Court Opinion

ID: 9406674
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-07-03 04:10:02.233057+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:20:32.344812
License: Public Domain

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS
                                     OF TEXAS

                                      NO. WR-76,324-02

                      EX PARTE STEVEN LYNN LONG, Applicant

           ON APPLICATION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS
    CAUSE NO. W05-52918-R(B) IN THE 265th JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT
                          DALLAS COUNTY

      Per curiam. Y EARY, J., filed a dissenting opinion. K ELLER, P.J., and
S LAUGHTER, J., dissent.
                                    OPINION

       This is subsequent application for a writ of habeas corpus filed pursuant to the

provisions of Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 11.071, Section 5.1

       In October 2006, a jury found Applicant guilty of murdering his eleven-year-old

neighbor in the course of committing or attempting to commit aggravated sexual assault

in May 2005. Applicant was convicted of capital murder. See T EX. P ENAL C ODE

       1
         Unless otherwise indicated, all references in this opinion to Articles refer to the Texas
Code of Criminal Procedure.
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§ 19.03(a)(2). Based on the jury’s answers to the statutory punishment questions set out

in Article 37.071, the trial court sentenced Applicant to death. This Court affirmed

Applicant’s conviction and sentence on direct appeal. Long v. State, No. AP-75,539

(Tex. Crim. App. April 8, 2009)(not designated for publication). Applicant thereafter

filed in the trial court his initial post-conviction application for a writ of habeas corpus

raising three claims, including a claim that he is intellectually disabled and ineligible for

execution. See Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002). This Court denied Applicant

relief on the claims raised in his initial writ application. Ex parte Long, No. WR-76,324-

01 (Tex. Crim. App. March 7, 2012)(not designated for publication).

       In March 2017, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Moore v.

Texas, 137 S. Ct. 1039, 1044 (2017)(Moore I). In August 2017, Applicant filed in the

trial court this subsequent application for a writ of habeas corpus, again asserting that he

is intellectually disabled and ineligible for the death penalty. In June 2018, we

determined that this claim satisfied the requirements of Article 11.071, Section 5, and we

remanded the application to the trial court for a review on the merits. Ex parte Long, No.

WR-76,324-02 (Tex. Crim. App. June 27, 2018)(not designated for publication). The

United States Supreme Court thereafter decided Moore v. Texas, 139 S. Ct. 666 (2019)

(Moore II).

       The trial court held an evidentiary hearing on this subsequent application in March

2020. At the hearing, State expert witness Dr. Jed Falkowski essentially stated that he did
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not have sufficient evidence to determine that Applicant was intellectually disabled.

However, the State continued to investigate the claim and employed a new expert, Dr.

Kristi Compton. Compton reviewed materials pertaining to Applicant’s claim and

concluded in a July 2020 report that there was “more data to support an [intellectual

disability] diagnosis than not[.]” The trial court, however, signed findings of fact and

conclusions of law in March 2021, recommending that relief be denied.

       Compton also evaluated Applicant in person in concluded in a March 2021 report

that he is intellectually disabled. The parties thereafter jointly moved the trial court to

reopen the evidentiary hearing. On March 30, 2021, the trial court denied the parties’

motion, refused the State’s request to withdraw Falkowski’s prior testimony, and declined

to consider the proffer of new evidence from Compton. The parties also filed joint

motions in this Court asking us to stay the proceedings so they could supplement the

record with Compton’s July 2020 and March 2021 reports. On June 9, 2021, we stayed

the proceedings in this Court pending the filing of Compton’s reports in the trial court.

We left the decision to the trial court whether to reopen the evidentiary hearing to allow

any testimony from Compton. We also upheld the trial court’s ruling disallowing the

withdrawal of Falkowski’s testimony.

       Without reopening the evidentiary hearing, the trial court issued new findings of

fact and conclusions of law on January 26, 2022. The trial court recommended that relief

be granted because Applicant meets the criteria for intellectual disability and is ineligible
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for the death penalty. The trial court specifically concluded that Applicant “has sub-

average intellectual functioning as indicated by an IQ score approximately two standard

deviations below the mean, he has significant deficits in one or more domains of adaptive

functioning, and the onset of both his deficits in intellectual and adaptive functioning

occurred during the developmental period.”

       We agree that Applicant has shown that he is a person with intellectual disability

under Atkins and Moore I and II. Based upon the trial court’s findings and conclusions

and our own review, we grant relief by reforming Applicant’s sentence of death to a

sentence of life imprisonment.

       IT IS SO ORDERED THIS THE 28 th DAY OF JUNE, 2023.

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