Hall v. Head, 01-15313.

• Decision Date: 25 October 2002
• Docket Number: No. 01-15313.,01-15313.
• Citation: 310 F.3d 683
• Parties: Willie James HALL, Petitioner-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. Frederick HEAD, Warden, Respondent-Appellant, Cross-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

310 F.3d 683

Willie James HALL, Petitioner-Appellee, Cross-Appellant, v. Frederick HEAD, Warden, Respondent-Appellant, Cross-Appellee.

No. 01-15313.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

October 25, 2002.

Susan V. Boleyn, State Law Dept., Atlanta, GA, for Head.

Mildred Geckler Dunn, Fed. Def. Program, Inc., Atlanta, for Hall.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Before DUBINA, BLACK and MARCUS, Circuit Judges.

MARCUS, Circuit Judge:

Willie James "Bo" Hall filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal district court challenging both his 1989 conviction for the murder of his wife, Thelma Hall ("Ms.Hall"), and the death sentence imposed by the Superior Court of DeKalb County, Georgia. The district court granted his petition in part, finding that Hall's counsel was constitutionally ineffective at the sentencing phase of his trial, and denied his petition in part, concluding that counsel was not otherwise constitutionally ineffective and that Hall was not entitled to an evidentiary hearing or access to further psychological testing. Although we agree with the district court that the underlying conviction was devoid of any constitutional error, and that the denial of a hearing and access was proper, we are not convinced that the sentencing portion of Hall's trial was constitutionally flawed. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's order regarding the sentencing phase of the trial and remand the case with instructions to reinstate Hall's sentence of death.

I.

A.

This case involves the stormy and unhappy marriage of the defendant, Willie James Hall, and, ultimately, the brutal murder of his wife, Ms. Thelma Hall. The essential facts are undisputed.

Willie James Hall enlisted in the Army following graduation from high school. Upon completion of a four-year Army term, Hall returned home to Columbus, Georgia, where he pursued a bachelor's degree of science at Columbus College. While he was in college, Hall met Thelma Burns (Ms. Hall), and dated her for about two and one-half years before marrying her in November 1982. After finishing college and getting married, Hall was commissioned back into the Army, this time as a second lieutenant, and the Halls initially were stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

Almost from the beginning, the Halls had a tumultuous marriage. They would constantly fight and undergo extended periods of separation. Hall testified at sentencing that the separations were due to marital problems involving perceived financial difficulties, conflicting personality types, and Ms. Hall's distance from her family. Ms. Hall's sister, Janice Sanks, once visited them at Fort Dix. She testified that she saw evidence of substantial marital discord. Indeed, she said that on one occasion, she saw Hall grab her sister by the hair and pull her into a room, making noises for almost an hour that indicated he was banging her head against the wall. From behind closed doors, Ms. Hall was overheard saying, "Stop it, Bo, stop it." "Bo" is Hall's nickname. Sanks remembered that during the visit, Hall told her that "he was going to end up killing [Ms. Hall] one of these days." Hall also told her that her sister had given him a venereal disease.

In May 1985, Hall was promoted from second lieutenant to first lieutenant, and the couple relocated to St. Louis, Missouri where Hall worked at a military processing station. There, the marital problems continued. They enrolled in a nine-week family advocacy program, but Ms. Hall left for Columbus after the first two weeks. Hall finished the nine-week program. Ms. Hall returned to St. Louis pregnant with the couple's child, and the couple again saw a marriage counselor. At a marriage counseling class, Hall voiced his opinion that he did not need to go through counseling since he had already attended the nine-week course.

Not long thereafter, Ms. Hall complained to Hall's military supervisor at work, Major Stanford, that Hall refused to take the counseling class. She also told Major Stanford that Hall was not paying the bills and that there was not enough food in the house. Hall denied these claims. After speaking with his supervisor, Hall abruptly resigned from the Army in August 1986, while he was being considered for promotion to Captain.

On August 5, 1986, the couple's daughter Tiara was born. Shortly thereafter, Ms. Hall returned to Columbus and Hall departed for California. After reaching California, Hall spoke with Ms. Hall on the phone and returned to Columbus. While back in Columbus, Hall lived with his mother; Ms. Hall and Tiara lived with Ms. Hall's grandmother, although Hall would spend some nights at the grandmother's house. Throughout this period, the marriage continued to deteriorate. Hall again left for California several times, but always returned. By January 1988, Hall moved to Atlanta where he began working at a Chick-Fil-A restaurant.

