Pavatt v. Royal, 14-6117
Decision Date | 09 June 2017 |
Docket Number | No. 14-6117,14-6117 |
Parties | James Dwight PAVATT, Petitioner–Appellant, v. Terry ROYAL, Warden, Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Respondent–Appellee. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Sarah M. Jernigan, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, (Patti Palmer Ghezzi, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Robert R. Nigh, Jr., Tulsa, Oklahoma, with her on the briefs), for Petitioner–Appellant.
Joshua L. Lockett, Assistant Attorney General, (E. Scott Pruitt, Attorney General of Oklahoma, with him on the brief), Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Respondent–Appellee.
Before KELLY, BRISCOE and HARTZ, Circuit Judges.
James Pavatt was convicted by an Oklahoma jury of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. He was sentenced in accordance with the jury’s recommendations to death on the first-degree-murder conviction and ten years’ imprisonment on the conspiracy conviction. After exhausting his state-court remedies, he filed an application for relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district court denied the application, and also denied a certificate of appealability (COA). See 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c)(1) ( ). Mr. Pavatt sought from this court and was granted a COA on several issues. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm the district court’s denial of relief with respect to his conviction, but we reverse the denial of relief with respect to his sentence and remand to the district court for further proceedings.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) summarized the crime:
Pavatt v. State (Pavatt I ), 159 P.3d 272, 276–78 (Okla. Crim. App. 2007) ( ).
On November 29, 2001, nine days after the murder, an information was filed in state court charging Mr. Pavatt and Brenda Andrew with first-degree...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Simpson v. Carpenter
...under this court’s decision in Pavatt v. Royal, 859 F.3d 920 (10th Cir.), opinion amended and superseded on denial of reh'g , 894 F.3d 1115 (10th Cir. 2017), reh'g en banc granted sub nom Pavatt v. Carpenter , 904 F.3d 1195 (10th Cir. 2018). We disagree. The Pavatt decision on which Mr. Sim......
-
Wood v. Carpenter
...v. Royal , 859 F.3d 920 (10th Cir. 2017) , opinion amended and superseded on denial of rehearing on July 2, 2018 by Pavatt v. Royal , 894 F.3d 1115 (10th Cir. 2017), a challenge to Oklahoma’s application of the heinous, atrocious, and cruel aggravator in that case. Based on Pavatt , we gr......
-
Cuesta-Rodriguez v. Carpenter
...to raise an ineffective-assistance claim. Id. So this isn’t a Martinez or Trevino case. Cf. Pavatt v. Royal , 894 F.3d 1115, 1137 (10th Cir. 2017) (Briscoe, J., concurring and dissenting) ("[T]o bypass the OCCA’s procedural bar ruling and review [the petitioner’s] ineffective assistance cla......
-
Wood v. Carpenter
...v. Royal , 859 F.3d 920 (10th Cir. 2017) , opinion amended and superseded on denial of rehearing on July 2, 2018 by Pavatt v. Royal , 894 F.3d 1115 (10th Cir. 2017), a challenge to Oklahoma’s application of the heinous, atrocious, and cruel (HAC) aggravator in that case. Based on Pavatt ,......
-
Sentencing
...circumstance of previous conviction for capital crime adequately restricts sentencer’s discretion). But see, e.g. , Pavatt v. Royal, 894 F.3d 1115, 1132 (10th Cir. 2017) (Oklahoma’s special circumstance of “conscious physical suffering” construed to encompass “the brief period of conscious ......