Court Opinion

ID: 9476837
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:06:56.446465+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:32.388731
License: Public Domain

FAY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Most respectfully, I dissent from that portion of the majority opinion finding jurisdiction in our court. As set forth in the procedural history of this matter, a panel of our court denied the requests for a certificate of probable cause and for a stay of execution. Immediately thereafter, petitioner sought and obtained relief in the Supreme Court. On July 9, the Supreme Court granted a stay of execution and set a deadline for the filing of papers. Clearly, the Supreme Court exercised its jurisdiction and “took the case.” Almost three weeks later, petitioner filed a petition for rehearing and a suggestion for en banc consideration in our court. This was denied on September 5, 1986, without explanation. Four months later, and before the Supreme Court had entered any further orders, our court, sua sponte, vacated the order of September 5, 1986 and revisited the matter.
The basis for the majority’s finding jurisdiction appears to be 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a) (1982) and a court’s ability to preserve issues for judicial review. While I have no quarrel with the doctrine espoused, I fail to see how the sua sponte action of our court was necessary, warranted or authorized when, in fact, all issues in the case were being presented to the Supreme Court in accord with its order accepting the case and exercising its clear jurisdiction over the matter.
. In all other regards, I concur in the opinion of Judge Tjoflat.
KRAVITCH, Circuit Judge, dissenting, in which GODBOLD, JOHNSON, HATCHETT and CLARK, Circuit Judges, join:
The majority concludes that James Messer failed to demonstrate to the trial court that he had a substantial basis for his defense of insanity, and thus the trial court was not required by Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 68, 105 S.Ct. 1087, 84 L.Ed.2d 53 (1985), to afford Messer access to an independent psychiatric evaluation. In so concluding, the majority states that we must focus on the information available to the trial judge to decide whether a violation of Ake occurred. Because the record demonstrates that the trial judge, the prosecutors, and the defense attorneys all understood Messer’s sanity to be the sole significant issue in the case, I conclude that the judge’s denial of Messer’s motions for an independent psychiatric examination deprived Messer of a fundamentally fair trial, at both the guilt and sentencing stages.
I
A.
As this is Messer’s second petition for habeas corpus in the federal courts, the district court properly began by considering whether Rule 9(b) of the Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases authorized it to dismiss the petition.1 The district court *966concluded that the petition failed to allege new grounds for relief, and that the “ends of justice” did not require it to address the merits. See Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1, 15, 83 S.Ct. 1068, 1077, 10 L.Ed.2d 148 (1963). The district court noted that Messer, in his first petition, had argued that the denial of an independent psychiatric examination violated due process, and that this issue had been decided against Messer on the merits. Messer v. Kemp, 647 F.Supp. 1035, 1039 (N.D.Ga.1986) [hereinafter “Dist.Ct.Op.”].2 Because the district court concluded that the “ends of justice” did not warrant relitigation of this issue, it did not consider the merits of Messer’s Ake claim.
Although, as explained below, the district court misapplied the “ends of justice” standard in this case, it followed the correct procedures under Rule 9(b) in deciding whether it should address the merits of the constitutional claim before venturing to do so. The majority, by contrast, addresses the merits without considering whether, applying the “ends of justice” standard, relitigation of Messer’s claim is appropriate. Although the majority states that “[b]ecause we conclude, as a matter of law, that the record in this case fails to disclose an Ake violation, our ‘ends of justice’ analysis need not proceed any further,” Maj. Op. at 959, this conclusion is indistinguishable from a determination that Messer’s successive petition fails on the merits. The majority finds “that the ends of justice did not require the [district] court to relitigate the claim,” Maj. Op. at 958, yet itself relitigates the claim, thus confusing the merits of Messer’s petition with the district court’s discretion to address the merits.
