Cooey v. Anderson

• Decision Date: 04 September 1997
• Docket Number: No. 5:96 CV 797.,5:96 CV 797.
• Parties: Richard W. COOEY, Petitioner, v. Carl S. ANDERSON, Warden, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio

988 F.Supp. 1066

Richard W. COOEY, Petitioner, v. Carl S. ANDERSON, Warden, Respondent.

No. 5:96 CV 797.

United States District Court, N.D. Ohio, Eastern Division.

September 4, 1997.

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William S. Lazarow, David H. Bodiker, Office of the Public Defender, Ohio Public Defender Com'n, Columbus, OH, Nathan A. Ray, Robert C. Baker, Baker, Chapman & Cahoon, Akron, OH, for Petitioner.

Karl R. Wetzel, Office of the Asst. Atty. Gen., Cleveland, OH, for Respondent.

ORDER

SAM H. BELL, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

On December 5, 1986, Richard W. Cooey was convicted in the Common Pleas Court of Summit County, Ohio of two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of kidnaping, one count of felonious assault and and four counts of rape. The court sentenced Cooey to incarceration for 48 to 140 years for the robbery, kidnaping, assault, and rape convictions. In addition, it sentenced Cooey to death for the convictions of aggravated murder. Cooey appealed his convictions and sentences, but was denied relief by both the Ohio Ninth District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court. After he was denied his petition for certiorari by the United States Supreme Court, he filed a petition for state post-conviction relief. Once again, the state courts denied Cooey his request for relief, and the United States Supreme Court once more denied his petition for certiorari.

On October 17, 1996, Cooey filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in this court under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In response, the State of Ohio filed a Return of Writ in opposition. Subsequently, Cooey filed a Traverse in Opposition to the Return of Writ. On April 29, 1997, the court held a hearing on this petition that afforded both parties the opportunity to present their position on various issues relevant to the petition, including the issue of procedural default. Upon consideration, the court finds that at least some of Cooey's 23 claims of error in his petition were denied by the Ohio courts on procedural grounds and not on their merits. Consequently, in deference to the judiciary's traditional adherence to the principles of federalism and comity, the court must refrain from considering the merits of those claims. Furthermore, the court finds that Cooey's remaining claims lack sufficient merit to warrant a grant of the requested writ. As a result, and for the reasons more fully detailed herein, the court shall deny Cooey's petition for the writ.

II. BACKGROUND

On the night of August 31, 1986, Wendy Offredo and Dawn McCreery were brutally raped and murdered. At around midnight, Ms. Offredo and Ms. McCreery were driving south along Interstate 77 in Akron, Ohio. Both had just finished working a shift together at a local restaurant. Neither, however, ever reached their destination. Two days later, their bodies were found behind a shopping mall. The police immediately began an intense investigation, and officers soon found their way to the home of Petitioner Cooey. When confronted by the officers, Cooey confessed to having kidnaped, robbed, raped and murdered both women. In addition, he provided the disturbing details of his acts.

As Offredo and McCreery's car drove along the highway that night, it passed underneath a bridge upon which stood Petitioner and three of his friends. The four men had planned to drop chunks of concrete onto cars passing below them. The men quickly acted on their plan, and dropped a concrete chunk through the windshield of a randomly selected car as it sped under the bridge. Offredo and McCreery occupied that randomly selected car, and they quickly pulled over to the side of the road after being struck.

The women were then accosted by the four men, who had scurried down from the bridge under the guise of offering them assistance. After accepting the men's offer of a ride to a telephone to call for help, the women were subsequently taken to a field just a short distance from the accident scene. There, they were subjected to the rape and ultimately murder by Cooey and his associates.

Cooey was indicted by a Summit County grand jury on September 8, 1986. The indictment charged him with two counts of murder in violation of Ohio Rev.Code § 2903.01(A) and (B), including three specifications of aggravating circumstances in violation of Ohio Rev.Code §§ 2929.04(A)(3), (5) and (7). In addition, Cooey was charged with two counts of kidnaping with the purpose of engaging in nonconsensual sexual activity, in violation of Ohio Rev.Code § 2905.01(A)(4), and two counts of rape, in violation of Ohio Rev.Code § 2907.02(A). Finally, Cooey was also indicted on two counts of aggravated robbery, in violation of Ohio Rev.Code § 2911.01(A)(1), and one count of felonious assault, in violation of Ohio Rev. Code § 2903.11(A)(2).

