Lockett v. Anderson

• Decision Date: 13 October 2000
• Docket Number: No. 98-60019,98-60019
• Citation: 230 F.3d 695
• Parties: (5th Cir. 2000) CARL DANIEL LOCKETT, Petitioner - Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. JAMES V. ANDERSON, Superintendent, Mississippi State Penitentiary, Respondent - Appellant-Cross-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 695

230 F.3d 695 (5th Cir. 2000)

CARL DANIEL LOCKETT, Petitioner - Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. JAMES V. ANDERSON, Superintendent, Mississippi State Penitentiary, Respondent - Appellant-Cross-Appellee.

No. 98-60019

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

October 13, 2000

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi

Before JOLLY, BENAVIDES, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:

We have an appeal by the State and a cross-appeal by the petitioner in this death penalty case, which arises from the state courts of Mississippi. We should first note that the appellant, Carl Daniel Lockett, killed two persons, Mr. Calhoun (Case #1), and his wife, Mrs. Calhoun (Case #2), for which he was separately tried, separately convicted, and separately sentenced. He is therefore under two death sentences, which have been consolidated in this federal habeas proceeding. This appeal is from the district court's judgment in the consolidated case granting habeas relief in each of the state court cases. The district court set aside the conviction (and hence the death sentence) in each case because the indictments were defective in that they failed adequately to allege the crime of capital murder under recent Mississippi case law. We have reached a result different from that of the district court and hold only that resentencing is required.

This appeal becomes somewhat confusing, not only because we have two separate and distinct state court cases, but also because we have two separate orders entered by the district court in this consolidated federal case: the October order granting relief in Case #1 as to the death penalty only and denying all habeas relief in Case #2; and the December order, on rehearing of the October order, which granted--on new grounds relating to the defective indictments--relief in each case, both as to conviction and sentence. We will have to address both orders as they relate to each state court case.

Some issues are common between the two cases; some issues apply only to one. With respect to the common issues, we reverse the district court's ruling that the faulty indictments require habeas relief. Consequently, we hold that the conviction for capital murder in each case satisfies constitutional standards. However, in each case we uphold the district court's judgments to the extent that they recognize that Lockett be resentenced. In Case #1, in which the district court first entered judgment requiring resentencing, we must allow the judgment to stand because the state has failed to appeal that judgment. In Case #2, we grant habeas relief, which requires that Lockett be given a new sentencing hearing. We do so because Lockett's counsel failed to conduct a constitutionally adequate investigation into the available mitigating evidence which, if presented, would have created a reasonable probability that an objectively reasonable juror would decide that death was not the appropriate penalty for the murder of Mrs. Calhoun, notwithstanding its cold and merciless cruelty.

In the cross-appeal, Lockett appeals from the October order that rejected all of his claims in each case except for granting relief from the death sentence in Case #1. We affirm the district court's October order in all respects in which it denied relief to Lockett.

I

We first describe briefly Lockett's murder of John and Geraldine Calhoun. Lockett invaded the Calhoun's home in Puckett, Rankin County, Mississippi, on the morning of December 13, 1985. Having watched Mr. Calhoun leave the house with the Calhouns' two sons, Lockett broke into the home and took Geraldine Calhoun captive. There, he lay in wait for John Calhoun. When Mr. Calhoun entered his family's home, Lockett ambushed him. He shot him four times with a .32 caliber pistol.¹ After killing Mr. Calhoun, Lockett forced Mrs. Calhoun to strip her husband of his wallet, ignoring her pleas that he end her own life quickly. Lockett then forced Mrs. Calhoun into the Calhoun's commandeered car and drove to an abandoned chicken house, owned by his grandmother. There, he executed Mrs. Calhoun with two .22 caliber rifle shots to her head. Lockett stripped the Calhoun's car for various parts, hid those items in the chicken house, walked through the woods to his home, and fell asleep.

The next day, following obvious clues pointing to him as the killer, the authorities arrested Lockett. After his arrest, without assistance of counsel, Lockett confessed fully to his actions. With respect to Lockett's confession, the Mississippi Supreme Court said only this: "After waiving his rights at the Rankin County Sheriff's office, Lockett confessed. Subsequently, another waiver was made and Lockett tendered a complete tape-recorded account of the crime."

