Armstrong v. Collier

• Decision Date: 29 July 1976
• Docket Number: No. 75-3147,75-3147
• Citation: 536 F.2d 72
• Parties: James M. ARMSTRONG, Petitioner-Appellant, v. J. A. COLLIER et al., Superintendent of Mississippi State Penitentiary, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 72

536 F.2d 72

James M. ARMSTRONG, Petitioner-Appellant, v. J. A. COLLIER et al., Superintendent of Mississippi State Penitentiary, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 75-3147.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

July 29, 1976.

Orma R. Smith, Jr. (Court-Appointed), Wendell J. Trapp Jr., Corinth, Miss., for petitioner-appellant.

Timmie Hancock, Asst. Atty. Gen., A. F. Summer, Atty. Gen., Jackson, Miss., for respondents-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

Before GEWIN, COLEMAN and GOLDBERG, Circuit Judges.

GEWIN, Circuit Judge:

Appellant James M. Armstrong appeals from the denial of his petition for habeas corpus relief, under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, attacking a Mississippi conviction for manslaughter. We affirm.

I

On May 16, 1966, Ed Massengill was killed in his home in Alcorn County, Mississippi as a result of several blows to the head with a blunt instrument. The body was not discovered until the next morning, at which time the investigation was begun. Suspicion quickly focused upon appellant Armstrong when it was discovered that Massengill's car was missing and that Armstrong had not reported for work at the truck stop where he was employed, which was located directly across the highway from the deceased's home. Law enforcement authorities in neighboring areas were alerted, and the sheriff of a nearby county found and arrested Armstrong; when he asked Armstrong if he had killed Massengill, he replied, "I did." Armstrong was taken to the truck stop, where a large and apparently unfriendly crowd had gathered. When he was taken to the scene of the crime, Armstrong stated that he had killed Massengill with an iron pipe. Following Armstrong's directions, officers recovered Massengill's automobile, from which they obtained Armstrong's fingerprints.

On the evening of his arrest, Armstrong again confessed in the presence of several highway patrol officers, and gave them a shirt with blood on it. The following day, the county attorney attempted to tape record Armstrong's statement, but the recorder did not function properly, so the prosecutor then obtained his written statement. Armstrong stated that he had gone to Massengill's house to deliver a message, whereupon Massengill had threatened him with a pistol. As they struggled, Armstrong saw a pipe on the floor, seized it, and hit Massengill on the head two or three times. He then took the victim's car, disposed of the pipe and pistol, and picked up a friend, Jane Bowen, who apparently rode around with him for some time before he abandoned the car. Armstrong was taken to the place where he claimed to have disposed of the pipe and pistol, but a search for the weapons was fruitless.

Armstrong was charged with murder. The trial court denied his pretrial discovery motion seeking production of documents, photographs, and other tangible evidence in the possession of the prosecution and relating to the merits of the case. The defendant also requested during the trial that the court require the prosecution to furnish him copies of any statements of witnesses who had testified, for purposes of cross-examination. The judge examined these statements in camera to determine if there were any inconsistencies with the testimony given on the stand and, being convinced that there were none, he denied the motion.

At trial, which was before a jury, Armstrong objected to the admission into evidence of his various confessions. Following a hearing, the trial court excluded the first three confessions, made upon his arrest, at the truck stop, and on the evening of his arrest; he admitted, however, the confessions made to the county attorney on the day following his arrest. In addition to this evidence, the state presented the testimony of Jane Bowen, who was with Armstrong on the night of the murder; she testified that he told her at that time that he had hit Massengill with an iron pipe and that he was dead. The prosecution also called a Mr. and Mrs. Strickland, who stated that defendant came to their house on the afternoon after the murder and told them that he had had a scuffle with Massengill and had hit him with an iron pipe.

Testifying in his defense, Armstrong admitted making the various statements related above, but denied that they were true. He stated that when he arrived at Massengill's house to deliver the message, he found Massengill lying dead on the floor; George Mason, who also worked at the truck stop across the highway, was standing near the body holding a tire tool and looking for a check with his (Mason's) name on it. Armstrong testified that Mason threatened his (Armstrong's) wife and child, said that he (Mason) would kill Armstrong if he related that he had seen, and told Armstrong to take Massengill's car and leave. Armstrong said he got the blood on his shirt while trying to get the car keys from the victim's pocket.

