Griffin v. Wainwright
| Decision Date | 10 May 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-3196,84-3196 |
| Parties | Kenneth GRIFFIN, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Louie L. WAINWRIGHT, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Patterson, Belknap, Webb, & Tyler, Frederick T. Davis, New York City, for petitioner-appellant.
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., State of Fla., Wallace Allbritton, Tallahassee, Fla., for respondent-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Before KRAVITCH and HATCHETT, Circuit Judges, and HANCOCK *, District Judge.
In this death penalty case, we review the district court's order denying appellant, Kenneth Griffin's, application for a stay of execution and petition for writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. Sec. 2254 (West 1977). We affirm in part and remand in part.
On March 15, 1979, appellant, Kenneth Griffin, was convicted of killing two young men during the robbery of a convenience store. In accordance with the jury's recommendation, the trial court imposed the death sentence. On direct appeal, the Supreme Court of Florida affirmed Griffin's conviction and sentence of death. See Griffin v. State, 414 So.2d 1025 (Fla.1982) (Griffin I ).
On April 20, 1983, Griffin collaterally attacked his conviction and sentence. In doing so, Griffin filed a Motion to Vacate, Set Aside or Correct Conviction and Sentence and Order a New Trial. Griffin later amended and supplemented the aforementioned motion. On February 21, 1984, the Governor of Florida signed a death warrant which ordered that Griffin be executed on March 19, 1984.
On March 9, 1984, the state trial court held an evidentiary hearing on Griffin's claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel, but denied the remainder of Griffin's claims as barred by procedural default.
After the evidentiary hearing, the state trial court entered an opinion denying Griffin's motion for post conviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850. From this adverse ruling, Griffin filed in the Supreme Court of Florida a petition for writ of habeas corpus, an application for stay of execution, and an appeal from the trial court's order denying the amended motion.
On March 16, 1984, the Supreme Court of Florida affirmed the trial court's order and, thereby, denied the petition for writ of habeas corpus and the application for stay of execution. Griffin v. State, 447 So.2d 875 (Fla.1984) (Griffin II ). That same day, Griffin filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida an application for a stay of execution and a petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
After granting a temporary stay of execution and reviewing the entire record, the district court denied Griffin's petition for writ of habeas corpus and application for a stay of execution, 588 F.Supp. 1549. The district court, thereafter, ruled that its temporary stay of execution would remain in full force and effect until 7 a.m. Friday, March 23, 1984, to allow Griffin an opportunity to appeal the court's decision. Additionally, pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. Sec. 2253 (West 1971), the district court granted Griffin a certificate of probable cause to appeal.
We must determine: (1) whether Griffin received ineffective assistance of counsel; (2) whether the district court erred in refusing to grant Griffin an evidentiary hearing; (3) whether the prosecutor's reference to race as a means of identification deprived Griffin of due process and equal protection of the laws; (4) whether Griffin's capital sentence is unconstitutional under the principles of Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982); (5) whether Griffin was denied his right to an impartial jury; and (6) whether the death penalty has been discriminatorily imposed against Griffin in this case.
Appellant, Kenneth Griffin, contends that his counsel, a special public defender assigned to represent him, did not provide effective assistance of counsel at pretrial, trial, penalty proceedings, and on appeal. Thus, Griffin contends that he was deprived of effective assistance of counsel in violation of the sixth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution. The state trial court, the Supreme Griffin enumerates the following areas of alleged deficiencies in his counsel's performance: (1) failure to meet with him; (2) failure to attend depositions; (3) failure to object to irrelevant and prejudicial racial remarks made by the prosecutor at trial; (4) failure at the penalty stage to present a case in mitigation; and (5) failure to raise the prosecutorial misconduct claim on direct appeal.
Court of Florida, and the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida have all held that this claim is without merit. We agree.
In Strickland v. Washington, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), the Supreme Court articulated the test under which claims of ineffective assistance of counsel are reviewed. First, a convicted defendant must show that counsel's performance was deficient. This, however, requires proof that counsel made errors so egregious that counsel was not functioning as the "counsel" guaranteed the defendant by the sixth amendment. Second, the convicted defendant must show that the deficient performance prejudiced his defense. To satisfy this second prong, the defendant must demonstrate that counsel's errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial. Strickland, --- U.S. at ----, 104 S.Ct. at 2064, 80 L.Ed.2d at 693. After enunciating this two-prong test, the court unequivocally stated that unless a defendant satisfies this test, he fails to demonstrate that counsel's assistance was so defective as to require reversal of his conviction or death sentence. Strickland, 80 L.Ed.2d at 693, --- U.S. at ----, 104 S.Ct. at 2064.
Accordingly, before we can reverse Griffin's conviction or death sentence, Griffin must establish that his counsel was ineffective and that actual prejudice resulted therefrom. Griffin's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is a mixed question of law and fact. Cuyler v. Sullivan, 446 U.S. 335, 100 S.Ct. 1708, 64 L.Ed.2d 333 (1980); Washington v. Watkins, 655 F.2d 1346, 1354 (5th Cir.1981). In resolving Griffin's claim, we must examine the totality of the circumstances and the entire record. Palmes v. Wainwright, 725 F.2d 1511, 1519 (11th Cir.1984) (citing Goodwin v. Balkcom, 684 F.2d 794, 804 (11th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1098, 103 S.Ct. 1798, 76 L.Ed.2d 364 (1983)).
Griffin contends that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel because his trial counsel failed to conduct adequate pretrial investigation. Specifically, Griffin alleges that his counsel: (1) spent virtually no time with Griffin prior to trial; (2) failed to ask Griffin about key witnesses in the case; (3) failed to ask Griffin about the identity or existence of witnesses with exculpatory and mitigating evidence; (4) failed to question potential witnesses; and (5) failed to attend fourteen pretrial depositions taken by counsel for co-defendant Robert John Hinson and by the state.
Griffin contends that his counsel's assistance at the pretrial stage of the proceedings was deficient and prejudicial to his defense. In sum, Griffin alleges that his counsel failed to meet with him and to investigate the facts underlying the indictment. At the state court evidentiary hearing, Griffin testified that his counsel never saw him until two weeks prior to the trial. The state court found that this testimony was "untruthful." The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed the trial court's order.
Brevity of time spent in consultation, without more, does not establish that counsel was ineffective. Easter v. Estelle, 609 F.2d 756 (5th Cir.1980). Thus, it is not enough for Griffin to allege that counsel only met with him once before trial "as long as counsel devoted sufficient time to ensure an adequate defense and to become thoroughly familiar with the facts of the case and the law applicable to the case." Easter v. Estelle, 609 F.2d at 759.
At the state court habeas corpus hearing, counsel for Griffin testified that "with the time that I interviewed Mr. Griffin, there was plenty of time, with the information that I got from him, there was time to do anything I could have done with it." After receiving evidence on Griffin's ineffective assistance of counsel claim, the state trial court found that Griffin suffered no actual or substantial detriment. The court concluded that Griffin's constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel was not violated. The Supreme Court of Florida affirmed. (Griffin II at 884.)
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