Gibson v. State

• Decision Date: 25 March 1986
• Docket Number: No. 15866,15866
• Citation: 718 P.2d 283,110 Idaho 631
• Parties: Thomas Henry GIBSON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. STATE of Idaho, Respondent.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

Page 283

718 P.2d 283

110 Idaho 631

Thomas Henry GIBSON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. STATE of Idaho, Respondent.

No. 15866.

Supreme Court of Idaho.

March 25, 1986.

Rehearing Denied May 29, 1986.

Charles B. Lempesis and Anthony M. Sanchez (argued), Post Falls, Paul J. Dayton, Bryan P. Coluccio, Christopher R. Osborn and Maureen T. Lee, Seattle, Wash., for petitioner-appellant.

Jim Jones, Atty. Gen., and Lynn E. Thomas, Sol. Gen. (argued), Boise, for respondent.

BISTLINE, Justice.

HISTORY

Appellant Gibson, having been convicted of murder and having exhausted his rights to appeal, petitioned the district court for post-conviction relief. The state moved for summary judgment, which the district court granted. Raising numerous arguments, Gibson seeks reversal of summary judgment.

The facts surrounding the murder for which Gibson is charged are summarized in State v. Gibson, 106 Idaho 54, 675 P.2d 33 (1984). Of particular concern here is the controversy over the state's jurisdiction, which hinged on whether Kimberly Palmer was killed in Idaho. This Court noted:

At trial, a major issue was raised concerning Idaho's jurisdiction over Gibson and, therefore, much of the State's case consisted of autopsy evidence which showed that the varying state of body decomposition indicated that Currier had been killed some hours before Palmer, and water in Palmer's lungs indicated that Palmer had actually been killed in the streambed in Idaho. That evidence, of course, contradicted the testimony of Gibson that Palmer had been killed in the Paradis' residence in the State of Washington. Id. at 57, 675 P.2d at 36.

Relevant to his petition of post-conviction relief, Gibson enumerates the following additional facts. Palmer's body was cremated two days after Gibson was charged and provided with counsel. Gibson's counsel did not arrange for an independent examination of that body before its destruction. The autopsy report of the state's forensic pathologist, Dr. William Brady, contained no results of tests to identify the liquid Gibson's trial counsel was aware of the jurisdictional issue, had a copy of the autopsy report, and was aware that Dr. Brady would testify. Counsel did not call an expert witness to contest Dr. Brady's findings.

[110 Idaho 633] found in Palmer's lungs. In addition, none of this liquid was preserved. Finally, Dr. Brady did not examine the body for evidence of lividity (pooling of bodily fluids); nor did he examine the abrasions or lacerations to determine whether they were inflicted before or after death.

Gibson's trial counsel did call Gibson to rebut the state's evidence that the killing occurred in Idaho. However, on the day of his testimony, Gibson ingested drugs which rendered him disoriented and drowsy.

ISSUES RAISED BY GIBSON

In the companion case to this one, Paradis v. State, 110 Idaho 534, 706 P.2d 1306, 1308-1309 (1986), we discussed the standard of review of summary judgments and petitions for post-conviction relief. With that as background, we discuss each of the issues raised by Gibson.

A. The Destruction of Potentially Exculpatory Evidence.

Gibson claims the state violated his rights to due process under Idaho Constitution, Article 1, § 13 and the Fourteenth Amendment of the federal Constitution by permitting the cremation of Palmer's body before Gibson's counsel could arrange for an independent examination. The state is constrained in disposing of potentially exculpatory evidence. See California v. Trombetta, 467 U.S. 479, 104 S.Ct. 2528, 81 L.Ed.2d 413 (1984). As we explain in Paradis, supra, 110 Idaho pp. 537 - 540, 716 P.2d pp. 1309 - 1312 (where precisely the same argument under the same facts was made), exculpatory evidence is evidence which clears or tends to clear an accused person from alleged guilt, or excuses that person. Since the body held evidence allegedly relating to only the jurisdictional question and not to questions of guilt, or excuse, the body did not constitute exculpatory evidence. Accordingly, its destruction did not constitute a violation of Gibson's due process right to have access to potentially exculpatory evidence.

