Court Opinion

ID: 9492183
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:34:11.777511+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:09.539311
License: Public Domain

BRIGHT, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
This case presents some troubling questions. In my view, the trial court may have deprived Clemmons of an essential element of his defense by failing to instruct the jury on the lawful use of deadly force in self-defense. Missouri law permits the use of deadly force in self-defense if the accused faces a reasonably apparent danger of suffering serious bodily injury. E.g. State v. Sprake, 637 S.W.2d 724, 726 (Mo.Ct.App.1982). Clemmons testified that he picked up, the pipe after Weems attacked him with a wooden board. This testimony provided sufficient evidence of a danger of serious bodily injury to Clem-mons to support a specific self-defense instruction on Clemmons’ use of deadly force. Nevertheless, as observed by Judge Arnold, this sort of error does not justify habeas corpus relief in federal courts.
I also remain concerned by the contradictions between the medical examiner’s testimony in Clemmons’ trial and the same examiner’s testimony in Barnes’ trial. In each trial, the examiner gave the impression that the defendant struck the fatal blows. In Clemmons’ trial, the examiner testified that a metal pipe could have struck the blows to the back of the head that caused the fatal head injury. At Barnes’ trial, she testified that a metal' pipe could not have struck these blows, giving the reason that such blows from a metal pipe would have fractured the skull.
Nevertheless, this court lacks the power to grant Petitioner relief due to the restrictions placed on federal habeas corpus review of state court convictions. Consequently, I concur in Judge Arnold’s opinion.
*687I concur with reluctance, however. The conviction for capital murder and consequent life sentence (imprisonment for fifty years without possibility of parole) as imposed in this case may amount to a great injustice. Clemmons had some justification for his aggression against Weems. He had reason to believe Weems had just robbed his brother and stolen a gold chain. Weems may have contributed to the escalation of the violence by attacking Clem-mons with a wooden board. Most importantly, the medical examiner’s testimony at Barnes’ trial indicates that Clemmons may not have struck the fatal blows. In my view, the facts of this case do not warrant a capital murder conviction and the correspondingly severe sentence of a minimum of fifty years imprisonment.
The state could have charged Clemmons with second-degree murder or even manslaughter on the facts. Nevertheless, an aggressive prosecutor brought capital murder charges, with the result that Clem-mons, not even twenty-one years old at the time and having no prior criminal record, received a life sentence. Mrs. Carole M. Blocker, Clemmons’ mother, addressed a letter to this court movingly describing the injustice of this capital murder conviction. I quote in part from the letter:
I remember well the day Eric learned that Todd Weems had died. He was very distraught and said that Todd Weems did not deserve to die. When the Grand Jury indicted Eric on Capital Murder, I was dumbfounded, as I wondered how could premeditated murder be inferred from a situation where the victim died from a spontaneous episode where the victim was acting in the course of a robbery! ... This is not cold-blooded, premeditated - murder. Can you imagine how you would have reacted to robbers harming your mother while you were twenty-one years old, or even now presently?
... It is not a prosecuter’s job to win under and circumstances. Here, we have a prosecuter’s that knew or reasonably should have know that the blows struck by my son had not caused death. You have a case before you where a brother who was minding his own business responded to a call of help from his younger brother who was being robbed by two men. Under circumstances such as this the Prosecuter should not have sought the highest penalty the State can seek (next to death)[.]3
This is an unusual case. The jury convicted Clemmons of capital murder. Yet, as I have observed, the evidence indicates that Clemmons acted with some justification for his conduct, and evidence which surfaced in a different trial casts grave doubt on whether Clemmons struck the blows that killed the victim. These facts and circumstances suggest that this case is an appropriate one for the Governor of Missouri to consider a grant of executive clemency. By this concurring opinion, I urge Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan to review this case and consider reducing the existing life sentence. I note that Clem-mons has already served seventeen years in prison, seven more than the minimum for second-degree murder and seven more than the maximum for manslaughter.

. This letter is quoted exactly as written. We directed that a copy of the letter be furnished to counsel for both parties. See Order dated March 8, 1999. That order further states:
To the extent that the letter raises points already before the Court on the record of this case, the points will be carefully considered. That is all the Court can do. Our obligation is to decide this case on the basis of the record before us and the applicable law. We cannot consider matters outside the record.