Rose v. Lee
| Decision Date | 05 April 2001 |
| Docket Number | RESPONDENT-APPELLANT,RESPONDENT-APPELLEE,PETITIONER-APPELLEE,PETITIONER-APPELLANT,00-12,No. 00-11,00-11 |
| Citation | 252 F.3d 676 |
| Parties | (4th Cir. 2001) JOHN HARDY ROSE,, v. R. C. LEE, WARDEN, CENTRAL PRISON, RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, JOHN HARDY ROSE,, v. R. C. LEE, WARDEN, CENTRAL PRISON, RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, Argued: |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, at Asheville. Richard L. Voorhees, District Judge. (CA-00-20-1-V) [Copyrighted Material Omitted]
[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Argued: Michael L. Minsker, Higgins Minsker, P.L.L.C., Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellant. Valerie Blanche Spalding, Special Deputy Attorney General, North Carolina Department of Justice, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee. On Brief: Roy Cooper, Attorney General of North Carolina, North Carolina Department of Justice, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee.
Before Williams, Michael, and Traxler, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed in part and reversed in part by published opinion. Judge Williams wrote the opinion, in which Judge Michael and Judge Traxler joined.
A North Carolina jury convicted John Hardy Rose of capital murder for the murder of Patricia Stewart. Following a capital sentencing proceeding, the jury recommended, and the trial court imposed, a sentence of death. After exhausting all available state remedies, Rose petitioned the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina for a writ of habeas corpus. See 28 U.S.C.A. § 2254 (West Supp. 2000). The district court ordered that the writ be granted on the ground that the State habeas court applied the wrong legal standard to Rose's ineffective assistance of counsel claim. The remaining allegations in Rose's habeas petition were dismissed.
Rose seeks a certificate of appealability granting permission to appeal the portion of the district court's order denying Rose's habeas relief. The State cross-appeals the portion of the district court's judgment in which the district court granted the writ and remanded to the State habeas court for its application of the proper legal standard to Rose's ineffective assistance of counsel claim.1 For the reasons that follow, we reverse the portion of the district court's judgment granting the writ, affirm the district court's entry of summary judgment in favor of the State as to Rose's claims, and decline to grant Rose a certificate of appealability.
After receiving a report that Patricia Stewart was missing and finding small drops of blood in and around her apartment, the Graham County, North Carolina, police department conducted several interviews with Rose, who lived with his sister and her boyfriend in the apartment above Stewart.2 On January 13, 1991, State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) Agent Mark Nelson performed a consent search of a blue Pontiac owned by Rose and a yellow Ford owned by his sister. In the two cars, investigators found a pair of numchucks, a tire tool, jumper cables, a black sleeveless jacket, and a thermos, all of which tested positive for blood. The thermos and the trunk of the Ford contained bloodstains that were consistent with Stewart's blood type and inconsistent with Rose's.
On January 14, SBI Agent Frye met with Rose to discuss the results of the searches of the two automobiles. Rose told Frye that he did not want to discuss Stewart's disappearance "because the situation surrounding it was too bad to talk about, and he was concerned about what his family would think of him." State v. Rose, 439 S.E.2d 518, 525 (N.C. 1994). Rose told the officers, however, that "the disposition of Patricia Stewart was so bad" that they would not be able to find any of her remains. Id.
On January 15, agents spoke again with Rose, this time in the presence of his mother. Rose's mother told Rose that he needed to reveal any information he had regarding Stewart's disappearance. Rose informed the agents that Stewart's body was located at his grandmother's farm. Agents radioed this information to officers searching for the victim's body, who in turn informed the agents that the body had already been uncovered.
Rose then was arrested and given Miranda warnings for the first time. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966). Rose waived his Miranda rights and gave an additional statement in which he said he had been involved in a relationship with Stewart, which Stewart had been keeping secret. According to Rose's statement, he was in Stewart's apartment after midnight on Wednesday, January 2. While he was there, a friend came to visit Stewart, and Stewart asked Rose to leave and come back later, which he did. Rose smoked marijuana and drank a quart of whiskey before going to Stewart's apartment. There, Rose claims that he told Stewart that he was going back to his girlfriend in Alabama; Stewart retorted that she would have him arrested for rape if he tried to leave her. In response to this threat, Rose said that he "just went crazy," stabbing, beating, and choking Stewart to death. Rose, 439 S.E.2d at 525.