Armstrong presented witnesses who testified to some "bad blood" between Mason and Massengill, particularly concerning a rent diversion payment from the federal government. ¹ Two witnesses described a heated argument, which occurred about two weeks before the murder, between Mason and Massengill concerning a government check. Mason told one of the witnesses that "he was going to get what was coming to him one way or the other," and to another Mason said "he would die and go to hell before (Massengill) would get the check." There was also testimony, corroborated by Mason, that Mason owed Massengill over eight hundred dollars. Mason admitted that he and Massengill had "had our little arguments," but he denied that the argument over the check had occurred and denied ever threatening Massengill, Armstrong, or Armstrong's family.

The jury convicted Armstrong of manslaughter, and he was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. On appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court Armstrong challenged, inter alia, the trial court's denial of his discovery motions. That court noted that this issue had given it "considerable concern," Armstrong v. State, 214 So.2d 589, 594 (Miss.1968), but after a detailed review of the law it concluded as follows:

It is becoming increasingly clear from a study of the foregoing authorities that . . . the defendant should be permitted to inspect tangible evidence which may be used against him or which may be useful in his defense. . . .

We are of the opinion that the trial judge in the instant case should have granted to the defendant the right to inspect the photographs, confessions and other tangible evidence; however, we are of the further opinion that the denial of the right to inspect the requested evidence was not prejudicial to the defendant under the facts here shown. . . .

We hold, therefore, that the failure of the trial court to permit an inspection of the requested evidence in the instant case was not a reversible error. An early inspection of tangible evidence could not have changed the course of the trial nor have influenced the verdict of the jury.

214 So.2d at 596-97. Armstrong's petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court was denied. 395 U.S. 965, 89 S.Ct. 2109, 23 L.Ed.2d 750 (1969).

II

In March of 1972, Armstrong filed a pro se petition in federal court for a writ of habeas corpus, 28 U.S.C. § 2254; among the reasons assigned in support thereof was the trial court's denial of his discovery motions. The matter was submitted to a magistrate, whose report and recommendations were approved and adopted by the district court; on September 24, 1973, the court ordered the state to "make available to the applicant for inspection and copying, all evidence, information or other material in its possession not a part of the record when applicant's case was before the Mississippi Supreme Court, and which may be favorable to him and material to his guilt or punishment." The court directed the magistrate to conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine whether any of the evidence that might be so revealed was of the type that, under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), should have been disclosed to the defense at the time of trial.

The magistrate conducted two hearings, on January 8, 1974, and June 3, 1974. In reaching its decision the district court considered the transcripts of those hearings as depositions of the witnesses examined. ² As a result of the court's discovery order and the evidentiary hearings, Armstrong developed two items of evidence that he alleged should, under Brady, have been disclosed to him. These were (1) a pretrial statement given by Mason to Jimmy Warren, an investigator for the Mississippi Highway Patrol; and (2) the following notation in Warren's investigative notebook: "Douglas Austin told Bright that Geo & Massengill had been fallen out and that Geo Mason would drive iron stobs into cottonfield." ³ Armstrong also introduced a copy of a local newspaper dated May 19, 1966 that contained an article stating that on May 18, the will and other papers of the deceased, including a letter from the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, were found by a mail carrier on a field road in a nearby county.

Armstrong alleged that the statement by Mason to Warren could have been used to impeach Mason's testimony, because of discrepancies in the times at which he indicated certain events occurred. The district court, while noting that this evidence was considered by both the state trial court and the Mississippi Supreme Court, and therefore was not within the scope of its discovery order, nevertheless considered and rejected Armstrong's argument that this constituted Brady material. The court found that Mason repeatedly stated during his trial testimony that he was not wearing a watch and that his statements as to the times certain events occurred were only estimates. Therefore, the court found, the statement was not likely to have affected the jury's verdict, as...