct sufficient to excite an intense passion in a reasonable person. Ill. Rev. Stat. 1985, ch. 38, par. 9–2. This court has recognized the following categories of provocation: substantial physical injury or substantial physical assault; mutual quarrel or combat; illegal arrest; and adultery with the offender’s spouse. People v. Garcia , 165 Ill. 2d 409, 429 (1995); People v. Chevalier , 131 Ill. 2d 66, 71 (1989). During the opening argument in the Goodman trial, defense counsel told the jury that defendant had committed the homicide charged, but maintained that defendant was guilty of voluntary manslaughter rather than murder. Later, however, the trial court denied defendant’s request that the jury be instructed on voluntary manslaughter, finding that the evidence was not sufficient to support the instruction. The trial court also directed defense counsel not to argue the theory of voluntary manslaughter in summation. On direct appeal in the Goodman case, defendant argued that his trial counsel was ineffective for presenting the voluntary manslaughter theory of defense. Defendant argued that this theory was not supported by either the law or the facts of the case. This court noted that trial counsel sought to demonstrate that defendant killed Goodman while defendant was acting under a sudden and intense passion resulting from serious provocation. Page , 155 Ill. 2d at 261. Trial counsel sought to establish the provocation form of the offense by showing evidence of mutual combat between defendant and Goodman. Page , 155 Ill. 2d at 261. Although defendant did not testify, trial counsel was able to elicit evidence, during cross-examination of one of the prosecution witnesses, about an altercation between defendant and Goodman. Trial counsel asked the witness about an inculpatory statement made by defendant prior to his formal confession. In that statement, defendant said that he and Goodman argued for 10 to 15 minutes over some photographs that Goodman refused to surrender. According to defendant, Goodman had taken photographs of defendant and Goodman having a homosexual relationship. Defendant said that he punched and stabbed Goodman when Goodman refused to move from the bathroom doorway, where the two were standing. In addition to this evidence, defendant, in his formal statement, said that he stabbed Goodman after Goodman began laughing at his request for the photographs. See Page , 155 Ill. 2d at 261. This court rejected defendant’s argument that trial counsel was ineffective for arguing voluntary manslaughter. We held that trial counsel’s decision to present the voluntary manslaughter defense was a matter of trial strategy, and that the record showed that defendant expressly consented to this strategy. Page , 155 Ill. 2d at 262-63. We found that, in light of the overwhelming evidence of defendant’s involvement in Goodman’s murder, defense counsel might reasonably have considered a voluntary manslaughter theory to be the only reasonable course of defense. Page , 155 Ill. 2d at 262. We then recounted the overwhelming evidence of defendant’s guilt. Defendant confessed in detail to the crimes. An eyewitness saw defendant at Goodman’s house shortly before Goodman disappeared. Other witnesses established that defendant was in possession of property belonging to Goodman, including his car and credit cards. Another witness testified that defendant had access to Goodman’s house shortly after he disappeared. See Page , 155 Ill. 2d at 266. In these post-conviction proceedings, defendant now argues that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to present sufficient evidence to support the voluntary manslaughter defense. Defendant has waived review of this argument by failing to raise it on direct appeal. See People v. Towns , 182 Ill. 2d 491, 503 (1998). Indeed, this argument is directly contrary to the argument defendant did raise on direct appeal, i.e. , that trial counsel was ineffective for presenting the voluntary manslaughter defense. Defendant, however, appears to argue that his claim is not waived because it is based on evidence outside the original trial record. This exception to the waiver rule in post-conviction appeals refers to those claims that the reviewing court on direct appeal could not have considered because the claim’s evidentiary basis was de hors the record. See People v. Whitehead , 169 Ill. 2d 355, 372 (1996), overruled in part on other grounds , People v. Coleman , 183 Ill. 2d 366 (1998). Defendant argues that there was evidence available to trial counsel to substantiate defendant’s voluntary manslaughter defense. Defendant claims that he has now “submitted police reports and evidence of other statements, from numerous individuals, substantiating and establishing the manslaughter defense, including: evidence that the pictures being argued over were evidence of a homosexual attack perpetrated by the victim and his friends; evidence that such tendencies and similar photographs were discovered concerning the victim (as well as additional material involving the defendants); and evidence that in addition to an altercation over the pictures, the victim attempted homosexual contact with the defendant.” The evidence that defendant cites in support of his argument is as follows. Defendant provides his own affidavit which states that “John Goodman had pictures of Gerald Feinberg. Cheyney [ sic ] told Gerald that if he helped Cheyney get Andy and Chuck, Cheyney would help Gerald get Goodman for what he had done to him. John Goodman and his friend had drugged Feinberg and performed unnatural sex acts on him. Feinberg was very upset about this, and wanted to get them back.” Defendant attaches the affidavit of Edward Torres, an investigator from the Capital Litigation Division. Torres interviewed Kenneth Berksen, who was once Gerald Feinberg’s cellmate at the Cook County jail. According to Torres’ affidavit, Berksen stated that Feinberg told him that, on the night of Goodman’s murder, Goodman made a sexual advance toward defendant, which enraged defendant and caused defendant to stab Goodman. In this regard, defendant also provides a report from the Olympia Fields police department which relates that Greg Wilson, a friend of Goodman, spoke to a man named John Dixon, who spoke to Feinberg, who said that “Goodman tried to make out with Pat Page, and then they stabbed him.” Defendant also cites numerous other reports from the Olympia Fields police department which discuss relations among defendant, Goodman, and Feinberg. One report recounts that a certain