Clanton v. Bair, s. 86-4002

• Decision Date: 20 August 1987
• Docket Number: Nos. 86-4002,s. 86-4002
• Citation: 826 F.2d 1354
• Parties: Earl CLANTON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Toni V. BAIR, Warden; Attorney General of the State of Virginia, Defendants- Appellants (Two Cases). Earl CLANTON, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Toni V. BAIR, Warden; Attorney General of the State of Virginia, Defendants- Appellees. to 86-4004.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 1354

826 F.2d 1354

Earl CLANTON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Toni V. BAIR, Warden; Attorney General of the State of

Virginia, Defendants- Appellants (Two Cases).

Earl CLANTON, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Toni V. BAIR, Warden; Attorney General of the State of

Virginia, Defendants- Appellees.

Nos. 86-4002 to 86-4004.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued Jan. 6, 1987.

Decided Aug. 20, 1987.

Thomas Drummond Bagwell, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Mary Sue Terry, Atty. Gen. of Va., Richmond, Va., on brief), for defendants-appellants.

William Benjamin Moffitt (Thomas Rawles Jones, Jr., Lisa Bondareff Kemler, Moffitt & Jones, Alexandria, Va., on brief), for plaintiff-appellee.

Before HALL and WILKINSON, Circuit Judges, and HAYNSWORTH, Senior Circuit Judge.

HAYNSWORTH, Senior Circuit Judge:

Clanton, a prisoner of the Commonwealth of Virginia under a sentence of death for capital murder, sought a federal writ of habeas corpus. There were many allegations of deficiencies in the representation provided by his trial lawyer. The district court rejected most of them facially, but conducted a hearing with respect to two of them. It then granted the writ upon the ground of inadequate preparation of the trial lawyer for the sentencing phase of the trial. 638 F.Supp. 1090. The specific finding was that the lawyer had failed to insist upon a psychiatric examination of his client, an examination which might have disclosed extensive child abuse that Clanton had disclosed for the first time to his habeas lawyer shortly before the federal hearing. Clanton has cross-appealed from the order denying the writ upon two other alleged deficiencies in the representation provided by the trial lawyer.

We find no deficiency of constitutional magnitude in the representation by the trial lawyer, and reverse the order granting the writ. On Clanton's cross-appeal, we affirm.

Many of the factual references are taken from the comprehensive opinion of the Supreme Court of Virginia when it had Clanton's conviction and sentence under direct review. Clanton v. Commonwealth, 223 Va. 41, 286 S.E.2d 172 (1982).

I.

Clanton's parents separated when he was very young. For a number of years he lived with his father, but then went to New Jersey to live with his mother. He was soon in trouble with the juvenile authorities, and, at age seventeen, was convicted in New Jersey of murder upon a plea of no contest. When he was paroled after serving a number of years in prison, he returned to Petersburg, Virginia where his mother was then living. Soon again he was in trouble and was brought to trial for unlawful injury to one Bruce Brown whom Clanton had beaten with brass knuckles on his fist.

During a recess in the trial, Clanton walked away and became a fugitive. The trial concluded in his absence, and he was sentenced to four years in prison upon a judgment of conviction.

Clanton then moved into the apartment of Natalie Lawrence. The door to her apartment opened upon the same stairway landing as that of Wilhemina Smith.

Shortly after noon on a November day in 1980, residents of two apartments on the floor below saw Wilhemina Smith drive into the parking lot after a shopping trip. When she reached the top of the stairs at the entrance to her apartment, both residents heard her say something to the effect of, "What have I done to you? Why this?" They heard the door slam and then screams from Ms. Smith and much other noise coming from her apartment. One of the residents then called the police. They saw no one descend the stairs between the time that Wilhemina Smith mounted them and the arrival of the police.

Upon arrival, the police found the door to Ms. Lawrence's apartment ajar. They looked in, but no one was present. They then knocked on the door of Ms. Smith's apartment. A woman answered saying that she was in the shower and it would take her a few minutes to get dressed. The police were insistent, however, and the locked door was opened by Natalie Lawrence.

The police found blood in the living room of Ms. Smith's apartment. They found Ms. Smith dead on the floor of her bedroom. Death was by strangulation with a cord-like belt around her neck. There were also stab wounds on her face and neck with a great deal of blood. A further search of the apartment revealed Clanton hiding beneath the bed in a second bedroom. There was blood on his hands and clothing, though he was not wounded or bleeding. Four bills, aggregating $8, were found wadded in his trouser pocket. There were blood stains on them. Ms. Smith's open purse was found, apparently having been ransacked. There were no bills in it.

