Smith v. Ryan

Citation823 F.3d 1270
Decision Date26 May 2016
Docket NumberNo. 14–99008,14–99008
PartiesJoe Clarence Smith, Petitioner–Appellant, v. Charles L. Ryan; Ron Credio, Respondents–Appellees.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

Michael L. Burke (argued) and Kelly L. Culshaw, Assistant Federal Public Defenders, Jon M. Sands, Federal Public Defender, Office of the Arizona Federal Public

Defender, Phoenix, Arizona, for PetitionerAppellant.

Jon G. Anderson (argued), Assistant Attorney General, Thomas C. Home, Attorney General, and Jeffrey A. Zick, Chief Counsel, Office of the Arizona Attorney General, Phoenix, Arizona, for RespondentAppellee.

Before: Richard A. Paez, Richard R. Clifton, and John B. Owens, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

PAEZ

, Circuit Judge:

In 1977, Joseph Clarence Smith, Jr. was convicted of two murders and sentenced to death. This is the second time we have reviewed Smith's habeas challenge to his death sentence. In Smith v. Stewart , 189 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 1999)

, we reversed in part and ordered that a writ of habeas corpus issue directing the State of Arizona to resentence Smith for the murders of Sandy Spencer and Neva Lee. Smith was resentenced to death in 2004 for each murder. After exhausting his remedies in state court, Smith filed a new petition in federal court. Applying the standards of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”), Pub. L. No. 104–132, 110 Stat. 1214, the district court again denied relief. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2253, and we affirm.

I.
A.

In 1973, Smith was convicted of raping Alice Archibeque. While on probation for the Archibeque rape, Smith raped Dorothy Fortner and killed Sandy Spencer and Neva Lee. Smith was convicted of the Fortner rape and in subsequent proceedings he was convicted of murdering Spencer and Lee and sentenced to death.

In our 1999 opinion, we summarized the facts of the underlying murders and trial court proceedings. For context, we repeat that summary here:

On January 1, 1976, officials of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department found the nude body of Sandy Spencer in the desert outside Phoenix. One month later in a different desert location, police discovered the nude body of Neva Lee. Both teenage hitchhikers had been suffocated by having dirt forced into their mouths, which were taped shut. The assailant stabbed both women multiple times, punctured them with needles, and bound their wrists with rope.
Smith, who was on probation from a rape conviction, became the prime suspect. Police put him under surveillance. When that failed to produce probable cause for an arrest, police had a female officer pose as a hitchhiker to lure Smith into committing false imprisonment or battery. He eventually picked up the officer, took her to his father's machine shop, and grabbed her by both arms. After a prearranged signal, police entered and arrested him for false imprisonment.
During Smith's imprisonment, police questioned him about the Lee and Spencer murders. At first, he denied his involvement. But months later, at his own initiation, Smith gave investigators a bizarre account of the Lee slaying. He told police that he was present at the crime because a friend, John Jameson, forced him at gunpoint to drive the victim to the desert. Once there, Jameson ordered Lee to have sexual intercourse with Smith in order to frame Smith for her rape. Smith said Jameson then decided to kill Lee. His account conflicted with some physical evidence found at the scene. Smith later contended that he told police no such story.
Smith went on trial for the Lee murder first. Throughout the trial, he maintained his innocence, contending that other people committed the crime and that investigators conspired to frame him. Jameson testified at the trial. He denied being present at the murder, but said that a man known as “Squirrel” bragged about killing two women and showed Jameson pictures of the dead women. The jury returned a general verdict finding Smith guilty of murder.
Smith then went on trial for the Spencer slaying. The following day, he pleaded guilty to the crime shortly after Di Anne Jameson—Smith's girlfriend, John Jameson's ex-wife, and a key prosecution witness—told the court that she had been improperly contacted by a defense investigator and by Smith's mother. During the plea colloquy, the prosecutor expressed doubts about Smith's emotional stability to enter a voluntary plea. Nonetheless, the trial court accepted the plea. Three weeks later, Smith unsuccessfully sought to withdraw the plea, explaining that he had only pleaded guilty out of concern that his parents and Ms. Jameson would be arrested.
Smith , 189 F.3d at 1006–07

. After the sentencing hearing for both convictions, the trial judge found three aggravating circumstances warranting the death penalty and no mitigating circumstances. Id. at 1007. The judge sentenced Smith to death for each of the murder convictions.

On direct appeal in 1979, the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed Smith's convictions but remanded his case for resentencing because Arizona had revised its capital sentencing scheme to permit defendants to present additional mitigating evidence. Id. at 1007 & n. 2

; see also

State v. Watson , 120 Ariz. 441, 586 P.2d 1253, 1257 (1978) (invalidating as unconstitutional the capital sentencing scheme's limit on defendants' right to present mitigation evidence). Notwithstanding the opportunity to present additional mitigating evidence at Smith's resentencing, Smith's counsel simply resubmitted the same evidence he had presented in the prior proceeding. Smith , 189 F.3d at 1007. The trial judge again found no mitigating circumstances and sentenced Smith to death for each of the murders of Lee and Spencer. Id. at 1008. On direct appeal for the second time, the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed Smith's death sentences. Id.

After unsuccessfully seeking post-conviction relief in state court, Smith filed a federal habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254

challenging both his convictions and death sentences. Id. at 1008. In 1999, we concluded that Smith's counsel performed deficiently at the resentencing proceeding. Id. at 1014. We reversed in part and ordered the district court to issue the writ and direct that Smith be resentenced. Id.

