Cave v. Singletary
| Decision Date | 26 August 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-3959,90-3959 |
| Citation | 971 F.2d 1513 |
| Parties | Alphonso CAVE, Petitioner-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. Harry K. SINGLETARY, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, Respondent-Appellant, Cross-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Celia A. Terenzio, Asst. Atty. Gen., West Palm Beach, Fla., for appellant.
Andres J. Valdespino, Valdespino & Karambelas, White Plains, N.Y., Bruce M. Wilkinson, Fields, Wilkinson & Rifkin, Stuart, Fla., for appellee.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Before KRAVITCH, HATCHETT, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
This appeal arises from a habeas corpus proceeding in the District Court for the Middle District of Florida in which Petitioner Alphonso Cave, convicted of murder and sentenced to death, raised thirteen claims for relief. The district court held an evidentiary hearing on Petitioner's claim of constitutionally ineffective assistance of trial counsel. The court granted relief on the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel during the sentencing hearing, but denied the claim relating to the guilt phase. The State of Florida appeals the district court's grant of a new sentencing hearing; Cave cross-appeals the district court's denial of a new trial. We affirm the district court.
I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL
HISTORY
Cave and three other men robbed a convenience store and kidnapped Frances Slater, an employee, in April, 1982. Slater was shot in the head and stabbed in the abdomen and subsequently died. The medical examiner later determined that the bullet to the head caused her death. The men were tried separately and Cave was convicted of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and kidnapping. Consistent with the jury's recommendation, the trial judge sentenced Cave to death. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed in Cave v. State, 476 So.2d 180 (Fla.1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1178, 106 S.Ct. 2907, 90 L.Ed.2d 993 (1986). Cave petitioned the trial court for post-conviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850, raising twelve claims. The trial court ruled that eleven of the claims were procedurally barred, and considered only the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, which it then denied. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed in Cave v. State, 529 So.2d 293 (Fla.1988).
Cave then filed his petition for habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, presenting thirteen claims for relief. The district court granted a stay of execution on July 5, 1988 to consider the claims. 1
The district court determined that the Florida Supreme Court had ruled the Caldwell claim procedurally barred and denied federal review. The court ruled that claims (2) through (5), and (7) through (13) were groundless and denied them without an evidentiary hearing. We affirm those rulings on the basis of the district court's opinion. See Cave v. Dugger, No. 88-977-CIV-T-15B, August 3, 1990 [hereinafter "District Court Order" or "Order"], attached hereto as Appendix.
The district court held a three-day evidentiary hearing on Petitioner's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel in both the guilt and sentencing phase. In a thorough and well-reasoned order, the district court applied the two-prong test of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), and concluded that Petitioner had received ineffective assistance of counsel in both phases, but that he had suffered prejudice only at sentencing. The court thus refused to vacate the conviction for first degree murder, but ordered the State to hold a new sentencing hearing.
The State appeals both the district court's decision to hold a hearing and the court's conclusion that the petitioner was prejudiced by the denial of constitutionally adequate counsel during the penalty phase. Petitioner, on the other hand, contends that the evidence of his guilt was not so overwhelming that counsel's proven incompetence did not prejudice him.
II. ANALYSIS
The essence of Cave's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is that his appointed counsel, Karen Steger, did not understand the elements of felony murder and thus could not, and did not, defend him adequately at his trial. Specifically, Cave contends that Steger did not understand that emphasizing Cave's admission of guilt in the robbery, which resulted in the victim's death, would lead to a conviction for first degree murder under Florida's felony murder statute, regardless of the fact that Cave did not shoot Slater. Further, Cave contends that Steger was so convinced that she would win an acquittal for her client that she failed to prepare for the sentencing hearing. 2 Cave argues that his counsel's incompetence prejudiced him both during the guilt and the sentencing phases.
