Goodin v. State

• Decision Date: 07 August 2003
• Docket Number: No. 2002-DR-00686-SCT.,2002-DR-00686-SCT.
• Citation: Goodin v. State, 856 So.2d 267 (Miss. 2003)
• Parties: Howard Dean GOODIN (Gooden) v. STATE of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

856 So.2d 267

Howard Dean GOODIN (Gooden) v.STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2002-DR-00686-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

August 7, 2003.

Rehearing Denied October 23, 2003.

Terri L. Marroquin, Robert M. Ryan, Jackson, attorneys for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Judy T. Martin, Marvin L. White, Jr., attorneys for appellee.

EN BANC.

CARLSON, Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1.Howard Dean Goodin was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the murder of Willis Rigdon.Goodin's conviction and sentence were affirmed by this Court on direct appeal.SeeGoodin v. State,787 So.2d 639(Miss.2001), cert. denied,535 U.S. 996, 122 S.Ct. 1558, 152 L.Ed.2d 481(2002).Goodin filed his Application for Leave to File Petition for Post-Conviction Relief in this Court on April 30, 2002, raising nine grounds for relief under the Mississippi Uniform Post-Conviction Collateral Relief Act, Miss. Code Ann. §§ 99-39-1 to -29 (Rev.2000 & Supp.2002).While many of the issues are procedurally barred, we consider them to the extent necessary to address Goodin's claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and mental illness.Finding that he has succeeded in presenting a substantial showing of the denial of a state or federal right and that his attorney's performance at trial was constitutionally deficient, we grant Goodin's application for leave to seek post-conviction relief in part and deny it in part.

FACTS

¶ 2.The following statement of facts is taken from this Court's opinion:

The events which occurred inside Willis Rigdon's Store and Restaurant in the early morning hours of November 5, 1998, were recorded by surveillance cameras.The surveillance tapes show a black man, identified as Howard Goodin, entering Rigdon's Store in Union, Mississippi, around 1:44 a.m. Goodin browsed around the video rental section for a few minutes before pulling a gun on the owner of the store, Willis Rigdon.Goodin then disconnected a surveillance camera and the TV and VCR to which it was attached.The tape shows Goodin and Rigdon exiting the store carrying the surveillance camera, TV, and VCR.The two men reenter the store and exit once again with Goodin waving a gun and Rigdon holding his hands in the air.At 1:57 a.m. a witness drove by Rigdon's Store and saw Rigdon sitting in his truck on the driver's side and a black man hunched over in the passenger side.Shortly after 2:00 a.m., Mitchell Graham and his wife, who live about one mile from the Union city limits and about four miles from Rigdon's store, were awakened by someone knocking on their front door and ringing their door bell.Graham went to the door and, without opening the door, asked who was there.There was no response.Thinking it might be a trouble maker, Graham's wife called her father and told him to drive down to their house to scare the person away.When Graham saw his father-in-law's car, he turned on the outside light and opened the door to find Willis Rigdon lying face down in a pool of blood on the front porch.Rigdon was bleeding profusely from two gunshot wounds to the head and neck.Graham's wife called 911 to request an ambulance.Graham asked Rigdon what happened, and he stated that he had been shot and robbed.Graham then asked Rigdon if he knew who did it.Rigdon replied, "No, I don't.It was a black man."Rigdon was then transported to the hospital where he subsequently died as a result of the gunshot wounds.

Between 3:00 and 3:30 a.m., Goodin was seen in Philadelphia, Mississippi, driving Rigdon's truck and carrying a large sum of money.Philadelphia is approximately thirteen miles from the city of Union.At 4:30 a.m., Goodin, still driving Rigdon's truck, went to the home of his nephew, Kelly Junior Peden, who resides in Philadelphia.Peden noticed that the steering column of the truck was broken.Goodin later attempted to start the truck with a screwdriver, but was unable to do so.Peden then became suspicious and told Goodin that he could not leave the truck in his driveway.Goodin then removed the license plate from the truck and threw it away.Goodin left Peden's house and walked to the home of his cousin, Iris Owens, and asked her to drive him to Union.She told him that she did not drive at night and instead called a tow truck.The tow truck driver, John Raymond Roberts, picked Goodin up at Owens' home and drove him to Peden's home.Roberts asked Goodin who owned the truck, and Goodin responded, "This white fellow in Union."Roberts noticed that the truck had no license plate and that the steering column was broken.He told Goodin that he would have to call the police department and have the VIN number run before he could tow the truck.Goodin told Roberts to do whatever he wanted with the truck but to take him back to Owens' house.Before the men left the Peden house, Goodin got a TV and VCR out of the back of Rigdon's truck and put it in the tow truck.Goodin then gave Roberts $50.00 from a long sock of money he had in his pocket.Roberts then drove him to Iris Owens' house.As Goodin exited the tow truck, he told Roberts, "You don't know me, and I don't know you."Goodin took the TV and VCR into Owens' house.