Rose then wrapped Stewart's body in her bed linen and put it in the trunk of his Pontiac, but the car would not start. Rose stated that he then went back inside and tried to clean up, leaving Stewart in the trunk. He took the knife that he used to kill Stewart to his apartment, cleaned it, and placed it in a box in his bedroom. The next evening, Rose borrowed his sister's Ford automobile and transferred the body to the trunk of the Ford. He drove the Ford to his grandmother's farm, took the body behind the house, used his grandmother's hoe to dig a shallow grave, poured gasoline on the body, set it afire, and walked away. When the fire went out, Rose returned and covered the body with rocks, leaves, and tree branches.
Rose's testimony during the guilt phase of the trial was similar to his confession, with a few deviations. Rose testified that after he told Stewart he was going to Alabama, Stewart reached over and picked up a pocket knife that she had lying on her nightstand beside her bed. Rose claimed that Stewart shook the knife and said,"You ain't going nowhere." Id. at 526. Rose testified that he jumped up and hit Stewart's arm, causing the knife to hit her in the head, and immediately jumped on top of her. Rose testified that he then "heard something pop, backed up and saw blood coming out of Stewart's head." Id. Rose testified that "he did not remember choking Stewart that morning and that he did not intend to harm her and did not think anything like that would happen." Id.
A medical examiner testified that Rose stabbed Stewart five times, with four knife wounds to her body and one knife wound to her head that was inflicted with enough force to pierce her skull. Id. at 532.
The jury returned a verdict finding Rose guilty of first-degree murder. Following the return of the guilty verdict, a capital sentencing proceeding was held pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat.§ 15A-2000 (1999). At sentencing, the State introduced as aggravating evidence exhibits related to Rose's conviction in Mississippi for attempted rape. See Rose, 439 S.E.2d at 526. As mitigating evidence, Rose testified about his troubled childhood and upbringing. See id. He testified that his father was an alcoholic and was abusive to Rose's mother and siblings. See id. At the age of twelve, Rose and his sister were taken to live with a relative and told that they were going to be given away. See id. Rose also described his military service in the United States Marine Corps and the Army, from which he received honorable discharges. See id. Rose's mother and sisters also testified, verifying Rose's troubled upbringing. See id. at 527. Sheriff's Department employees testified that Rose had been a good prisoner, and Rose's employer testified that he was a good employee. See id. Based upon a weighing of these various mitigating and aggravating factors, the jury recommended, and the trial court imposed, a sentence of death. See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-2000(b) (2000).
On May 12, 1992, Rose appealed to the North Carolina Supreme Court, which unanimously found no error in Rose's conviction or death sentence. On June 27, 1994, the United States Supreme Court denied Rose's petition for a writ of certiorari. Rose filed a petition for state habeas corpus relief, which is termed a Motion for Appropriate Relief ("MAR") in North Carolina. After holding an evidentiary hearing, the state habeas court denied Rose's requested relief.
Rose then petitioned the federal district court for habeas relief, challenging his conviction and sentence on numerous grounds. The petition was referred to a United States Magistrate Judge, who recommended that the district court dismiss on summary judgment the majority of Rose's claims but grant the writ with respect to Rose's ineffective assistance of counsel claim.
After a de novo review, the district court agreed with the magistrate judge's recommendation and issued a writ of habeas corpus with respect to Rose's ineffective assistance of counsel claim but dismissed Rose's habeas petition with respect to Rose's remaining claims. The district court remanded the ineffective assistance of counsel claim to the state habeas court to determine whether Rose can establish his claim under the governing legal standard set forth in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984).
Rose seeks to appeal three issues upon which the district court entered summary judgment in favor of the State: (1) whether his confession was illegally obtained; (2) whether the imposition of the death penalty in North Carolina unconstitutionally discriminates against the impoverished; and (3) whether the ex post facto clause bars the application of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1419 to his habeas petition. We will address each of Rose's arguments and then turn to the State's argument that the district...
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