Weeks v. Jones

• Decision Date: 11 July 1994
• Docket Number: No. 92-7110,92-7110
• Citation: 26 F.3d 1030
• Parties: Varnall WEEKS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Charlie E. JONES, Warden, Holman State Prison, James H. Evans, Attorney General for the State of Alabama, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1030

26 F.3d 1030

Varnall WEEKS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Charlie E. JONES, Warden, Holman State Prison, James H Evans, Attorney General for the State of Alabama Respondents-Appellees.

No. 92-7110.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

July 11, 1994.

James C. McMillin, Valerie Amsterdam, New York City, for appellant.

J. Clayton Crenshaw, Asst. Atty. Gen., Montgomery, AL, for appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.

Before KRAVITCH, COX and BIRCH, Circuit Judges.

BIRCH, Circuit Judge:

In this habeas corpus appeal, the petitioner raises issues of ineffective assistance of counsel, exculpatory evidence, and the failure to accord expert assistance. The district court determined that all of these claims were without merit or procedurally barred. We AFFIRM.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On October 1, 1981, petitioner Varnall Weeks abducted Mark Anthony Batts, a Tuskegee Institute veterinary student, robbed him of his car, tied his feet and hands together, placed a pillowcase over his head, and shot and killed Batts with a pistol fired at close range. Weeks buried the body in a shallow grave approximately 100 feet from Weeks's residence. Armed, Weeks then took Batts's car and fled to Ohio with his brother Chenoy Weeks and a woman. During the flight in Batts's car, Weeks was stopped for a traffic violation by an East Cleveland, Ohio, policeman, who asked Weeks for his driver's license. Weeks gave him Batts's license. While the officer was patting Weeks down, Weeks drew the gun used to kill Batts and shot the policeman.

Subsequently, Weeks was apprehended, arrested by the East Cleveland police, and returned by Ohio authorities to Alabama, where capital murder charges were pending. Weeks was indicted in Alabama for the murder of Batts during the course of a first-degree robbery, a capital offense. Ala.Code Sec. 13A-5-40(a)(2) (1975). The attorney appointed to represent Weeks, Jacob "Jock" Smith, had never represented a client charged with a capital offense. ¹

During Weeks's trial, the jury was confronted with incriminating direct and circumstantial evidence. Weeks was arrested in East Cleveland in possession of an automobile and driver's license that belonged to the murder victim Batts. When stopped by an East Cleveland policeman for a traffic violation, Weeks shot the officer with a gun that ballistics evidence proved to be the same weapon that killed Batts. Weeks's thumbprint was found on a bullet inside the gun.

Two eyewitnesses identified Weeks as being in front of Batts's home on the morning that the victim was last seen alive. Weeks's female passenger testified that she found Batts's driver's license in the glove compartment and questioned Weeks as to whom it belonged. Weeks told her that he had killed a Tuskegee Institute student for his car and had buried him in Weeks's backyard. Batts was found buried in a shallow grave in Weeks's backyard. Weeks and Batts's fingerprints were found on notebooks located near Batts's body.

A jury convicted Weeks for capital murder committed during first-degree robbery. Weeks waived the participation of the jury in the sentencing phase and demanded that the judge sentence him to death. The judge held a sentencing hearing at which he found two aggravating ² and no mitigating circumstances. Weeks was sentenced to death.

On direct review, Weeks's conviction and death sentence were affirmed. Weeks v. State, 456 So.2d 395 (Ala.Crim.App.1983), aff'd sub nom., Ex parte Weeks, 456 So.2d 404 (Ala.1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1030, 105 S.Ct. 2051, 85 L.Ed.2d 324 (1985). Weeks then instituted state collateral proceedings by filing a petition for writ of error coram nobis in Macon County Circuit Court, where he was convicted and sentenced. Following an evidentiary hearing, the court denied the petition, and the denial was affirmed by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. Weeks v. State, 568 So.2d 864 (Ala.Crim.App.1989), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 882, 111 S.Ct. 230, 112 L.Ed.2d 184 (1990). The Alabama Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. Weeks v. State, No. 89-437 (Ala. Feb. 23, 1990), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 882, 111 S.Ct. 230, 112 L.Ed.2d 184 (1990).

