Court Opinion

ID: 9490096
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:32:35.601933+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:53.648609
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Circuit Judgé,
concurring.
I.
Sadly, I am compelled to concur in the result of this case. With respect to the double-counting issue raised by Singleton, I too see no material difference between his claim and this court’s recent decisions in Ruiz v. Norris, 104 F.3d 163 (8th Cir.1997) and Wainwright v. Norris, No. 94-3525EA (8th Cir. Jan. 2,1997) (order). I believe that the Eighth Amendment’s narrowing requirement prohibits the use of a pecuniary-gain motive as the sole aggravating circumstance to justify a death sentence in a robbery-murder case. Absent farther review of this issue by either our court en banc or the United States Supreme Court, however, my hands are tied.
Although I recognize that the issue is not before us at this time, I also feel compelled to address briefly Singleton’s competency to face execution in light of the substantial record presented on this point. While the record is unclear as to whether Singleton consented to the initiation of his treatment with antipsychotic and antidepressant medications, there is no question that he will not voluntarily stop taking his medications, even for the limited purpose of assessing his competency without the drugs and, in his own words,, “not even to save my life.” The district court determined that under the influence of his medications Singleton is competent to be executed and Singleton does not appeal that issue. Apparently, no adequate record exists to assess Singleton’s competency without his medications. The question whether states that impose the death penalty may execute a person whose competence has been chemically-induced (for reasons other than to expedite the execution) is problematic and unresolved. At a minimum, I want to make clear that nothing in this panel’s opinion should be construed to foreclose Singleton from making a future claim that he is incompetent to be executed.
II.
Finally, although I am bound to uphold the law, I write separately to add my voice to those who oppose the death penalty as viola-tive of the United States Constitution. My thirty years’ experience on this court have *875compelled me to conclude that the imposition of the death penalty is arbitrary and capricious. At every stage, I believe the decision of who shall live and who.shall die for his crime turns less on the nature of the offense and the incorrigibility of the offender and more on inappropriate and indefensible considerations: the political and personal inclinations of prosecutors; the defendant’s wealth, race, and intellect; the race and economic status of the victim; the quality of the defendant’s counsel; and the resources allocated to defense lawyers. Put simply, this country’s unprincipled death penalty selection process is inconsistent with fundamental principles of due process.
The importance of a defendant’s economic status in death-eligible cases cannot be overstated particularly in light of the direct correlation between a defendant’s ability to pay and the competency of his legal representation. Wealth enables a defendant to employ the best lawyers at the earliest stages in the proceeding thereby affording the best chance of avoiding the death penalty. The government spares no expense in prosecuting capital cases. Only experienced and well-compensated defense lawyers, with the assistance of qualified investigators and experts, can be expected to adequately defend such cases. In reality, lawyers appointed by the states to defend capital eases for indigent defendants are often so underqualified, underfunded, and undercompensated that trials are mere shams of an adversarial proceeding. Take the case at bar: Singleton’s trial counsel was appointed under Arkansas law and received, according to appellant’s counsel at oral argument, a total of $350 compensation plus $100 for investigation.4 Without adequate funding, even a qualified and experienced criminal lawyer is constrained from building a credible defense and establishing the presence of mitigating factors which weigh against the imposition of death. Too often, only unexperienced and unqualified lawyers will take appointments to defend poor defendants and the resulting representation is grossly inadequate.5 This same pattern is repeated with respect to the legal services available to indigent persons at the appellate and post-conviction stages of capital cases.
Adding to the arbitrariness inherent in the system is our society’s deeply-rooted problem of racial bias. Studies have shown that persons who kill white victims are sentenced to death more often than persons who kill black victims and that, in some jurisdictions, black defendants receive the death penalty more often than do white defendants. Systematic racial discrimination in capital sentencing is one of the reasons cited by the American Bar Association in support of its recent resolution calling for a moratorium on carrying out death sentences in any state until such time as adequate safeguards are in place to ensure fair and impartial administration and the risk of killing innocent persons can be minimized. Resolution No. 107 of the House of Delegates, approved Feb. 8, 1997 (A.BA. See. Indiv.Rights Resp.Rep. at 12-14). As Justice Blackmun noted in his eloquent dissent on the day he vowed to never again “tinker with the machinery of death”:
Even under the most sophisticated death penalty statutes, race continues to play a major role in determining who shall live and who shall die. Perhaps it should not be surprising that the biases and prejudices that infect society generally would influence the determination of who is sen*876tenced to death, even with the narrower pool of death-eligible defendants selected according to objective standards.
Collins v. Collins, 510 U.S. 1141, 1153, 114 S.Ct. 1127, 1135, 127 L.Ed.2d 435 (1994) (Blackman, J., dissenting).
Moreover, I am not convinced that we havé in place adequate legal procedures to ensure that capital sentences are not handed down in violation of the law. Recent changes in our federal habeas corpus rules have only-compounded the difficulty of the federal courts to adjudicate federal claims in capital cases. As a result ■ of this complex legal morass, many persons sentenced to death have legitimate constitutional claims that will never be addressed on the merits by any court.
In sum, although I am compelled to adhere to the law, I nonetheless announce my personal view that this nation’s administration of capital punishment is simply irrational, arbitrary, and unfair. The problems are inherent in the enterprise itself. Because I am confident that no death penalty system can ever be administered in a rational and consistent manner, I do not explore at this time whether the death penalty itself (in some “perfect” application) violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment in that it fundamentally denies the humanity and intrinsic worth of the men and women whom the state puts to death.

. Subsequent to Singleton's trial, the Arkansas statute was amended to increase the attorney's fee cap in capital cases to $1000. See Ark.Code. Ann. 16-92-108 (1987). Later still in 1993, the state legislature removed the cap on fees for attorneys appointed to represent indigent persons. 1993 Ark.Acts 1193 § 20.

. As one legal expert reports, the various approaches to indigent defense among the states share several common features:
They evince the gross underfunding that pervades indigent defense. They are unable to attract and keep experienced and qualified at-tomeys because of lack of compensation and overwhelming workloads. Just when lawyers reach the point there they have handled enough cases to begin avoiding basic mistakes, they leave criminal practice and are replaced by other young, inexperienced lawyers who are even less able to deal with the overwhelming caseloads.
Stephen B. Bright, “Counsel for the Poor: The Death Sentence Not for the Worst Crime but for the Worst Lawyer,” 103 Yale L.R. 1835, 1851 (1994) (footnote omitted).