Around April 1988, Ms. Hall and Tiara also moved to Atlanta, where they stayed in an apartment with Ms. Hall's sister, Antoinette Ware ("Ware"), Ware's boyfriend, Ben Marshall ("Marshall"), and Ms. Hall's brother, Everette Burns ("Burns"). Hall did not live with them, and at first, did not know that Ms. Hall had moved to Atlanta. One night, he went over to Ware's house and was surprised to see Ms. Hall when she opened the door. They talked, and he began visiting her regularly.

Sometime in May, Hall moved into Ware's apartment. By July, Ms. Hall was dissatisfied that Hall had not found them an apartment of their own. At this time, Hall had started working at the Kidney Foundation Thrift Store as a manager/trainee. Over the weekend of July 4, Ms. Hall went home to Columbus and dropped her daughter off at her grandmother's house. The couple argued, apparently because Hall wanted their daughter brought back to Atlanta.

Ms. Hall returned to Atlanta a few days later and stayed with her brother's girlfriend, Valerie Hudson ("Hudson"). Ware testified that Ms. Hall felt uncomfortable staying in Ware's apartment because Hall was still staying there, and she did not want Hall to know where she was.

On Saturday evening, July 9, 1988, Ms. Hall, Hudson, Burns, and Sebastian (a friend of Burns) came over to Ware's apartment to get some of Ms. Hall's clothes. When Hall heard his wife's voice, he came out of his bedroom and tried to get her to step outside and talk, but she refused.

After collecting her things, Ms. Hall went out that night with Hudson, Burns, and Sebastian. As the group returned home early Sunday morning, they saw Hall lurking around Hudson's apartment. Ms. Hall asked the group to pretend they did not see him and to continue driving. The group later returned and spent the night at Hudson's apartment. Ms. Hall apparently slept on the couch in the living room, while Sebastian slept on the floor. Ware, Hudson, and Burns all testified that Sebastian was not having a relationship with Ms. Hall.

After being observed outside of Hudson's apartment, Hall spent the night sleeping in a "field." On Sunday evening, July 10, Hall returned to Ware's apartment, and had a conversation with Ware and Marshall about the fact that Ms. Hall had moved out. Vicki Gardner, Ware's next-door neighbor, was also present. During this conversation, Ware, Marshall, and Gardner all heard Hall threaten to kill his wife. According to Marshall, Ware told Hall that Ms. Hall had moved out, and "he got kind of angry with that ... and said `I am gonna kill her' ... about a dozen [times]." Ware observed that Hall "was pretty upset because [Ms. Hall] had moved out. He said, you know, that he was tired of it," and that "he knew deep down inside he could really hurt her." Gardner noted that "he just said he was upset and that he wouldn't let her get away with that. And he just said something like he would, he could kill her." Notably, all three witnesses also heard Hall ruminate about what would happen to him if he killed his wife — two of the witnesses, Ware and Marshall, testified that Hall said he would not get "more than ten years" in jail, and Gardner recalled Hall saying that "he would get about ten or twenty years." The group talked to Hall for hours, trying to convince him that he could find another woman, and trying to calm him down. Hall then told them that he was going back to Columbus, and went to bed.

That same night, when Ware was cooking dinner, she noticed that her kitchen knife was missing. She later testified that she "never thought nothing else about the knife" until her neighbor, Gardner, said to her after Ms. Hall's death that she knew where the knife was. When Ware awoke Monday morning at around 6:00 a.m., Hall was not in the apartment. Marshall found a note in the apartment that said: "Annette and Ben, I am hitchhiking to Columbus, so I left early. Thank both of you for everything and as soon as they mail me my check I'll send both of you some money." The note was signed "Bo."

At about 7:40 a.m., Monday, July 11, 1988, Hudson left her apartment and took Burns and Sebastian to work. Ms. Hall was still at the apartment, asleep on the sofa, when they left. At 7:58 a.m., a DeKalb County operator received a frantic 911 call from Ms. Hall at Hudson's apartment. During the call, Ms. Hall told the operator that someone was trying to break into the apartment, but that she did not know who was outside. These statements by Ms. Hall were followed by the sound of breaking glass, and Ms. Hall's repeated pleas, "Bo, stop it please, Bo stop it." The call ended with Ms. Hall's final words, "Stop Bo please. Oh God ... Oh."¹

Ms. Hall's murder was partially observed by Pamela Rathbone, an apartment complex resident. Although Rathbone could not identify Hall as the murderer, she testified that she saw a "fairly slender black girl" wearing a slip, run out of an apartment chased by a man, and heard the girl saying "something to the effect" of "don't, stop." When Rathbone came closer...