Weeks then petitioned the federal district court for the Middle District of Alabama for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254. On November 25, 1992, the district court denied the petition with prejudice. The district court found that Weeks was either procedurally barred or not entitled to relief on the twenty grounds that he raised. The district court also granted Weeks's motion for a certificate of probable cause to appeal to our court, and this appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

"In reviewing a petition filed under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254, we presume that factual findings made by a state court are correct. We review factual conclusions made by the district court under the clearly erroneous standard. We review mixed questions of fact and law de novo." Hamilton v. Ford, 969 F.2d 1006, 1010 (11th Cir.1992) (citations and footnote omitted), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1625, 123 L.Ed.2d 183 (1993). On appeal, Weeks raises issues of ineffective assistance of counsel, failure of the district court to address exculpatory evidence, and failure to permit expert assistance. We analyze each of these claims.

A. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

1. Merits Review

In district court, Weeks claimed that his counsel was ineffective for failing to discover and to present at trial evidence of Weeks's alleged mental illness, ground one, and for failing to request a psychiatric examination of Weeks after he was found guilty, but prior to his sentencing, ground two. Since these grounds were first alleged in Weeks's error coram nobis petition, they were preserved for federal habeas corpus review. Provided that the state court made its factual findings based upon a full and fair hearing where the facts were developed and the record fairly supports the state court's findings, we generally presume such factual findings to be correct. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254(d); see Amadeo v. Zant, 486 U.S. 214, 223, 108 S.Ct. 1771, 1777, 100 L.Ed.2d 249 (1988) (court of appeals may not reverse if district court's account of the state court's factual findings is plausible based on the record viewed in its entirety). A habeas petition alleging ineffective assistance of counsel presents a mixed question of fact and law subject to de novo review. Agan v. Singletary, 12 F.3d 1012, 1017 (11th Cir.1994).

The mental history to which Weeks refers in ground one is his six-month commitment, commencing on November 21, 1974, to Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for determination of his sanity prior to trial on charges of burglary, receiving stolen property, and carrying a pistol. Although initial evaluations diagnosed Weeks as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, on May 28, 1975, the Bryce Hospital Forensic Evaluation Board changed its diagnosis to "Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type in remission," and concluded that "[i]t is the unanimous professional opinion of the Board that Mr. Weeks is not presently suffering from a mental disorder of sufficient severity to preclude his taking part in his trial and effectively assisting his counselor in his own defense." R. Coram Nobis, Tab 40, at 77. The Bryce Hospital Superintendent informed the Macon County Court that Weeks was "restored to his right mind" and recommended that he be returned to that court to proceed with the pending criminal proceedings. ³ Id. at 104. Despite a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, Weeks was tried, convicted of grand larceny, and sentenced to seven years of imprisonment.

Weeks faults his trial counsel in this capital case for not investigating or discovering his prior psychiatric commitment in connection with his previous trial for the grand larceny charge in 1974. Weeks specifically notes that the commitment was referenced in the reported appellate review of his conviction for this charge and that this case had been cited by the prosecution. Weeks v. State, 342 So.2d 1335, 1337 (Ala.Crim.App.1977). While this reported decision does state that the record "indicate[ed]" that Weeks was taken to Bryce Hospital following his arrest, it also clarifies that the commitment petition, the court order, "and the findings of the doctors at Bryce Hospital are not in this record." Id.

The Bryce Hospital records were part of the record in Weeks's error coram nobis proceedings in this capital case. Additionally, the coram nobis court ordered that Weeks be examined at Taylor Hardin Secure Medical Facility prior to conducting an evidentiary hearing on his ineffective assistance of counsel claims, concerning his mental problems and his counsel's failure to raise an insanity defense. Weeks was admitted to Taylor Hardin on August 26, 1986, and discharged on January 15, 1987. As to the subject murder, the Lunacy Commission concluded that Weeks was not suffering from psychological abnormalities when he allegedly committed the murder and that he was " 'not mentally defective or emotionally disturbed.' " ⁴ Weeks, 568 So.2d at 870 (quoting Lunacy Commission Report (Jan. 12, 1987)).

At the coram nobis hearing, Weeks's trial counsel testified that he attempted to locate evidence of Weeks's mental history by searching the records at the Office of the Macon County Probate Judge, which "is the primary vehicle where one is committed under some notions of being insane." Coram Nobis Hearing at 30. Weeks's attorney also searched the records in the Macon County Clerk's office. While these records confirmed that Weeks's brother had a history of mental illness, they did not indicate that Weeks had ever been committed for any type of psychiatric evaluation. In concluding that trial counsel was not ineffective in failing to locate any psychiatric records for Weeks, the coram nobis court additionally...