The majority states that its procedure “is analogous” to a court’s consideration of a motion for a preliminary injunction, in that a court can deny the injunction after concluding that the moving party cannot prevail on the merits. Maj. Op. at 958 n. 20. There is no support in the case law, however, for importing the four-pronged test for granting preliminary injunctions into the law of habeas corpus. This court has never held that the district courts should make an initial evaluation of the merits of a petitioner’s claim in considering whether the ends of justice warrant relitigation of that claim.3
Although the district court must consider, in cases such as this one, whether altered circumstances warrant reconsideration of a previously determined claim, such a preliminary determination is not an evaluation of the merits of the case. For example, in the instant case, the district court could have decided that the change in the law represented by Ake justified reconsideration of Messer’s claim of deprivation of due process but then have concluded on the merits that Messer failed to state an Ake claim. The majority’s approach avoids the problems inherent in deciding whether the “ends of justice” warrant reconsideration of a claim. Such procedure is contrary to the law of habeas corpus as enacted by Congress and as heretofore interpreted by the Supreme Court and this court.
B.
Once a district court has concluded that a successive petition raises a claim on which there was a prior determination on the merits, it should then decide whether the “ends of justice” nonetheless counsel relitigation of that claim. Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1, 15, 83 S.Ct. 1068, 1077, 10 L.Ed.2d 148 (1963). In Sanders, the Supreme Court cautioned that “the test is ‘the ends of justice' and it cannot be too finely particularized,” id. at 17, 83 S.Ct. at 1078, but the Court also identified at least two circumstances in which relitigation would be proper: a showing that the evidentiary hearing in the prior application for habeas corpus was not full and fair; or, if *967purely legal questions are involved, a showing of a change in the law.' Id. This circuit has indicated that an intervening change in the law, by itself, will usually suffice to warrant relitigation. See Fleming v. Kemp, 794 F.2d 1478, 1482-83 (11th Cir.1986); Witt v. Wainwright, 755 F.2d 1396, 1397 (11th Cir.1985), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 107 S.Ct. 1982, 95 L.Ed.2d 822 (1987).
As the majority notes, Maj. Op. 958, purely legal questions are involved in this case. The first issue is whether the Supreme Court’s decision in Ake constituted a change in the law. Although, before Ake, many states authorized trial courts to provide for a psychiatric examination of an indigent defendant pleading innocence by reason of insanity, no case before Ake had held that the Constitution required courts to provide access for indigent defendants to a psychiatric evaluation at the state’s expense in cases such as this one. See Ake, 470 U.S. at 85, 105 S.Ct. at 1098 (previous decisions by Court do not prevent Court from considering “whether fundamental fairness today requires a different result”); Tyler v. Kemp, 755 F.2d 741, 748 (11th Cir.) (under Georgia law before Ake, decision to appoint psychiatrist was within discretion of trial court and trial court did not abuse discretion in refusing to so appoint when Tyler or his friends and relatives could have testified), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1026, 106 S.Ct. 582, 88 L.Ed.2d 564 (1985); Westbrook v. Zant, 704 F.2d 1487, 1497 (11th Cir.1983) (same). Given the significance of Ake as a new development in constitutional law, it seems clear that the ends of justice would require reconsideration of the merits if Messer can demonstrate that his sanity was a significant issue at his trial.
The district court did not analyze the “ends of justice” standard in this fashion. Rather it interpreted the recent Supreme Court case of Kuhlmann v. Wilson, 477 U.S. 436, 106 S.Ct. 2616, 91 L.Ed.2d 364 (1986), as supporting its conclusion that the “ends of justice” test requires the district court to balance a multiplicity of factors before deciding whether to permit relitigation on the merits. Applying a balancing test, the district court gave special consideration to Messer’s failure to appeal an adverse ruling in his first federal habeas petition on the issue of his motion for independent psychiatric assistance.
