Grayson v. Allen
| Decision Date | 21 May 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 2:06-cv-1032-WKW.,2:06-cv-1032-WKW. |
| Parties | Darrell GRAYSON, Plaintiff, v. Richard ALLEN, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama |
Heather K. McDevitt, Stephanie L. Cohen, Vincent R. Fitzpatrick, Jr., White & Case LLP, New York, NY, Melanie Velez, Stephen B. Bright, William Robert Montross, Jr., Atlanta, GA, Richard Stephen Jaffe, Jaffe Strickland Drennan PC, Birmingham, AL, for Plaintiff.
James Clayton Crenshaw, James William Davis, Office of the Attorney General Alabama State House, Montgomery, AL, for Defendants.
Darrell Grayson is a death row inmate who filed this § 1983 challenge to Alabama's lethal injection protocol and its administration. Defendant Richard Allen is the Commissioner of Alabama's Department of Corrections. Defendant Grantt Culliver is the Warden of the Holman Correctional Facility, the facility in which executions are conducted. By Order (Doc. # 76) dated May 17, 2007, the court denied the defendants' summary judgment motion regarding the statute of limitations (Doc. # 14), granted the defendants' Motion for Summary Dismissal Based on the Doctrine of Laches (Doc. # 27), and denied the plaintiff's Motion for Stay of Execution (Doc. # 48).1 This memorandum opinion establishes the bases for the rulings.
Grayson is on Alabama's death row for the December 24, 1980 robbery, rape, and murder of an elderly widow, Mrs. Annie Laura Orr.2 The following is a summary of his conviction and post-conviction proceedings.
June 3, 1982: In the Circuit Court of Shelby County, Alabama, a jury convicted Grayson of capital murder and determined that he should be punished by death. The trial court sentenced Grayson to death by electrocution.
January 31, 1984: The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and death sentence. Grayson v. State, 479 So.2d 69 (Ala.Crim.App. 1984).
February 15, 1985: The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the intermediate appellate court. Ex parte Grayson, 479 So.2d 76 (Ala. 1985).
October 7, 1985: The United States Supreme Court denied Grayson's petition for writ of certiorari. Grayson v. Alabama, 474 U.S. 865, 106 S.Ct. 189, 88 L.Ed.2d 157 (1985).
January 10, 1986: Grayson filed a petition for relief from conviction and sentence of death, which was amended three times in 1991 and 1992.3
April 6 & 7, 1992: The Circuit Court of Shelby County, Alabama, held an evidentiary hearing on the petition.
January 19, 1993: The Circuit Court`of Shelby County, Alabama, denied Grayson's petition for post-conviction relief.
December 1, 1995: The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the denial of the petition. Grayson v. State, 675 So.2d 516 (Ala.Crim.App.1995).
March 1, 1996: The Alabama Supreme Court denied certiorari review.
October 15, 1996: The United States Supreme Court denied Grayson's petition for writ of certiorari. Grayson v. Alabama, 519 U.S. 934, 117 S.Ct. 309, 136 L.Ed.2d 225 (1996).
April 22, 1996: Grayson filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
March 31, 2000: The district court denied the petition for habeas relief.
July 16, 2001: The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's denial of habeas relief. Grayson v. Thompson, 257 F.3d 1194 (11th Cir.2001).
June 28, 2002: The United States Supreme Court denied Grayson's petition for writ of certiorari. Grayson v. Thompson, 536 U.S. 964, 122 S.Ct. 2674, 153 L.Ed.2d 846 (2002).
July 1, 2002: Alabama law establishing lethal injection as the primary form of execution became effective. Ala.Code § 15-18.82.1 (1975). This statute provided death row inmates thirty days to elect death by electrocution.
2002: Grayson filed a motion in the state trial court to obtain the biological evidence presented at trial so he could have DNA testing performed on the evidence.
August 12, 2002: The State of Alabama petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court to set an execution date for Grayson.
October 10, 2002: The state trial court denied the DNA motion for lack of jurisdiction.
November 15, 2002: Grayson filed a § 1983 action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama seeking the release of biological evidence for DNA testing. Grayson v. Pryor, No. 2:02-cv-02800.
