Hammett v. Texas

• Decision Date: 02 July 1980
• Docket Number: No. 79-5050,79-5050
• Citation: 65 L.Ed.2d 1086,100 S.Ct. 2905,448 U.S. 725
• Parties: William Jack HAMMETT v. State of TEXAS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

448 U.S. 725

100 S.Ct. 2905

65 L.Ed.2d 1086

William Jack HAMMETT

v State of TEXAS.

No. 79-5050.

July 2, 1980.

PER CURIAM.

William Jack Hammett, the petitioner in this case, has been convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, 578 S.W.2d 699 (1979). The petitioner states, and his attorney does not deny, that he informed his counsel that he did not wish to pursue any further appeals in his case. Nevertheless, counsel filed a petition requesting review by this Court.

Petitioner now moves for dismissal of the petition, stating under oath that he "made this decision voluntarily and with full knowledge of the consequences, only after due consideration of all facts and circumstances regarding the case." Affidavit of June 3, 1980. Under Rule 60 of the Rules of the Supreme Court (1970), a petitioner or appellant may withdraw a petition or appeal. In response to this motion, petitioner's counsel does not question petitioner's competence. The State of Texas does not oppose petitioner's motion. In the absence of any issue as to petitioner's competence to withdraw the petition filed against his will, there is no basis under Rule 60 for denying this motion. See Gilmore v. Utah, 429 U.S. 1012, 1014, 97 S.Ct. 436, 437, 50 L.Ed.2d 632 (1976) (BURGER, C. J., concurring). Moreover, withdrawal of the petition will not foreclose an ap- propriate application for collateral relief. Accordingly, the motion to withdraw the petition is granted.

It is so ordered.

Mr. Justice MARSHALL, with whom Mr. Justice BRENNAN joins, dissenting.

The Court today permits petitioner, a prisoner acting pro se, to take the first step towards enforcement of his death sentence by withdrawing the petition for writ of certiorari filed on his behalf by his appointed counsel. I continue to adhere to my view that the death penalty is unconstitutional under all circumstances, and accordingly I dissent. In addition, however, the present decision is indefensible even under the more restrictive view of the Eighth Amendment taken by a majority of my Brethren.

The Court takes its action today despite the fact that we have already granted certiorari in a similar case to determine whether the Constitution is violated by the manner in which the State of Texas acquires psychiatric testimony introduced at the punishment phase of the trial to obtain a jury verdict setting the punishment at death. Estelle v. Smith, 445 U.S. 926, 100 S.Ct. 1311, 63 L.Ed.2d 758 (1980). The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has already held that the established pattern of conduct by which the State of Texas obtains the testimony necessary to send a defendant to his death violates the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Smith v. Estelle, 602 F.2d 694 (1979). Thus the Court today acquiesces in the petitioner's apparent decision to be executed despite the fact that we may hold next Term that the death penalty cannot be enforced in cases such as this one. I do not believe that a defendant may by his consent permit a State to impose a punishment forbidden by the Constitution; "the procedure the Court approves today amounts to nothing less than state-administered suicide." Lenhard v. Wolff, 444 U.S. 807, 815, 100 S.Ct. 29, 62 L.Ed.2d 20 (1979) (MARSHALL, J., dissenting).

I

A few facts about this case must be briefly stated in order to place the present motion in its proper context. Petitioner was originally tried for capital murder in the spring of 1977. Although the jury found the defendant guilty of capital murder, a mistrial was declared after the jury was unable to agree on the punishment during the sentencing phase of the trial. See 578 S.W.2d 699, 706 (Tex.Cr.App.1979). The second trial was held in the fall of 1977, and petitioner was again found guilty of capital murder. The jury answered the requisite questions in the affirmative, and the punishment was therefore assessed at death.¹

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals initially reversed the judgment of the trial court. See App. to Pet. for Cert., Exhibit A. The Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that it was error to deny petitioner's motion for appointment of a psychologist to examine petitioner for the purpose of testifying on his behalf concerning the probability that petitioner would commit future criminal acts of violence.² On the State's motion for rehearing, however, that opinion was withdrawn and the court affirmed the conviction and sentence. 578 S.W.2d 699 (1979). The court concluded that petitioner's motion for appointment of a defense psychologist had been made too late.