However appropriate balancing may be generally in successive petition cases, this court has already explained that a prisoner cannot be faulted for failing to appeal a dismissal of a prior habeas petition at a time when the law did not support his claim. Fleming v. Kemp, 794 F.2d at 1482-83. Johnson v. Wainwright, 702 F.2d 909 (11th Cir.1983), and Bass v. Wainwright, 675 F.2d 1204 (11th Cir.1982), are not to the contrary. In Johnson, there had been no intervening change in the law to lead a district court to conclude that the ends of justice would require relitigation. 702 F.2d at 911. In Bass, the court noted that the equities were “mitigated somewhat ... by the fact that [Bass] did not appeal the decision in the first case,” 675 F.2d at 1207, but in that case, the decision of the district court on the first habeas petition had been plainly erroneous on the law at the time. Moreover the Bass court stated that “Bass may have a justification for failing to appeal,” id. at 1208 n. 5, and it remanded for a determination on the issue of Bass’ failure to appeal.
The district court here also relied erroneously on Kuhlmann for its conclusion that Messer’s failure to make a showing of factual innocence should outweigh the change in the law represented by Ake. Dist.Ct.Op. at 1042-43. In Kuhlmann, four Justices of the Supreme Court stated that they would adopt a standard allowing federal courts to entertain habeas claims previously determined adversely to the petitioner on the merits “only where the prisoner supplements his constitutional claim with a color-able showing of factual innocence.” 106 S.Ct. at 2627. The adoption of such a standard by a majority of the Supreme Court would effect a major alteration in the law of habeas corpus as it has developed since Sanders. But four Justices of the Supreme Court are not a majority, and as yet, the requirement of a showing of factual innocence is not the law of the land.
*968To be sure, the district court stated in its opinion that it recognized that the requirement of a showing of factual innocence had been advanced by only four Justices, but it relied on Justice Stevens’ dissenting opinion in Kuhlmann to justify its conclusion that “whether petitioner has made a color-able showing of factual innocence is properly a factor to consider in making the ‘ends of justice’ determination.” Dist. Ct.Op. at 1042. All nine Justices undoubtedly would have agreed that a showing of factual innocence would itself be a factor ordinarily justifying relitigation on the merits. See Kuhlmann v. Wilson, 106 S.Ct. at 2627 (plurality opinion); id. at 2636 n. 5 (Brennan, J., dissenting); id. at 2639 (Stevens, J., dissenting). Indeed, this court has held that “at a minimum, the ends of justice will demand consideration of the merits of a claim on a successive petition where there is a colorable showing of factual innocence.” (William Neal) Moore v. Kemp, 824 F.2d 847, 856 (11th Cir.1987) (en banc) (emphasis added). But as I read Justice Stevens’ dissenting opinion, it does not support the idea that a failure to make a showing of factual innocence should outweigh a significant change in the law, especially a change as remarkable as that in Ake, so as to justify dismissal of a successive habeas petition. Even though the presence of a showing of factual innocence may justify redetermination of a claim raised in a successive habeas petition, the absence of such a showing does not preclude relitigation. Accordingly, we should follow the uniform practice of this circuit and hold that a change in the law of the magnitude of Ake by itself satisfies the standard of the “ends of justice” so as to require consideration of the claim on the merits.
II
Having concluded that the district court erred in holding that the ends of justice did not warrant relitigation of Messer’s Ake claim, I ordinarily would suggest that the appropriate course would be to reverse and remand for further proceedings on the Ake issue. As the majority points out, however, the merits of Messer’s claim can be evaluated entirely with reference to the record.
I agree with the majority that the key question is what information was before the trial judge when he ruled on the defendant’s motion for psychiatric assistance. In my view, however, the majority overlooks several parts of the record and gives too much weight to others. A review of the record and analysis of Ake’s requirements convince me that Messer was prejudiced at both his guilt and sentencing phases by the lack of access to an independent psychiatric evaluation.
A.
