Bryan v. Singletary

• Decision Date: 11 May 1998
• Docket Number: No. 96-3329.,96-3329.
• Citation: 140 F.3d 1354
• Parties: Anthony Braden BRYAN, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Harry K. SINGLETARY, Jr., Secretary Florida Department of Corrections, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

140 F.3d 1354

Anthony Braden BRYAN, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Harry K. SINGLETARY, Jr., Secretary Florida Department of Corrections, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 96-3329.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

May 11, 1998.

Gregory C. Smith, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel-Northern Region, Tallahassee, FL, Gail E. Anderson, Special Asst. CCRC, Greensboro, FL, for Petitioner-Appellant.

Richard B. Martell, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Legal Affairs, Tallahassee, FL, for Respondent-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

Before ANDERSON, COX and CARNES, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Anthony Braden Bryan appeals the district court's denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus. Bryan asserts that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel at his capital penalty phase because he failed to call any mental health experts to testify.¹

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On May 27, 1983, Bryan robbed a bank in Grand Bay, Alabama with a sawed-off shotgun. He was not caught after the crime and spent the next three months as a fugitive from the law. In June 1983, Bryan met Sharon Cooper ("Cooper") in Jacksonville, Florida and the two hitchhiked to Mississippi. After obtaining a truck in Mississippi the two drove back to Florida, stopping en route to retrieve the sawed-off shotgun that Bryan had used in the bank robbery.

In Florida, Bryan obtained a cabin cruiser in order to travel back to Mississippi. The boat became damaged and Bryan and Cooper stopped in Pascagoula, Mississippi to make repairs. Bryan borrowed tools from George Wilson ("Wilson"), the victim, and unsuccessfully tried to repair the boat. Needing transportation and money, Bryan robbed Wilson at gunpoint and tied him up for the night. Bryan then took Wilson's keys and robbed the seafood wholesaler where Wilson worked as a night watchman.

After returning from the seafood wholesaler, Bryan placed Wilson in the back of Wilson's car. Bryan and Cooper then drove Wilson to Santa Rosa County where the three stayed in a motel. Leaving the motel, Bryan drove Wilson to a secluded spot in the woods. He marched Wilson, with his hands tied, at gunpoint to a spot beside a creek. Fearing for his life, Wilson pleaded that he not be crippled. Bryan knocked Wilson over the head with the shotgun. As Wilson fell into the creek, Bryan shot him in the face with the sawed-off shotgun. Bryan then pushed Wilson's car into a nearby river.

In August 1983, Bryan and Cooper were arrested in Madison County, Florida for driving a stolen car. Following her release, Cooper went to offices of the FBI to report that Bryan had robbed, kidnapped, and murdered George Wilson. After being arrested by authorities, Bryan escaped from the Santa Rosa County jail in July 1984. He was re-arrested in Colorado in October 1985. At trial for the murder of George Wilson, Cooper was the state's chief witness. A jury convicted Bryan of first-degree murder, robbery with a firearm, kidnapping with a firearm, and felony murder.

At the sentencing, Bryan called seven witnesses to testify on his behalf; including his mother, grandmother, ex-wife, a co-worker, and people who knew Bryan when he was a fugitive between July 1984 and October 1985. Bryan also introduced written reports prepared by four separate mental health experts as well as the deposition of a psychiatrist. The jury returned an advisory sentence of death. On May 16, 1986, Judge Wells accepted the jury's recommendation, finding numerous aggravating factors and two mitigating factors, and sentenced Bryan to death in Florida's electric chair.

The Florida Supreme Court denied Bryan's direct appeal, and the United States Supreme Court denied Bryan's petition for certiorari. Bryan v. State, 533 So.2d 744 (Fla.1988), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1028, 109 S.Ct. 1765, 104 L.Ed.2d 200 (1989). Bryan then filed a motion for postconviction relief pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 in state circuit court and a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Florida Supreme Court. After conducting an evidentiary hearing on Bryan's penalty-phase ineffective assistance of counsel claim on August 29, 1991, the circuit court denied all relief. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the denial of post-conviction relief and denied state habeas corpus relief. Bryan v. Dugger, 641 So.2d 61 (Fla.1994). Finally, Bryan filed a petition in federal court on October, 19, 1994, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254.² The district court denied this petition on July 19, 1996. The district court then granted Bryan's October 10, 1996, application for certificate of probable cause.