Separate juries convicted Lockett after individual two-day trials spaced one month apart. The murder trial of Mr. Calhoun started April 1, 1986, and the jury returned a verdict of guilty of capital murder on April 2, 1986. Lockett was represented by the same trial counsel for both trials. His attorney presented a very brief defense; he gave no opening statement and put no witnesses on the stand. At the sentencing phases of each trial, which will be explored more fully, Lockett's counsel put four family members on the stand in Case #1, and one in Case #2.

II

Not unlike other capital cases, this appeal has a lengthy procedural history. On September 30, 1987, on automatic review, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed Lockett's conviction for the murder of Mr. Calhoun. See Lockett v. State, 517 So.2d 1317 (Miss. 1987). The state supreme court denied Lockett's petition for rehearing on January 13, 1988. The United States Supreme Court denied Lockett's petition for writ of certiorari on June 20, 1988. See 487 U.S. 1210 (1988). Subsequently, the Mississippi Supreme Court denied Lockett's motion for post-conviction relief. See Lockett v. State, 614 So.2d 888 (Miss. 1992). Lockett's petition for writ of certiorari to this denial was also rejected. See 510 U.S. 1040, 114 S.Ct. 681, reh'g denied, 510 U.S. 1173, 114 S.Ct. 1212 (1994). Thereafter, the Mississippi Supreme Court rejected Lockett's second application for state post-conviction relief on April 13, 1994, deeming it to be time barred and a successive petition. See Lockett v. State, 656 So.2d 68 (Miss. 1995).

Lockett's conviction and appeals with respect to the murder of Mrs. Calhoun followed a similar path. Convicted and sentenced on May 6, 1986, Lockett's automatic appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court was rejected on September 30, 1987. See Lockett v. State, 517 So.2d 1346 (Miss. 1987). Lockett's petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court was rejected. See 487 U.S. 1210, reh'g denied, 487 U.S. 1250 (1988). Thereafter, the Mississippi Supreme Court denied post-conviction relief, see Lockett v. State, 614 So.2d 898 (Miss. 1992), and the United States Supreme Court denied the petition for writ of certiorari. See 510 U.S. 1040, 114 S.Ct. 681, reh'g denied, 510 U.S. 1173, 114 S.Ct. 1212 (1994).

Lockett then sought habeas relief in the federal district court. In an order entered October 16, 1997, the district court initially denied in part and granted in part Lockett's habeas petition. In that order, the district court reversed Lockett's sentence with respect to Mr. Calhoun's murder only, holding that the "especially heinous" instruction was improperly given on the facts of the case. Following Lockett's timely motion to alter or amend, the district court reversed the convictions and sentences of both Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun, but this time the district court took a different tact. In an order entered December 16, 1997, the district court concluded that the recently decided state supreme court decision, State v. Berryhill, supra, 703 So.2d 250, issued October 23, 1997, meant that the indictment in each case was fatally defective, and that this decision retroactively applied to these 1986 convictions. The district court therefore granted habeas relief as to both convictions (and hence to the death sentences as well).

III

Lockett filed his federal petition for writ of habeas corpus on November 20, 1995, prior to the enactment on April 24, 1996, of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"). Therefore, the AEDPA does not apply to Lockett's petition. See Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 326-27 (1997). We therefore apply pre-AEDPA standards to the issues raised in this case. See Green v. Johnson, 116 F.3d 1115, 1119-20 (5th Cir. 1997).

IV

We first consider whether we have jurisdiction to review the State's challenge to the district court's October 1997 order, which only vacated Lockett's death sentence for the murder of John Calhoun. As we have noted, the district court reversed this conviction on the grounds that the "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel" aggravating circumstance instruction should not have been given to the jury, finding that there was insufficient evidence for any rational trier of fact to conclude that the circumstance was applicable.

We think that the State has waived any appeal of this October ruling. The only notice of appeal the State has filed is limited on its face to the district court's December order. It states quite specifically:

[T]he Respondents . . . hereby appeal . . . from the Order granting the petition for writ of habeas corpus vacating two capital murder convictions and sentences of death on the condition that the State of Mississippi either (1) retry Lockett within ninety days, (2) seek a new indictment against Lockett within ninety days or (3) resentence Lockett for simple murder, entered on December 16, 1997 . . . .

The general rule governing the scope of a notice of appeal states:

Where the appellant notices the appeal of a specified judgment only or a part thereof, . . . this court has no...