Doorbal v. Department of Corrections

• Decision Date: 29 June 2009
• Docket Number: No. 08-15869.,08-15869.
• Citation: 572 F.3d 1222
• Parties: Noel DOORBAL, Petitioner-Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Walter A. McNeil, Secretary, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

572 F.3d 1222

Noel DOORBAL, Petitioner-Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, Walter A. McNeil, Secretary, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 08-15869.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

June 29, 2009.

William M. Norris (Court-Appointed), William M. Norris, P.A., Miami, FL, for Petitioner-Appellant.

Sandra Sue Jaggard, Miami, FL, for Respondent-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before BIRCH, BLACK and PRYOR, Circuit Judges.

PRYOR, Circuit Judge:

This appeal involves a spree of murder and mayhem so heinous and bizarre that one would expect to see it only in a crime drama on television, but the only issue of law presented by this appeal borders on frivolous. Noel Doorbal was sentenced to death in Florida following his convictions of armed robbery, racketeering, armed kidnapping, first-degree arson, grand theft, burglary of a dwelling, and murder. Doorbal appeals the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The district court ruled that Doorbal's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel was barred from federal review because the Supreme Court of Florida had applied a state rule of procedure to refuse to adjudicate his claim on collateral review. Because that procedural rule was an adequate and independent ground under state law for refusing to adjudicate Doorbal's claim, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

We divide our discussion of the background in two parts. We first discuss Doorbal's crimes. We then discuss the procedural history of Doorbal's appeals in state and federal court.

A. Doorbal's Crime Spree

Doorbal's convictions stemmed from extortion plots aimed at two individuals: Marc Schiller and Frank Griga. In 1994, Marc Schiller, a wealthy businessman in Miami, hired Jorge Delgado to work for his company, which provided services reimbursed by Medicare. Doorbal v. State (Doorbal II), 983 So.2d 464, 469 (Fla.2008). Delgado later purchased the portion of the business that received Medicare reimbursements. Id. In October 1994, Daniel Lugo, a friend of Delgado who often performed the billing for the Medicare business, convinced Delgado that Schiller had cheated them out of money they were owed in connection with the business. Id. Delgado asked Lugo to do whatever was necessary to recover the money due them. Id. Lugo contacted Doorbal and two other individuals and devised a plot to kidnap Schiller and force him to sign over his assets to settle the alleged debt. Id. at 469-70.

On November 15, 1994, Doorbal and his accomplices abducted Schiller by shocking him with a stun gun and forcing him into a van. Id. at 470. The kidnappers handcuffed and blindfolded Schiller and took him to a warehouse at gunpoint. Id. Lugo, Doorbal, and the other kidnappers demanded Schiller make a list of his assets, and when he refused, they slapped him, shocked him with a stun gun, and beat him with a firearm. Id. When he continued to refuse to list his assets, they threatened him with a game of Russian Roulette and threatened to abduct his wife and rape her in his presence. Id.

Schiller eventually agreed to comply with the demands of his captors if his wife and children were allowed to leave the country unharmed. Id. Over the following days, Schiller signed a quitclaim deed for his home and various documents that granted access to his checking, savings, and IRA accounts, and he changed the beneficiaries on his insurance policies, which were worth millions of dollars. Id. While the kidnappers held Schiller captive, Doorbal and Lugo went to Schiller's home and removed furnishings and other items. Id. Doorbal and the others used Schiller's credit cards to charge thousands of dollars in expenses. Id. The kidnappers also stole money from Schiller's home safe. Id.

After three weeks, Delgado and Doorbal convinced Lugo that Schiller could likely identify his kidnappers and should be killed. Id. They forced Schiller to drink alcohol, drove his vehicle into a utility pole on a Miami street, and placed Schiller in the front seat of the vehicle so that it would appear that he had been involved in a drunk driving accident. Id. Doorbal and Lugo then poured gasoline on the vehicle and set it on fire. Id.

Schiller escaped the vehicle and was staggering in the roadway when Doorbal and Lugo persuaded another kidnapper to drive a car over Schiller. Id. Doorbal and the other kidnappers then fled the scene. Id. Schiller survived and was taken to a Miami hospital, where he received treatment for a broken pelvis, ruptured bladder, bruises and burns, and temporary paralysis. Id. at 470-71.

