Wright v. Hopper
| Decision Date | 10 March 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 97-6646,97-6646 |
| Citation | 169 F.3d 695 |
| Parties | 12 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 600 Freddie Lee WRIGHT, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Joe HOPPER, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Brian F. McDonough, Paul Gerard Nittoly, Shanley & Fisher, P.C., Morristown, NJ, for Petitioner-Appellant.
Beth Jackson Hughes, J. Clayton Crenshaw, Asst. Attorney Generals, Montgomery, AL, for Respondent-Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.
Before BIRCH, DUBINA and BARKETT, Circuit Judges.
Petitioner, Freddie Lee Wright ("Wright"), appeals the district court's order denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Wright was convicted and sentenced to death for the December 1, 1977, robbery and murders of Warren and Lois Green ("the Greens" or "the victims"), at the Western Auto Store in Mt. Vernon, Alabama. After reviewing the entire record in this case, and having the benefit of oral argument and the parties' briefs, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
The facts are recited verbatim from the opinion of the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on direct review of Wright's conviction and sentence.
The State presented evidence that around 10:30 on the morning of December 1, 1977, Mr. Green had cashed checks in the amount of $900 at a local bank and placed the money in a red bank bag. Shortly before noon, it was discovered that Mr. and Mrs. Green had been tied together and shot in their Western Auto Store in Mount Vernon. The money was missing from the cash register, and a television, a stereo component system, and several watches were also missing from the store. Mr. Green was not wearing the Seiko watch he had been wearing earlier that morning. His family had given him this watch as a birthday present on November 30, 1977.
Doris Lacey Lambert testified that, on the 2nd day of December of 1977, the defendant told her that "he had went out with some of his friends," "Craig, Roger, and 'Gill Man,' " to Mount Vernon and that "he killed two people" with a gun in a Western Auto Store.
On cross examination, Ms. Lambert admitted that she had one child by the defendant but denied making the statement that "before she would see another woman have him she would see him dead" after she learned that the defendant was engaged to another woman. She admitted that she had been convicted of shoplifting.
Roger McQueen testified that he had been convicted of armed robbery and was going to plead guilty to first degree murder for the Mount Vernon killings. He "considered himself a guilty participant in this murder." McQueen stated that he and Craig lived in the same apartment complex in Mobile. On December 1, 1977, they took Craig's car and picked up the defendant and Tinsley. About one week before, at his suggestion, a decision had been made between him and Craig "to rob some store in Jackson." The defendant and Tinsley learned of the plan and agreed to go. On the way to Jackson, they stopped in Mount Vernon to get some tape to repair a torn seat in Craig's car.
McQueen went in the Western Auto Store to purchase the tape. Wright came in later armed with a gun and told Mr. and Mrs. Green to come out from behind the desk into a "little room." The defendant told McQueen "to go to the register" and Tinsley entered the store. McQueen removed the money from the register and Tinsley, at the defendant's direction, got some extension cord to tie up Mr. and Mrs. Green. The defendant and Tinsley then tied up the Greens. The defendant made several trips from the store to Craig's car and took a T.V. set and a stereo system. Tinsley took the watches. The defendant also had Mr. Green's watch. McQueen also testified that Craig told him to "make sure the people were taken care of" because "the people would have identified the car." The defendant was the last one to leave the store. When he returned to Craig's car, the others "asked him what took place and he said that he had took care of both peoples." * * * "He said he had shot both peoples and also Reginald Tinsley agreed with him because he went back into the store the last time." McQueen asked the defendant to show him the empty cartridges if the defendant shot both people and the defendant handed McQueen "two empty cartridge[s] from the gun." The gun was a "nickel plate .38 with some kind of carving handle, a wooden handle." McQueen testified that they left Mount Vernon and went to Craig's sister's house where they divided the money he had taken from the store. The defendant gave the T.V. to Craig and the stereo was taken to where the defendant "stayed at." McQueen left the "bank carrier" that he had taken at Craig's sister's house.
Percy Craig testified that he had been convicted for "possession", forgery, and burglary. He admitted his participation in this offense under review as "the driver" and testified that he intended to plead guilty to a charge of murder. Craig substantially corroborated McQueen's testimony.
