Motley v. Collins

• Decision Date: 01 April 1994
• Docket Number: No. 92-2610,92-2610
• Citation: 18 F.3d 1223
• Parties: Jeffrey Dean MOTLEY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. James A. COLLINS, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1223

18 F.3d 1223

Jeffrey Dean MOTLEY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. James A. COLLINS, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 92-2610.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

April 1, 1994.

Stanley G. Schneider, Schneider & McKinney, Houston, TX, for petitioner-appellant.

Charles A. Palmer, William Zapalac, Asst. Attys. Gen., Dan Morales, Atty. Gen., Austin, TX, for respondent-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Before KING, DAVIS and WIENER, Circuit Judges.

KING, Circuit Judge:

The opinion and dissenting opinion in this case filed on September 21, 1993, and reprinted at 3 F.3d 781 (5th Cir.1993), are withdrawn, and the following opinion is substituted therefor.

Jeffrey Dean Motley, a Texas death row inmate convicted of capital murder, appeals from the district court's decision denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the district court's decision denying the writ.

I. BACKGROUND

On the morning of July 22, 1984, Maria Duran left her home to drive to a friend's apartment to go swimming. She never arrived. Duran's family called the police, who began investigating her disappearance.

Seven days later, on July 29, 1984, the police arrested Jeffrey Motley as he was driving Duran's car. A search of the car uncovered a sawed-off shotgun, a number of shotgun shells, and a hunting knife. Police also discovered traces of human blood on the spare tire in the trunk of Duran's car and on one of the tennis shoes that Motley was wearing. Duran's credit cards, driver's license, and social security card were found in a trash bin near the apartment complex where Motley was arrested.

On August 1, 1984, three days after Motley's arrest, police found Duran's body in a field. There were some signs that Duran had been sexually assaulted, ¹ but the evidence was ultimately found to be inconclusive. The cause of death, according to the medical examiner, was a gunshot wound in the back. Investigators could not determine, however, whether the shotgun slug that killed Duran was fired from the shotgun found in Duran's car.

Based on the evidence found in Duran's car at the time Motley was arrested, as well as other circumstantial evidence linking Motley to the crime, the jury convicted Motley of capital murder. After hearing evidence on issues relevant to sentencing, including evidence that Motley was physically and sexually abused as a child, the jury was presented with two of the three Texas special issues:

(1) Was the conduct of the Defendant that caused the death of the deceased committed deliberately and with the reasonable expectation that the death of the deceased would result?

(2) Is there a probability that the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society?

See TEX.CODE CRIM.PROC.ANN. art. 37.071(b) (Vernon 1989). The jury answered both of these questions affirmatively and, as a result, Motley was automatically sentenced to death.

Motley's conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal. See Motley v. State, 773 S.W.2d 283 (Tex.Crim.App.1989). The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied rehearing on May 24, 1989. Because Motley did not petition the Supreme Court for writ of certiorari, his conviction became final ninety days later--about two months after the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Penry v. Lynaugh, 492 U.S. 302, 109 S.Ct. 2934, 106 L.Ed.2d 256 (1989).

Thereafter, Motley filed a petition for habeas corpus in state court, which was denied on July 22, 1992. See Ex Parte Motley, No. 23806 (Tex.Crim.App.1992). Motley then proceeded to federal district court, where the judge denied habeas relief on all of his claims. This appeal followed.

II. INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL CLAIM

In district court, Motley argued that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel by committing errors at various stages of his capital murder trial. Among other things, Motley argued that his counsel rendered ineffective assistance by: (a) agreeing with the State, during voir dire, that the term "deliberately" under the first special issue means essentially the same thing as "intentionally" in the guilt/innocence phase of the trial; (b) calling Motley as a witness after the State rested with evidence that, according to Motley, was insufficient to support a conviction; (c) being generally unfamiliar with capital sentencing law--particularly, the admissibility of unadjudicated extraneous offenses; and (d) failing to investigate and introduce evidence of Motley's brain damage during the punishment phase of the trial.