newspaper reporter gave the Olympia Fields police department a photograph of Goodman and defendant. The reporter received the photograph from a third party who had received it from the photographer. The reporter advised police that the source had stated that the photograph was taken one week before Goodman’s murder while on a weekend fishing trip in Illinois. Another report discusses information received from Greg Wilson. According to Wilson, defendant had been to Goodman’s home and had been videotaped in one of Goodman’s “home movies.” An additional report from the Olympia Fields police department describes an interview with Glen Rogers, a friend of Goodman. Rogers stated that he led a homosexual lifestyle which included a relationship with Feinberg, and that approximately one month prior to the interview, Goodman told Rogers that Goodman and Feinberg had a sexual encounter the previous weekend. One report discusses Goodman’s homosexual lifestyle and the police department’s possession of photographs of Goodman with Glen Rogers and an unidentified nude male. Another report describes a telephone call that the police department received from an individual named Bill Davis. Davis “wanted to know why the S&M angle of this homicide has not been followed up on in the news media.” According to Davis, Goodman “used to hang out” at a Chicago bar “frequented by ‘male hustlers’ with homosexual and S&M tendencies.” Davis recognized defendant and Feinberg as being patrons of this bar. The other evidence that defendant cites in support of his current argument references personal details of Goodman’s lifestyle. Defendant has attached an affidavit from Appolon Beaudouin, Jr., an investigator for the Capital Litigation Division. This affidavit references Beaudouin’s interview with Michelle Kury, defendant’s former girlfriend. According to Beaudouin, Kury stated that “Patrick told her that Goodman was into sex videos.” Defendant further cites a report from the Olympia Fields police department that lists property recovered from Goodman’s home. The list of property references “pornographic homosexual assorted photos” and a “copy of Gay Chicago Magazine for January, 87.” Defendant argues that, had trial counsel presented this evidence, he would have been entitled to a jury instruction on voluntary manslaughter. We hold that defendant has failed to make a substantial showing that he was prejudiced by trial counsel’s failure to present this evidence. Defendant’s argument is that this evidence would have supported a defense that he killed Goodman while acting under a sudden and intense passion resulting from serious provocation. Defendant’s theory of provocation appears to be that Goodman made unwanted sexual advances toward him on the night of the murder. The only evidence that could have supported this theory is (1) the affidavit from the Capital Litigation Division investigator which recounts that a former cellmate of Feinberg stated that Feinberg told him that, on the night of Goodman’s murder, Goodman made a sexual advance toward defendant which enraged defendant and caused defendant to stab Goodman; and (2) the police report which relates that Greg Wilson spoke to a man named John Dixon, who spoke to Feinberg, who said that “Goodman tried to make out with Pat Page, and then they stabbed him.” The remaining evidence is simply not evidence that Goodman made an unwanted sexual advance toward defendant on the night of the murder. Indeed, defendant’s own affidavit states that Goodman performed unwanted sexual acts on Feinberg, not on defendant. Even focusing on the evidence that could have supported defendant’s theory of provocation, and accepting all of this evidence as true, we hold that defendant has failed to make a substantial showing that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to present this alleged evidence of voluntary manslaughter. Initially, we note that this evidence is hearsay and would likely not have been admissible at defendant’s trial. Defendant has failed to provide an affidavit from Feinberg attesting to the information which has been attributed to him, and stating that he would have been willing to testify to this information at defendant’s trial. In any event, defendant’s theory is that he killed Goodman while he was acting under a sudden and intense passion resulting from serious provocation. Defendant argues that the provocation here is that Goodman made sexual advances toward him. This is not one of the categories of provocation that this court has recognized. See Garcia , 165 Ill. 2d at 429; Chevalier , 131 Ill. 2d at 71. Thus, even if evidence that Goodman made a sexual advance toward defendant on the night of the murder had been admitted at trial, this evidence would not have entitled defendant to a voluntary manslaughter instruction. Defendant, however, argues that, in People v. Saldivar , 113 Ill. 2d 256 (1986), and in People v. Lenser , 102 Ill. App. 3d 214 (1981), the defendants received jury instructions for voluntary manslaughter in cases similar to defendant’s case. Although Saldivar and Lenser involved fact scenarios where the victim made a homosexual advance toward the defendants, the question of whether the evidence was sufficient to entitle the defendants to a voluntary manslaughter instruction was not at issue. Also, in Saldivar , the stipulated evidence revealed that the defendant stated that, after the victim made the sexual advance, “a struggle ensued,” and the defendant stabbed the victim with a kitchen knife. Saldivar , 113 Ill. 2d at 260-61. Thus, it appears that the defendant received the voluntary manslaughter instruction on the basis of mutual combat, not the sexual advance. Defendant cites additional cases which he contends “discuss what could be termed the ‘homosexual panic’ defense and demonstrate the accepted use of this ‘defense’ to obtain a manslaughter instruction.” While these cases likewise involve fact scenarios where the victims made homosexual advances toward the defendants, the defendants’ theories of voluntary manslaughter were based on the unreasonable belief in the need for self-defense, not on serious provocation, which is the theory advanced by defendant in this case. See, e.g. , People v. Henne , 23 Ill. App. 3d 567 (1974); People v. Barnes , 23 Ill. App. 3d 390 (1974). These cases, therefore, are inapposite. For the foregoing reasons, we hold that defendant has failed to make a substantial showing that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to present the alleged evidence of voluntary manslaughter.