B.

In 2002 the Arizona legislature responded to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Ring v. Arizona , 536 U.S. 584, 122 S.Ct. 2428, 153 L.Ed.2d 556 (2002)

, by shifting from judge to jury the role of finding facts necessary to impose the death penalty. See 2002 Ariz. Legis. Serv. 5th Sp. Sess. Ch. 1 § 3 (West); see also

State v. Glassel , 211 Ariz. 33, 116 P.3d 1193, 1202 (2005). This change, coupled with the time necessary for counsel to gather evidence and prepare, delayed resentencing until 2004, when the Arizona Superior Court held separate proceedings to sentence Smith. State v. Smith , 215 Ariz. 221, 159 P.3d 531, 536 (2007).

Like the current framework, Arizona's capital sentencing scheme in 2004 began with an “aggravation phase” in which the jury determined whether the prosecution had proved beyond a reasonable doubt any alleged statutory aggravating circumstances. Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 13–703.01(C), (E)

(2003).1 If the jury found at least one of the aggravating circumstances, the proceeding moved to a “penalty phase” in which the jury heard mitigating evidence and determined whether to impose death. See Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 13-703.01(D), (F)-(G) (2003); see also

State v. McGill , 213 Ariz. 147, 140 P.3d 930, 946 n. 9 (2006) (Hurwitz, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (describing Arizona's capital sentencing procedure). Although the Superior Court applied the then-current capital sentencing framework—including broad mitigation evidence and jury factfinding—the state sought to prove the statutory aggravators codified in the 1977 scheme. Smith , 159 P.3d at 536. In two separate proceedings, first for Spencer and second for Lee, the juries unanimously found three aggravating factors.

First, the juries found that Smith had been convicted of another offense exposing him to a life sentence or the death penalty, Arizona Revised Statutes section 13–454(E)(1)

(1977).2 To establish the (E)(1) aggravator, the prosecution introduced Smith's prior 1973 and 1976 convictions for raping Archibeque and Fortner.

Second, both juries found that Smith had been previously convicted of a felony involving “the use or threat of violence,” Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 13–454(E)(2)

(1977). To establish the (E)(2) aggravator, the prosecution first offered the Lee murder at the Spencer sentencing and then offered the Spencer murder at the Lee sentencing.

Third, the juries found that the Spencer and Lee murders were especially cruel, heinous, or depraved within the meaning of Arizona Revised Statutes section 13–454(E)(6)

(1977). To establish the (E)(6) aggravator, the prosecution elicited testimony regarding the women's injuries and the cause of death for each. The prosecution offered evidence that both women had been asphyxiated by dirt forced into their airways, that before death both had been bound at the wrists and ankles with ligatures, and that each suffered puncture and stab wounds

. As the Arizona Supreme Court recounted, Spencer “suffered nineteen stab wounds to the pubic region and a vaginal tear that was caused by penetration. She also had three stab wounds to her breasts and a sewing needle was found embedded in her left breast.” Lee “also had puncture and stab wounds to her chest, abdomen, and breasts and damage to her vulva.”

As mitigation evidence, Smith offered expert testimony demonstrating mental impairment

and psychological problems, including signs of dissociative identity disorder.3 Smith's expert also concurred with the prosecution expert's diagnosis that Smith suffered from sexual sadism. Smith's mother and sister testified to Smith's personal history and several prison employees and a prison expert testified to his good behavior in prison.

Both...

To continue reading

Request your trial
43 cases
  • Phillips v. Fisher
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California
    • February 2, 2023
    ...is waived, Vang v. Nevada, 329 F.3d 1069, 1073 (9th Cir. 2003), and this Court must address the claim on the merits, Smith v. Ryan, 823 F.3d 1270, 1285 (9th Cir. 2016). As Respondent is not asserting the procedural default defense here, the Court will address Petitioner's Brady claim regard......
  • State v. Johnson
    • United States
    • Arizona Supreme Court
    • August 23, 2019
    ...comparative review), and Johnson provides no persuasive reason for us to revisit those decisions here. See also Smith v. Ryan , 823 F.3d 1270, 1293–95 (9th Cir. 2016) (approving the narrowing construction employed in Gretzler ). ¶20 Lastly, Johnson argues the "gratuitous violence" instructi......
  • Kayer v. Ryan
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit
    • May 13, 2019
    ...to the state habeas court, the additional evidence is cumulative and typically does not establish prejudice. See , e.g. , Smith v. Ryan , 823 F.3d 1270, 1296 (9th Cir. 2016) ("brain scans ... were largely cumulative of the mitigating evidence presented by Dr. Parrish"); Cunningham v. Wong ,......
  • Sansing v. Ryan
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit
    • May 17, 2021
    ...mitigating circumstance, the opinions of Dr. Lanyon and Dr. French would have been cumulative on that issue. See Smith v. Ryan , 823 F.3d 1270, 1296 (9th Cir. 2016). Thus, the PCR court reasonably concluded that the likelihood of a different sentencing outcome was merely "conceivable," not ......
  • Request a trial to view additional results
1 books & journal articles
  • Sentencing
    • United States
    • Georgetown Law Journal No. 110-Annual Review, August 2022
    • August 1, 2022
    ...aggravating factor not unconstitutionally vague because state court def‌inition gave suff‌icient direction to jury); Smith v. Ryan, 823 F.3d 1270, 1294 (9th Cir. 2016) (Arizona’s “heinousness” and “depravity” special circumstances not unconstitutionally vague because instruction def‌ined te......

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT