Clayton v. Gibson

• Decision Date: 22 December 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-5154,98-5154
• Citation: 199 F.3d 1162
• Parties: (10th Cir. 1999) ROBERT WILLIAM CLAYTON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. GARY GIBSON, Warden of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary; DREW EDMONDSON, Attorney General for the State of Oklahoma, Respondents-Appellees
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1162

199 F.3d 1162 (10th Cir. 1999)

ROBERT WILLIAM CLAYTON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. GARY GIBSON, Warden of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary; DREW EDMONDSON, Attorney General for the State of Oklahoma, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 98-5154

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS TENTH CIRCUIT

December 22, 1999

APPEAL FROM UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA. D.C. No. 96-CV-173-K

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[Copyrighted Material Omitted] James L. Hankins, of Hankins Law Office, Enid, Oklahoma, (Jeremy B. Lowrey, Sheridan, Arkansas, with him on the brief) for the appellant.

Robert L. Whittaker, Assistant Attorney General of Oklahoma (W.A. Drew Edmondson, Attorney General of Oklahoma, with him on the brief), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for the appellees.

Before BRORBY, BRISCOE, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.

ORDER ON PETITION FOR REHEARING

BRISCOE, Circuit Judge

This matter is before the court on appellant's Petition for Rehearing with a Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc. We also have the appellee's response. Upon consideration, the panel grants limited rehearing, withdraws the prior panel opinion, and issues the attached revised opinion in its place. The opinion is revised by deleting the third and fourth sentences of the last paragraph on page 13 of the November 15, 1999 slip opinion. The rehearing petition is otherwise denied.

The Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc was circulated to all the active judges of the court.¹ No active judge having called for a poll, the Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc is denied.

Petitioner Robert William Clayton was convicted of first degree murder and was sentenced to death. He appeals the denial of his 28 U.S.C. §a2254 petition for habeas corpus. We affirm.

I.

Rhonda Timmons, the victim in this case, resided with her husband Bill Timmons at the South Glen Apartments in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On June 25, 1985, as Bill Timmons was returning home for lunch around 12:30 p.m., he noticed towels and a pillow near the back door to the apartment, where Rhonda Timmons had evidently been sunbathing. The door was unlocked and when he entered the apartment, he noticed blood "everywhere." He found his wife's dead body near the crib of the Timmons' baby. Rhonda Timmons had been stabbed twelve times in the chest, neck, side, and arms, and she sustained numerous bruises and blunt force injuries to her head and body. The baby was in the crib and was not hurt.

Clayton was a groundskeeper at the South Glen Apartments. Shortly before noon on June 25, he told the head groundskeeper he was going to rest in the tool shed during his lunch break. However, between 12 and 12:30 p.m., Clayton arrived at the home of Helen Syphurs, the mother of one of his roommates, Tony Hartsfield. Clayton's hand was injured and he was breathing heavily. He told Syphurs he injured his hand while resisting two male robbers. He took a shower, wrapped himself in a towel, and placed his clothing in a paper bag. Clayton notified his employer by telephone that he would not be returning to work that day. Clayton shared a house with Hartsfield and Don and Sharon Reinke, who were Hartsfield's brother-in-law and sister. Syphurs drove Clayton home and Clayton repeated his story to Sharon Reinke. He stated his clothing was bloody and put the clothing in the washing machine. A blood-stained sock was later found on the floor near the washing machine and testing revealed the blood on the sock was Type AB, the same as Rhonda Timmons' blood. Clayton repeated his story to Hartsfield and to Don Reinke when they returned home. Police arrived around 3:30 p.m. and escorted Clayton to the police station for questioning. As he left the house, Clayton asked Hartsfield not to tell the police about a folding knife that Clayton routinely carried. The police found the knife in the backyard the following day. Although the blood traces on the knife were too minute for testing, an expert testified at trial that the knife could have been used to inflict Rhonda Timmons' injuries.

Clayton was advised of his Miranda rights at police headquarters and he twice confessed to killing Rhonda Timmons. His first confession was ruled inadmissible by a magistrate judge because tape recordings indicated Clayton did not fully understand his constitutional rights. Clayton is retarded and has an IQ of 68, placing him in the bottom two percent of the population. Clayton's second confession, which occurred after he was provided counsel but outside counsel's presence, was admitted at trial.

