Handley v. Pitts
| Decision Date | 24 June 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 78-1479,78-1479 |
| Citation | 623 F.2d 23 |
| Parties | Thornton Lee HANDLEY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Jerry PITTS, Sheriff, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
William D. Dammarell, Cincinnati, Ohio, (Court appointed--CJA), for Thornton Lee Handley.
William L. Leach, Atty. Gen. of Tenn., Henry E. Hildebrand, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., Robert E. Kendrick, Deputy Atty. Gen., Nashville, Tenn., for respondent-appellee.
Before WEICK, MARTIN and JONES, Circuit Judges.
Upon consideration of the briefs, appendix and arguments of counsel, it is ORDERED that the judgment of the district court, 491 F.Supp. 597, denying the application of petitioner-appellant Handley for a writ of habeas corpus be and it hereby is affirmed for the reasons stated in the Memorandum Opinion of District Judge Frank W. Wilson. We also wish to compliment appointed counsel for Handley for his excellent brief and presentation.
Because the prosecution posed without any supporting evidence highly prejudicial questions which implied prior sexual misconduct by the Defendant, I believe the Defendant's due process right to a fair trial was violated. I must, therefore, respectively dissent from the Court's order. 1
The victim, Robyn Sue Lee Handley, her four-month old son, her sister Debbie Lee Handley, and the Defendant resided in a trailer at 7502 Noah Reid Road, Chattanooga, Tennessee. This family had resided in the trailer for five days before the victim's body was discovered on the morning of the murder, March 6, 1976.
The State's case consisted of testimony by the neighbors of the Handley family, the police officers who investigated at the scene, the medical examiner, and Debbie Handley, a younger step-daughter of the Defendant. The neighbors of the Handley family testified that they awakened at 2:00 A.M. on the night of the murder. They went to the Defendant's trailer and found the Defendant clad in his underwear, holding the body of the victim, saying, 'Oh Sue, who could have done this.' It looked like a struggle had taken place, and the interior of the room and the Defendant were covered with blood. The police officers who investigated the crime on the night of the murder testified that after the Defendant was read his rights, he told the police that he awoke to hear a baby's cry at approximately 2:00 A.M. When he went to the back of the trailer to investigate, someone hit him on the right side of the head. Upon regaining his senses, he discovered his step-daughter pinned between the bed and the wall and covered with blood.
The police officers testified that they were unable to recreate the assault described by the Defendant. They could find no evidence of footprints in the mud outside the trailer. Two of the officers said they discovered the petitioner clad only in his underwear holding the victim's body. The officers found a wooden candleholder near the bed covered with blood. In the victim's left hand were some head hairs. 2 The police officers also testified that they found scratches on the Defendant on the night of the murder. They pointed out these scratches in pictures of the Defendant attached to the transcript. The policemen further testified that the trailer was equipped with locks that prevented the trailer from being entered from the outside. They found no alcoholic beverages or used liquor containers in the trailer.
The medical examiner, who examined the victim's body the day after the murder, testified that the victim died of blood loss and strangulation, and that her blood alcohol count was .22 mg which would have made her 'staggering drunk'. He also testified that the victim was sober enough to resist her attacker and that she had not had sexual relations before her death.
The key testimony for the State which implicated the Defendant was presented by the victim's younger sister, Debbie. Debbie went to a school for slow learners and was significantly intellectually handicapped. Debbie testified that the Defendant had shared a bed with her sister Robyn the four nights preceding her death (and with her, also, the first two nights). She said that the Defendant had instructed her to say that he had shared a bed with his step-daughter only the first two nights, and that, though the lock had been fixed and did function, the lock to the trailer did not work. She testified that the victim did not drink and that the family did not keep liquor in the trailer. The victim, Debbie said, was crying on the morning preceding her death. On the night of the murder Debbie was staying with friends.
At sidebar the prosecution represented to the court that Debbie would testify about sexual advances made by the Defendant toward the victim prior to her death and toward herself afterward. Such testimony, he said, would prove the motive for the crime. The trial court held that testimony about sexual advances made to the victim prior to her death and sexual advances made to Debbie afterward would be admissible.
During the direct examination of Debbie the prosecution asked two questions, to which the trial judge sustained Defendant's objections:
The prosecution asked an additional question which was permitted:
After this failed attempt to get incriminating testimony from Debbie, the prosecutor admitted at sidebar: (Tr. 265) (Emphasis added). The defense requested and was denied a mistrial. The defense did not question Debbie Handley. Thus, the defense did not introduce the issue of Defendant's character into the trial.
The Defendant testified that he had not killed his step-daughter. He said that because there was no heat in the trailer he had shared a bed with his two step-daughters the first two nights. He further testified that he had not shared the bed with his step-daughters after that. On the night of the murder he was asleep on a couch in another part of the trailer. He stated that when he heard the baby crying he got up to investigate and was knocked unconscious. When he went into the bedroom of the trailer after regaining consciousness, the Defendant testified, that he found his step-daughter not breathing. He stated he was unsuccessful in giving her mouth to mouth resuscitation. This effort resulted in his body and face being covered with blood.
The defense also solicited the testimony of several other witnesses: a doctor who examined the Defendant the day after the murder said he found no skin traumas on him; the subsequent occupant of the trailer where the murder took place testified that the lock did not work.
After the failure of the court to grant a mistrial, the defense countered the introduction of evidence on the Defendant's character by bringing in character testimony. Several character witnesses testified, including the Defendant's other step-daughter, Sharon Henderson. She testified that her step-father had a good reputation in the community and that shortly after her sister's death when she took him to the doctor she observed the Defendant's torso and found no indications of recent scars.
The defense asked her:
(Tr. 341)
The prosecution impeached her testimony of her step-father's good character with a question about whether she had ever said he was the type of man who could have committed such a crime.
The Defendant argues that he should be granted relief because the State's introduction of evidence on sexual advances violates due process standards of the Fourteenth Amendment, and because the State was permitted to impeach the testimony of Sharon Henderson, another step-daughter of the Defendant. 3
Defendant is entitled to a writ of habeas corpus only if the trial did not provide the petitioner with due process of law. A constitutional question is not raised unless the admission of evidence was so gross an error as to impugn fundamental fairness. Maglaya v. Buchkoe, 515 F.2d 265 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 931, 96 S.Ct. 282, 46 L.Ed.2d 260 (1975). United States ex rel. Bibbs v. Twomey, 506 F.2d 1220, 1223 (7th Cir. 1974), later app., 538 F.2d 151 (7th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1102, 97 S.Ct. 1126, 51 L.Ed.2d 551 (1977). The Supreme Court has recently reaffirmed that the responsibility of the federal courts in habeas corpus cases is not perfunctory, even in areas of central concern to the state. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560, reh. den., 62 L.Ed.2d 126 (1979). As a defender and interpreter of constitutional protections our duty is to insure that the state provides the fundamental protection of due process of law when it seeks to deprive its citizens of liberty. As stated by the Supreme Court in Jackson:
Although state appellate review undoubtedly will serve in the vast majority of cases to vindicate the due process protection that follows from Winship, [397 U.S. 358, 90 S.Ct. 1068, 25 L.Ed.2d 368] the same could also be said of the vast majority of other federal constitutional rights that may be implicated in a state criminal trial. It is the occasional abuse that the federal writ of habeas corpus stands ready to correct.
Due process, at a minimum, requires that the state try an individual in an atmosphere free from unnecessarily...
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