Craig testified that, when McQueen returned to the car after having been in the store, either Tinsley or the defendant asked him "how did it look inside." He admitted that he asked his three companions "if everything had been taken care of" because "they were in and out of the store so fast I wanted to be sure that the people were tied up to give me enough time to get away." After they left the store, the defendant gave McQueen "a couple of empty cartridges ... to throw out of the window." Craig then asked if he shot the people and the defendant said yes. Craig testified that a couple of days after the robbery he saw the defendant with a Seiko watch that was subsequently identified as having been Mr. Green's. Craig said that the defendant gave the watch to Joe Nathan Beckham who pawned the watch.
Other witnesses for the State identified the Seiko watch. It was established that this watch was pawned by Joe N. Beckham at Buster's Eagle Pawn Shop in Mobile on January 16, 1978.
Expert testimony presented by the State established that Mr. and Mrs. Green were both shot once in the head with a .38 caliber bullet and that the bullet recovered from Mr. Green's head could have been fired from a pistol recovered directly behind the defendant's apartment. The bullet that had killed Mrs. Green was too mutilated to compare.
The defendant was arrested at the Stone Oaks Apartment on July 28, 1978. He was living with Hazel Craig, who, when the deputies asked, denied that the defendant was home. The officers searched the apartment and found the defendant in a bedroom. Later, a .38 caliber revolver was recovered on the ground next to an air conditioning unit at the rear of the apartment. Although the ground was damp, apparently from the early morning mist or dew, the gun was "perfectly dry" and "had what appeared to be a fine coating of lint material on the gun itself."
Wright's first trial ended in a mistrial, but a Mobile County Grand Jury re-indicted him for the capital offenses of "[r]obbery or attempts thereof, when the victim is intentionally killed by the defendant" and "[m]urder in the first degree wherein two or more human beings are intentionally killed by the defendant by one or a series of acts." See Ala.Code § 13-11-2(a)(2) (1975) (repealed and replaced, § 13A-5-40(a)(2)) and Ala.Code § 13-11-2(a)(10) (1975) (repealed and replaced, § 13A-5-40(a)(10)). After a two-day trial, the jury found Wright guilty of both counts and set his punishment at death. After a separate sentencing hearing, the trial court imposed the death sentence.
On direct appeal, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed and remanded the case on the authority of Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 100 S.Ct. 2382, 65 L.Ed.2d 392 (1980), and Ritter v. State, 403 So.2d 154 (Ala.1981). The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals denied the State's application for rehearing and the Alabama Supreme Court then denied the State's petition for writ of certiorari. See Wright v. State, 407 So.2d 565 (Ala.1981). The United States Supreme Court granted the State's petition for writ of certiorari, vacated the judgment of the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, and remanded the case to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals for reconsideration in light of Hopper v. Evans, 456 U.S. 605, 102 S.Ct. 2049, 72 L.Ed.2d 367 (1982). See Alabama v. Wright, 457 U.S. 1114, 102 S.Ct. 2920, 73 L.Ed.2d 1325 (1982).
After remand by the United States Supreme Court, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Wright's conviction and sentence of death. See Wright v. State, 494 So.2d 726. The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed. See Wright v. State, 494 So.2d 745 (Ala.1986). The Alabama Supreme Court denied Wright's application for rehearing and the United States Supreme Court denied Wright's petition for writ of certiorari. Wright v. Alabama, 479 U.S. 1101, 107 S.Ct. 1331, 94 L.Ed.2d 183 (1987).
Wright filed a petition for writ of error coram nobis in the Mobile County Circuit Court on June 22, 1987. After conducting an evidentiary hearing on the petition, the trial court denied Wright coram nobis relief. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial court's decision. See Wright v. State, 593 So.2d 111 (Ala.Crim.App.1991). On January 31, 1992, the Alabama Supreme Court denied Wright's application for writ of certiorari and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari review. See Wright v. Alabama, 506 U.S. 844, 113 S.Ct. 132, 121 L.Ed.2d 86 (1992).
Wright then filed his federal habeas corpus petition. After conducting an evidentiary hearing on Wright's allegations, the district court denied Wright habeas relief.
1. Whether the State's failure to produce certain items of evidence violated Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963).
2. Whether Wright received ineffective assistance...
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