Floyd v. Vannoy

• Decision Date: 25 June 2018
• Docket Number: No. 17-30421,17-30421
• Citation: 894 F.3d 143
• Parties: John David FLOYD,Petitioner–Appellee v. Darrel VANNOY, Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary, Respondent–Appellant
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

894 F.3d 143

John David FLOYD,Petitioner–Appellee

v.Darrel VANNOY, Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary, Respondent–Appellant

No. 17-30421

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

June 25, 2018

Richard Martin Andrew Davis, Emily Lucy Ann Maw, Innocence Project New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, for Petitioner–Appellee.

Donna Rau Andrieu, Assistant District Attorney, Christopher James Ponoroff, District Attorney's Office for the Parish of Orleans, New Orleans, LA, for Respondent–Appellant.

Before SMITH, BARKSDALE, and HIGGINSON, Circuit Judges.

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING EN BANC

PER CURIAM:

Appellant’s Petition for Rehearing En Banc is DENIED. This opinion is substituted in place of the prior opinion, Floyd v. Vannoy , 887 F.3d 214 (5th Cir. 2018).

For two murders in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1980, within days of, and in close proximity to, each other and involving extremely similar facts, John David Floyd was convicted in a state-court joint bench trial of the first, but acquitted of the second, murder, with state post-conviction relief’s being denied for the first time in 2011, but federal habeas relief’s being granted in 2017 because, after concluding the habeas application was not time-barred, the district court concluded: material evidence, favorable to Floyd, had been withheld prior to trial; and the state courts’ contrary decisions had unreasonably applied clearly-established federal law, as proscribed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). For the State’s challenge to that relief, at issue is whether: Floyd established "actual innocence" to overcome the statute of limitations for his application; and, in denying Floyd’s claim that the State withheld favorable, material evidence, in violation of Brady v. Maryland , 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), the Louisiana state courts unreasonably applied clearly-established federal law. AFFIRMED.

I.

On 26 November 1980, William Hines, a white male, was found nude, stabbed to death inside the bedroom of his apartment on Governor Nicholls Street, in the French Quarter. The apartment had no signs of forced entry or evidence of burglary. One glass of alcohol was in Hines’ bedroom; another, in his kitchen; and his wounds indicated he was stabbed while lying down.

Detective John Dillmann, the lead detective for the murder investigation, found the scene demonstrated a strong likelihood Hines was murdered by a welcome visitor with whom he shared a drink and had sexual relations. Accordingly, police dusted for fingerprints whiskey bottles, the glass of alcohol in Hines’ kitchen, and the glass of alcohol on his nightstand.

Along that line, a crime-scene photograph of Hines’ kitchen shows, among other items, a wine bottle and two whiskey bottles on the kitchen table. In addition, the crime-scene technician’s report states:

TECH. T. SEUZENEAN DUSTED

SEVERAL WHISKEY BOTTLES—Neg. RESULTS

DUSTED /—WHISKEY BOTTLE AND LIFTED—2 PARTIAL LATENT PRINTS

DUSTED /—WHISKEY GLASS FROM NIGHT TABLE IN BEDROOM—Neg. RESULTS

DUSTED /—WHISKEY GLASS FROM KITCHEN TABLE—Neg. RESULTS

Accordingly, it appears the "DUSTED...WHISKEY GLASS FROM KITCHEN TABLE", but not shown in the photograph, was on the table where the dusted whiskey bottles were located. (To repeat, and as emphasized by the dissent at 149–50, no whiskey glass is visible on the table in the photograph. Myriad items shown on the table prevent conclusively determining whether a whiskey glass was there. But, as shown above, the technician’s report states: "DUSTED /—WHISKEY GLASS FROM KITCHEN TABLE".)

In any event, the relatively close proximity of the whiskey glass and the dusted whiskey bottle from which two prints were lifted (the whiskey bottle) is critical in our analysis. This is especially true for Detective Dillmann’s erroneous related testimony at trial, in which he: stated "there were two highball glasses filled with a liquid on each side of the bed"; and made no reference to the whiskey glass in the kitchen.

Along that line, the dissent at 149–50 states "the majority has decided, because it fits its narrative, to credit the tech over Dillmann". The dissent’s conclusion that the detective’s testimony and the technician’s report have comparable credibility is contrary to the State’s narrative, not ours. The State, in its opening brief at 16, acknowledges that the detective’s testimony about the glasses, "rendered for the first time a full year and a half after the crime, [and] directly contradicted by Crime Scene Tech Tim Suzeneau’s report", is less credible than the technician’s report. Likewise, at oral argument in our court, the State maintained the technician’s report, "generated on the day of the offense", was more accurate than the detective’s testimony, "recollected at trial ... a little over a year after the incident".