When the kidnappers learned that Schiller had survived the attack, they visited the Miami hospital with the intent to suffocate Schiller with a pillow. Id. at 471. Schiller was not at the hospital because, based on fears for his safety, he had arranged to be airlifted to a New York hospital. Id. After they discovered that Schiller was no longer in Miami, Doorbal and the others ransacked Schiller's home and pillaged the remainder of Schiller's furnishings and valuables, but Doorbal's crime spree did not end there. Id.

In 1995, Doorbal learned from his girlfriend about Frank Griga, a wealthy Miami businessman, and became "enthralled" with Griga's wealth and possessions, including a yellow Lamborghini car. Doorbal v. State (Doorbal I), 837 So.2d 940, 948 (Fla.2003). Doorbal targeted Griga for kidnapping and extortion, recruited Lugo, and arranged a business meeting with Griga under the guise of discussing Griga's interest in investing in telephone lines in India. Id. Griga showed little interest, but Doorbal and Lugo persisted and visited Griga's home twice in May of 1995. On the second visit, they invited Griga to dinner and lured Griga and his girlfriend, Krisztina Furton, to Doorbal's apartment. Id.

The next day, Delgado met Lugo and Doorbal at Doorbal's apartment, and Lugo informed Delgado that Doorbal had killed Griga following a scuffle. Id. at 949. During the scuffle, Furton began to scream when she realized that Griga was injured. Id. Lugo subdued her with an injection of Rompun, a horse tranquilizer, handcuffed her, and Doorbal and Lugo then questioned her about the security code for Griga's home. Id. When Furton refused to answer, Doorbal injected her with more Rompun, and Furton eventually died. Id.

Doorbal and the others then transferred the bodies to a warehouse, where they dismembered the bodies using a chain saw and hatchet. Id. at 950. They attempted to burn the heads, hands, and feet of Griga and Furton, but were unsuccessful. Id. They disposed of the bodies, which were later recovered and identified. Id. at 950-51.

B. Procedural History

Doorbal was arrested and, at trial, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit racketeering, racketeering, two counts of kidnapping, armed kidnapping, attempted extortion, two counts of grand theft, attempted first-degree murder, armed robbery, burglary of a dwelling, first-degree arson, armed extortion, and conspiracy to commit a first-degree felony. For each murder, the jury recommended the death penalty by a vote of eight to four, and the trial court sentenced Doorbal to death for each murder.

Doorbal unsuccessfully raised several issues in his direct appeal of his convictions and sentences, including the erroneous admission of character evidence. Id. at 954. Doorbal argued "that harmful error occurred when various witnesses for the State made statements" about Doorbal's bad character. Id. Because Doorbal failed to object to the testimony at trial, the Supreme Court of Florida reviewed the admission of the testimony under the standard for "fundamental error, ... which requires that an offending comment `reach[ ] down into the validity of the trial itself to the extent that a verdict of guilty or jury recommendation of death could not have been obtained without the assistance of the alleged error.'" Id. at 954-55 (quoting McDonald v. State, 743 So.2d 501, 505 (Fla.1999)). The court stated that it "doubt[ed] the[ ] relevancy" of the statements, but their admission was not fundamental error because the comments were "relatively isolated" and other evidence of guilt was "overwhelming." Id. at 956.

The Supreme Court of Florida also rejected Doorbal's challenges to the prosecutor's closing arguments during the guilt and penalty phases. Doorbal challenged arguments by the prosecutor in the guilt phase that commented on Doorbal's right to remain silent. Id. The Supreme Court of Florida concluded that the arguments were not fundamental error because they "did not affect the jury's verdict" in the light of the "magnitude of physical and testimonial evidence" of Doorbal's crimes. Id. at 957. Doorbal also argued that arguments by the prosecutor "violated the prohibition against `Golden Rule' arguments, [which] asked jurors to place themselves in the position of the victim." Id. The court concluded that, in the light of the "mountain of ... evidence [that] established Doorbal's responsibility for the crimes," the remarks did not "affect the jury's verdict" and did not rise to the level of fundamental error. Id. Doorbal also argued that arguments by the prosecutor during the penalty phase that urged the jury to show "no mercy" constituted fundamental error, but the court disagreed and stated that, "while erroneous, the prosecutor's `no mercy' comments do not rise to the level of error such that the jury's recommendation of death could not have been made without reliance upon them." Id. at 958-59. The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed Doorbal's convictions and sentences. Id. at 963.

Doorbal then filed a motion for postconviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851 and raised 21 grounds, including a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to object to the prosecutor's improper closing arguments that were the subject of the direct appeal. Doorbal II, 983 So.2d at 473 & n. 2. The...