May 22, 2003: The Alabama Supreme Court denied the state's petition to set execution date pending a ruling in the § 1983 DNA action.
September 15, 2005: The district court granted a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss on the grounds that Grayson had no constitutional right to post-conviction access to DNA evidence.
August 18, 2006: The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's dismissal of the DNA lawsuit. Grayson v. King, 460 F.3d 1328 (11th Cir.2006).
January 8, 2007: The United States Supreme Court denied Grayson's petition for writ of certiorari. Grayson v. King, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 1005, 166 L.Ed.2d 712 (2007) (mem.).
May 24, 2004: The United States Supreme Court ruled that § 1983 is an appropriate vehicle for a death row inmate to challenge Alabama's proposed use of a "cut-down" procedure to access his veins during lethal injection procedure. Nelson v. Campbell, 541 U.S. 637, 124 S.Ct. 2117, 158 L.Ed.2d 924 (2004).
June 12, 2006: The United States Supreme Court ruled that death row inmate's challenge to Florida's lethal injection may proceed as an action for relief under § 1983. Hill v. McDonough, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 2096, 165 L.Ed.2d 44 (2006).
November 17, 2006: Grayson filed the instant § 1983 action challenging Alabama's lethal injection protocol. He claims that the state's execution method and procedure pose an unjustifiable risk of causing him extreme pain in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. (Doc. # 1.)
January 22, 2007: The State of Alabama petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court to set an execution date for Grayson.
March 6, 2007: The parties filed their initial Joint Rule 26(f) Report, agreeing inter alia to a hearing date of June 4, 2008. (Doc. # 12.)
March 14, 2007: The defendants filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings and alternative motion for summary judgment regarding the statute of limitations.4 (Doc. # 14.)
April 23, 2007: The Alabama Supreme Court entered an order setting Grayson's execution date for July 26, 2007.
April 24, 2007: The defendants filed a motion for summary dismissal of the case based on the doctrine of laches. (Doc. # 27.)
April 25, 2007: The court received notice of the July 26, 2007 execution date. (Doc. # 31.)
April 25, 2007: The court held a status conference `at which a potential trial date was set for June 26, 2007, and the parties were ordered to submit an amended Rule 26(f) report.
April 27, 2007: The defendants filed an objection to setting a trial date and expedited discovery (Doc. # 37), and the parties filed their amended Joint Rule 26(f) Report. (Doc. # 42.)
April 30, 2007: Grayson filed a motion for stay of execution to be decided after the merits of his claim are presented at trial on June 26, 2007. (Doc. # 48.)
May 1, 2007: The court entered a scheduling order setting a trial date for June 26, 2007, and requiring the parties to proceed with discovery pending further ruling from the court on the defendants' dispositive motions. (Doc. # 52.)
May 4, 2007: The defendants filed a motion to stay discovery pending the court's rulings on the defendants' dispositive motions. (Doc. # 55.)
May 7, 2007: The defendants filed a motion in the Alabama Supreme Court to accelerate Grayson's execution date.
May 8, 2007: The court denied the defendants' motion to stay discovery pending a ruling on dispositive motions. (Doc. # 60.)
May 17, 2007: The court entered an order staying discovery and dismissing the case. (Doc. # 76.)
The court exercises subject matter jurisdiction over this action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331 (federal question) and 28 U.S.C. § 1343 (civil rights). The parties do not contest personal jurisdiction or venue, and the court finds adequate allegations in support of both.
Under Rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, summary judgment is appropriate "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). After the nonmoving party has responded to the motion for summary judgment, the court must grant summary judgment if there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c).
This case highlights a difficult dilemma: at what point has a § 1983 litigant in a method-of-execution claim slept on his rights too long, requiring dismissal of his action? Defendants frame the dismissal issue in legal terms, i.e., the statute of limitations, and in equitable terms, i.e., the doctrine of laches.5 Both are raised in defendants' dispositive motions. Grayson denies that these arguments bar his claim. The case arises, as will many, in the new context of § 1983 litigation challenging lethal injection in the wake of Hill v. McDonough. While Grayson's is not a "last minute" claim — he filed this action two months before an execution date was requested — it comes late in the litigation day, after the exhaustion, over the span of twenty-four years, of all state and federal avenues of relief, including direct appeal and collateral...
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