Baker v. Corcoran

• Decision Date: 05 April 2000
• Docket Number: V,No. 99-24,PETITIONER-APPELLAN,RESPONDENTS-APPELLEES,99-24
• Citation: 220 F.3d 276
• Parties: (4th Cir. 2000) WESLEY EUGENE BAKER,THOMAS R. CORCORAN, WARDEN OF THE MARYLAND CORRECTIONAL ADJUSTMENT CENTER; J. JOSEPH CURRAN, JR., ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF MARYLAND, . Argued:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 276

220 F.3d 276 (4th Cir. 2000)

WESLEY EUGENE BAKER, PETITIONER-APPELLANT,

V.

THOMAS R. CORCORAN, WARDEN OF THE MARYLAND CORRECTIONAL ADJUSTMENT CENTER; J. JOSEPH CURRAN, JR., ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF MARYLAND, RESPONDENTS-APPELLEES.

No. 99-24.

U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: April 5, 2000.

Decided: July 19, 2000.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore.

William M. Nickerson, District Judge. (CA-97-850-WMN) [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Counsel Argued: Gary Wilmer Christopher, Chief Assistant Federal Public Defender, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant. Ann Norman Bosse, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Appeals Division, Office OF The Attorney General, Baltimore, Maryland for Appellees. ON Brief: James Wyda, Federal Public Defender, Baltimore, Maryland; William B. Purpura, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant. J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General of Maryland, Criminal Appeals Division, Office OF The Attorney General, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellees.

Before Wilkinson, Chief Judge, and Wilkins and Williams, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Wilkins wrote the opinion, in which Chief Judge Wilkinson and Judge Williams joined.

OPINION

Wilkins, Circuit Judge:

Wesley Eugene Baker appeals an order of the district court denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus,¹ in which he challenged his convictions and death sentence for the murder of Jane Tyson. See 28 U.S.C.A. § 2254 (West 1994 & Supp. 2000). ² The State cross-appeals an order of the district court denying its motion to dismiss Baker's petition as untimely under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2263 (West Supp. 2000), maintaining that the district court incorrectly ruled that Maryland has not satisfied the "opt-in" requirements of 28 U.S.C.A. § 2261(b), (c) (West Supp. 2000). We conclude that Maryland has not satisfied the opt-in requirements and that Baker is not entitled to habeas relief. Accordingly, we affirm.

I.

On the evening of June 6, 1991, Tyson went to the Westview Mall near Baltimore, Maryland with her grandchildren, six-year-old Adam and four-year-old Carly. Tyson was shot as the three were entering Tyson's maroon Buick to return home. At the time of the shooting, Carly had entered the back seat, Adam was preparing to enter the front passenger seat, and Tyson was preparing to enter the driver's seat. Adam saw a man run up to Tyson, heard her scream, and saw the man shoot her in the head. The man then entered"the left side" of a blue "truck" and drove away. J.A. 30 (internal quotation marks omitted).³

Scott Faust happened upon the scene within seconds of the shooting. He observed a blue Chevy Blazer facing west and a maroon Buick facing east. The two vehicles were parallel to each other and separated by a distance of approximately ten feet. Faust observed two men run from the vicinity of the Buick and enter the Blazer. The passenger, whom Faust subsequently identified as Baker, was wearing a dark t-shirt and a baseball hat; the driver, subsequently identified as Gregory Lawrence, was wearing a bright orange t-shirt. Faust then saw Tyson lying near the driver's side door of the Buick. Faust followed the Blazer out of the mall parking lot, eventually getting close enough to record the license plate number and to observe Lawrence and Baker. He then returned to the mall and provided this information to the police.

Shortly thereafter, Baltimore County police officers spotted the Blazer and gave chase. The Blazer stopped abruptly and a passenger, who was dressed in dark clothing, fled on foot. The officers stopped the Blazer a short distance away and arrested the driver, Gregory Lawrence. Baker was arrested a short time later, and at that time officers observed what appeared to be blood on his shoe, sock, and leg. Subsequent testing revealed that the blood was Tyson's. Officers found Tyson's purse, wallet, and photograph holder on the path of Baker's flight. Other items belonging to Tyson were found in the Blazer, as was the firearm that had been used to shoot her. Additionally, fingerprints from Baker's right hand were found on the driver's side door and window of the Buick.

