Lafferty v. Cook

• Decision Date: 09 December 1991
• Docket Number: No. 90-4010,90-4010
• Citation: 949 F.2d 1546
• Parties: Ronald Watson LAFFERTY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Gerald COOK, Warden of the Utah State Prison, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1546

949 F.2d 1546

Ronald Watson LAFFERTY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Gerald COOK, Warden of the Utah State Prison, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 90-4010.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

Dec. 9, 1991.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 3, 1992.

Michael D. Esplin (Gary H. Weight with him on the briefs) of Aldrich, Nelson, Weight & Esplin, Provo, Utah, for petitioner-appellant.

Sandra L. Sjogren, Asst. Atty. Gen. (R. Paul Van Dam, Atty. Gen., with her on the briefs), Salt Lake City, Utah, for respondent-appellee.

Before SEYMOUR, BRORBY and EBEL, Circuit Judges.

SEYMOUR, Circuit Judge.

Ronald Watson Lafferty was convicted in Utah state court of two capital felonies and sentenced to death. After his convictions and sentences were affirmed on direct appeal, see State v. Lafferty, 749 P.2d 1239 (Utah 1988), Lafferty filed a petition for habeas corpus relief in federal district court under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (1988). During the federal proceedings, it was discovered that several transcripts of proceedings in state court had been omitted from the record on appeal. At the suggestion of the federal court, Lafferty filed a petition for rehearing with the Utah Supreme Court to enable it to consider Lafferty's claims in light of the complete record. That court determined that the additional transcripts did not warrant any change in its prior decision. See State v. Lafferty, 776 P.2d 631 (Utah 1989). Lafferty's federal habeas petition was then denied by the district court.

We conclude that the state trial judge applied the wrong legal standard in finding Lafferty competent to stand trial. Although we do not hold that Lafferty was incompetent as a matter of law, we do conclude that the record contains evidence from which a fact finder could have found him incompetent under the proper legal standard. We therefore grant the petition for writ of habeas corpus.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Prior to the events giving rise to his convictions, Ronald Lafferty developed unorthodox religious views which resulted in his excommunication from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). His religious views also apparently played some role in his marital difficulties and his divorce. Lafferty's wife, Dianna, received encouragement in her decision to leave him from one of the murder victims, Brenda Lafferty, who was the wife of Ronald's brother Allen. Dianna also was given help during her marital crisis from Richard W. Stowe and Chloe Low. Stowe, a Stake President in The Mormon Church, drew on Church resources to give Dianna food and money after she left Lafferty. Chloe Low, the wife of a Mormon Bishop, counseled Dianna and took her in for a short time.

Lafferty's religious views were shared by his brother Dan, and to some extent by two men, Charles Alan "Chip" Carnes and Richard M. "Rick" Knapp, whom Ron and Dan Lafferty met while traveling outside Utah. These four participated in prayer meetings at which they discussed Ron Lafferty's religious revelations, one of which concerned the "removal" of Lafferty's sister-in-law Brenda, her infant daughter Erica, Richard Stowe, and Chloe Low. According to the trial testimony of Carnes and Knapp, on the day of the murders Ron and Dan Lafferty, Carnes, and Knapp drove to Brenda's home. Ron and Dan went into the house and killed Brenda and Erica by slitting their throats while Carnes and Knapp waited outside in the car. The four men then drove to the Low house, but the Lows were not there. After burglarizing the home, the men drove on to the Stowe home but missed the turn to the house. They then left Utah. The Laffertys The State raised the issue of Lafferty's competency to stand trial early in the proceedings. After a series of examinations, hearings, and rulings, which are detailed below, the state trial court determined that Lafferty was competent.

were ultimately arrested in Reno, Nevada.

Prior to this ruling and during a period when the court had found Lafferty to be incompetent, Lafferty's counsel filed a notice of intent to present an insanity defense at trial. After the final competency ruling, Lafferty and his counsel attended a telephone hearing at which the court attempted to ascertain whether Lafferty still intended to present the defense. Under state law, a defendant who wishes to assert this defense must cooperate in a pretrial mental examination by two court-appointed experts. Lafferty stated that he did not intend to cooperate because he did not believe he was insane.

