Court Opinion

ID: 9495559
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:05:42.534013+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:05.179950
License: Public Domain

HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in Judge Luttig’s thorough opinion. I write separately only to add my view that, in addition to failing to demonstrate that counsel’s performance was deficient, Hayes has failed to demonstrate any prejudice flowing from the alleged erroneously admitted hearsay evidence. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).
*328According to Hayes, there is a reasonable probability that, had the challenged hearsay evidence, which included factual assertions made by Mrs. Hayes in conjunction with an explanation of her feelings, such as assertions that Hayes physically abused and threatened to kill her, been excluded, the State would have been unable to demonstrate that the killing was done with malice.
Under North Carolina law, the unlawful killing of a human being with malice but without premeditation and deliberation is murder in the second degree. State v. Geddie, 345 N.C. 73, 478 S.E.2d 146, 156 (1996). The State may prove malice by the nature of the attack with a deadly weapon. State v. Robbins, 309 N.C. 771, 309 S.E.2d 188, 190 (1983). In this case, Hayes savagely beat his wife to death with a baseball bat causing extensive, severe damage to her skull. Hayes then poured gasoline (or a similar flammable liquid) on her body and set her on fire. It is hard to imagine a murder which more clearly demonstrates malice than the facts of this case. The exclusion of the challenged hearsay evidence would have done nothing to alter the jury’s conclusion that the murder of Mrs. Hayes was committed with malice.