The central issue raised by the petition for certiorari in this case concerns the use of psychiatric testimony during the punishment stage of a Texas capital case.³ Prior to the first trial, the court appointed Dr. Bill W. Henry, a psychiatrist, to examine petitioner to determine his mental competency to stand trial. Dr. Henry filed two written reports with the court, based on two interviews with petitioner, concluding that the defendant was competent to stand trial. Counsel apparently was not present at either interview. Cf. id., at 705. No issue of competency was raised during the guilt phase of either of petitioner's trials.

At the punishment stage of each trial, however, the State was permitted to call Dr. Henry as an expert witness. The State examined Dr. Henry on whether there was a probability that the petitioner would commit criminal acts of violence in the future that would constitute a continuing threat to society. That issue is, of course, one of the statutorily required questions which must be presented to the jury in the sentencing phase of a Texas capital case; if the jury finds beyond a reasonable doubt that such a probability of future violent crime exists, in addition to the other statutorily mandated findings, then the death penalty must be imposed.⁴ Based on the pretrial psychiatric examinations which were supposedly limited to the question whether the petitioner was legally competent to stand trial, Dr. Henry testified that the defendant was a "person suffering of an antisocial personality," id., at 706, and that petitioner would probably commit criminal acts of violence in the future.

II

It has become clear that the scenario just described constitutes a customary pattern of conduct by the authorities in Texas capital cases. This is by no means the first time that a pretrial examination allegedly sought only to ascertain the defendant's competence to stand trial has been used as the basis for punishment-stage testimony by the court-appointed psychiatrist that the defendant has an antisocial personality and is likely to commit future violent crimes. The cases in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reflecting this pattern of official conduct are legion. See, e. g., Wilder v. State, 583 S.W.2d 349 (1979), cert. pending, No. 79-5002; Armour v. State, 583 S.W.2d 349 (1979), cert. pending, No. 79-5007; Bell v. State, 582 S.W.2d 800 (1979), cert. pend- ing No. 79-5199; Garcia v. State, 581 S.W.2d 168 (1979), cert. pending, No. 79-5464; Woods v. State, 569 S.W.2d 901 (1978), cert. pending, No. 79-721; Livingston v. State, 542 S.W.2d 655 (1976), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 933, 97 S.Ct. 2642, 53 L.Ed.2d 250 (1979); Gholson v. State, 542 S.W.2d 395 (1976), cert. denied, 432 U.S. 911, 97 S.Ct. 2960, 53 L.Ed.2d 1084 (1977); Smith v. State, 540 S.W.2d 693 (1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 922, 97 S.Ct. 1341, 51 L.Ed.2d 601 (1977), death penalty vacated, Smith v. Estelle, 445 F.Supp. 647 (N.D.Tex.1977), aff'd, 602 F.2d 694 (CA5 1979), cert. granted, 445 U.S. 926, 100 S.Ct. 1311, 63 L.Ed.2d 758 (1980); Hurd v. State, 513 S.W.2d 936 (1974); Armstrong v. State, 502 S.W.2d 731 (1973). The use at the punishment stage of testimony by the psychiatrist appointed by the court to establish the defendant's competency to stand trial has the official sanction of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. See Armour v. State, supra; Livingston v. State, supra; Gholson v. State, supra.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has concluded that this practice violates the Fifth and Sixth Amendments as made applicable to the States through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. See Smith v. Estelle, 602 F.2d 694 (1979), aff'g 445 F.Supp. 647 (N.D.Tex.1977). The Court of Appeals held that "a defendant may not be compelled to speak to a psychiatrist who can use his statements against him at the sentencing phase of a capital trial," 602 F.2d, at 708, that the defendant must be warned that he has the right to remain silent, and that if a defendant indicates that he wishes to remain silent he may not be questioned by the psychiatrist to determine future dangerousness, ibid.⁵ That court also found that whether to submit to a pretrial psychiatric examination in a Texas capital case "is a vitally important decision, literally a life or death matter," ibid. The examination is therefore a critical stage in the prosecution, and the defendant is entitled to the assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment. Id., at 708-709.

Because of the seriousness of the issues raised and the conflict between the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, we have already granted certiorari in Estelle v. Smith, 445 U.S. 926, 100 S.Ct. 1311, 63 L.Ed.2d 758 (1980). Should this Court agree with the federal court, the death penalty imposed on petitioner in the instant case would have to be reconsidered because of the manner in which the crucial psychiatric testimony against him was obtained.

Nevertheless, the Court today permits petitioner, acting pro se, to withdraw his petition for certiorari, thereby setting in motion the steps by which the defendant may be put to death by the State of Texas.⁶ It appears that petitioner does not intend to prosecute any challenge to his conviction and sentence; ⁷ petitioner a...