The majority states, almost in passing, that the prosecutor knew that “the trial judge would be instructing the jury that it could not convict the defendant if it found that he was suffering from a mental disease that prevented him from knowing right from wrong.” Maj. Op. at 952 & n. 13 (setting out the trial judge’s instructions to jury on issue of sanity). This remark has greater significance than the majority accords it, for it is an established principle of trial procedure that judges may not give instructions to juries on irrelevant issues. E.g., 75 Am.Jur.2d Trial §§ 649, 650. In Georgia, as in most states, the giving of an instruction to a jury without any evidence to support the charge is reversible error. Bland v. State, 210 Ga. 100, 108, 78 S.E.2d 51, 57 (1953); Crosby v. State, 150 Ga.App. 555, 557, 258 S.E.2d 264, 267 (1979). In this case, the reason for such a rule is obvious: if the judge gives an instruction to the jury on a justification or excuse for homicide, the jury may assume that the state has carried its burden of proving all the elements of the offense, except for criminal intent. Cf. Lewis v. State, 239 Ga. 732, 733, 238 S.E.2d 892, 894 (1977).
After examining the instructions, one must conclude either that the trial judge gratuitously interjected the issue of sanity into the trial by his instructions, or that the issue was there all along. The record supports the latter conclusion. Messer made his first motion for an independent psychiatric examination on March 2, 1979, only *969four days after his indictment. He renewed the motion at the arraignment hearing on May 8, when his attorney told the court, “We feel in a matter of this degree of seriousness and import that another opinion would be warranted and may be helpful to the court and/or to the jury.” Tr. of Arraignment at 5. Messer’s new attorney moved again for an independent psychiatric evaluation on June 14 and again on December 14.4
I readily agree with the majority that Messer’s attorneys could have added more particulars in their motions for psychiatric assistance. But cf. Messer v. Francis, No. 82-419R, Magistrate’s Report and Recommendation at 45-46 (concluding that Messer’s attorneys were not ineffective on this issue), adopted, Messer v. Francis, No. 82-419R, at 3 (N.D.Ga. Mar. 30,1984), aff'd on other grounds sub nom. Messer v. Kemp, 760 F.2d 1080 (11th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1088, 106 S.Ct. 864, 88 L.Ed.2d 902 (1986). We should bear in mind, however, that Messer’s trial took place several years before either Ake or (Carzell) Moore v. Kemp, 809 F.2d 702 (11th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 107 S.Ct. 2192, 95 L.Ed.2d 847 (1987), even began to establish what a defendant must show, by manner of affidavits or testimony, to obtain independent expert assistance. More importantly, a review of the record in its totality, including Messer’s confession that he had committed the act and the fact that Messer had never before been arrested for any offense, supports the conclusion that, from beginning to end, the only significant issue at the guilt phase of the trial was Messer’s sanity. Indeed, the bizarre nature of the crime (which was widely reported in local newspapers, excerpts of which were presented to the trial judge in motions for change of venue) — the murder of a beloved niece who showed such complete trust in Messer as to leave school with him on the afternoon of the murder — raises a substantial question as to Messer’s sanity. Cf. Blake v. Kemp, 758 F.2d 523, 529-30 (11th Cir.) (question as to defendant’s sanity obvious in case in which defendant had thrown daughter of his fiancee off a bridge and had told the examining psychiatrist that he would meet the victim “on the other side ... [where] she is waiting for me”), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 998, 106 S.Ct. 374, 88 L.Ed.2d 367 (1985). Although Messer, unlike Ake, may not have been raving in open court, the newspaper accounts of his out-of-court actions, coupled with the representations of counsel should have alerted, and did alert, the court to concerns about Messer’s sanity.5 And Ake requires that “when a defendant demonstrates to the trial judge that his sanity at the time of the offense is to be a significant factor at trial,” the defendant must have access to a psychiatrist. Ake, 470 U.S. at 83, 105 S.Ct. at 1097.
