Gates v. Zant
| Decision Date | 06 January 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 87-8870,87-8870 |
| Citation | 863 F.2d 1492 |
| Parties | Johnny Lee GATES, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Walter ZANT, Warden, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center, Respondent- Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
George H. Kendall, Legal Defense Fund, Ronald J. Tabak, New York City, for petitioner-appellant.
Mary Beth Westmoreland, William B. Hill, Jr., Asst. Attys. Gen., State of Ga. Dept. of Law, Atlanta, Ga., for respondent-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.
Before FAY, VANCE and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
Petitioner Johnny Lee Gates appeals the district court's judgment denying his application for a writ of habeas corpus. We affirm.
Katrina Wright, the victim in this case, was a native of West Germany. In February 1976 she married an American soldier, Gregory Wright, and moved with him to this country. On November 19, 1976, they moved into the Fountain Court Apartments in Columbus, Georgia because Gregory was stationed at nearby Fort Benning.
On November 30, 1976, Gregory left around 6:00 a.m. to go to work. His wife was still in bed. When Gregory returned around 1:30 p.m., the door to their apartment was open. He entered the apartment and found his wife lying dead on the floor. Her hands were tied behind her back. She was gagged and blindfolded. She had been shot once in the head with a .32 caliber pistol. An examination of her body revealed evidence of rape.
The police found that $480 the Wrights had hidden under the mattress was missing. Beyond that, they found little useful physical evidence at the scene. The next day a neighbor, Donald Hudgins, told the police that he had been home for lunch the previous day. During that time, a black man knocked on his door and identified himself as being from the gas company. The man told Hudgins that his gas would be shut off for a short period and Hudgins made no objection. During this brief encounter, Hudgins noticed that the man appeared nervous and tried to look beyond him into the apartment. Hudgins also noticed that the man's rear pocket appeared to contain a bulky object.
Some two months later, the Columbus police arrested Johnny Lee Gates, who is black, on an unrelated murder charge. After noting similarities between that case and the Katrina Wright case, the police approached Gates concerning the Wright case. Gates then gave a written statement implicating himself in the death of Katrina Wright.
Gates described the events as follows. On the day of Katrina's murder, he borrowed a .32 caliber pistol from a friend in order to "pull a robbery." He then took a city bus to the Fountain Court Apartments where he planned to gain entry into an apartment by posing as a serviceman from the gas company. Upon arriving at the apartments, Gates had the encounter with Hudgins. He described it much as Hudgins had. Gates then proceeded to the Wrights' apartment. He knocked on the door and Katrina answered. He told her that he was from the gas company and she replied that she had called the gas company the day before. She directed him to the heater where she handed him an oil can. He oiled the belt on the heater. He went to the bathroom to wash his hands and Katrina followed him. He told her that he was there to rob her. Continuing his description, Gates said that Katrina told him that she had no money and that all he could get from her was sex. He then took her to the bed and had sex with her. Afterwards, Gates pulled the gun out and again demanded money. Katrina gave him the $480.
Gates bound her with the belt from her bathrobe and with some of Gregory's neckties. As Gates started to leave, Katrina threatened to identify him and tried to kick him even though she was bound, blindfolded, and gagged. Gates shot her in the head and ran away. Later that day, he returned the pistol he had borrowed.
After giving the written confession, Gates was asked to go with police to the scene of the crime and give a videotaped confession. He consented and the tape was made. In the tape, which lasted approximately fifteen minutes, Gates wore handcuffs. Although the handcuffs were not always visible, it was obvious from the position of his arms that he wore handcuffs throughout. The tape showed Gates walking through the apartment and responding to an officer's questions. Gates described the events much as he had in his written confession.
During the trip to the apartment, the police closely examined the heater that they had overlooked in the earlier investigation. In doing so, they found Gates' fingerprint. A fingerprint expert testified at trial that this fingerprint could have lasted two months because it had been made with the oil Gates used on the heater.
