Laws v. Armontrout

• Citation: 863 F.2d 1377
• Decision Date: 20 December 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-1018,87-1018
• Parties: Leonard Marvin LAWS, Appellee, v. Bill ARMONTROUT, Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)

Page 1377

863 F.2d 1377

57 USLW 2466

Leonard Marvin LAWS, Appellee, v. Bill ARMONTROUT, Appellant.

No. 87-1018.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted July 12, 1988.

Decided Dec. 20, 1988.

Stephen D. Hawke, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, Mo., for appellant.

Barry A. Short, St. Louis, Mo., for appellee.

Before LAY, Chief Judge, HEANEY, McMILLIAN, ARNOLD, JOHN R. GIBSON, FAGG, BOWMAN, WOLLMAN, MAGILL, and BEAM, Circuit Judges, en banc.

MAGILL, Circuit Judge.

The State of Missouri appeals from the district court's grant of habeas corpus relief to Laws. The district court vacated Laws' death sentence after concluding that Laws had received ineffective assistance of counsel during the punishment phase of his trial. We reverse and reinstate the sentence, finding no valid claim of ineffectiveness of trial counsel.

We deal here with a defendant who conspired to and did commit three separate and distinct robberies and murders on elderly and helpless victims. He claims ineffectiveness here only in the penalty phase of the trial for the second set of murders.

The claim of ineffectiveness involves a criminal defense attorney whom the record describes as excellent and experienced. He had been licensed to practice law in Missouri since 1975. After serving as a law clerk in the Missouri Court of Appeals and an assistant prosecuting attorney in St. Louis County for two years, he entered private practice, where, according to his estimate, ninety-five percent of his work was in criminal law. He handled approximately fifty felonies a year, and at the time of the hearing, had tried between twenty-five and thirty jury trials, as well as having briefed and argued criminal appeals. He represented Laws in both trials: for the first murder (Elliott) and the two later murders (Williams). He spoke with Laws for six or more hours before the Elliott trial, and spent additional time with him before the Williams trial. He further estimated that he spent about four hundred hours preparing for the two murder trials, which involved substantial overlap in witnesses and preparation. The chief trial attorney for the St. Louis Public Defender's office testified at the ineffectiveness hearing that Laws' trial counsel had "an excellent reputation" as a defense lawyer in the community.

I. BACKGROUND.

In October of 1980, Leonard Laws was living in a two-room house trailer with George Clifton Gilmore, Gilmore's brother Norman, and several others in the Gilmore family. All three men were unemployed and impoverished. George Gilmore suggested to his brother and Laws that they could make money easily by robbing old people and then killing them to prevent identification. The trio bought shotguns and a rifle on October 8, 1980. This was one day after the Elliott murder (described in fn. 1), when they were flush with $4,600 cash from decedent Elliott's mason jar.

In the early morning of October 29, 1980, they went to the home of Clarence and Lottie Williams, whom the Gilmores had known through an uncle. Mr. Williams was eighty-three years old and his wife was eighty-one. The assailants entered the Williams' home after Laws cut the telephone line, and tied Mr. and Mrs. Williams up in chairs. Laws threatened to cut off their fingers if they would not reveal where they kept their money. They complied, and the three men ransacked the house. Mr. and Mrs. Williams were then untied and taken into the bedroom. George Gilmore prepared to kill them with his twelve-gauge shotgun, and Laws suggested instead: "Let me hit them in the head with a ball bat." Gilmore, however, told Laws to go stand outside and see if he could hear the shotgun blasts, and Laws complied. Gilmore then shot Mrs. Williams, reloaded the weapon, then shot Mr. Williams. The first shot failed to kill Mr. Williams, and he tried to run toward the front door, so Gilmore shot him a second time, killing him. Laws then reentered the house. After removing property, the trio poured fuel oil on the floor, which Laws ignited. The fire substantially destroyed the house.

