Bowling v. Parker

• Decision Date: 02 April 2012
• Docket Number: Civil No. 03–28–ART.
• Citation: 882 F.Supp.2d 891
• Parties: Ronnie Lee BOWLING, Petitioner, v. Philip W. PARKER, Warden, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Kentucky

882 F.Supp.2d 891

Ronnie Lee BOWLING, Petitioner,

v.Philip W. PARKER, Warden,¹ Respondent.

Civil No. 03–28–ART.

United States District Court,

E.D. Kentucky,

Southern Division,

London.

April 2, 2012.

David M. Barron, Department of Public Advocacy, Frankfort, KY, Joseph Vincent Aprile, II, Lynch, Cox, Gilman & Mahan P.S.C., Louisville, KY, for Petitioner.

MEMORANDUM OPINION & ORDER

AMUL R. THAPAR, District Judge.

Petitioner Ronnie Lee Bowling has challenged the constitutionality of the statutory standard of review for habeas corpus petitions by state-court prisoners, 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). R. 155. Because § 2254(d)(1) does not violate Article III, the Supremacy Clause, or the Suspension Clause, the law is constitutional and the Court will deny his motion.

BACKGROUND

The Kentucky Supreme Court ably states the facts of the case at 942 S.W.2d 293, but the Court will summarize them here.

On January 20, 1989, Ronald Smith worked his usual midnight to 8 a.m. shift at the Jones Chevron station in London, Kentucky. Smith had $200 in the cash register when he started his shift, and he usually worked alone until 6:30 a.m. Around 5:30 a.m., two customers noticed that the gas pumps were not working. They went inside and found Smith lying face-down on the floor, dead. The cash register reflected $354 in sales over the course of the night, with a “no sale” indicated at 5:21 a.m., but the register was empty except for coins. Smith had been shot six times: three times in the back of the head, twice in the back, and once in the chest.

A month later, on February 22, 1989, Marvin Hensley opened the gas station he owned one-and-a-half miles north of London around 6:00 a.m. One customer bought $5 of gas from him at 6:15 a.m. But when another customer entered the station at 7:00 a.m., he found Hensley dead on the floor. Hensley, who was also a minister at a church in Mt. Vernon, had suffered three gunshot wounds to the back of his head, one to his ear, one to the back of his neck, and one to his hand. Again, the station's cash register was empty except for coins.

The Smith and Hensley murders received extensive attention in the local news, and gas station operators began to take additional security precautions. One such operator was Ricky Smith (no relation to Ronald), who owned and operated a Sunoco station on U.S. Highway 25 in Mt. Vernon, Kentucky. On February 25, 1989, Smith opened his station around 6:00 a.m. Not long afterward, Ronnie Lee Bowling entered the station. Bowling told Smith he was looking for a job, but kept his hands in his pockets and asked Smith if the station ever had two employees on duty at the same time. Smith also recalled that Bowling was looking out the station window, up and down the highway in both directions.

Smith told Bowling that the station was not hiring, and Bowling began to leave. But as Bowling exited, he pulled out a revolver and started firing at Smith. Reacting quickly, Smith dove behind a wall and metal desk and pulled out his own gun. When he heard Bowling finish shooting, Smith returned fire at Bowling through the wall. When Smith fired back, Bowling ran out of the station, jumped in to his car, and headed south on Highway 25.

Smith called the Kentucky State Police, told them what happened, and gave them a description of Bowling. State Police Troopers Allen Lewis and Danny Alton quickly intercepted Bowling's car and began pursuing it. When Lewis switched on his blue lights, Bowling responded by accelerating. The pursuit continued for more than thirty miles, and, according to Lewis, frequently exceeded speeds of 100 mph. By the time Bowling stopped at an area near his residence, eight to ten other police cars were involved in the chase. The police arrested Bowling and noticed that he was bleeding from his head.

During the chase, police observed Bowling throw two brown objects out of his car near the nine-mile marker of Kentucky Highway 472. When police returned to this location, they found a pair of brown gloves. State police troopers searching the entire route of the chase made an even more important discovery—near the area where the chase began, they found a .38–caliber handgun. Ricky Smith identified the gun as similar to the one Bowling brandished at the Sunoco station.

When the police arrested Bowling, he told them that he entered Ricky Smith's gas station to look for a job. During the conversation, Smith lost his temper and began shooting. Bowling claimed that he never had a gun at the gas station, and that he did not throw anything out of his car while fleeing from the police. Bowling also denied ever owning a pistol. When Bowling gave his initial statement to the police, he was bleeding because one of Smith's shots had grazed the side of his head.