At a subsequent pretrial hearing, the court denied a renewed motion by Lafferty's counsel to withdraw and Lafferty's request to represent himself, because Lafferty would not personally state on the record that he wished to represent himself. However, the court informed Lafferty that he would have every reasonable opportunity to direct his counsel's strategy and presentation of the case. The court also considered Lafferty's renewed motion to assert an insanity defense. Lafferty's attorney represented to the court that Lafferty's prior refusal to cooperate, which Lafferty apparently did not recall, was based on a mistaken belief that Lafferty would still be able to present testimony at trial from experts who had already examined him during the competency proceedings. The attorney stated his intent to use that evidence, if he had control of the case, to the fullest extent possible. The court denied the motion to allow the insanity defense at trial, and reserved deciding whether evidence from the prior examinations would be admissible on the defense of manslaughter due to diminished mental capacity.

During the trial, the court ruled the expert medical evidence admissible on the lesser included offense of manslaughter. When Lafferty's counsel began to present the evidence, however, Lafferty refused to let him proceed, contrary to the attorney's forcefully expressed belief that the presentation was absolutely imperative. As a result of Lafferty's decision, his attorney was left with no option but to rest. Lafferty was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.

II. COMPETENCY

Our review of the record in this case in light of the applicable law reveals that the state court's finding of competency is fundamentally flawed and therefore is not entitled to deference under the standard of review applicable in this habeas proceeding. When a federal court considers an application challenging a state court conviction under section 2254, the state court's determination of a factual issue "shall be presumed to be correct" unless the federal court, upon considering the relevant part of the state court record, "concludes that such factual determination is not fairly supported by the record." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(8). Because competency is a factual issue subject to the presumption of correctness set out in section 2254, see Demosthenes v. Baal, 495 U.S. 731, 110 S.Ct. 2223, 2225, 109 L.Ed.2d 762 (1990), our initial inquiry must be to assess whether the presumption is applicable here. ¹ Thus, we must ascertain whether the competency determination was made under a correct view of the law, and if so, whether it is fairly supported by the record, considering "that part of the record of the State court proceeding in which the determination of such factual issue was made." 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).

A. Standard for Determining Competency

Although competence is a factual issue, that term, as this case clearly demonstrates, is not self-defining. Because competency to stand trial is an aspect of substantive due process, see Pate v. Robinson, 383 U.S. 375, 378, 86 S.Ct. 836, 838, 15 L.Ed.2d 815 (1966); Coleman v. Saffle, 912 F.2d 1217, 1224 (10th Cir.) (per curiam), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 22, 111 L.Ed.2d 834 (1990); Bouchillon v. Collins, 907 F.2d 589, 592 (5th Cir.1990); Davis v. Wyrick, 766 F.2d 1197, 1201 (8th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1020, 106 S.Ct. 1209, 89 L.Ed.2d 322 (1986), the legal standard by which competency is to be evaluated is constitutionally mandated. Accordingly, the components of that standard, required as they are by the Constitution, do not vary according to the views of a particular court. The Constitution can require but one gauge against which to determine whether, because of his mental condition, a defendant's due process rights are violated by requiring him to stand trial. The content of the standard of competency is therefore a question of law which we review de novo.

The Supreme Court set out the legal test for competency in Dusky v. United States, 362 U.S. 402, 80 S.Ct. 788, 4 L.Ed.2d 824 (1960) (per curiam):

"[I]t is not enough for the district judge to find that 'the defendant [is] oriented to time and place and [has] some recollection of events,' but that the 'test must be whether he has sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding--and whether he has a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him.' "

Id.. Although the Dusky standard was first articulated in the context of a federal prosecution, the Supreme Court has indicated that this standard is to be applied in federal habeas review of state proceedings as well, see Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S. 162, 95 S.Ct. 896, 43 L.Ed.2d 103 (1975), and the courts have done so, see, e.g., Coleman, 912 F.2d at 1224 & n. 8; Bouchillon, 907 F.2d at 592; Balfour v. Haws, 892 F.2d 556, 559 (7th Cir.1989); Davis, 766 F.2d at 1201.

The aspect of the Dusky standard that is the critical focus of attention in this case is the requirement that a defendant have a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him. While the Dusky opinion itself does not set out the facts underlying its articulation of this element of the competency test, that evidence is recited in detail in the circuit opinion which the Supreme Court reversed. See Dusky v. United States, 271 F.2d 385, 387-89 (8th Cir.1959). The relevant record at...