The district court rejected Motley's ineffective assistance of counsel claim. It first reasoned, "The state court found that Motley received effective assistance at all phases of his trial. Because the record supports those factual findings, they are presumed correct." The district court further reasoned, with respect to each of the alleged errors, that they either represented valid strategic choices by Motley's trial counsel or did not prejudice his defense.

As explained below, the district court correctly rejected Motley's ineffective assistance of counsel claim. Although we disagree with the district court's assertion that the state court's finding of effective assistance is entitled to a presumption of correctness as a factual finding under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254(d), we agree that on this record Motley has failed to show how the alleged errors prejudiced the outcome of either the guilt/innocence or punishment phase of his trial.

A. The Strickland Framework

The standard for assessing whether counsel rendered constitutionally ineffective assistance, which was set forth by the Supreme Court in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), is a familiar one. To obtain relief, a criminal defendant must first demonstrate that counsel's performance was deficient. The defendant must also demonstrate that counsel's deficient performance prejudiced the defense. Id. at 687, 104 S.Ct. at 2064; United States v. Smith, 915 F.2d 959, 963 (5th Cir.1990).

The proper standard for measuring counsel's performance under the first prong of Strickland is reasonably effective assistance. That is, "the defendant must show that counsel's representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness." Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687-88, 104 S.Ct. at 2064. Our scrutiny of counsel's performance must be "highly deferential," and we must make every effort "to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel's challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel's perspective at the time." Id. at 689, 104 S.Ct. at 2065. Under Strickland, there is a "strong presumption that counsel's conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance." Id.

To satisfy the prejudice prong of Strickland, 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." Id. at 694, 104 S.Ct. at 2068. The defendant need not show that "counsel's deficient conduct more likely than not altered the outcome in the case." Id. at 693, 104 S.Ct. at 2068. But it is not enough, under Strickland, "that the errors had some conceivable effect on the outcome of the proceeding." Id.

In reviewing ineffective assistance claims raised on habeas corpus, we do not, contrary to the district court's assertion otherwise, defer to a state court's conclusion that counsel rendered constitutionally effective assistance. As Justice O'Connor has stated:

Ineffectiveness is not a question of "basic, primary, or historical fac[t]," Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 309 n. 6 [83 S.Ct. 745, 755 n. 6, 9 L.Ed.2d 770] (1963). Rather, like the question whether multiple representation in a particular case gave rise to a conflict of interest, it is a mixed question of law and fact.

466 U.S. at 698, 104 S.Ct. at 2070. And, "[a]lthough state court findings of fact made in the course of deciding an ineffectiveness claim are subject to the deference requirement of Sec. 2254(d), ... both the performance and prejudice components of the ineffectiveness inquiry are mixed questions of law and fact." Id. ²

Finally, in deciding ineffectiveness claims, we need not address both prongs of the Strickland test. If we can "dispose of an ineffectiveness claim on the ground of lack of sufficient prejudice ... that course should be followed." Id. at 697, 104 S.Ct. at 2069. We therefore proceed in such a fashion.

B. Assessing Motley's Claim Under the Strickland Framework

The alleged errors to which Motley points are not sufficient, either alone or in combination, to render his trial counsel's performance constitutionally ineffective. While Motley's trial counsel may have been deficient in certain respects, this deficient performance did not, in our view, prejudice the outcome of either the guilt/innocence or the sentencing phase of Motley's trial. We therefore affirm the district court's decision to the extent that it denied relief on this ground.

First, Motley complains about his trial counsel's failure to correct the State's assertion during voir dire that the term "deliberately," as used in the first Texas special issue, was substantially equivalent in meaning to the term "intentionally." Motley correctly points out that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has refused to equate the two terms. See Motley v. State, 773 S.W.2d at 289 ("We have decided that 'deliberately,' as used in the first special issue is not the linguistic equivalent of 'intentionally,' as used in the charge on guilt-innocence."); Heckert v. State, 612 S.W.2d 549, 553 (Tex.Crim.App.1981) (presuming that...