DISCUSSION

Bryan asserts that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel because his attorney did not call any mental health experts to testify at the penalty phase of the state proceedings. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Although Bryan's attorney intended to offer a defense based upon Bryan's mental state,³ and he stated at the outset of the penalty phase that he intended to present the testimony of mental health experts, he did not call Dr. Barbara Medzerian, Dr. Ellen Gentner, or Dr. James D. Larson to testify during the penalty phase.⁴ Instead, Bryan's attorney submitted only the medical reports of four experts, primarily addressing competency and sanity and not mitigation.

The three mental health experts appeared willing to testify at the trial, but were not called by Bryan's attorney for different reasons. Dr. Medzerian appeared at the court-house on the day of the penalty phase and waited outside the courtroom, but was not called to testify because Bryan's attorney did not realize she was there.⁵ Dr. Gentner claimed that she did not testify because she was not contacted by Bryan's attorney. As a result, she was out of town the day of the penalty proceeding.⁶ Finally, Dr. Larson appeared at the courthouse on the morning of the penalty phase, but Bryan's attorney decided not to call him to testify because Dr. Larson warned Bryan's attorney that his testimony may not be beneficial to Bryan's case.

Bryan also asserts that he did not receive effective assistance of counsel because his attorney failed to effectively prepare the testimony of these mental health experts. Bryan's attorney did not obtain records related to Bryan's history although experts had requested this information. He did not meet with the experts before their testimony in order to familiarize them with the concept of mitigating circumstances.

Bryan claims that he deficient performance of his counsel prejudiced him at the penalty phase because the jury was not able to hear evidence regarding both statutory and nonstatutory mitigating factors.⁷ Bryan asserts that the failure of his trial attorney to bring this medical testimony to the penalty phase demonstrated deficient performance and was prejudicial to his case because Bryan was not able to piece together for the jury his history and the evidence relating to his mental health problems. With this testimony, Bryan claims that the jury would have been able to understand the entire picture of his decline — how a loving family man and hardworking shrimp boat captain could murder another man in such a cruel and terrible manner. Although the jury was given mental health reports from these experts, the reports did not address the statutory and nonstatutory mitigating factors at the penalty phase and spoke in language inaccessible to the lay person. According to Bryan, the testimony of these three mental health experts, Doctors Medzerian, Larson, and Gentner, provided the lynch pin that would have given the jury the insight necessary to understand Bryan's fragile and tenuous mental condition.

A claim that a defendant's counsel was so defective as to require habeas corpus relief from a conviction or death sentence has two components. First, the defendant must demonstrate that the counsel's performance was deficient. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. at 2064. Second, the defendant must show that the counsel's deficient performance prejudiced the defendant. Id. Both showings are required in order for the defendant to make out a claim for ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment. Because Bryan cannot satisfy the prejudice prong, we need not address the performance prong.

In Strickland, the Supreme Court established the test for prejudice. The Court wrote:

The defendant must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.

Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. at 2068; see also id. 466 U.S. at 695, 104 S.Ct. at 2069 ("[T]he question is whether there is a reasonable probability that, absent the errors, the sentencer—including an appellate court ... would have concluded that the balance of aggravating and mitigating circumstances did not warrant death.").

Bryan asserts that he was prejudiced by the fact that his attorney did not call Dr. Gentner, a witness that his attorney had subpoenaed, to testify during the penalty phase.⁸ Bryan argues that the testimony of Dr. Gentner would have established mitigating factors, namely, that Bryan was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance (Fla. Stat. § 921.141(6)(b)), and that Bryan's capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law was substantially impaired (Fla.Stat. § 921.141(6)(f)). However, the evidence does not support Bryan's argument that Dr. Gentner would have been helpful in establishing the existence of these mitigating factors. Dr. Gentner testified in the postconviction hearing that she was "uncomfortable ... saying extreme mental disturbance." Although Dr. Gentner testified that "there would be impairment in [Bryan's] ability to conform that conduct to the requirements of the...