Bowling's trial lasted from September 21 to October 9, 1992. At the trial, a Kentucky State Police forensic scientist presented evidence of tests that analyzed the lands and grooves of the .38–caliber handgun the police found on the side of the road and the bullets found at the crime scenes. These tests revealed that one of the bullets that killed Ronald Smith and four of the bullets that killed Marvin Hensley matched the .38–caliber handgun. Bullets found at the third crime scene, Ricky Smith's Sunoco station, were too badly warped for the forensic scientist to conclusively tie them to the .38–caliber handgun. The bullets were, however, the type a .38–caliber revolver could have fired.

The Kentucky State Police also sent the bullets to the FBI for additional testing. Donald Havekost, an FBI forensic scientist, conducted a comparative metallurgical analysis of the lead in the bullets through a process known as compositional analysis of bullet lead (CABL) or comparative bullet lead analysis (CBLA). From this analysis, he linked bullets that killed Hensley and Smith with each other and with bullets found in an ammunition box at Bowling's home.

A federal prisoner named Timothy Chappell also testified at Bowling's trial. Chappell was detained in the Laurel County Jail at the same time as Bowling, and he testified that Bowling confessed the two murders to him. According to Chappell, Bowling said he was sorry about shooting Hensley because he did not know that Hensley was a preacher. Bowling also said he had killed the men because a service station attendant had once made a pass at his wife and all service station attendants were the same.

Another witness at Bowling's trial was his ex-wife, Ora Lee Isaacs. Isaacs was married to Bowling at the time of the crimes, but the two divorced before trial. She identified the gun found by the side of the road as belonging to Bowling, and testified that on the mornings of the crimes, Bowling left home around 5:30 a.m. and returned around 7:30 a.m.

To rebut this testimony, Bowling called various members of his family as witnesses. Bowling's father, Ledford, testified that he was the owner of a .38–caliber handgun, and the ammunition the police found in Bowling's mobile home belonged to him. Bowling's aunt and uncle testified that on the day of the Ronald Smith murder, Bowling was with them in Indiana. And according to Bowling's younger sister and one of her friends, Bowling's car was parked in front of his trailer with frost on the windshield around 7:15 a.m. on February 22, 1989, the morning of the Hensley murder.

Bowling also called April Lunsford as a witness. Lunsford testified that she spent the night of February 21, 1989, with Bowling at the Kozy Motel, and that Bowling left her the next morning around 7:00 a.m. She produced a registration card from the motel for that evening. The card had been filled out by Bowling's cousin, who worked at the motel.

After deliberating for one day, the jury found Bowling guilty of murder, first-degree burglary, and first-degree robbery for both the Smith and Hensley killings. The jury returned a sentence of death for each of the murders and gave Bowling a twenty-year sentence for the burglary and robbery convictions. The trial judge formally sentenced Bowling and entered judgment on December 4, 1992. Bowling then filed a direct appeal of his conviction, which the Kentucky Supreme Court rejected on June 19, 1997. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Bowling's petition for writ of certiorari a few months later. 522 U.S. 986, 118 S.Ct. 451,.

After pursuing postconviction review in Kentucky courts, Bowling began a collateral attack on his conviction in federal court. He filed a habeas petition alleging sixty-eight grounds for relief on January 15, 2003. The Court dismissed his petition for failing to exhaust his state remedies. R. 12. In August 2007, however, the Sixth Circuit disagreed and remanded the petition to the Court for a decision on the merits. 246 Fed.Appx. 303. Bowling now raises a facial challenge to the constitutionality of the standard for federal habeas review, 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). R. 155.

DISCUSSION

The statute at issue, § 2254(d)(1), prevents a federal court from granting habeas relief to a state prisoner on “any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings” unless the state court's decision “was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Bowling argues that this section violates three constitutional provisions: Article III, the Supremacy Clause, and the Suspension Clause. On all three fronts, the Court does not tread on virgin territory. Several court of appeals have considered the constitutionality of § 2254(d)(1), and each has upheld the law. See Evans v. Thompson, 518 F.3d 1 (1st Cir.2008); Crater v. Galaza, 491 F.3d 1119 (9th Cir.2007); Green v. French, 143 F.3d 865 (4th Cir.1998), overruled on other grounds by Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000); Lindh v. Murphy, 96 F.3d 856 (7th Cir.1996) (en banc), rev'd on other grounds,521 U.S. 320, 117 S.Ct. 2059, 138 L.Ed.2d 481 (199...