Dix v. Zant, 38623
| Decision Date | 10 September 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 38623,38623 |
| Citation | 249 Ga. 810,294 S.E.2d 527 |
| Parties | DIX v. ZANT, Warden. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Millard C. Farmer, Joseph M. Nursery, Atlanta, for Horace william dix.
Michael J. Bowers, Atty. Gen., Daryl A. Robinson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for Walter D. Zant, Warden.
Horace Dix appeals from the denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus in Butts County. In 1975 he was tried and convicted in Clayton County of murder and kidnapping and is presently under sentence of death. His conviction was affirmed in Dix v. State, 238 Ga. 209, 232 S.E.2d 47 (1977). His first petition for state habeas corpus was denied in November 1978. While this state habeas corpus petition was pending Dix also filed an extraordinary motion for new trial in the trial court. This motion was denied and we affirmed. Dix v. State, 244 Ga. 464, 260 S.E.2d 863 (1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 946, 100 S.Ct. 1346, 63 L.Ed.2d 781 (1980). Appellant's original state habeas corpus petition was denied in Tattnall County in November 1978. Dix's certificate of probable cause to appeal was denied by this court in February 1979. In May 1980 Dix filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in United States District Court, raising ineffective assistance of trial counsel, and arguing a theory not raised in the state habeas petition. In August 1981 the District Court stayed proceedings there for the purpose of allowing Dix to exhaust those remedies available to him in state court prior to proceeding further in federal court. Thereafter, Dix filed a second state habeas corpus petition, this time in Butts County. This action was dismissed as successive under Code Ann. § 50-127(10) in February 1982. The court there found upon reviewing the record that any and all grounds for relief could reasonably have been raised in the original or amended petition of habeas corpus. On appeal of that dismissal, we affirm.
Dix complains that he received ineffective assistance of counsel as to introduction of evidence of his competence to stand trial. He also urges that he was denied effective assistance of counsel when his trial counsel failed to investigate, prepare, or present any mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of the trial except for Dix's own testimony. Finally, appellant argues that he was denied due process of law and equal protection of law when the state habeas corpus court refused to provide funds to pay witness and mileage fees for witnesses to testify in his behalf.
We agree that the habeas action as presented here is successive under Code Ann. § 50-127(10). That section states clearly the procedure for seeking habeas relief after an original petition has been filed and disposed of. ...
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