II. PRIOR PROCEEDINGS.

Laws received a four-day trial in St. Louis County, Missouri Circuit Court in July of 1982. A jury found him guilty of two counts of capital murder. The punishment phase of the case began on the morning of July 23, 1982, before the same jury. During this phase the State introduced evidence, through certified copies of judgments, that Laws had been convicted of two separate capital murders in Missouri ¹ (for which he received life sentences), two armed robberies in Arizona (concurrent five to six-year sentences), and one aggravated assault in Mississippi (eleven-year sentence). Laws was imprisoned in March of 1982 in the Missouri State Penitentiary for his first Missouri murder conviction, and he has been incarcerated ever since. Laws had previously spent over six years in prison on the armed robbery and aggravated assault convictions before being paroled. Laws' lawyer introduced no evidence of mitigating circumstances. ² The trial court nonetheless gave the jury an instruction which directed it to consider mitigating circumstances. ³ The jury returned a verdict calling for the death penalty. Laws' motion for a new trial was overruled on September 17, 1982, and he was sentenced to death on each count of capital murder. Laws appealed, represented by new counsel, but the conviction and sentence were affirmed in full. State v. Laws, 661 S.W.2d 526 (Mo.banc 1983), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1210, 104 S.Ct. 2401, 81 L.Ed.2d 357 (1984). Rehearing was denied on December 20, 1983. Laws then filed a pro se motion pursuant to Mo.S.Ct.R. 27.26, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. ⁴

New counsel was appointed for him, and on November 16, 1984, an evidentiary hearing was held on the Rule 27.26 motion before a different judge from the one who presided over Laws' trial. The court found no showing of incompetence by Laws' trial counsel, and Laws appealed. The Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of relief. Laws v. State, 708 S.W.2d 182 (Mo.App.1986). The court denied Laws' motions for rehearing and for transfer on March 25, 1986 and May 13, 1986. He then unsuccessfully petitioned the Supreme Court for certiorari. Laws v. State, 479 U.S. 871, 107 S.Ct. 246, 93 L.Ed.2d 171 (1986).

Thus, after eight unsuccessful attempts in the state court system, four of them alleging ineffective assistance of counsel, Laws began the federal attack upon his sentence. He filed a pro se petition for writ of habeas corpus in the district court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254. Counsel was appointed for him, and he raised two arguments in his amended petition.

He first argued that his court-appointed attorney's failure to offer evidence in mitigation during the punishment phase of his trial ⁵ denied him effective assistance of trial counsel in violation of the sixth and fourteenth amendments. In support of this contention, he argued that significant mitigating evidence should have been investigated and presented. For instance, Laws had an honorable service record in Vietnam. Also, hospital psychiatric records and family testimony showed that his experiences in Vietnam caused him severe psychological damage.

Laws also argued that the imposition of the death penalty violated his eighth and fourteenth amendment rights because he was an accomplice with no direct role in the killing. Laws sought a new trial of the punishment phase of his trial only. He did not raise issues regarding his counsel's handling of the culpability phase of his trial. In an unpublished memorandum opinion, the district court granted Laws' habeas corpus petition and vacated his two consecutive death sentences, giving the State the opportunity to retry the punishment phase of the case. ⁶

III. STANDARD OF REVIEW.

When considering an appeal from the granting of habeas corpus relief on the ground of ineffective assistance of counsel, this court may engage in its own independent review of the district court's conclusion, because the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel presents a mixed question of law and fact. Martin v. McCotter, 796 F.2d 813, 817 (5th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 1057, 107 S.Ct. 935, 93 L.Ed.2d 985 (1987); Reiger v. Christensen, 789 F.2d 1425, 1427 (9th Cir.1986). If a state court has rendered specific predicate factual findings, those findings should be presumed correct unless conditions exist which cast those findings into doubt. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254(d); Sumner v. Mata, 449 U.S. 539, 101 S.Ct. 764, 66 L.Ed.2d 722 (1981); Martin, 796 F.2d at 817. The district court's findings of fact, however, are reviewable under the clearly erroneous standard. Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a); Morrow v. Parratt, 574 F.2d 411, 413 (8th Cir.1978); see also Martin, 796 F.2d at 817.

IV. DISCUSSION.

The State points to a number of flaws in the district court's opinion. We find two of these flaws sufficient to mandate reversal.

First, although it is unclear whether the district court intended to do so, it appeared to set out an erroneous legal test that departs from the standard for determining ineffective assistance of counsel that the Supreme Court set out in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Second, the district court's conclusion that Laws received ineffective assistance of counsel was not supported by the state court factual findings.

A. Erroneous Legal Test for Ineffectiveness of Counsel.

The State argues that the district court wrongly established a per se rule by holding that trial counsel is ineffective whenever a defendant receives the death penalty after counsel offers no evidence in mitigation. The State argues that such a per se rule flies in the face of both Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), and Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 168, 106 S.Ct. 2464, 91 L.Ed.2d 144 (1986), because in both cases no mitigating evidence was offered in the...