Chambers v. Armontrout

• Decision Date: 05 July 1990
• Docket Number: No. 88-2383,88-2383
• Citation: 907 F.2d 825
• Parties: James W. CHAMBERS, Appellant, v. Bill ARMONTROUT, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 825

907 F.2d 825

James W. CHAMBERS, Appellant, v. Bill ARMONTROUT, Appellee.

No. 88-2383.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Jan. 19, 1990.

Decided July 5, 1990.

Thomas R. Schlesinger, Clayton, Mo., for appellant.

Jared Richard Cone, Jefferson City, Mo., for appellee.

Before LAY, Chief Judge, FLOYD R. GIBSON and HEANEY, Senior Circuit Judges and McMILLIAN, ARNOLD, JOHN R. GIBSON, FAGG, BOWMAN, WOLLMAN, MAGILL and BEAM, Circuit Judges.

HEANEY, Senior Circuit Judge.

James Chambers appeals his state conviction and sentence of death for the capital murder of Jerry Lee Oestricker. We reverse the conviction because Chambers received ineffective assistance of counsel when his counsel (1) failed to interview, (2) failed to call at trial, and (3) failed to call at sentencing the only witness who would have testified that Chambers acted in self-defense.

I. BACKGROUND

In December 1982, Chambers was tried for the murder of Oestricker in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Missouri. At that trial, two eyewitnesses gave conflicting versions of the events surrounding the moment when Chambers shot and killed Oestricker outside a bar in Arnold, Missouri.

Fred Ieppert, the government's eyewitness, testified to the following: (1) Chambers and Oestricker engaged in a heated argument inside the bar; (2) both Chambers and Oestricker decided to take the argument outside; and (3) upon their exit, Ieppert moved from his chair to the door of the bar, taking a few seconds to do so. Ieppert testified that he could observe the following from the door: (1) Oestricker stood up with his hands in the air; (2) Chambers pointed a pistol at Oestricker and fired a single shot into Oestricker's chest; (3) Chambers pistol-whipped Oestricker several times after he fell to the ground; and (4) Chambers told the victim to "take that, tough guy," shouted an epithet into the bar, and ran away.

James Jones, the other eyewitness, had left the bar several minutes before the shooting but had to wait in his car in the bar's parking lot because his engine was flooded. He testified that he observed the following: (1) the smaller man (Chambers) left the bar first, walked about half the length of a truck, and stood facing the bar; (2) the bigger man (Oestricker) left the bar a moment later; (3) the two men argued; (4) Oestricker moved towards Chambers and struck Chambers in the face, knocking Chambers to the ground; (5) Chambers then stood up and shot Oestricker, who was standing six feet away; (6) Oestricker fell back against the wall; (7) Chambers hit the victim with the gun several times, knocking the victim to the ground; (8) Chambers yelled into the bar, "Do any of you want any of this?" and to the victim, "Lay there and die"; (9) Chambers ran nearby to a parked car that had its engine running; and (10) the car sped quickly away. In addition, Jones testified that Oestricker was six foot-one inch tall and weighed 240 pounds and that Chambers was five foot-nine inches tall and weighed 150 pounds. Jones was the only eyewitness to the events occuring just before the shooting.

Chambers' attorney requested that a self-defense instruction be submitted to the jury. The trial court refused. The jury found Chambers guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to death.

On appeal, the Missouri Supreme Court reversed the conviction. State v. Chambers, 671 S.W.2d 781 (Mo.1984) (en banc) [Chambers I ]. It held that there was sufficient evidence to justify an instruction on self-defense, pointing specifically to Jones' testimony that Oestricker struck Chambers in the face, knocking Chambers to the ground. Id. at 783. The court held that a jury could reasonably conclude that Oestricker was the initial aggressor and that Chambers shot Oestricker because Chambers feared great bodily harm. Id. ¹

Missouri retried Chambers in Jefferson County. His newly appointed counsel was Donald W. Hager, a public defender. Hager neither interviewed Jones nor called Jones to testify on behalf of Chambers. The state did not call Jones. With this exception, the second trial proceeded in much the same manner as the first with Fred Ieppert providing the bulk of the prosecution's case. At the conclusion of evidence, Hager requested a self-defense instruction. As with the earlier trial, the trial court refused to instruct the jury on self-defense and denied Chambers the right to argue self-defense in his closing argument. The second trial also resulted in a conviction for capital murder. At sentencing, Hager sat mute, waiving Chambers' right to present mitigating evidence and argue for leniency. The jury sentenced Chambers to death.

