Hallford v. Culliver

• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama
• Writing for the Court: Coody
• Citation: Hallford v. Culliver, 379 F.Supp.2d 1232 (M.D. Ala. 2004)
• Decision Date: 15 December 2004
• Docket Number: No. CIV.A. 1:95CV1413C.,CIV.A. 1:95CV1413C.
• Parties: Phillip D. HALLFORD Petitioner, v. Grantt CULLIVER, Warden, Respondent.

379 F.Supp.2d 1232

Phillip D. HALLFORD Petitioner, v. Grantt CULLIVER, Warden, Respondent.

No. CIV.A. 1:95CV1413C.

United States District Court, M.D. Alabama, Southern Division.

December 15, 2004.

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Andrew E. Kantra, Andrew R. Rogoff, Eric T. Scott, Richard S. Schlegel, Pepper Hamilton LLP, Philadelphia, PA, William Rives Blanchard, Jr., Blanchard and Associates LLC, Montgomery, AL, for Petitioner.

James Clayton Crenshaw, Office of the Attorney General, Montgomery, AL, for Respondent.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

COODY, Chief United States Magistrate Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

On November 1, 1995, the Petitioner, Phillip Hallford, an Alabama inmate under sentence of death, filed a petition¹ in this court seeking habeas corpus relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In its answer to the petition, the State of Alabama responded that many of the claims raised by Hallford were precluded from review because they were procedurally defaulted. On June 11, 1999, the court directed that this case proceed in two stages, the first of which was to determine which claims should be denied on procedural default grounds and which non-defaulted claims required an evidentiary hearing. The second stage would then determine the merits of the non-defaulted claims. The determination of stage I issues was referred to the undersigned. After the determination of the stage I issues,² the parties on May 21, 2002, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c)(1) and M.D. Ala. LR 73.1, consented to the United States Magistrate Judge conducting all proceedings in this case and ordering the entry of final judgment. On May 23, 2002 this case was reassigned to the undersigned for dispositive resolution.

Following an evidentiary hearing on two of Hallford's claims, the court received and has carefully considered the briefs from both Hallford and the State. Based on the arguments of the parties, the record, and all of the evidence, the court, after exhaustive consideration of all Hallford's claims concludes that Hallford's petition is due to be denied in all respects.

A. FACTS

On March 4, 1987, Hallford was convicted of the capital offense of murder committed in the course of a robbery. See Ala. Code § 13A-5-40(a)(2). The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals summarized the facts of the case as follows:

The state's evidence at the guilt phase of [Hallford's] trial tended to show that in the early morning of April 13, 1986, [Hallford] forced his daughter [Melinda] to entice her boyfriend, Charles Eddie Shannon to a secluded bridge. He then shot Shannon once in the roof of the mouth. While Shannon was still alive, [Hallford] dragged him to the side of the bridge and shot him two more times, once in the front of the left ear and once in the forehead. [Hallford] then threw the body over the bridge railing and into the water.

Sometime after the shooting, [Hallford] returned to the scene of the crime to remove the blood from the bridge. The next day [Hallford] burned the victim's wallet and its contents. These events were witnessed in part by [Hallford's] daughter and his son, who testified against him at trial. While [Hallford] was burning the victim's wallet he commented that the victim was a "cheapskate" because he said he found no money in the wallet. However, the victim's father testified that he had given the victim money on the afternoon of his disappearance. The victim's badly decomposed body was discovered in the water approximately two weeks after the shooting.

[Hallford] maintained at trial that he did not kill the victim and that he was nowhere near the bridge when the murder occurred.

Hallford v. State, 629 So.2d 6, 7 (Ala.Crim.App.1992).

After finding Hallford guilty of the capital offense of murder committed in the course of a robbery, the jury, by a vote of 10-2, returned a verdict recommending that Hallford receive the death penalty. On April 16, 1987, following a hearing, the trial court sentenced him to death. Hallford's conviction and death sentence were affirmed on direct appeal. Hallford v. State, 548 So.2d 526 (Ala.Crim.App.1988), aff'd, 548 So.2d 547 (Ala.) cert. denied, 493 U.S. 945, 110 S.Ct. 354, 107 L.Ed.2d 342 (1989).

Hallford filed pursuant to ALA.R.CRIM.P. 32 a motion for state post-conviction relief, and a hearing was conducted by the trial court (hereinafter "Rule 32 hearing"). Post-conviction relief was denied; the denial was affirmed by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. Hallford v. State, 629 So.2d 6 (Ala.Crim.App.1992), cert. quashed, No. 1920735, 1993 Ala. LEXIS 1420 (Ala. Dec. 10, 1993), cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1100, 114 S.Ct. 1870, 128 L.Ed.2d 491 (1994). This is the first petition for federal habeas corpus relief filed by Hallford.