Iris Owens testified that Goodin returned to her house with a VCR and TV.He then left saying he would be back to get the VCR and TV.Goodin never returned.Later that morning, the police came to Owens' house.Owen turned the VCR and TV over to the police.The police asked Owens whether Goodin was armed when he was at her house.She told the police that she had not seen a gun.She later found a gun hidden among her crochet items.She then called the police who returned and retrieved the gun.

When Goodin's nephew, Peden, heard about the robbery and description of the truck, he called the police and told them that a truck fitting that description was at his house.Tow truck operator Roberts saw the surveillance tapes showing Goodin and Rigdon on a news broadcast.He too notified the police.Based on the information from the video surveillance tapes and the statements of Peden, Roberts and Owens, the police began searching for Goodin.They arrested him later that day at the home of Jetty Mae Kelly in Philadelphia, Mississippi.He had a stocking filled with $590.00 in his pocket at the time of the arrest.

Goodin was booked, and an officer took him to get a shower and change into jail clothes.At this time Goodin took $200.00 out of his socks.After his shower, Goodin took another $700.00 out of his mouth.

Goodin was tried as a habitual offender in the Circuit Court of Lamar County for the capital murder of Willis Rigdon during the commission of a kidnapping in Count I and armed robbery in Count II.Goodin's previous convictions include:

1972 Shoplifting 2 years

1973 Burglary 5 years

1977 Second Degree Sexual Assault 7 years, each

robbery count, concurrent

burglary

1980 Armed Robbery 25 years

1982 Aggravated Assault 25 years

armed Robbery

attempted Armed Robbery

assault on a Law Enforcement Officer

1995 Burglary 6 years

Goodin had been out of prison only five months before the murder.The jury convicted Goodin on both counts and sentenced him to death by lethal injection.

Goodin,787 So.2d at 642-43.

¶ 3.On April 30, 2002, Goodin filed his Application for Leave to File Petition for Post-Conviction Relief with this Court.In order to supplement his original petition, Goodin filed a rebuttal brief with additional exhibits on November 18, 2002.Therefore, the State has filed a Motion to StrikePetitioner's Rebuttal Brief which this Court will address in addition to the issues raised by Goodin in his application.

DISCUSSION

¶ 4.Goodin's application raises the following issues:

I.Procedural History

II.Preservation of Issues

III.Standard of Review

¶ 5.Under these first three issues, Goodin discusses procedural matters which will be discussed as follows under each issue as necessary.

IV.Whether Petitioner's constitutional rights under the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and Article Three, Sections 24,26,28and29, of the Mississippi Constitution were violated by numerous instances of prosecutorial misconduct.

¶ 6.On direct appeal Goodin alleged that the trial court erred in allowing the State to argue, in closing argument in the sentencing phase, that Willis Rigdon did not have the protection of the law, the jury system and the Constitution the night of his murder as did Goodin during his trial.This Court found no reversible error, stating:

We have previously found similar arguments to be error, though not reversible since the statements were made in isolation.SeeWells v. State,698 So.2d 497(Miss.1997);Davis v. State,684 So.2d 643, 654(Miss.1996);Shell v. State,554 So.2d 887, 900(Miss.1989).

The facts in this case overwhelmingly indicate the defendant's callous indifference to human life.The statutory elements supporting the penalty of death should have been easily met.In such a case, we find it troubling that the prosecutor would exhibit such blatant contempt of the law in order to obtain a death sentence.We have previously cautioned prosecutors against using such statements in closing arguments.

We must conclude that the district attorney and his assistants in this case have either not comprehended the law or have simply ignored our prior admonishments.When they took their oaths to become attorneys in this state, they swore to "support the Constitution of the State of Mississippi...."Miss.Code Ann. § 73-3-35(2000).Those who take the oath to become a district attorney, swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Mississippi Constitution.Miss. Const. art. 14, § 268.These oaths are violated when jurors are instructed to ignore constitutional rights.Such blatant disrespect of the prior rulings of this Court, and more importantly, the constitutional rights of the accused will not be tolerated.

Jury decisions should be based on the

...