A jury convicted Clayton of first degree malice aforethought murder and recommended the death sentence. Clayton was sentenced to death. His conviction and sentence were affirmed in Clayton v. State, 840 P.2d 18 (Okla. Crim. App. 1992), and his application for post-conviction relief was denied in Clayton v. State, 892 P.2d 646 (Okla. Crim. App. 1995). Clayton filed his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition for habeas corpus, asserting numerous claims of constitutional error. The district court denied the petition and issued a certificate of probable cause on all claims presented in the petition.

II.

Clayton's petition is not subject to the standards embodied in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which applies only to petitions filed after April 24, 1996. See Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320 (1997). Clayton's petition was filed on March 5, 1996. We therefore review Clayton's petition under pre-Act law.

Our function in a habeas case is limited to insuring individuals are not imprisoned in violation of the Constitution. See Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390, 400 (1993). We therefore presume the historical factual findings of the jury and the state district court are correct and defer to a state's interpretation of its law. See Jackson v. Shanks, 143 F.3d 1313, 1317 (10th Cir. 1998). We review the federal district court's factual findings for clear error and review all legal issues de novo. See id.

III. Competency

Clayton contends his due process rights were violated when his competency was retrospectively determined six years after his trial and under a burden of proof later found unconstitutional in Cooper v. Oklahoma, 517 U.S. 348 (1996).

Before trial, the state court ordered that Clayton be examined to determine if he was competent to stand trial. Although Dr. Samuel Sherman examined Clayton and found him competent, the court apparently did not hold a post-examination competency hearing as required by then-existing state law. On direct appeal, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals remanded the case and directed the court either to forward proof that a hearing had been held or to conduct a retrospective hearing if feasible. The trial court first conducted a hearing to determine if a retrospective competency hearing was feasible. Based upon the availability of evidence pertaining to Clayton's pretrial competency, the court determined a retrospective competency hearing was feasible. On September 12, 1991, a jury found that Clayton was competent at the time of his trial on March 1, 1986. On appeal, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals found there was sufficient evidence of Clayton's competency to render a retrospective hearing meaningful. Clayton, 840 P.2d at 25. Clayton argues the six-year time lapse, the poor quality and lack of written records, and the sketchy memory of important witnesses precluded a fair retrospective determination of his competency at the time of trial.

Although retrospective competency hearings are disfavored, they are permissible "whenever a court can conduct a meaningful hearing to evaluate retrospectively the competency of the defendant." Moran v. Godinez, 57 F.3d 690, 696 (9th Cir. 1994); see Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S. 162, 180-83 (1975). "A 'meaningful' determination is possible where the state of the record, together with such additional evidence as may be relevant and available, permits an accurate assessment of the defendant's condition at the time of the original state proceedings." Reynolds v. Norris, 896 F.3d 796, 802 (8th Cir. 1996). A court should consider (1) the passage of time, (2) the availability of contemporaneous medical evidence, including medical records and prior competency determinations, (3) any statements by the defendant in the trial record, and (4) the availability of individuals and trial witnesses, both experts and non-experts, who were in a position to interact with defendant before and during trial, including the trial judge, counsel for both the government and defendant, and jail officials. SeeReynolds, 86 F.3d at 802-03; Moran, 57 F.3d at 696.

Applying these factors, we find no constitutional error in the state court's determination that a retrospective competency hearing was feasible. While the time gap between Clayton's trial and the competency determination is troubling, "[t]he passage of time is not an insurmountable obstacle if sufficient contemporaneous information is available." Reynolds, 86 F.3d at 803; seeBruce v. Estelle, 536 F.2d 1051, 1057 (5th Cir. 1976) (determining nine-year gap between trial and competency hearing did not alone vitiate opportunity for meaningful hearing); Barefield v. New Mexico, 434 F.2d 307, 309 (10th Cir. 1970) (finding "mere lapse of time before a competency hearing" does not invalidate findings made as a result of that hearing).

The trial court had before it Dr. Sherman's pretrial report finding Clayton competent to stand trial. Although the report was admittedly brief, it nonetheless constituted a contemporaneous medical determination. "[M]edical reports contemporaneous to the time [of trial] greatly increase the chance for an accurate retrospective evaluation of a defendant's competence." Moran, 57 F.3d at 696; see United States v. Mason, 52 F.3d 1286, 1293 (4th Cir. 1995) (finding competency determination possible where "the defendant's treating physicians have already conducted an...