Shortly after the trip to the apartment, the police arranged a lineup that included Gates. From the lineup, Donald Hudgins identified Gates as the man he saw at the apartment the day of Katrina's murder. As Gates was returning to his cell after the lineup, he told a police officer that Hudgins was the man he had seen at the apartments on the day of the murder. At Gates' subsequent trial, Hudgins also identified Gates as the man who had come to Hudgins' apartment the day of the murder.
On March 15, 1977, Gates was indicted by a grand jury in Muscogee County, Georgia on the charges of malice murder, armed robbery, and rape. Ten days later, Mr. William Cain was appointed to defend Gates. After talking to Gates and reviewing the state's case against him, Cain realized that saving his client from the death penalty would be a difficult task. The evidence of guilt against Gates was overwhelming and Cain could find no witnesses who would be willing to testify on Gates' behalf at either the guilt/innocence phase or the sentencing phase of the upcoming trial. Cain therefore decided that Gates' best chance for escaping the death penalty would be to take the stand during the sentencing phase, admit his guilt, and plead for mercy.
Gates' ensuing trial by jury resulted in his conviction on all three charges. On Cain's advice Gates initially had agreed to take the stand during the sentencing phase and plead for his life. When the sentencing phase began, however, Gates decided not to testify. The jury sentenced Gates to death on the murder charge. The judge imposed consecutive twenty year sentences on the armed robbery and rape charges.
On October 24, 1979, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed Gates' convictions and sentences including the death sentence. Gates v. State, 244 Ga. 587, 261 S.E.2d 349 (1979). The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari on March 17, 1980. Gates v. Georgia, 445 U.S. 938, 100 S.Ct. 1332, 63 L.Ed.2d 772 (1980).
Gates then filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Superior Court of Butts County, Georgia. That court denied all relief in an unpublished opinion dated January 16, 1981. On May 14, 1981, the Georgia Supreme Court, without written opinion, denied Gates' application for probable cause to appeal. The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari on June 27, 1983, Gates v. Zant, 463 U.S. 1213, 103 S.Ct. 3551, 77 L.Ed.2d 1398 (1983), and denied Gates' application for rehearing on September 8, 1983, Gates v. Zant, 463 U.S. 1249, 104 S.Ct. 36, 77 L.Ed.2d 1455 (1983).
Having exhausted his state remedies, Gates brought an action seeking federal habeas relief in the Middle District of Georgia on October 7, 1983. On September 12, 1985, the district court denied all relief in an unpublished opinion. The court denied Gates' timely motion for amendment of the judgment in an unpublished order dated October 8, 1987. On November 9, 1987, the court granted Gates' motion for a certificate of probable cause to appeal. This appeal followed.
Gates' first contention on appeal is that he was denied his sixth amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel at trial. In evaluating this claim, the district court was not bound by the previous state habeas determination that Gates received effective assistance of counsel; to the contrary, the court's duty was to decide independently whether Gates received effective assistance of counsel. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 698, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2070, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984) (). It also is the duty of this court to decide independently whether Gates received effective assistance of counsel; we are bound neither by the determination of the state habeas court nor by the determination of the district court. See id.; Smith v. Wainwright, 777 F.2d 609, 616 (11th Cir.1985), cert. denied, 477 U.S. 905, 106 S.Ct. 3275, 91 L.Ed.2d 565 (1986). 1
Ineffective assistance of counsel claims fall into two categories. In the first category are claims that the government violated the defendant's right to the effective assistance of counsel by impermissibly interfering with counsel's ability to make independent decisions about how to conduct the defense. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 686, 104 S.Ct. at 2063-64. In the second category are claims that the defendant was deprived of his right to the effective assistance of counsel because his counsel, whether retained or appointed, simply failed to provide adequate legal assistance. Claims in the second category are called "actual ineffectiveness claims." Id. This is the only type of ineffectiveness claim Gates properly raises before this court. 2
In Strickland, the Supreme Court established a two-pronged test for evaluating "actual ineffectiveness" claims. Under the first prong, a reviewing court must determine whether counsel's performance was so deficient that he was not functioning as the "counsel" guaranteed by the sixth amendment. Under the second prong, the court must determine whether counsel's performance, if deficient, prejudiced the...
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