In the alternative, the dissent at –––– asserts a possibility the detective’s testimony and contradictory technician’s report were both accurate because there may have been one glass in the kitchen and two in the bedroom. But, nothing in the record supports this theory of three whiskey glasses being discovered at the Hines scene.

In sum, in its opening brief and at oral argument, the State maintained the crime scene technician’s report included a detailed list of all collected evidence. Again, the report included only two whiskey glasses: one from the kitchen and one from the bedroom.

Police also collected hair, appearing to be a black person’s, from Hines’ bedsheets. But, because Hines had been dead for at least 24 hours prior to his body’s being discovered, any evidence of seminal fluid or spermatozoa on, or in, his body was undetectable.

Following multiple interviews, Detective Dillmann learned Hines was gay and frequented gay establishments in the French Quarter. And, the detective’s report, and subsequent testimony, provided that John Clegg, a close friend of Hines and the last known person to see him alive, had advised the detective that Hines "frequently had sexual relations with both black and white males".

At 4:45 a.m. on 28 November, only two days after the discovery of Hines’ body, Rodney Robinson, a black male, was found dead at the Fairmont Roosevelt Hotel in downtown New Orleans, just one mile from Hines’ apartment. In the hours preceding his death, Robinson had visited several bars with his friend David Hennessy. After Robinson, according to Hennessy, drove him to his home at around 3:15 a.m., Robinson said he was returning to his hotel for the night. Just 90 minutes later, he was found nude, stabbed to death, in a hallway in his hotel.

In their investigation, officers found the locks on Robinson’s hotel-room door functional; glasses containing alcohol remained on end tables next to his bed; and articles of clothing were scattered about the room. Consequently, they believed Robinson was murdered after sharing a drink and having sexual relations with his killer. Detectives’ interview of Hennessey revealed Robinson was gay.

Police discovered physical evidence of: blood stains along the hallway wall; a blood-stained blue-knit cap in the hallway relatively near Robinson’s body; seminal fluid on a tissue discovered near his bed; and spermatozoa and seminal fluid in his body. Additionally, police discovered a black person’s hair—determined later not to be Robinson’s—on the blue-knit cap. Further, hotel guests staying nearest Robinson’s room reported hearing screams and rapid footsteps in the hallway; and a hotel security guard reported seeing a black male running from the back door of the hotel shortly before the police arrived. Detective Michael Rice, lead detective for the murder investigation, believed the guard "witnessed the perpetrator ... making good his escape".

Detective Dillmann considered the similarities in the Hines and Robinson crimes—comparable defensive wounds, lack of forced entry, each victim’s being gay, glasses of alcohol near each victim’s bed (again, for Hines’ murder, only one glass was near his bed; the other was in the kitchen, as was the whiskey bottle), and evidence of sexual relations between the perpetrator and victim—to conclude the same perpetrator was responsible for both murders. Initially, investigators unsuccessfully pursued black, male suspects. John Floyd, a white male, then 32, lived as a "drifter" in New Orleans at the time of the murders. He was a heavy drinker and drug-user, and frequented numerous bars in the French Quarter. On 29 November, one day after the discovery of Robinson’s body, Detective Dillmann received a tip from Harold Griffin that Floyd had recently made incriminating statements linking him to Robinson’s murder.

Griffin reported that, after drinking with Floyd at the Louisiana Purchase Bar from 10:00 p.m. on 28 November (approximately 17 hours after Robinson’s body was found) until 5:00 a.m. the next day, 29 November, Floyd asked Griffin to accompany him to the detoxification center at Charity Hospital. Griffin testified that, during their walk to the hospital, Floyd told him "he heard that perhaps going to the Detox Center would be the next best thing to keep from being held accountable for doing something wrong"; Floyd then asked Griffin if he had "heard of the stabbing at the Fairmont"; and he replied "No".

Later that day, Griffin learned of Robinson’s murder as covered in the 29 November morning edition of the Times Picayune , and reported his conversation with Floyd to the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), finding it peculiar Floyd knew of the murder prior to the paper’s publication. But, the paper had published a story on Robinson’s murder in its 28 November evening edition, prior to Floyd’s statements to Griffin on the 29th.

Following up on Griffin’s tip, Detective Dillmann questioned French Quarter bar owner Steven Edwards, who advised that Floyd made incriminating statements linking him to Hines’ murder. According to Edwards, in late November he encountered Floyd "drinking heavily" and refused him service at...