Enoch v. Gramley
| Decision Date | 05 February 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 94-3470,94-3470 |
| Citation | 70 F.3d 1490 |
| Parties | Willie ENOCH, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Richard GRAMLEY, Warden, Pontiac Correctional Center, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Sheri J. Engelken (argued), Paul R. Garcia, Paula M. Taffe, Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago, IL, Marshall J. Hartman, Chicago, IL, for Petitioner-Appellant.
Penelope Moutoussamy George (argued), Office of the Attorney General, Criminal Appeals Division, Chicago, IL, for Respondent-Appellee.
Before RIPPLE, MANION, and KANNE, Circuit Judges.
The mutilated body of Armanda Kay Burns was found in her apartment after Willie Enoch left that building. She had been cut from the sternum to the naval leaving an open chest cavity. She also suffered throat lacerations and numerous stab wounds. Her hands had been manacled behind her with coat hanger wire. Enoch stands convicted of the murder, attempted rape, and kidnapping of Kay Burns. We review here the district court's denial of Enoch's 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254 petition for habeas corpus relief.
Enoch alleges that he was deprived of his constitutional right to conflict-free trial counsel, that self-incriminating statements were unconstitutionally disclosed to the jury that convicted him, and that he was unconstitutionally denied meaningful direct appellate review of his conviction. We affirm the decision of the district court.
Armanda Kay Burns was a twenty-five year old housekeeping supervisor at the Methodist Medical Center in Peoria, Illinois. She lived in a basement apartment at 105 North Glen Oak Road, approximately one block from the medical center where she worked. On Thursday, April 21, 1983, Kay Burns sat in her bedroom with her boyfriend Derek Proctor watching television. They heard someone at the door, and Ms. Burns went to answer it. Proctor observed that the visitor was Willie Enoch, who asked Kay Burns if she knew his brother Bobby. Enoch left after a very brief exchange.
On Friday, April 22, 1983, Ms. Burns worked the 3:00 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. shift at the medical center. At about 11:30 that night, she and several of her staff were gathered in her office when Willie Enoch entered and asked if anyone had seen his brother Bobby. Enoch was told that his brother Bobby (a hospital employee) was not working that evening, and Enoch then struck up a conversation with Ms. Burns.
As two members of her staff left the hospital following the end of the shift, they observed Ms. Burns and Enoch walking together toward her apartment. Gregory Hunter one of the staffers, saw them together as he drove down Glen Oak Road. He blew his horn (apparently as a friendly gesture), and Ms. Burns waved to him. Michael Callen, the other staffer who saw Ms. Burns and Enoch together, spotted them standing about one hundred feet from Ms. Burns' apartment as he drove down Glen Oak Road. Hunter testified that Enoch was wearing a dingy white shirt and a blue pinstriped suit; Callen said Enoch wore a dark blue suit.
Kay Burns had plans to meet Derek Proctor and her brother and sister-in-law at midnight. According to his testimony, Proctor arrived at Ms. Burns' apartment at 11:45 p.m. and rang the bell several times. He got no response, but he noticed that the kitchen light was on. Proctor sat on the sidewalk in front of the apartment for five or ten minutes and then walked to the hospital in hopes of finding Ms. Burns. He did not find her, but he spoke with a security guard and checked Ms. Burns' time card to see if she had clocked out. He also called her apartment from a pay phone, but got no answer.
Proctor then returned to Ms. Burns' apartment and again rang the bell for four to ten minutes, again to no avail. He crossed the street to buy cigarettes at the Glen Oak Towers, returned a few minutes later, and rang the bell again. Getting no response, he sat down on the curb. He heard the door open five minutes later, at approximately 12:45 or 12:50 a.m., and turned to face it, saying, "Damn, Kay, what took you so long?" Instead of greeting Ms. Burns, however, Proctor saw Enoch leaving Ms. Burns' building carrying a white or off-white shirt in his hands. Proctor asked Enoch if Kay Burns was in her apartment, and Enoch replied, "Yes, she's down there." Enoch left, and Proctor tried the bell again, but receiving no answer he went after Enoch, who he saw running across an open field near the medical building. Proctor did not catch him.