Any doubts on this issue are resolved by the prosecutor’s closing argument, which focused exclusively on the issue of Messer’s sanity.6 If the issue of sanity had been irrelevant to the case, Messer’s attor*971ney undoubtedly would have moved immediately for a mistrial — a tactic that he had used before in the trial. In addition the closing argument of Messer’s attorney, which the majority characterizes as an appeal to the jurors’ “common sense,” Maj. Op. at 953, is comprehensible only if it is read as an appeal to the jurors' common sense in that a rational person could not have committed the acts described in the case. Messer’s attorney practically conceded that the prosecution had shown that Messer had committed the act. Unless we are to conclude that the attorney’s closing argument was constitutionally defective, which this court previously has decided was not the case, see Messer v. Kemp, 760 F.2d at 1090-91, there is no way of explaining the defense attorney’s closing argument, or the prosecution’s closing argument, or the judge’s instructions to the jury, except as a ratification and acknowledgment that Messer’s sanity was at issue. B.
Not only was independent psychiatric assistance essential to enable Messer to present his defense of insanity at the guilt phase; it was equally necessary for Messer to present a meaningful case for mitigation at sentencing. In a capital case, evidence of emotional instability or mental aberration can be a potent mitigating factor in the jury’s determination of whether to impose the death penalty, even if the jury is not convinced that a defendant’s mental illness is sufficiently severe to disable him from distinguishing between right and wrong, the Georgia standard for establishing mental incapacity to form criminal intent. Ga. Code Ann. § 16-3-2 (1984). The trial judge was informed that Messer had a need to present psychiatric testimony at his sentencing phase, for Messer’s counsel stated as one of the grounds for the appointment of a psychiatrist the relevance of mental illness as a mitigating circumstance under state law, and all the facts and issues known to the trial judge with respect to Messer’s defense of insanity applied a fortiori to the possibility of establishing mental illness or insanity as a mitigating factor. The denial of access to independent *972psychiatric assistance eliminated any possibility that Messer could present testimony by a competent psychiatrist to support mitigation at his sentencing phase.
The denial of psychiatric assistance .effectively tipped the scales at sentencing in the state’s favor, for the state had introduced evidence at trial that would support aggravating circumstances — most significantly, evidence of the brutality of Messer’s attack on his niece. Without the assistance of a psychiatrist, Messer had little opportunity to raise doubts in the jurors’ minds about the motivation, or explanation, for such brutality. A psychiatrist testifying on Messer’s behalf could certainly have offered explanations for Messer’s actions and could have given an opinion as to Messer’s future dangerousness. Messer’s indigency prevented him from having the opportunity to present any such evidence, however, and I “do not see why monetary considerations should be more persuasive in this context than at trial.” Ake, 470 U.S. at 84, 105 S.Ct. at 1097.
In my opinion, therefore, Messer’s requests for access to psychiatric assistance were sufficient to satisfy Ake.
Ill
As a result of the trial judge’s denial of Messer’s motions for psychiatric assistance, Messer had nothing in the manner of testimony by competent professionals to present to the jury on the issue of his sanity, at the guilt phase or the sentencing phase of his trial. It was precisely this kind of situation that the Supreme Court hoped to redress in Ake. See Ake, 470 U.S. at 72, 105 S.Ct. at 1091 (“As a result, there was no expert testimony for either side on Ake’s sanity at the time of the offense”) (emphasis in original).7 As the Ake Court stressed, an insanity defense without medical testimony on the issue of sanity is an empty defense; lay witnesses cannot evaluate a person’s mental health with the competence of professional psychiatrists. This is not to suggest that psychiatrists are infallible. Nonetheless, psychiatrists can assist lay jurors in making an “educated determination” about a defendant’s sanity in a way that lay witnesses cannot. Id. at 81, 105 S.Ct. at 1096. Lay witnesses are frequently unable to describe the defendant's behavior or mental state with greater precision than “He acted like a crazy person” or “She looked normal,” evaluations that may be grossly incorrect given the deceptive symptoms of mental illness. Id. at 80, 105 S.Ct. at 1095. The assistance of a psychiatrist is crucial to the successful establishment of the insanity defense. Id.
