Burch v. Thomas R. Corcoran

• Decision Date: 26 September 2001
• Docket Number: No. 01-4,01-4
• Citation: 273 F.3d 577
• Parties: (4th Cir. 2001) HEATH WILLIAM BURCH, Petitioner-Appellant, v. THOMAS R. CORCORAN, Warden; J. JOSEPH CURRAN, JR., Respondents-Appellees. Argued:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 577

273 F.3d 577 (4th Cir. 2001)

HEATH WILLIAM BURCH, Petitioner-Appellant, v. THOMAS R. CORCORAN, Warden; J. JOSEPH CURRAN, JR., Respondents-Appellees.

No. 01-4

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

Argued: September 26, 2001

Decided: November 28, 2001

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore. Marvin J. Garbis, District Judge. (CA-98-4054-MJG) [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] COUNSEL ARGUED: Henry Mark Stichel, GOHN, HANKEY & STICHEL, L.L.P., Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant. Annabelle Louise Lisic, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Appeals Division, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: 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 NIEMEYER and KING, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge King wrote the opinion, in which Chief Judge Wilkinson and Judge Niemeyer joined.

OPINION

KING, Circuit Judge:

In 1996, a jury in Prince George's County, Maryland, convicted appellant Heath William Burch of the double murder of Robert and Cleo Davis, and it sentenced Burch to death. Burch has unsuccessfully sought habeas corpus relief in the District of Maryland, and he requests that we reverse the district court and grant habeas corpus relief. In support of that endeavor, Burch makes the following contentions: (1) that the sentencing provisions of Maryland's death-penalty statute are unconstitutional; (2) that the submission of a single Verdict Form to Burch's sentencing jury violated his due process rights; (3) that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at trial; and (4) that a juror's reading from a Bible during the jury's sentencing deliberations violated his constitutional rights. As explained below, these claims are without merit, and we affirm.

I.

In the early morning hours of March 19, 1995, Burch burglarized the home of Robert and Cleo Davis in Capitol Heights, Maryland, intending to steal property that could be sold to support his cocaine habit. When confronted by the Davises, an elderly couple in their 70's, Burch savagely attacked them. Following the assaults, Burch stole their guns, their money, and Mr. Davis's truck. A family friend discovered the Davises the next day, and by that time Mr. Davis had died. Mrs. Davis, who was alive when found on a couch with blood splattered over her, was hospitalized and died eight days after being attacked by Burch. The medical examiner determined that Mrs. Davis died of blunt force injuries and resulting complications. An autopsy performed on Mr. Davis revealed that he had died from thirty-three wounds, of which eleven were stab wounds from the blade of a pair of scissors.

There was overwhelming evidence in Burch's state court trial linking him to the murders of Mr. and Mrs. Davis. Indeed Burch confessed to the Maryland authorities that he had entered the Davis home and killed its occupants. A boot found in Burch's home matched a bloody footprint in the Davises' home, and traces of the victims' blood were found on clothing in Burch's home. Additionally, Burch's brother testified that on March 19, 1995, the day of the attacks, Burch came to the brother's home with blood on his neck and hands and acknowledged that he had killed two people.

Burch was indicted on April 21, 1995, in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, for the first-degree murders of both Mr. Davis and Mrs. Davis.¹ The State also sought convictions under Maryland law for the crimes of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, robbery with a deadly weapon, attempted robbery with a deadly weapon, robbery, attempted robbery, and first degree burglary. On July 13, 1995, the prosecution notified Burch of its intention to seek the death penalty on the murder charges.

On March 22, 1996, following a ten-day jury trial, Burch was found guilty on all counts except voluntary manslaughter, which had become inapplicable after the jury found Burch guilty of the various murder charges. After four days of sentencing proceedings, the same jury was instructed on the sentencing issues. In connection therewith, the jury was provided with a form captioned "Verdict Sheet: Findings and Sentencing Determination" ("Verdict Form ") to utilize in returning its sentencing verdict. The Verdict Form generally referred to issues in the singular tense: inter alia, "the murder," "the victim," and "the sentence." By way of example, it instructed the jurors to "[e]nter the determination of sentence either `Life Imprisonment' or `Death' according to the following instructions." J.A. 526 (emphasis added). In doing so, the jurors were required under Maryland law to consider both aggravating and mitigating circumstances. For example, one listed mitigating circumstance was whether "[t]he murder was committed while the capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his or her conduct or conform his or her conduct to the requirements of law was substantially impaired as a result of mental incapacity, mental disorder, or emotional disturbance." Id. at 524 (emphasis added). Another possible mitigating factor listed on the Verdict Form was whether "[t]he act of the defendant was not the sole proximate cause of the victim's death." Id. at 525 (emphasis added).

