Blake v. Zant
| Decision Date | 29 April 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. CV480-251,CV280-114 and CV478-309.,CV480-251 |
| Citation | 513 F. Supp. 772 |
| Parties | Joseph James BLAKE, Petitioner, v. Walter ZANT, Warden, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center, Respondent. Christopher A. BURGER, Petitioner, v. Walter B. ZANT, Warden, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center, Respondent. William Neal MOORE, Petitioner, v. Charles BALKCOM, Warden, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Georgia |
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Millard Farmer, Joseph M. Nursey, Andrea I. Young, Atlanta, Ga., for petitioners Blake & Burger.
H. Diana Hicks, Nashville, Tenn., for petitioner Moore.
Susan V. Boleyn, Charles E. Brown, William B. Hill, Jr., Atlanta, Ga., for respondents.
The Court this date enters the attached Orders in these habeas corpus capital punishment actions. Each case is unique, and, accordingly, each Order has been developed and is intended to be construed individually. Moreover, many broad questions which these cases might suggest have been reserved for possible future consideration in other contexts. Nonetheless, I am fully cognizant of the unique public concern which attaches to cases such as these. The Court also recognizes their broader significance in the development of law in this field and particularly with respect to United States Supreme Court decisions like Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 100 S.Ct. 1759, 64 L.Ed.2d 398 (1980), which in fact extensively discusses the Georgia Supreme Court's analysis in Blake v. State, 239 Ga. 292, 236 S.E.2d 637 (1977). Furthermore, the Court concludes that, precisely because these cases do present varied legal and factual questions, they offer a valuable opportunity for general comment on the development of the law of capital punishment. The Court also believes that its own experience in considering these cases may provide some useful insight into the practical possibilities and limitations of judicial review in this unique field.
Accordingly, the Court attaches, as an appendix to these Orders, certain broad comments on the problems and, in this Court's view, likely outcome of this on-going process of judicial and legislative development. Of course, these comments are, and must be, general and to some extent tentative, though they are certainly not unconsidered. Thus, I in no way intimate any settled view as to issues which may be presented to the Court in some future proceeding. Nor do these reflections constitute any part of the bases for the Court's holdings with respect to the individual habeas petitions.
Before the Court is a petition for writ of habeas corpus for review of the judgment of the Superior Court of Chatham County, Georgia, and the conviction and sentence of death imposed upon the petitioner. Numerous arguments have been raised by petitioner, but the Court will review only two in detail here: petitioner's allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel, (1) in both the guilt and sentencing phases of trial because of a lack of expert psychiatric opinion in the development and presentation of his defense of insanity, and (2) at the sentencing phase of trial because of counsel's failure to consider or develop possible mitigating circumstances. For reasons discussed below, the Court finds that both of these arguments must be sustained. Therefore, petitioner's conviction and sentence of death will be vacated, and the case remanded for new trial on all issues, or release, within 120 days.
Petitioner Joseph James Blake was tried in the Chatham County Superior Court for the murder of Tiffany Lowery, a two-year old child and the daughter of Jacquelyn Lowery whom Mr. Blake had been seeing for some time. The child was killed November 15, 1975. Petitioner was brought to trial and convicted February 14, 1976. The death penalty was imposed February 18, 1976. Conviction and sentence were both upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court in Blake v. State, 239 Ga. 292, 236 S.E.2d 637 (1977). Petitioner then filed for certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States. This motion was denied November 14, 1977. Blake v. Georgia, 434 U.S. 960, 98 S.Ct. 492, 54 L.Ed.2d 320 (1977).
On March 7, 1978, petition for writ of habeas corpus was filed in the Superior Court of Tattnall County. A hearing was held on May 24, 1978, with the petition denied by an Order of August 17, 1978. Petitioner's application for certificate of probable cause to appeal was denied by the Supreme Court of Georgia on January 11, 1979.
Petitioner also filed a motion for extraordinary relief which was heard in the Superior Court of Chatham County on May 13, 1979. Subsequently, this motion was denied and denial affirmed by the Georgia Supreme Court on October 16, 1979. Blake v. State, 244 Ga. 466, 260 S.E.2d 876 (1979). Petitioner then filed for writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court seeking review of the denial of this extraordinary motion. This petition was denied June 2, 1980, with rehearing also denied on August 11, 1980.