Nor did Messer's examination by doctors at the Central State Hospital at Milledgeville, upon motion by the state, satisfy the requirements of Ake. I do not mean to impugn the competence or integrity of the psychiatrists at Milledgeville; Ake simply requires something different. In Ake, the Supreme Court stated:
This Court has upheld the practice in many States of placing before the jury psychiatric testimony on the question of future dangerousness, see Barefoot v. Estelle, 468 U.S. 880, 896-905 [103 S.Ct. 3383, 3396-3401, 77 L.Ed.2d 1090] (1983), at least where the defendant has had access to an expert of his own, id., at 899, n. 5 [103 S.Ct. at 3397, n. 5]. In so holding, the Court relied, in part, on the assumption that the factfinder would have before it both the views of the prosecutor’s psychiatrists and the “opposing views of the defendant’s doctors ” and would therefore be competent to “uncover, recognize, and take due account of ... shortcomings” in predictions on this point. Id., at 899 [103 S.Ct. at 3398]. Without a psychiatrist’s assist*973anee, the defendant cannot offer a well-informed expert’s opposing view, and thereby loses a significant opportunity to raise in the jurors’ minds questions about the State’s proof of an aggravating factor. In such a circumstance, where the consequence of error is so great, the relevance of responsive psychiatric testimony so evident, and the burden on the State so slim, due process requires access to a psychiatric examination on relevant issues, to the testimony of the psychiatrist, and to assistance in preparation at the sentencing phase.
Ake, 470 U.S. at 84, 105 S.Ct. at 1097 (emphasis added). The Ake Court based its holding on the usefulness of responsive psychiatric testimony in the adversary situation of a criminal trial. A defendant needs access to an “expert of his own” because of the superior ability of professional psychiatrists to organize a defendant’s mental history and behavior and to interpret the same for the factfinder. Messer’s defense attorney precisely identified the reason for an independent psychiatric examination when he told the court that another opinion would be helpful to the jury: “[T]he psychiatrists for each party enable the jury to make its most accurate determination on the issue before them.” Ake, 470 U.S. at 81, 105 S.Ct. at 1096. Messer’s examination by the Milledgeville psychiatrists did not advance the adversary process, and Messer should have had an opportunity to consult with his own psychiatrist and to have something — some competent testimony by a psychiatrist — to present to the jury on the issue of his sanity.
For these reasons I respectfully dissent.

. Rule 9(b) of the Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases in the United States District Courts states as follows:
(b) Successive petitions. A second or successive petition may be dismissed if the judge finds that it fails to allege new or different grounds for relief and the prior determination was on the merits or, if new and different grounds are alleged, the judge finds that the *966failure of the petitioner to assert those grounds in a prior petition constituted an abuse of the writ.

. See Messer v. Francis, No. 82-419R, at 15-16 (N.D.Ga. Mar. 30, 1984), aff'd on other grounds sub nom. Messer v. Kemp, 760 F.2d 1080 (11th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1088, 106 S.Ct. 864, 88 L.Ed.2d 902 (1986).

. The majority’s approach is particularly puzzling in that the majority grants Messer's certificate for probable cause to appeal and thus concludes that Messer's claim is non-frivolous.

. I would assign no significance to what the majority apparently considers quite significant, that Messer’s attorneys phrased their motions in terms of "information and belief.” Maj. Op. at 962. To me this is harmless legalese that the defense attorney may have used because he was unsure about what phraseology to use.

. It is particularly ironic that the majority struggles to resist the conclusion that the trial judge knew enough to cause him to rule on the issue of a psychiatric examination when, in fact, the trial judge held a hearing on the issue, did rule on the necessity of a psychiatric examination, and ordered that one be held. It seems bootless to argue over whether the trial judge had sufficient reason to cause him to do something when he actually did it. Although the majority may not believe that the facts within the trial judge's knowledge were sufficient to require a psychiatric examination, the trial judge apparently thought that they were.

. The following is the text of the prosecutor’s closing argument to the jury:
BY MR. SAMMONS
May it please the court, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you heard Mr. Foster get up here when we started this case and discuss with you what he expected the evidence to show. At this time on behalf of the State it’s my opportunity to relate to you what the State believes the evidence has shown in this case.
