Barnett v. State
| Citation | 103 S.W.3d 765 |
| Decision Date | 22 April 2003 |
| Docket Number | No. SC 84806.,SC 84806. |
| Parties | David M. BARNETT, Appellant, v. STATE of Missouri, Respondent. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Missouri |
Janet M. Thompson, Office of Public Defender, Columbia, for Appellant.
Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., Breck K. Burgess, Asst. Atty. Gen., John M. Morris, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for Respondent.
David M. Barnett appeals the overruling of a Rule 29.15 motion to vacate his death sentences. This Court has exclusive jurisdiction.1 This Court on direct appeal upheld Barnett's convictions and sentences. State v. Barnett, 980 S.W.2d 297 (Mo. banc 1998). Judgment is affirmed.
Barnett was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of firstdegree robbery, and two counts of armed criminal action. On February 4, 1996, Barnett entered the home of his adopted grandparents, Clifford and Leona Barnett, ages 81 and 75, while they were attending church services and having lunch with friends. After Clifford and Leona Barnett came home, Barnett knocked them to the ground, kicked them, and repeatedly stabbed them with multiple knives — until he had killed them.
Pursuant to the jury's recommendation, Barnett was sentenced to death for each of the two murder counts and consecutive life sentences for the first-degree robbery and armed criminal action counts. Barnett then filed a motion for post-conviction relief under Rule 29.15. The motion court denied Barnett's request for an evidentiary hearing. The motion court issued its findings of fact and conclusions of law and overruled Barnett's motion for post-conviction relief. This appeal followed.
Barnett claims:
(1) The motion court erred in denying his post-conviction claims without an evidentiary hearing;
(2) Defense counsel failed to fully investigate Barnett's family history;
(3) Defense counsel failed to timely object to the State's late disclosure of testimony;
(4) Defense counsel failed to conduct an adequate voir dire into the critical facts of the case;
(5) Defense counsel failed to object to repeated references to alleged prior bad acts;
(6) Defense counsel failed to call Clifford and Leona Barnett's children as witnesses;
(7) The motion court erred in failing to vacate his death sentences; and
(8) The motion court erred in failing to reappoint motion counsel before reaching the merits of his post-conviction relief motion.
These claims will be addressed in order.
This Court's review of Barnett's claims is for the limited purpose of determining whether or not the motion court clearly erred in making its findings of fact and conclusions of law. Skillicorn v. State, 22 S.W.3d 678, 681 (Mo. banc 2000). To prove that counsel was ineffective, a movant must show that counsel's performance "did not conform to the degree of skill, care, and diligence of a reasonably competent attorney" and that movant was thereby prejudiced. State v. Hall, 982 S.W.2d 675, 680 (Mo. banc 1998) (citing Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984)). To demonstrate prejudice, a movant must show that, but for counsel's poor performance, there is a reasonable probability that the outcome of the court proceeding would have been different. Id. Moreover, this Court presumes that counsel acted professionally in making decisions and that any challenged action was a part of counsel's sound trial strategy. Id.
To be entitled to an evidentiary hearing, a movant must: (1) allege facts, not conclusions, that, if true, would warrant relief; (2) these facts must raise matters not refuted by the record and files in the case; and (3) the matters complained of must have resulted in prejudice to the movant. State v. Brooks, 960 S.W.2d 479, 497 (Mo. banc 1997). An evidentiary hearing is not required if the files and records of the case conclusively show that movant is entitled to no relief. Rule 29.15(h). Moreover, to obtain an evidentiary hearing with respect to claims related to ineffective assistance of counsel, movant must allege facts showing that counsel's performance did not conform to the degree of skill, care and diligence of a reasonably competent attorney and that movant was thereby prejudiced. Brooks, 960 S.W.2d at 497.
Barnett contends that the motion court erred in denying his post-conviction claims without an evidentiary hearing. Barnett argues that under Wilkes v. State, 82 S.W.3d 925 (Mo. banc 2002), and Rule 29.15, his claims for post-conviction relief were pleaded sufficiently to warrant granting an evidentiary hearing.