With the assistance of yet another attorney, Chambers again appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court. Over the strong dissent of two judges, the court affirmed the conviction and the death sentence. State v. Chambers, 714 S.W.2d 527 (Mo.1986) (en banc) [Chambers II ].

On November 12, 1986, Chambers filed a motion in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County under Missouri Rule 27.26 asserting that he received ineffective assistance of counsel at the second trial. A hearing on this motion was held on February 3, 1987. Several witnesses testified, including Jones. Jones testified to the same version of events as he had at the first trial. ² Jones also testified that neither Hager nor anyone else from the public defenders' office had contacted him since the first trial.

Hager also testified at the Rule 27.26 hearing. He testified that before the second trial he had read Jones' testimony from the first trial, but that neither he nor anyone else from the public defenders' office ever contacted Jones. ³ Hager testified that he considered much of Jones' testimony to be damaging. The damaging aspects, according to Hager, were that Chambers stepped outside first, stopped, turned, and waited for Oestricker, concealing a pistol against his leg; Chambers pistol-whipped Oestricker and shouted, "Lay there and die;" Oestricker was six feet away and not moving towards Chambers at the time of the shooting; and Chambers left the scene in a car that was facing the road with its engine running. On this basis, Hager testified that he did not interview Jones or call Jones at the second trial because he believed that the damaging aspects of Jones' testimony outweighed its mitigating value.

Chambers' Rule 27.26 motion was denied by the Circuit Court of Jefferson County. His appeal of that ruling was denied by the Missouri Court of Appeals, and his application for transfer to the Missouri Supreme Court was denied.

Chambers next filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. Chambers alleged, inter alia, that he was denied effective assistance of counsel at the second trial because Hager failed to interview Jones or to call him at that trial. The district court held that Hager's performance was constitutionally adequate. The court concluded that the decision not to interview or call Jones at trial was reasonable because of the potential damaging aspects of Jones' testimony, because Jones was not a credible witness, and because Chambers signed a pretrial statement in which he agreed with Hager's decision not to call Jones at trial. Accordingly, the district court denied Chambers' petition for habeas relief.

Chambers appealed the district court's decision to this Court. On appeal, he argues that he was denied effective assistance of counsel because Hager did not interview Jones and did not call Jones at trial. A panel of this Circuit agreed, reversing the district court. Chambers v. Armontrout, 885 F.2d 1318 (8th Cir.1989). We granted the petition for rehearing en banc and vacated the panel decision. After rehearing the appeal en banc, we reaffirm the panel decision and reverse the district court's denial of habeas relief.

II. DISCUSSION

Under the standards for analyzing a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel enunciated in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), Chambers must show that Hager's performance was deficient and that it prejudiced Chambers' defense. See id. at 687, 104 S.Ct. at 2064. Counsel's performance is deficient when it is less competent than the assistance that should be provided by a reasonable attorney under the same circumstances. Id.

A. FAILURE TO INTERVIEW JONES

The decision to interview a potential witness is not a decision related to trial strategy. Rather, it is a decision related to adequate preparation for trial. Thus, Hager had "a duty to make reasonable investigations or to make a reasonable decision that makes particular investigations unnecessary." Id. at 691, 104 S.Ct. at 2066. Because Jones was never interviewed by Hager, the question before us is whether Hager's decision not to interview Jones was reasonable from counsel's perspective at the time that decision was made.

The facts of this case, confirmed by Hager's actions at trial and testimony at the Rule 27.26 hearing, indicate that there was only one defense upon which Chambers could rely: self-defense. That defense was the only realistic defense to the capital murder charge. Moreover, self-defense was a mitigating circumstance appropriate for the jury's consideration in determining whether Chambers should be sentenced to death. Thus, without Jones' testimony that Oestricker had knocked Hager to the ground, Hager was not permitted to argue self-defense as either a partial or complete defense to capital murder. Without Jones' testimony, the jury could only return a verdict that Chambers was guilty of capital murder.

Because of the grave effect of Hager's decision not to interview Jones in this capital murder case, Chambers alleges that Hager's decision was unreasonable. He asserts that an interview with Jones would have (1) clarified many of the problems Hager saw in Jones' testimony at the first trial, (2) permitted Hager to make his own assessment of Jones' demeanor and credibility, (3)...