Ladies and gentlemen, we believe that the evidence has shown that on the afternoon of the 13th of February 1979 this defendant, James Messer, spent a good portion of the afternoon stalking Retha Wood at Barber’s *970Supply here in Cedartown. Now, here's a photograph of Barber’s Supply from the air. Barber’s Supply is here and here’s the school over here. Now, at two thirty five, or thereabouts, Retha Wood who has identified the defendant's photograph saw the car go by again, after he had already been there twice before that day, she saw the car go by and the tag number on it RUP 779, the defendant’s car. She knows it was around two thirty because the school guard was at the crossing down there, and what does Mr. Messer do. Well, before Mr. Messer drives there past Barber’s Supply she’s already seen him for a total of about an hour that day, fifteen or twenty minutes before lunch and about thirty or forty minutes after lunch. And what does he do ladies and gentlemen, he comes in and he converses with her, she doesn’t have any difficulty understanding him, he’s able to operate an automobile without any difficulty, and tells her his story about his need to get some electrical supplies out of the back of the store, they were talking about the back of the store. Nothing abnormal in his behavior. He drives his car without any difficult over to College Street Elementary School and what does Mr. Brabson say the defendant did after he got there. Mr. Brabson whose job it is to educate and care for the children that are under his control there at the school. How bizarre did the defendant appear to him?
Mr. Brabson was seated at his desk and the defendant comes in and walks over to Mr. Brabson's desk and tells him the story about Rhonda’s daddy. Mr. Brabson, what does he say? He did not have any difficulty understanding what he wanted. So Mr. Brabson what, if anything, did he do to cause you any concern? Not a thing. He made up his story, told him what he wanted Mr,. Brabson to do and then stood there patiently and waited, not calling any attention to himself, just stood there and waited. Again nothing out of the ordinary exhibited by the defendant.
Now, Rhonda is at school, she had left that morning. Rhonda was eight years old, and Rhonda who did not easily cotton to strangers, she was a very shy child according to Mr. Brabson and according to Ms. Williams, her teacher, talked about how she cried, how she was afraid her mother would not be home when she got there. That further ... her disposition further created in the minds of the people there at the school that nothing was amiss because what was Rhonda’s reaction when she approached the defendant. Mr. Brabson says she came up and took his hand and rubbed it. Rhonda would not do that to someone she didn't know, someone that she didn't feel comfortable with. And what does Pricilla Lay, say who was waiting there to pick up her great niece, what was Pricilla Lay’s observation about Rhonda’s reaction about how Rhonda was, I believe as Mrs. Lay said, prancing there in the hall, excited to be with him, the defendant. What does Mrs. Williams say that were the last words that she heard Rhonda speak? “Mrs. Williams, I don’t have to ride the bus today. My daddy's been hurt on the job in Warner Robbins and my uncle is here to take me home." My uncle. She runs back and grabs his hand and with her Bunny Ride book and leaves the school. Again the defendant is able to conduct himself in a fashion that doesn’t create any suspicion, he’s able to operate his automobile, to drive over to Golf Course Road, and tells Rhonda the story about his battery cable. Rhonda is with her uncle, no reason to suspect anything, and so they do, they go out and they look for this rock, the defendant and Rhonda, and they make their way into the woods, the defendant and his niece whom he loved like a daughter, according to what he told the agents. And he wanted to play a game with her. Now, a game to the defendant that was probably something Rhonda could not understand, could not understand because she was with her uncle.
And so he does, he starts to play his game with her and Rhonda objects, she cries, and he beats her, he beats her until she falls down to the ground and he chokes her, he plays his game, and then pulls her pants off and does what he’s going to do while she lays there crying, the little girl that he says he loved like a daughter, and then ladies and gentlemen he takes his knife and stabs her, and he stabs her, and he stabs her, and then he slashes her, and he leaves her there in the woods, as Dr. Dawson said, to bleed to death.