Barnett argues that Rule 29.15 provides a presumption in favor of an evidentiary hearing. In support, Barnett asserts that this Court, in Wilkes, cautioned motion courts that:
... the rules encourage evidentiary hearings. See Rule 29.15(h). Nothing in the text of Rule 29.15 suggests that the pleading requirements are to be construed more narrowly than other civil pleadings. Thus, a movant may successfully plead a claim for relief under Rule 29.15 by providing the motion court with allegations sufficient to allow the motion court to meaningfully apply the Strickland standard and decide whether relief is warranted.
Wilkes, 82 S.W.3d at 929. Barnett further argues that the text of Rule 29.15 characterizes hyper-technical pleading requirements, which preclude evidentiary hearings and stymie the search for truth, as not being consistent with due process.
The motion court found Barnett's pleadings to be deficient and that these deficiencies precluded Barnett from being entitled to an evidentiary hearing. Although Rule 29.15 suggests that the pleading requirements are not to be construed more narrowly than other civil pleadings, a Rule 29.15 motion is treated differently than pleadings in other civil cases because it is a collateral attack on a final judgment. White v. State, 939 S.W.2d 887, 893 (Mo. banc 1997). Unlike some other civil pleadings, courts will not draw factual inferences or implications in a Rule 29.15 motion from bare conclusions or from a prayer for relief. Morrow v. State, 21 S.W.3d 819, 822 (Mo. banc 2000).
The evidence contained within the record and files of this case is so overwhelming that it refutes any contention by Barnett that he is entitled to relief. Barnett confessed in writing, on audiotape and videotape to killing the victims. Barnett then went with police to the home of Clifford and Leona Barnett for a video re-enactment of the murders. In light of this overwhelming and uncontradicted evidence, Barnett's argument that he is entitled to a evidentiary hearing is unpersuasive.
The motion court did not err in its findings of fact and conclusions of law on this issue.
Barnett alleges that counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel in failing to investigate and provide the jury with information about Barnett's biological mother, her family, and the environmental and genetic factors that affected his development. Barnett contends that a great deal of mitigating evidence was available for counsel to utilize at trial, but went unutilized because counsel failed to exercise due diligence in search for it.3
Barnett's life history, as set forth in the post-conviction motion, was over 25 pages, and 22 pages were dedicated to listing the hundreds of witnesses and organizations that were capable of providing proof of Barnett's life history. The motion court found, however, that the 25-page narrative of Barnett's life history did not connect a specific portion of the narrative to a particular witness, did not allege that counsel was informed of their existence, and did not state that any of the witnesses were available to testify.
Because the narrative was unconnected to the purported witnesses, the motion was deficient in a manner similar to that in Morrow v. State, 21 S.W.3d 819 (Mo. banc 2000). Morrow held that "[w]here the pleadings consist only of bare assertions and conclusions, a motion court cannot meaningfully apply the Strickland standard for ineffective assistance of counsel." 21 S.W.3d at 824.
In light of Morrow and the motion court's finding that Barnett's Rule 29.15 pleadings were deficient, Barnett's argument is not persuasive. The motion court did not clearly err in its findings and conclusions of law on this issue.
Barnett claims that defense counsel rendered ineffective assistance for not timely objecting to the State's late disclosure of testimony. Barnett argues that the State never disclosed testimony of Officer Granat regarding the manufacture and availability of shoes Barnett was wearing when the murders were committed. Barnett alleges the State used this testimony to support its theory that he was a deliberate actor in the murders of Clifford and Leona Barnett.
As a result of defense counsel's failure to object contemporaneously to this testimony, Barnett claims he was denied effective assistance of counsel, a fundamentally fair trial, and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment.
The motion court found that Barnett was unable to show prejudice on this claim. The motion court concluded that even if defense counsel made a proper and timely objection to the testimony at issue, and the trial court sustained the objection, there was a multitude of uncontradicted evidence that established Barnett killed the victims in a deliberate manner. The jury would have still heard Officer Granat's testimony that Barnett's shoes were consistent with shoe prints at the scene of the murders. The jury had already heard evidence that the point of entry into the victims' home was the bathroom window, based on the shoe print in the dust on the...
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