Court Opinion

ID: 9478231
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:43:31.988837+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:18.664450
License: Public Domain

EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring:
The veil of civility that must protect us in society has been twice torn here. It was rent wantonly when Walter Bell robbed, raped and murdered Ferd and Irene Chi-sum. It has again been torn by Bell’s counsel’s conduct, inexcusable according to *986ordinary standards of law practice. On two occasions, as our panel opinion demonstrates, he has deliberately waited until one week before his client’s scheduled execution date to raise claims of which he knew at least several months earlier. Most recently, he reneged on an agreement in writing with the state of Texas that, in exchange for obtaining a further delay of execution, he would file a succeeding habe-as petition no later than two weeks prior to the October 14 execution date now set. The state and federal district courts found that he abused the writ of habeas corpus, and I agree with them.
If Bell’s claims entitled him to prompt relief in this court, such delaying tactics would be an unpardonable pretext for the larger goal of “proving” the death penalty unconstitutionally arbitrary by stalling its implementation whenever possible. As it is, counsel was certainly aware that this court, bound by the authority of Penry, could not grant relief. His motive in late-filing must have been to play “chicken” with the state and federal courts on the eve of execution.
This is not a novel situation, although counsel’s breaching of an agreement with the state renders it more egregious than the average death-case delaying procedure. Our court has previously expressed its frustration with these tactics. See Brogdon v. Butler, 824 F.2d 338, 344 (5th Cir.1987); Bridge v. Lynaugh, 856 F.2d 712 (5th Cir.1988). That such tactics are antithetical to this grave aspect of the law enforcement process was eloquently stated by Chief Judge Clark, concurring in Brog-don:
Justice requires that in each instance capital punishment be imposed with maximum assurance of scrupulous legality. But, justice equally demands an assurance that such punishment be imposed when the minds of men still retain memory of the crime committed. Otherwise, capital punishment becomes a sort of second, albeit legal, crime.
Since, more than one year after Brogdon issued, counsel in death penalty cases seem completely unreceptive to our verbal admonitions, I would advocate considering the imposition of sanctions in cases such as this. At a minimum, I would suggest that counsel who have engaged in delaying tactics should be struck from the rolls of the Fifth Circuit and not be allowed to practice in our court for a period of years. I would not rule out imposition of other sanctions as well. A condemned man’s life and society’s interest in enforcing the death penalty justly are matters too important to leave to procedural games.