Court Opinion

ID: 9479037
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:06:18.884185+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:47.110466
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring:
I concur that the appropriate disposition of this case is an affirmance of the district court’s denial of relief. Judge Fay, Judge Johnson, and I all agree that there was an erroneous Hitchcock instruction. Our disagreement over defining the issue in the case is the reason our analyses differ. I am unable to join Judge Fay’s opinion because he bases his analysis on the harmlessness of Hitchcock error. However, I do not agree with Judge Johnson that Demps presented any evidence of nonstat-utory mitigating circumstances that is even arguably credible. Since Demps has not presented such evidence, the petition should be denied.
Judge Fay concludes:
To be harmless in the Hitchcock context, the court must determine beyond a rea*1395sonable doubt that the proposed mitigating evidence regarding the defendant’s character would not have influenced the jury to recommend a life sentence.
In this case, we conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the proposed mitigating evidence would not have persuaded the jury to recommend life.
Panel op. at 1390. I believe that the law of the circuit is as Judge Johnson relates. This court does not undertake the task of weighing the nonstatutory mitigating evidence against the statutory aggravating circumstances to determine whether the evidence would have persuaded the jury to recommend life. Knight v. Dugger, 863 F.2d 705 (11th Cir.1989), stands for that proposition.
To constitute a potential Hitchcock error there must be (1) an instruction to the jury that excludes the jurors from considering nonstatutory mitigating evidence and (2) the availability of nonstatutory mitigating evidence. There are cases where the evidence was heard but excluded from consideration and other cases where it was not even offered because Florida law at the time taught that such evidence was not admissible. This case is not a potential Hitchcock error case. Although there was an erroneous Hitchcock instruction, there has been no showing that any credible non-statutory mitigating evidence was presented to the jury. Moreover, the record indicates that counsel did not believe he was limited to presenting only statutory mitigating circumstances.1 If such evidence exists, the case should be returned to the state court for resentencing as was done in Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982) and Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U.S. 1, 106 S.Ct. 1669, 90 L.Ed.2d 1 (1986).
The evidence urged to be mitigating is divided into four categories: (1) evidence of Demps’ military record, (2) his good adjustment to prison, (3) a history of drug addiction, and (4) the unequal sentence received by his accomplices. Although all four of these factors can be mitigating, there are no credible facts in the record to show that these mitigating facts exist in this case.
At the penalty phase, defense counsel presented Demps’ military file to the jury. He argued that Demps had an honorable record in the Marines and that he was wounded in combat. As Judge Fay points out, the record shows that Demps was initially given an undesirable discharge that was later upgraded to a general discharge. The record also reflects that Demps was not wounded in combat.2
Defense counsel also argued that Demps had no disciplinary problems in prison. Demps’ presentence investigation report, which is part of the record, belies that allegation. He had sixteen charges against him at the Florida State Prison between September 28, 1971 and December 1, 1977, not including his participation in the murder of Sturgis. These offenses included attempting to escape, creating disturbances, flooding his cell, interfering with officers, fighting, destroying state property and inciting a minor disturbance.
Defense counsel argued that Demps’ history of drug addiction was relevant mitigating evidence. This addiction predated his 1971 conviction and imprisonment for murder of two persons locked in the trunk of an automobile and there is no evidence in the record to show that Demps was addicted at the time of the murder we are concerned with. Although there is passing reference in the psychologist’s report that drug addiction “may have resulted in the kind of brain damage suggested by current test results,” (Appendix BB, Record Excerpts) there is no evidence that the drug addiction affected Demps at the time of this murder.
Finally, appellant argues that his accomplices’ life sentences could have been considered as mitigating evidence by Demps’ *1396sentencing jury. I find that argument unpersuasive in this case and uncontrolled by the authorities cited in Judge Johnson’s dissent. In this case, all three perpetrators were convicted in one single trial. The jury returned death recommendations for Demps and Jackson, but gave a life recommendation for co-defendant Mungin. The trial judge overrode the recommendation as to Jackson. The appellant’s argument therefore is that Mungin’s life sentence was a nonstatutory mitigating circumstance the jury could have considered when sentencing Demps. I simply cannot understand the argument in this case. This is not comparable to the scenario where co-defendants are tried separately, and the trig-german and leader receives a life sentence, while a youthful co-perpetrator who merely accompanied the killer receives the death penalty. Under those facts, I would agree that the jury should have evidence of the accomplice’s sentence, however, those are not the facts here. In this case, Demps held Sturgis down while Jackson stabbed him. I fail to see how the life sentence given to Mungin, who was the lookout, was mitigating evidence for Demps.
In this case, defense counsel argued that nonstatutory mitigating circumstances existed to spare Demps’ life. A thorough review of the record demonstrates that there are no facts to support the existence of these mitigating circumstance. At this stage after several appeals to the Florida Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court and to our court, it is incumbent on counsel for the petitioner to present in a credible form facts which counsel can prove true in an evidentiary hearing. Normally, this is not a problem since the penalty phase will contain the testimony of witnesses with respect to such nonstatutory mitigating circumstances.3 If the state contests the veracity of the evidence, an evidentiary hearing might be in order. In this case, however, the record demonstrates that these mitigating circumstances do not exist. The petitioner has failed to allege facts to prove the existence of nonstatutory mitigating circumstances. In such a case, an eviden-tiary hearing is not required.
For the foregoing reasons, I do not see the issue as requiring a Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), harmless error analysis. Nor do I see this as a case that requires an evidentiary hearing since no new nonstat-utory evidence is adduced by petitioners. This case is comparable to Clark v. Dugger, 834 F.2d 1561, 1569-70 (11th Cir.1987), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 108 S.Ct. 1282, 99 L.Ed.2d 493 (1988). There the panel found:
Here, however, there simply were no nonstatutory mitigating circumstances to consider. Clark did not introduce any evidence that would support the existence of a nonstatutory mitigating circumstance. As explained supra, Clark’s counsel, after her investigation, made a tactical decision that any testimony at the penalty phase could only prove harmful. Thus, Clark failed to introduce any mitigating evidence whatever.
834 F.2d at 1569 (footnotes omitted).
Admittedly the Clark panel held that “any Hitchcock error was harmless under Chapman v. California.” This is the wrong label applied by the Clark panel and by Judge Fay. Where there is no nonstatutory mitigating evidence there can be no Hitchcock error and harmlessness need not be considered.
In conclusion, I deem it an inappropriate function for a federal court to weigh non-statutory mitigating evidence against aggravating circumstances and decide whether a petitioner should get the death penalty as an alternative to a resentencing hearing. That is an invasion of the separate states’ rights and obligations for their courts to insure appropriate sentencing in death penalty cases. At the same time, a federal court should not put blinders on when faced with a potential Hitchcock error. It is proper for the court to examine a peti*1397tioner’s alleged nonstatutory mitigating evidence to determine if such evidence does in fact exist. If it is nonexistent, the case should stop there. If there is credible evidence demonstrated by the petitioner, we should return the case to the state court for resentencing. In this case, there being no credible evidence, the petition should be denied.

. At trial, defense counsel and the trial judge agreed that the statutory list of mitigating circumstances was not exclusive. Transcript, Vol. V, at 995-96.

. It appears that the basis for counsel’s argument that Demps was wounded in combat came from Demps’ initial medical classification at Florida State Prison. Those records stated that Demps had a bullet wound in the leg from the service.

. Additionally, if the Hitchcock claim is premised on the fact that counsel believed himself limited to statutory mitigating evidence, petitioner will append affidavits, psychiatric or psychological reports, and school or medical records to illustrate the evidence that was not presented.