Clanton insisted that he was innocent and that he wanted to tell his story on the witness stand. It was a bizarre story.

According to Clanton, he and Ms. Lawrence were in her apartment when they heard Ms. Smith screaming. Ms. Lawrence urged him to lend a hand to Ms. Smith, and he undertook to do so. In the living room of the Smith apartment he was attacked by an intruder. They fought until the intruder fled through the apartment door. He then entered Ms. Smith's bedroom where he saw Ms. Smith lying on the floor stabbed and garrotted. He got blood on his hands and clothing during his attempt to assist her, but he was then attacked by a second intruder. He fought with the second man. His bloody handprint was left on a wall when he "pushed off" to deliver a karate kick. The second intruder fled.

Clanton testified that he wished to notify a relative of Ms. Smith. He thought her checkbook might be an address book and picked it up to examine it. That was his explanation of his bloody fingerprint on the checkbook.

When the police arrived and demanded admittance, Clanton hid beneath the bed in the other bedroom because he was a fugitive and wished to avoid being discovered by the police.

Natalie Lawrence was called as a witness for the defense to corroborate his statement. She substantially did that.

According to Ms. Lawrence, after hearing Ms. Smith's screams she first went to investigate. She found the key in the door to Ms. Smith's apartment and admitted herself, but because of the commotion in the bedroom, she returned to her apartment and sent Clanton to the rescue.

Looking through the peephole in the doorway of her apartment, she saw an intruder flee. As she reentered the Smith apartment, a second intruder fled.

Ms. Lawrence had given the police a statement in which she had said that Clanton was the assailant and that he had told her in advance of his intention to choke and rob Ms. Smith. On the witness stand, she said the statement was false, as the product of police coercion, including threats to take her child from her.

II.

After the jury's guilty verdict, during the sentencing phase of the proceeding, Clanton testified that he had been a Muslim but that during his incarceration after the death of Ms. Smith he had been attending Christian Bible classes. He produced certificates attesting his attendance.

That was the only evidence of any mitigating circumstance.

III.

Clanton's trial lawyer knew that Clanton's parents had separated when Clanton was very young and that, after having lived with his father for a number of years, Clanton moved to New Jersey to live with his mother. Clanton told him that otherwise his childhood had been substantially normal. Clanton told the officer who had made the presentence investigation that his childhood had been good, and that statement was included in the presentence report. At the sentencing hearing, Clanton gave no indication of any problems at home during his childhood.

Shortly before the federal hearing, however, Clanton told his habeas lawyer a different story. He was frequently beaten by his father and sexually abused by his father's paramour. When he went to live with his mother, she was working as a barmaid and prostitute. She was home infrequently, and, when she was, she usually had some man with her. She became angry with Clanton when he refused to have sexual relations with her, and falsely charged him with theft, a charge which got him in trouble with the juvenile authorities.

The district court recognized that this new story of Clanton's childhood may have been more a product of fear of execution than of devotion to truth. The district court also recognized that Clanton would not have told his trial lawyer all these things no matter how deeply the trial lawyer probed.

Nothing was presented in corroboration of any aspect of the new story. By that time, Clanton's father was dead, but the mother was living in Petersburg. No one inquired of her. There were several living siblings, but no one inquired of any one of them.

Nevertheless, the district court concluded that a psychiatrist, during a thorough psychiatric evaluation, might have uncovered the child abuse that Clanton had endured and been able to present it in some credible fashion.

The trial lawyer had told Clanton that a psychiatric evaluation might be helpful, but Clanton obstinately rejected the suggestion. He would not consent to any such evaluation.

The trial lawyer did not interview Clanton's mother or his siblings in search of evidence of some mitigating circumstance, but, according to the attorney, Clanton was insistent that they not be involved. Clanton particularly wished to avoid any inquiry of his mother. His position was that he was not the murderer of Ms. Smith, and he wished to stand upon his innocence.

Impressed with the fact that the only mitigating circumstance presented during the sentencing phase of the hearing was Clanton's attendance, while incarcerated, at the Christian Bible study classes, the district court concluded that the trial lawyer's preparation for the sentencing stage of the proceeding was inadequate and insufficient. The court thought that the lawyer might have been more insistent upon his recommendation of a psychiatric evaluation, for it offered the best or only chance of uncovering the abuse suffered by...