After entering a plea of not guilty to all of the counts, Cooey waived his right to a jury trial. Instead, he elected to be tried before a three-judge panel pursuant to Ohio Rev.Code § 2945.05 and § 2945.06. The panel found Cooey guilty on all counts and specifications. Less than a month later, the same panel convened for a mitigation hearing, pursuant to Ohio Rev.Code § 2929.03(C)(2)(b), and found that any mitigating factors in the case were outweighed by the case's aggravating circumstances. Consequently, the panel merged the two convictions of aggravated murder convictions under § 2903.01(A) into the two convictions under § 2903.01(B). Cooey was then sentenced to a term of incarceration for each of the non-murder convictions and a sentence of death for each of the convictions of murder.

Cooey appealed his conviction and sentence to the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Ninth Judicial District. That court affirmed the trial court's decision. State v. Cooey, 1987 WL 31921, No. 12943 (9th Dist.Ohio App. Dec. 23, 1987). Cooey then filed an appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. Once again, both the conviction and the sentence were affirmed. See State v. Cooey, 46 Ohio St.3d 20, 544 N.E.2d 895 (1989).

Cooey next filed a motion for rehearing before the Ohio Supreme Court, which was subsequently denied. Thereafter, he petitioned the United States Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. That petition was also denied. Cooey v. Ohio, 499 U.S. 954, 111 S.Ct. 1431, 113 L.Ed.2d 482 (1991).

Having exhausted his rights to directly appeal his conviction and sentence, Cooey then sought to obtain post-conviction relief from the Ohio courts. He filed a petition to vacate or set aside his sentence pursuant to Ohio Rev.Code § 2953.21 in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas. Upon consideration, the court dismissed both the petition itself and a subsequent motion for relief from judgment. State v. Cooey, No. 86-09-1109A (Com. Pl. Summit Cty. July 21, 1992). Cooey then appealed those decisions to the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Ninth Judicial District, which affirmed them, State v. Cooey, 1994 WL 201009 (9th Dist.Ohio App. May 25, 1994), and to the Ohio Supreme Court, which declined to hear the request. State v. Cooey, 70 Ohio St.3d 1465, 640 N.E.2d 527 (1994).

Cooey next sought to reopen his direct appeals. That request, and a subsequent request for reconsideration, were denied by the Ninth Judicial District, State v. Cooey, No. 12943 (9th Dist.Ohio App. Jan. 10, 1995), and the Ohio Supreme Court. State v. Cooey, 73 Ohio St.3d 411, 653 N.E.2d 252 (1995); State v. Cooey, 74 Ohio St.3d 1423, 655 N.E.2d 742 (1995). On October 2, 1996, Cooey filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus which is now before the court.

III. ANALYSIS

A.

Congress provided for the writ of habeas corpus to redress errors in the administration of criminal justice that result in deprivations of life or liberty. In general, a prisoner may petition a federal district court for the writ of habeas corpus whenever he is detained in violation of the Constitution or other federal law. This right to petition for the writ is not, however, unlimited. For example, a prisoner must usually first exhaust all available remedies in the state courts before turning to the federal courts for relief. See Granberry v. Greer, 481 U.S. 129, 107 S.Ct. 1671, 95 L.Ed.2d 119 (1987).

The parties in this case agree that the doctrine of exhaustion does not prevent Mr. Cooey from obtaining the relief which he requests in his petition. Nevertheless, they do not agree as to the impact of yet another possible barrier to a prisoner's request for the writ. In its Return of Writ, Respondent specifically argues that a majority of Cooey's 23 claims may not even be considered by this court under the doctrine of procedural default. Under this doctrine, a federal district court may not ordinarily consider the merits of a prisoner's federal claim if a state court previously dismissed the claim for failure to comply with state procedural law. In Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 90, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 2508, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977), the Supreme Court explained the reasons for the doctrine in the context of a state restriction on non-contemporaneous objections:

The failure of the federal habeas courts generally to require compliance with a contemporaneous-objection rule tends to detract from the perception of the trial of a criminal case in state court as a decisive and portentous event. A defendant has been accused of a serious crime, and this is the time and place set for him to be tried by a jury of his peers and found either guilty or not guilty by that jury. To the greatest extent possible all issues which bear on this charge should be determined in this proceeding: the accused is in the court-room, the jury is in the box, the judge is on the bench, and the witnesses, having been subpoenaed and duly sworn, await their turn to testify. Society's resources have been concentrated at that time and place in order to decide, within the limits of human fallibility, the question of guilt or innocence of one of its...