We also hold that the destruction of the body did not violate Gibson's due process right to have access to evidence on jurisdiction. Again, as explained in Paradis, supra, 110 Idaho pp. 540 - 543, 716 P.2d pp. 1312 - 1315, and as briefly discussed below, (1) the body was not sufficiently material to the question of jurisdiction, (2) the body's cremation was not prejudicial to Gibson on the jurisdictional issue, and (3) the state did not act in bad faith when it permitted the cremation.

As for materiality, at best the body might have held evidence that the killing took place earlier in time than Dr. Brady found, which might have corroborated Gibson's testimony that Palmer was killed in Washington. Even if a more complete autopsy would have revealed that Palmer was killed some hours earlier, the killing still could have occurred in Idaho as easily as in Washington. This alleged connection is too tenuous and attenuated from the question of jurisdiction for the alleged evidence of the body to have made any impact.

Aside from Dr. Brady's testimony, the state offered as evidence of jurisdiction the location of the body's discovery and the circumstances in which it was discovered. See discussion infra at B.3. Since Dr. Brady's autopsy and testimony were not essential to the state's case on jurisdiction, Gibson was not prejudiced by the destruction of evidence which might have aided in his rebuttal of Dr. Brady's evidence. In any event, the lack of materiality of the evidence makes its destruction inherently nonprejudicial. The evidence of the body simply offered little to aid Gibson's defense.

Finally, there is not even a suggestion that the state acted in bad faith when it permitted the cremation. The state had performed an autopsy and had no way of foreseeing either a defense of lack of jurisdiction or a connection between the body

[110 Idaho 634] and such a defense. Thus, Gibson's due process claim related to the destruction of the body fails as a matter of law.

B. Effective Assistance of Counsel.

Gibson argues he was denied effective assistance of counsel at the trial, pre-sentencing and sentencing stages in violation of the Sixth Amendment "assistance of counsel" clause, applied to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment due process clause, and in violation of the right to counsel clause of Article 1, § 13 of the Idaho Constitution.

1. The Right to Effective Assistance of Counsel under the Federal Constitution.

In Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), the United States Supreme Court comprehensively discussed the right to effective counsel and the appropriate standard "for judging a criminal defendant's contention that the Constitution requires a conviction or death sentence to be set aside because counsel's assistance at the trial or sentencing was ineffective." Id. 104 S.Ct. at 2056. For the Sixth Amendment guarantee of counsel to have any meaning, that counsel must be more than merely present; rather, counsel must render effective assistance. Id. at 2063-64. Otherwise, the defendant's trial may lack the adversarial testing required to insure a full and fair result. Id. at 2063. "The benchmark," observed the Court, "for judging any claim of ineffectiveness must be whether counsel's conduct so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a just result." Id. at 2064.

The Court recognized two components necessary to a criminal defendant's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel:

First, the defendant must show that counsel's performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the "counsel" guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Second, the defendant must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. This requires showing that counsel's errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable. Unless a defendant makes both showings, it cannot be said that the conviction or death sentence resulted from a breakdown in the adversary process that renders the result unreliable. Id.

Regarding the first component, the Court found "[t]he proper measure of attorney performance" to be "reasonableness under prevailing professional norms." Id. at 2065. The criminal defendant must show that "counsel's representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness." Id. "[S]trategic choices made after thorough investigation of law and facts relevant to plausible options are virtually unchallengeable...." Id. at 2066. Because of the potential distortion inherent in hindsight and the temptation to second-guess the decisions and actions in what later proved a losing effort, the process of assessing counsel's performance as a whole must be tempered by a presumption "that counsel's conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance...." Id.

Regarding the second component, the Court initially observed that "[a]n error by counsel, even if professionally unreasonable, does not warrant setting aside the judgment of a criminal proceeding if the error had no effect on the judgment." Id. at 2067. Prejudice is presumed in some circumstances, including where the defendant is actually or constructively denied counsel altogether and where counsel actively represents a conflicting interest. Id. In other circumstances, the defendant must affirmatively prove prejudice. Id. This requires a showing that:

[T]here is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome. Id. at 2068.

"In making this determination," the Court concluded...