Now, how could ... I’m sure you’ll ask yourselves, how could any human being do that to another unless they were crazy. Well, ladies and gentlemen, when you consider that I suggest that you examine the defendant's ability to remember what he did in such graphic detail, ladies and gentlemen. The defendant who can remember the dead dog laying there on the tracks where he left the tracks to take Rhonda into the woods. And let's examine the defendant’s behavior, ladies and gentlemen, after he left Rhonda to bleed to death. What is the first thing that he does, ladies and gentlemen? Ladies and gentlemen, he gets back to his car and he takes this coat, Rhonda's coat, and he throws it in the bushes. Well, why does he do that ladies and gentlemen? And why does he take Rhonda’s Bunny Ride book and throw it into the bushes? And why does he take Rhonda's crayons and throw them into the bushes? Because, ladies and gentlemen, he is going home. Rhonda is his wife's twin sister's daughter. The defendant’s wife knows Rhonda's coat. The defendant's wife knows Rhonda’s crayons. He's disposing of the evidence that will connect him with the crime ladies and gentlemen. And what does he do with his knife, ladies and gentlemen? You heard the crime lab expert, Mrs. Quarrels, testify about how there was *971some traces of blood down in the joint of the blade. He washed the knife off. Is that a sane act ladies and gentlemen?
What does he do with his shoes ladies and gentlemen? The shoes that he was wearing when he stomped Rhonda’s face. He washes them off too. Again what does the crime lab say? Traces of blood. Nothing else because the defendant is trying to obliterate the evidence of what he had done.
And that’s not all ladies and gentlemen. The defendant has on this cap, this cap that he was wearing when he picked Rhonda up. You’ve noticed the cap. You’d remember a cap like that ladies and gentlemen. That thought too crossed the defendant’s mind because as he was driving down Old Mill Road toward his house he stopped and throwed that cap into the creek ladies and gentlemen. That’s his cap because they found it where he said it was. And Mr. Sims from the crime lab tells you about how the defendant’s hair matches the hair that’s in that cap.
Again, ladies and gentlemen, it’s a sane act on the part of the defendant. And then continuing his masquerade ladies and gentlemen the defendant spends the evening of the 13th of February with Rhonda’s bewildered and grief stricken parents, who don’t know what’s happened to Rhonda, camouflaged there among the shocked parents. He goes over to the victim’s mother and puts his arm around her shoulder and tells her “I know, how you feel sis.” How could he? The acts of a sane man ladies and gentlemen are the acts of a man who was concealing his crime.
And ladies and gentlemen, the portrait that I have painted you about Rhonda's faith comes largely from the own words of the defendant, the defendant that couldn’t remember at all as he did it and after he did it. And what did he do for the officers, ladies and gentlemen, this individual who would like you probably to believe he was insane, he was able to take an ink pen and draw out the route for Officer Leary, draw out the route that he traveled with Rhonda on their Bunny Ride together. Is this again the acts of an insane man ladies and gentlemen?
What then, ladies and gentlemen, has the evidence shown? The judge is going to charge you on reasonable doubt ladies and gentlemen. Where is the reasonable doubt in this case? Ladies and gentlemen reasonable doubt in this case has been trampled under the weight of the evidence against this defendant, James Messer, who is sitting over there with his head on his hands.
Ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you today and tell you that the evidence in this case leaves no doubt in your mind that the defendant in this case took that little girl, ladies and gentlemen, and ladies and gentlemen he reduced her to that. And what should your verdict be, ladies and gentlemen, but guilty. Thank you.

. Arguably this case is more compelling than Ake, where there was no expert testimony for either side. Here, there was expert testimony available to the state — the two examinations by the psychiatrist at Milledgeville. Messer thus faced trial and sentencing not only without any expert testimony on the most crucial issues but with the knowledge that the only expert testimony the jury could possibly hear would be helpful to the state. That the state’s evidence of sanity was never offered does not matter; it was not offered because Messer had nothing in the way of psychiatric testimony to offer. Messer had nothing to offer because he was indigent and had not obtained the relief from the trial court required by Ake.