Baker was charged with first degree premeditated murder, first degree felony murder, robbery with a deadly weapon, and use of a handgun during the commission of a felony. Trial counsel elected to concede Baker's involvement in the offenses in favor of arguing that Baker was not a principal in the first degree, i.e., he did not shoot Tyson. At counsel's request, the jury was instructed to return a special verdict indicating whether the State had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Baker was a principal in the first degree; a "no" response would have rendered Baker ineligible for the death penalty. See Md. Ann. Code art. 27, § 413(e)(1)(i) (Supp. 1999); Gary v. State, 671 A.2d 495, 498 (Md. 1996). The jury subsequently convicted Baker of the charged offenses and found that he was a principal in the first degree.

Baker chose to be sentenced by the court rather than by the jury. During his case in mitigation, Baker presented the testimony of Dr. Robert Johnson, who stated that Baker was unlikely to be a danger to other inmates if sentenced to life imprisonment. Defense counsel then informed the court that they had intended to call two additional witnesses--Baker's mother, Dolores Williams, and social worker Lori James--to testify regarding Baker's family history, but that Baker had directed counsel not to call those witnesses "because there were going to be very painful kinds of things testified about." J.A. 199. Counsel further stated that "we have to respect--man to man-Mr. Baker's very clear, unequivocable [sic] and express directions to us." Id. A lengthy discussion followed, during which the court considered calling Williams and James as court witnesses but decided not to do so after Baker informed the court that he did not want the evidence introduced because he thought it would be damaging and for "personal reasons." Id. at 209.

After hearing argument from the parties, the court sentenced Baker to death. The court first independently determined that the State had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Baker was a principal in the first degree. The court then found that the State had established one aggravating circumstance--that the murder was committed in the course of a robbery, see Md. Ann. Code art. 27, § 413(d)(10) (Supp. 1999). The court found no mitigating circumstances, explicitly rejecting Dr. Johnson's testimony that Baker was unlikely to pose a danger to others if sentenced to life imprisonment. Additionally, the court noted that even if it had considered Dr. Johnson's testimony as establishing a mitigating circumstance, it would have found that the mitigating circumstance was outweighed by the aggravating circumstance.

Shortly thereafter, Baker moved for reconsideration of his sentence, stating that he had "reflected upon his decision not to call [Williams and James] on his behalf and realize[d] that he made a serious error in judgment." J.A. 245. Baker also requested that the court consider testimony from his brother and son. The court granted the motion, and defense counsel presented testimony from James.⁴ James testified that Baker was raised in a dysfunctional family that consisted of Baker's mother, his stepfather, and his siblings. James testified that Baker was the product of the rape of his mother, a fact of which he was unaware until the sentencing phase of his trial. ⁵ She further stated that although Baker was never physically abused, ⁶ he observed his stepfather beating his mother. James also found that Baker's family had poor communication patterns and that several family members abused drugs. The court considered this information and found that it was not mitigating, and therefore elected not to reduce Baker's sentence.

Baker then appealed his convictions and sentence to the Maryland Court of Appeals. Among other things, Baker argued that the trial court had improperly instructed the jury that premeditation could be inferred from the "intensity and effect" of a wound, asserting that such an instruction had "no basis in Maryland law." Id. at 310-11 (internal quotation marks omitted). The Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari. See Baker v. State, 632 A.2d 783 (Md. 1993), cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1078 (1994).

Baker filed a petition for post-conviction relief (PCR) in December 1994. As is relevant here, Baker maintained that trial counsel were constitutionally ineffective for failing to conduct any independent investigation of the case; for conceding Baker's principalship during closing argument; and for failing to present testimony from Williams and James at the initial sentencing hearing. Following a hearing, the PCR court denied relief. The Maryland Court of Appeals denied Baker's application for leave to appeal, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari, see Baker v. Maryland, 517 U.S. 1169 (1996).

The United States District Court for the District of Maryland subsequently appointed federal habeas counsel for Baker. In October 1996, Baker moved through counsel to reopen the state PCR proceedings, asserting that certain claims had not been presented in his initial PCR proceeding due to post-conviction counsel's incompetence. The motion to reopen and a subsequent addendum included the following claims: that the trial court issued an unconstitutional instruction regarding the meaning of "reasonable doubt"; that trial and appellate counsel were constitutionally ineffective for failing to object to the reasonable doubt instruction and to challenge it on appeal; that trial counsel's failure to conduct an investigation resulted in the failure to discover evidence indicating the existence of a third participant in the crime;...