Dansby v. Payne

• Decision Date: 25 August 2022
• Docket Number: 19-3006, No. 19-3105
• Citation: 47 F.4th 647
• Parties: Ray DANSBY, Petitioner - Appellee, v. Dexter PAYNE, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction, Respondent - Appellant. Ray Dansby, Petitioner - Appellant, v. Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction, Respondent - Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

47 F.4th 647

Ray DANSBY, Petitioner - Appellee,
v.
Dexter PAYNE, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction, Respondent - Appellant.

Ray Dansby, Petitioner - Appellant,
v.
Dexter Payne, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction, Respondent - Appellee.

No. 19-3006
No. 19-3105

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: November 16, 2021
Filed: August 25, 2022

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellant/cross appellee and appeared on the brief was Joseph Karl Luebke, AAG, of Little Rock, AR. The following attorney(s) appeared on the appellant/cross appellee brief; Christian Harris, AAG, of Little Rock, AR.

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of appellee/cross appellant and appeared on the brief was Scott Braden, AFPD, formerly of Little Rock, AR. The following attorney(s) appeared on the appellee/cross appellant brief; Jason Phillip Kearney, AFPD, formerly of Little Rock, AR. The following attorney represented the appellee/cross appellant Stephanie Smith, AFPD, of Little Rock, AR.

Before COLLOTON, GRASZ, and KOBES, Circuit Judges.

COLLOTON, Circuit Judge.

Ray Dansby was convicted by an Arkansas jury on two counts of capital murder and sentenced to death. After the district court denied his second amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus, this court vacated the dismissal of two claims and remanded for further consideration. Dansby v. Hobbs , 766 F.3d 809, 841 (8th Cir. 2014). In the first claim, Dansby alleged that the state trial court had violated his Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against him. In the second, he alleged that the prosecution had engaged in

47 F.4th 652

misconduct. On remand, the district court denied Dansby's petition with respect to his conviction but granted relief with respect to his sentence of death. We conclude that no relief is warranted, and therefore affirm in part and reverse in part.

I.

This court has considered Dansby's case before, and our discussion of the background is drawn largely from those decisions. As summarized by the Arkansas Supreme Court, see Dansby v. State , 319 Ark. 506, 893 S.W.2d 331 (1995), the evidence at trial showed that on the morning of August 24, 1992, Dansby arrived at the residence of his ex-wife, Brenda Dansby, in El Dorado, Arkansas. Justin Dansby, their eight-year-old son, was in the living room with Ronnie Kimble, Brenda's boyfriend. Justin was home with a cold and watching television, while Kimble was asleep on the couch. Brenda had left earlier to buy orange juice for Justin, and when she returned home, she was confronted by Dansby as she pulled her car into her driveway. Dansby twice ordered her to leave her car, and she eventually complied. Justin testified at trial that he saw Dansby hold Brenda "like a shield" before shooting her in the arm and in the neck.

Greg Riggins, a neighbor from across the street, also offered an account of Brenda's death. According to his trial testimony, Riggins went to his front door after hearing gunshots and witnessed Dansby and Brenda struggling with a revolver. He then saw Dansby knock Brenda down, get the gun from her, and shoot two consecutive rounds into her from two or three feet away. Brenda tried to rise, and Dansby fired again, although Riggins believed the shot missed. After pausing for five or six seconds, Dansby shot Brenda once more, and her body went flat.

Justin testified that Dansby then entered the home and shot Kimble in the chest. Kimble nonetheless was able to retrieve his own gun from beneath the couch. Kimble positioned himself behind the couch and attempted to return fire, but his gun produced only "clicking noises." Dansby chased Kimble to the back of the house, and Justin heard about five more shots. When Justin went to investigate, he saw his father standing over Kimble, kicking him twice and then saying something Justin could not remember. Justin accompanied his father outside the house, where he saw his mother, motionless, with "blood all over her neck." Dansby and Justin walked down the road, and after they separated, Justin called the police.

El Dorado police officers arrived at Brenda's home to find her body outside. They also found an injured Kimble on the floor of the back bedroom, along with a jammed .38 automatic pistol lying under him. Kimble eventually died of his wounds at a local hospital, but not before telling a police detective that Ray Dansby had shot him.

Later the same day, a police officer encountered Dansby, who said, "I'm Ray Dansby. Y'all are looking for me." The officer then took Dansby to the police station, where another officer advised Dansby of his rights. Dansby stated that he had left the scene with two guns, a .32 revolver and a .38 revolver, but had disposed of them where the police would never find them. By Dansby's account, he had armed himself before traveling to Brenda's home because he knew both she and Kimble had handguns. Dansby explained that he had entered the front door to Brenda's home to find Kimble holding a handgun in his right hand "pointed down." Dansby stated that after an argument, "I just pulled my gun and started shooting."

47 F.4th 653

At trial, prosecutors presented several pieces of evidence beyond the eyewitness testimony of Justin Dansby and Greg Riggins. An autopsy revealed gunshot wounds near Brenda's left ear and on her upper chest. Similar wounds were found on Kimble's chest, right arm, left upper back, and behind his left ear; superficial wounds were present on his left flank. The prosecution also presented testimony that Dansby was scheduled to appear in court on charges of second-degree assault and contempt of court at 9:00 a.m. on the day of the murders. State prosecutors brought those charges after Brenda had provided them with a signed affidavit alleging that Dansby assaulted her.

Also testifying for the prosecution was Dansby's jail cellmate Larry McDuffie, the boyfriend of Dansby's half-sister. McDuffie said that Dansby admitted in jail that he had murdered Kimble and Brenda. Dansby told McDuffie he was "just glad" that Brenda was dead. According to McDuffie, Dansby recounted the following series of events: Dansby first shot Kimble after they "had words" about Brenda's refusal to withdraw the assault charges. Kimble staggered backward into the house. Dansby then shot Brenda as she reached into her purse. Dansby followed Kimble into the house, and shot him several more times. When Dansby exited the house, he found that Brenda was still alive. In response to Brenda's pleas for mercy, Dansby answered, "Well, b—, you done f—ed up cause I'm not gonna leave you out here in these streets when I done killed this man inside," and then shot her once more.

A jury convicted Dansby of two counts of capital murder, and sentenced him to death on both counts. The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and sentence. Dansby , 893 S.W.2d at 333. Dansby petitioned for postconviction relief under Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 37. The trial court denied the petition, and the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed. Dansby v. State , 350 Ark. 60, 84 S.W.3d 857 (2002).

Dansby filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the district court under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district court denied relief on all claims and dismissed the petition. The court then denied Dansby's motion to alter or amend the judgment. The district court granted a limited certificate of appealability, and this court expanded the certificate to encompass all claims that the district court had determined to be procedurally defaulted. We affirmed the district court's decision in part, but vacated the dismissal of two claims and remanded for further consideration of those claims. Dansby , 766 F.3d at 841. In the first claim, Dansby alleged that the state trial court violated his Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against him. In the second, he alleged that the prosecution violated his due-process rights by withholding material exculpatory evidence and knowingly permitting false testimony.

On remand, the district court denied relief with respect to Dansby's conviction but granted relief from the death sentence and ordered the State to stipulate to a sentence of life imprisonment. The court determined that Dansby's prosecutorial-misconduct claim was procedurally defaulted or, in the alternative, without merit. The court concluded, however, that the state trial court had violated Dansby's constitutional right to confront witnesses against him. The court ruled that...