Proctor returned to Ms. Burns' apartment, rang the doorbell, and knocked on the windows. He saw that the lights in the kitchen and bedroom were on. Proctor went to telephone her mother from the nearby Glen Oak Towers, got no answer, returned to the apartment, rang the doorbell, again got no answer, and went to look for Enoch at several clubs in the area. Proctor eventually returned to Ms. Burns' apartment and, still getting no answer to his persistent ringing of her doorbell, he got a ride to her brother's home. Proctor woke Ms. Burns' brother, Tyrone, and his wife, Caroline, and the three drove to Kay Burns' apartment, arriving at approximately 2:15 a.m.
They received no response to their knocks, and the door remained locked. Proctor then kicked in the basement window, which opened into Kay Burns' bedroom and was about two feet from the door. Pushing the window in further, Proctor saw her body on the bedroom floor. Caroline and Tyrone Burns went for help while Proctor remained at the window.
While Caroline and Tyrone were gone, Randy Purifoy, a Methodist housekeeping staffer, and his friend Anthony Gibson drove by and spoke to Proctor, whom they found stuttering and in tears. Purifoy saw Ms. Burns' body, but no one entered the building until the police arrived and began their investigation.
Officer Ledbetter of the Peoria police department arrived on the scene at about 2:56 a.m. He met Proctor, Purifoy, and Gibson, all of whom were upset, especially Proctor, who was crying. Ledbetter entered the apartment and found Kay Burns' tortured and lifeless body on the bedroom floor. Another officer retrieved a white shirt from a location a short distance from the sidewalk in front of Kay Burns' apartment.
At 7:30 that morning, police officers went to the home of Louise Pate looking for her boyfriend, Willie Enoch, in connection with the murder of Ms. Burns. Pate told the officers that Enoch was not there, but the officers saw Enoch and arrested him. Pate told a grand jury that Enoch had confessed to her that he had committed the murder. She later attempted to change her story, but she eventually testified at Enoch's trial that, in fact, Enoch had confessed to her and that her interim statement to the contrary had been a lie.
A jury convicted Enoch of kidnapping Kay Burns, of attempting to rape her, and of murdering her. It acquitted him, however, of robbing her. Enoch waived jury sentencing, and the judge sentenced him to death. The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed. People v. Enoch, 122 Ill.2d 176, 119 Ill.Dec. 265, 522 N.E.2d 1124 (1988), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 917, 109 S.Ct. 274-75, 102 L.Ed.2d 263 (1988) ("Enoch I ") It later affirmed a lower court's denial of Enoch's petition for post-conviction relief. People v. Enoch, 146 Ill.2d 44, 165 Ill.Dec. 719, 585 N.E.2d 115 (1991), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 816, 113 S.Ct. 57, 121 L.Ed.2d 26 (1992) ("Enoch II "). Enoch then filed this petition with the district court.
Enoch argues that at trial he was deprived of his constitutional right to conflict-free counsel. Enoch claims that his lawyer, Mark Rose, had previously represented a key government witness, Derek Proctor, in an unrelated criminal matter four years earlier.
Before Enoch's trial, Rose brought his previous representation of Proctor to the attention of the court. He had forgotten about the relationship until he reviewed Proctor's rap sheet and noticed the conviction for which Rose had represented Proctor. The court conducted the following inquiry:
To continue reading
Request your trial
- Connection Distributing Co. v. Reno
-
U.S. ex rel. Keller v. McCann
...104 S.Ct. 845. Indeed, Averhart's connection to Johnson "was both uncertain and remote in time and relationship."8 Enoch v. Gramley, 70 F.3d 1490, 1506 (7th Cir.1995). Based on the record, this Court cannot conclude that the state court's rejection of Petitioner's juror bias claim constitut......
-
Spreitzer v. Peters
...We review this issue, which involves both questions of law and questions of fact, using a de novo standard of review. Enoch v. Gramley, 70 F.3d 1490, 1496 (7th Cir.1995) (citation omitted), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 95, 136 L.Ed.2d 50 (1996). The Sixth Amendment right to effect......
-
Crosky v. Sheets
...information during the prior representation of the witness or co-defendant that was relevant to defendant's case. Enoch v. Gramley (C.A.7, 1995), 70 F.3d 1490, 1496, citing Smith v. White (C.A.11, 1987), 815 F.2d 1401, 1405; U.S. v. Canty (E.D.Mich., 2006), No. 01-80571, 2006 WL 3469625.App......