Court Opinion

ID: 9634063
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 12:20:07.010213+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:29:00.982775
License: Public Domain

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority regarding Corcoran’s Sixth Amendment claim, and I join that part of the opinion. However, I disagree with my colleagues’ conclusion that Corcoran was competent to waive post-conviction review.
No one contests that Corcoran suffers from a mental illness. This is clear from his delusion that prison guards torture him *715daily with an ultrasound machine, his conversations with individuals who are not there, and his delusion that he suffers from an involuntary speech disorder. The question now is whether the Indiana state court was reasonable in finding that despite his illness, Corcoran was able to make a rational choice with respect to waiving any further appeal of his death sentence. See Ward v. Sternes, 334 F.3d 696, 703 (7th Cir.2003). The Indiana Supreme Court determined he was able to make a rational choice — one not driven by a desire to escape his delusions — based on three reasons. Because two of those reasons are directly contradicted by the record, however, I believe the Indiana court’s decision finding waiver under these circumstances was unreasonable error.
Under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), the court can grant a writ of habeas corpus only where state court adjudication: (1) “resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court”; or (2) “was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” See also Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 376, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). Corcoran must offer clear and convincing evidence to rebut the presumption that the Indiana Supreme Court’s competency finding was correct. § 2254(e)(1).
The Indiana Supreme Court correctly identified Rees as the governing standard. Rees v. Peyton, 384 U.S. 312, 314, 86 S.Ct. 1505, 16 L.Ed.2d 583 (1966) (per curiam). In Rees, the Supreme Court articulated the following legal standard to be applied when a death row inmate seeks to forego further proceedings: “whether he has capacity to appreciate his position and make a rational choice with respect to continuing or abandoning further litigation or on the other hand whether he is suffering from a mental disease, disorder, or defect which may substantially affect his capacity in the premises.” Id. Although the Indiana Supreme Court used the correct standard, it made an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented.
The three experts who testified in the competency hearing unanimously concluded that Corcoran suffers from paranoid schizophrenia that renders waiver of further appeal of his death sentence impossible because the illness prevents him from making rational decisions. Corcoran v. State, 820 N.E.2d 655, 660, aff'd on reh’g, 827 N.E.2d 542 (Ind.2005) (Corcoran III.) All three experts interviewed Corcoran for several hours, reviewed his medical and prison records, his pre-sentencing memorandum, numerous prior mental health evaluations, and correspondence between Corcoran and his sister. Additionally, one of the experts conducted interactive and written tests. They all agreed that Cor-coran was not capable of making a rational waiver decision because he suffered from paranoid delusions and those served as the basis of his decision to waive postconviction relief. The doctors explained that Corcoran suffered from the delusion that prison guards tortured him with sound waves causing his body to twitch and the delusion that he suffered from an involuntary speech disorder. See Competency Hr’g Tr. 12, Oct. 21, 2003.
Despite this evidence, the Indiana court concluded that Corcoran had the capacity to make a rational choice on the following grounds:
Corcoran ... made no statement to any of the experts evaluating him indicating that he wished to end his appeals in order to escape his paranoid delusions. Corcoran’s prison medical records and the testimony of each expert indicated that his psychotic symptoms were being *716controlled through various psychiatric medications. Corcoran himself spoke directly to his reasons for not pursuing post-conviction review and the contention that his delusions were prompting his actions at the post-conviction hearing.
Corcoran III, 820 N.E.2d at 660 (footnote omitted).
The problem with the conclusion that Corcoran had the capacity to make a rational choice is that two of the court’s three reasons are directly contradicted by the evidence presented. See Mendiola v. Schomig, 224 F.3d 589, 592 (7th Cir.2000) (“If a state court’s finding rests on thin air, the petitioner will have little difficulty satisfying the standards for relief under § 2254.”). First, the court reasoned Cor-coran never told any of the experts that he wanted to die to escape his delusions. That is not true. Second, the court stated that each expert indicated Corcoran’s medication controlled his psychotic symptoms. That also is not true. The court also relied on Corcoran’s own testimony, but the court failed to consider Corcoran’s testimony in light of his delusions.
The court’s first reason for finding Cor-coran capable of making a rational choice was that Corcoran never told any expert that he wanted to die to escape his delusions. This statement was wrong, however, because Corcoran did tell Dr. Kaplan that he wanted to die in order to escape the delusions, some of which he said caused him pain.1 Dr. Kaplan explicitly testified that during his meeting with Cor-coran, Corcoran told him he wanted to be put to death because “he wanted to be released from the quote, unquote, pain and suffering of his involuntary speech disorder which really doesn’t exist.” Competency Hr’g Tr. 19. The experts all agree that Corcoran does not suffer from a speech disorder, but that his delusion causes him to believe he does. Id. at 62.