This appeal and cross-appeal present two distinct issues: first, whether the district court erred in conducting an evidentiary hearing on the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel; and, second, whether the court erred in its determination of the merits of the claim.
A. The Evidentiary Hearing
A petitioner is entitled to an evidentiary hearing in federal court if he alleges facts which, if proven, would entitle him to relief. Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963). If the state court has held a hearing on the claims raised by the habeas petition, the state court's factual findings are entitled to a presumption of correctness. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d); Lightbourne v. Dugger, 829 F.2d 1012 (11th Cir.1987). Although the state trial court and the Florida Supreme Court did determine that Cave received adequate assistance of counsel, this determination is a mixed question of law and fact that is not entitled to a Lightbourne presumption of correctness. Thomas v. Kemp, 796 F.2d 1322, 1324 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 996, 107 S.Ct. 602, 93 L.Ed.2d 601 (1986) (citing Solomon v. Kemp, 735 F.2d 395, 401 (11th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1181, 105 S.Ct. 940, 83 L.Ed.2d 952 (1985)).
The first question is whether the state court made any factual findings to which the district court should have deferred. The State contends that there is an implicit "state court finding regarding Ms. Steger [sic] unsuccessful attempts to persuade Appellee's mother to testify." Appellant's Brief at 7. The state trial court made no factual findings and the Florida Supreme Court stated only the following:
We have no way of judging the credibility of these witnesses' contradictory accounts, but do note the following from the record. The mother agreed she had met with trial counsel twice but denied she was asked to testify. We have no way of resolving this conflict in testimony, but the burden of proof at this stage rests upon the petitioner.
Cave v. State, 529 So.2d at 297 (emphasis added). The opinion then notes that Cave's mother, sister, and aunts were not present at the trial; according to the relatives, however, their absence was due to Steger's advice that they were not needed at the trial.
Although state court findings of fact can be inferred from its opinion and the record, Green v. Zant, 715 F.2d 551, 557 (11th Cir.1983), they cannot be imagined from thin air. The Florida Supreme Court made no findings of fact concerning the willingness of Cave's relatives to testify that were binding on the district court. Petitioner presented the district court with an unresolved factual issue regarding the failure of counsel to adequately prepare for the sentencing phase by alleging that Steger failed to take advantage of several character witnesses who were prepared to testify at Cave's sentencing hearing. These allegations, if proven, would establish ineffective assistance of counsel in the sentencing phase. The district court therefore was correct to hold an evidentiary hearing to resolve the dispute.
The State also contends that the Florida Supreme Court made an implicit factual finding that Petitioner's counsel consciously misstated the law, a strategic choice that, it claims, would enjoy considerable deference under Strickland. Thus, the state argues, the district court erred in substituting its findings for the findings of the state tribunal. First, as we noted above, the conclusion that counsel was effective is a mixed question of law and fact that is not entitled to the presumption of correctness. Thomas v. Kemp, supra. Second, the state trial court made no findings of historical facts that support its conclusion and would be entitled to deference:
[F]rom the perspective of Karen Steger, Cave's trial counsel, as of the time of trial and sentencing, this Court finds that none of the evidence establishes either prong of the Strickland test. Defendant has woefully failed to establish that counsel's actions were below that of reasonably competent counsel, under prevailing norms, or were so deficient that Cave was deprived of his Sixth Amendment rights.
The State construes this statement to mean that "the state courts implicitly found that Ms. Steger made a decision to misstate the law." Again, we disagree. The state court made no such finding, implicit or otherwise. The district court correctly held an evidentiary hearing to consider de novo the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel.
B. The Merits
The Supreme Court established the now-familiar test for determining whether a defendant received constitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). A petitioner must demonstrate that counsel's "alleged acts or omissions, upon consideration of all the circumstances, fell outside the wide range of professionally competent assistance." Stano v. Dugger, 883 F.2d 900, 911 (11th Cir.1989). Further, a petitioner must demonstrate that "there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different." Id. We review de novo the...
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