B. GENERAL STATEMENT OF THE LAW

A district court must resolve all claims for relief raised in a petition for writ of habeas corpus. Clisby v. Jones, 960 F.2d 925, 936 (11th Cir.1992). Because Hallford filed his habeas corpus petition on November 1, 1995, before the effective date of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), this case is governed by pre-AEDPA law. See Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 117 S.Ct. 2059, 138 L.Ed.2d 481 (1997). Under pre-AEDPA law the state court's findings of fact are entitled to a presumption of correctness. To overcome this presumption, the petitioner must show with clear and convincing evidence that the state court's finding was not "fairly supported by the record." See Johnson v. Alabama, 256 F.3d 1156, 1169 (11th Cir.2001). Questions of federal law or mixed questions of law and fact, however, are not subject to the presumption. Hardwick v. Crosby, 320 F.3d 1127, 1159 (11th Cir.2003). There are numerous claims contained in Hallford's habeas petition which are properly before the court for a determination on their merits. However, before the court reaches the merits of these claims, the court must address a preliminary question of whether Hallford's Brady v. Maryland³ claim is barred from review. The essence of this claim is that the prosecution failed to disclose to Hallford that his daughter, a key witness, was offered lenient treatment in her criminal case in exchange for her testimony against Hallford.

II. WHETHER THE BRADY CLAIM IS PROCEDURALLY DEFAULTED

A. THE DOCTRINE OF PROCEDURAL DEFAULT

As explained below, Hallford's Brady claim relating to the suppression of impeaching evidence is procedurally defaulted. The procedural default doctrine ensures that "state courts have had the first opportunity to hear the claim sought to be vindicated in a federal habeas proceeding." Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 276, 92 S.Ct. 509, 30 L.Ed.2d 438 (1971). In Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977), the Court held that a federal court's consideration of the merits of a claim in a petition for habeas corpus can be barred by the petitioner's failure to comply with state procedural rules, unless the petitioner makes a showing of cause for the failure and prejudice resulting from the failure. Under the doctrine of procedural default, claims which have never been presented to a state court or claims which were not fully exhausted in state courts are procedurally defaulted if presentation of the claims in state court would be barred by state procedural rules. Collier v. Jones, 910 F.2d 770 (11th Cir.1990). This court may consider Hallford's procedurally defaulted claims on the merits only if he shows either (1) cause for the procedural default and actual prejudice arising out of the violation of federal law, Wainwright, 433 U.S. at 87, 97 S.Ct. 2497, or (2) a resulting fundamental miscarriage of justice if the court does not consider the claims. Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298, 115 S.Ct. 851, 130 L.Ed.2d 808 (1995).

To demonstrate cause for a procedural default, a habeas petitioner must establish that some objective factor external to the defense impeded his efforts to raise the claim in state court and that this failure cannot be fairly attributable to his own conduct. Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 488, 106 S.Ct. 2639, 91 L.Ed.2d 397 (1986). Examples of objective factors external to the defense that constitute cause include interference by officials and "a showing that the factual or legal basis for a claim was not reasonably available to counsel." Id.

To demonstrate prejudice, a habeas petitioner must show "not merely that the errors at his trial created a possibility of prejudice, but that they worked to his actual and substantial disadvantage, infecting his entire trial with error of constitutional dimensions." United States v. Frady, 456 U.S. 152, 170, 102 S.Ct. 1584, 71 L.Ed.2d 816 (1982); Johnson v. Alabama, 256 F.3d at 1171. Prejudice in the context of a Brady claim about undisclosed information means that "`there is a reasonable probability' that the result of the trial would have been different if the suppressed... [information] had been disclosed to the defense." Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 289, 119 S.Ct. 1936, 144 L.Ed.2d 286 (1999), quoting Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 433, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995).

B. FACTS PERTAINING TO THE BRADY CLAIM

1. Procedural History of the Brady Claim

At Hallford's trial, his daughter Melinda gave damaging testimony describing how Hallford got her to entice the victim to come to the bridge and how Hallford killed him. Hallford claims in this court that the prosecution violated the duty imposed by Brady v. Maryland by suppressing evidence that his daughter Melinda agreed to testify against him only in exchange for lenient treatment related to her involvement in the murder.⁴ In his state post-conviction petition filed on October 4, 1990, Hallford made the following general, as well as obviously speculative, Brady claim:

Claim X.

Due Process requires the prosecution to disclose to the defense any and all evidence that is favorable to the accused...