Thereafter, a second state habeas corpus petition was filed in the Superior Court of Butts County. This action was dismissed as successive on September 2, 1980.1 The Georgia Supreme Court denied application for certificate of probable cause September 4, 1980. On September 5, 1980, this Court granted a stay of execution, to permit consideration of the present petition for habeas corpus relief, which was also filed September 5, 1980.2 A hearing was conducted on December 12, 1980. The respondent presented no evidence at this hearing. However, testimony was received from certain witnesses for petitioner, notably Mr. Reginald Haupt, Jr., who represented the petitioner at trial and subsequently in all other steps through denial of extraordinary relief by the Georgia Supreme Court. The Court also entertained argument at this hearing, and by prior written memoranda.
The circumstances leading up to the death of Tiffany Lowery are generally not in dispute. In November, 1975, Jacquelyn Lowery and the decedent child were living with her mother, Mrs. Florence Smith, and several of Mrs. Smith's other children. Jacquelyn and Mr. Blake had dated for about nine months and planned to be married. The petitioner asked Jacquelyn to go out with him the evening of November 14, 1975, but she told him that she planned to go out with a girlfriend, Denise Walker, instead. Nonetheless, Mr. Blake persisted and, finally, after meeting her at the Walker home, Jacquelyn agreed to let the petitioner take her out drinking.
Jacquelyn's mother kept Tiffany while Jacquelyn, Ms. Walker, the petitioner and several other persons went first to one bar and then another. During the course of the evening, a dispute developed between Mr. Blake and Jacquelyn, perhaps because of her interest in another man. Petitioner struck Ms. Lowery on the side of the head with his fist. He was ejected from the lounge at that time and again around midnight when he tried to return.
Mrs. Smith testified that Tiffany and the other children had gone to bed shortly after 9:30 p. m. Mrs. Smith left the house to visit friends around 10:15 p. m. and returned about two hours later. She then noticed that the window next to the front door had been opened, and the curtains pulled back. However, Mrs. Smith did not believe anything was seriously amiss at that time. At approximately 1:00 a. m., Mr. Blake called Mrs. Smith. He asked whether Jacquelyn was home. When told that she was not, Mr. Blake informed Mrs. Smith that he had taken Tiffany. Mrs. Smith began scolding him for having the child out so late on a cold evening. Mr. Blake then hung up without saying anything more. However, it does not appear that Mr. Blake's having the child was in itself a source of major concern. He had taken the child out alone several times in the past, and his relations with her as well as the rest of the family had been good.
Petitioner testified that, after he had been thrown out of the bar the second time, he had gone back to Jacquelyn's home. When no one answered, he opened the window, unlocked the door, and entered. He found everyone except Tiffany asleep. Mr. Blake testified that he asked Tiffany if she wanted to go with him. She agreed and they left by the back door. Mr. Blake indicated that his intention was to take the child away because her mother did not deserve the child and had mistreated her in a variety of respects.
Mr. Blake testified further that he first intended to run away with Tiffany and, accordingly, crossed the Talmadge Memorial Bridge as the quickest exit route. Mr. Blake stated that he drove as far as Buford, South Carolina. However, he realized at some point that he could not simply run away with the child without being chased by the authorities. Initially, he reacted to this fact by deciding to kill himself and Tiffany there in Buford. Petitioner later decided to return to Savannah. He testified that he stopped on the bridge. There he and Tiffany prayed about going to "another world" and being together forever "on the other side." Petitioner then dropped the child off the bridge to her death, which occurred on impact or very shortly thereafter.
Mr. Blake explained that he postponed his own trip to "the other side" so that he could tell the child's mother what had happened and why. Thus, petitioner did not in fact make any effort to conceal his actions. Quite the opposite, he contacted the police almost immediately after the incident, and began giving them substantially the same account of Tiffany's death that he testified to at trial, emphasizing that "I know I did wrong, but in another way I did right," T. 139, while never once indicating that he thought that the child had been harmed or killed. T. 147.
Petitioner here has raised numerous arguments as grounds for relief with respect to the guilt-innocence...
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