Burch's trial attorney did not object to the jury's use of the Verdict Form, and on March 29, 1995, the jury returned a verdict of "Death" against Burch. The completed Verdict Form, however, failed to specify whether the jury was returning one or two death sentences. As a result, Burch's lawyer contended, in post-trial proceedings, that only one death sentence could be imposed. The trial court rejected this contention, however, and on April 10, 1996, it imposed two death sentences on Burch -one for the murder of Mr. Davis and a second for the murder of Mrs. Davis. Burch also received consecutive twenty-year prison sentences on three other convictions, i.e., robbery with a deadly weapon, attempted robbery with a deadly weapon, and first-degree burglary.

Burch's remaining convictions merged for sentencing purposes, and his aggregate sentence then consisted of two death sentences plus sixty years of imprisonment.

On direct review, the Court of Appeals of Maryland affirmed each of Burch's convictions. Burch v. State, 696 A.2d 443 (Md. 1997).² However, because the Verdict Form referred in the singular only to "the sentence," the court determined that only one death sentence could properly be imposed on Burch. Finding no difference between the two brutal murders, the court concluded that "it makes no difference which sentence we vacate." Id. at 463. It then affirmed Burch's death sentence for the murder of Mr. Davis, vacated his death sentence for the murder of Mrs. Davis, and remanded his case to the circuit court for imposition of a life sentence for the murder of Mrs. Davis. On December 1, 1997, the Supreme Court denied Burch's petition for certiorari in connection with his direct appeal process. Burch v. Maryland, 522 U.S. 1001 (1997). As a result of these proceedings, and with the relief accorded him by the Court of Appeals of Maryland, Burch's remaining aggregate sentence was the death sentence for the murder of Mr. Davis, plus sixty years in prison.

Thereafter, Burch unsuccessfully sought post-conviction relief in both the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, State v. Burch, Memorandum and Order of Court, No. CT950787X (Circuit Court for Prince George's County July 3, 1998) ("Burch, 1998 Memorandum and Order"), and in the Court of Appeals of Maryland, Burch v. State, 720 A.2d 322 (Md. 1998).³ Subsequently, on April 19, 1999, the Supreme Court denied Burch's petition for a writ of certiorari on his state post-conviction review proceedings. Burch v. Maryland, 526 U.S. 1073 (1999). Burch then turned to the federal district court, unsuccessfully seeking habeas corpus relief in the District of Maryland. Burch v. Kavanagh, Memorandum of Decision, C.A. No. MJG 98-4054 (D. Md. Aug. 18, 2000) ("Burch, 2000 Memorandum of Decision"). Although the district court denied Burch's effort to secure federal habeas corpus relief, it awarded him a certificate of appealability.⁴ This appeal followed.

II.

As a general proposition, the standard of review to be applied by us is quite deferential to the rulings of the state courts. Pursuant to the standards promulgated in 28 U.S.C. S 2254, a federal court may not grant a writ of habeas corpus with respect to a claim adjudicated on the merits in state court proceedings unless the state court's adjudication: (1) "resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States," 28 U.S.C. S 2254(d)(1); or (2) "resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding." S 2254(d)(2).

The Supreme Court has recently addressed this standard of review, and it has determined that a state court adjudication is "contrary to" clearly established federal law only if "the state court arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by [the Supreme] Court on a question of law or if the state court decides a case differently than [the Supreme] Court has on a set of materially indistinguishable facts." Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 413 (2000). According to the Supreme Court, a state court decision unreasonably applies clearly established federal law if, despite correctly identifying the governing legal principle, it "unreasonably applies that principle to the facts of the prisoner's case." Id. at 413, 120 S. Ct. 1495. With these standards in mind, we turn to the issues raised by Burch in this proceeding.

III.

In this appeal, Burch...