Second, the record directly contradicts the court’s finding that each expert indicated that Corcoran’s medication controlled his psychotic symptoms. Dr. Kap-lan explicitly testified that Corcoran’s medication did not have a significant effect on controlling his paranoia and delusions. Id. at 34. Moreover, Dr. Kaplan was the only one of the three experts who was asked to testify about the effects of Cor-coran’s medication. When he did, Dr. Kaplan acknowledged that Corcoran bene-fitted from taking his antipsychotic medications, but stated that even when medicated “it didn’t appear that at any time he was not paranoid or not delusional.” Id. at 34. Dr. Kaplan further testified that medical records revealed that even after Corcoran took a “very high dose” of an antipsychotic medication in prison he continued to suffer from paranoia and auditory hallucinations. Id. at 24. I also note that the post-conviction trial court had made the same incorrect finding that testimony at the hearing showed that Corcor-an’s medication controlled his symptoms. This is significant because the Indiana Supreme Court gave a high level of deference to the trial court’s conclusion. Corcoran III, 820 N.E.2d at 660.
The Indiana Supreme Court unreasonably concluded that Corcoran had the abili*717ty to make a rational choice based on these two erroneous factual premises. “[Ejven a partial reliance on an erroneous fact finding can support a finding of unreasonableness.” Ben-Yisrayl v. Buss, 540 F.3d 542, 550 (7th Cir.2008) (discussing Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 528, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003)); see also Mendiola, 224 F.3d at 592-93 (state court’s finding should be supported by the record). This leaves only the third reason provided by the court — Corcoran’s own testimony.
The Indiana Supreme Court stated that based on Corcoran’s testimony at the competency hearing, it was clear that Corcor-an understood the nature of the proceedings, the responsibilities of counsel, and the nature of the appellate procedure. Corcoran III, 820 N.E.2d at 661. The court relied very heavily on Corcoran’s statement that, “I want to waive my appeals because I am guilty of murder. I think that I should be executed for what I have done and not because I am supposedly tortured with ultrasound or whatever ... I believe the death penalty is a just punishment for four counts of murder,” as an indication that Corcoran could appreciate his position and make a rational choice. Id. at 660-61.
The majority reasons that the Indiana Supreme Court was entitled to believe Corcoran’s contention that he wished to waive further proceedings because of his guilt, and I agree that ordinarily, the Indiana court’s decision to rely on one person’s testimony over other people’s testimony would be one to which we would defer. See Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390, 400-01, 113 S.Ct. 853, 122 L.Ed.2d 203 (1993) (“upon habeas corpus the court will not weigh the evidence”) (citation omitted). But this is not a case where the court picked the opinion of one expert who believed Corcoran could make a rational decision over an expert who disagreed. Indeed, the State presented no expert who contradicted the conclusions of these three experts. Rather, the person whom the court credited was a person diagnosed with a severe mental illness that causes delusions, who told a doctor and his sister he wanted to die to escape those delusions. The medical experts who evaluated Cor-coran testified he purposely downplays his illness and is intelligent enough to know how to hide his psychosis. In fact, Dr. Parker stated that Corcoran “would rather be executed than admit that schizophrenia might be contributing to his desire to die.” Those experts all testified that Corcoran’s illness has a direct bearing on his thought process and renders him incapable of making a rational choice. The Indiana Supreme Court acknowledged the experts’ testimony regarding Corcoran’s delusions but it did not discuss his decision to waive post-conviction review in light of his delusions.2
But even if the Indiana Supreme Court could have relied on its own judgment over the opinions of the experts in this case, the factual inaccuracies of the court’s two other reasons render its entire finding infirm. See, e.g., Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 340, 123 S.Ct. 1029, 154 L.Ed.2d 931 (2003) (“A federal court can disagree with a state court’s credibility determination and, when guided by AEDPA, conclude that the decision was unreasonable or that *718the factual premise was incorrect by clear and convincing evidence.”).
The court determined that medication controlled Corcoran’s delusions and that the only reason Corcoran himself had ever given for wanting to waive further proceedings was his guilt. This might be a different ease if those determinations were true. Because both determinations are directly contradicted by the record, however, I believe the Indiana Supreme Court’s finding is not “fairly supported by the record”; instead, the record clearly contradicts it. Cf. Demosthenes v. Baal, 495 U.S. 731, 735, 110 S.Ct. 2223, 109 L.Ed.2d 762 (1990) (per curiam) (upholding state court finding that inmate was competent to waive his right to pursue post-conviction relief where three psychiatrists determined he was competent). “The [habeas] standard is demanding but not insatiable ... [d]eference does not by definition preclude relief.” Miller-El v. Dretke, 545 U.S. 231, 240, 125 S.Ct. 2317, 162 L.Ed.2d 196 (2005) (citation omitted).
For this reason, I would reverse the district court’s finding that Corcoran was competent to waive his post-conviction proceedings and grant Corcoran a conditional writ of habeas corpus requiring litigation of Corcoran’s post-conviction petition in state court. I respectfully dissent.

. I also note that Dr. Haskins testified that Corcoran wanted to bring about his own death "[i]n order to escape from his supposed ... persecution and the control of the guards and his discomfort over this delusion about speaking involuntarily.” Competency Hr’g Tr. 68. It is not clear from Dr. Haskins’s testimony whether he learned of these reasons only through Corcoran's correspondence or through his interview with Corcoran or a combination of both. But even with Dr. Has-kins's testimony aside, Corcoran clearly told Dr. Kaplan he wished to die to escape his involuntary speech disorder.

. Corcoran’s own words later in the competency hearing further belie the conclusion that he understood and rationally made the choice to waive post-conviction relief. At the close of the hearing, Corcoran asked the judge what would happen if he found Corcoran incompetent. The judge explained that the court would then proceed on the post-conviction petition filed by his attorneys. If Corcor-an understood his position and possessed the ability to make a rational choice among his options, it would seem he would have understood the proceedings that had just taken place.