Hannon v. State
| Citation | 941 So.2d 1109 |
| Decision Date | 31 August 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. SC03-893.,No. SC04-1662.,SC03-893.,SC04-1662. |
| Parties | Patrick Charles HANNON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Patrick Charles Hannon, Petitioner, v. James R. McDonough, etc., Respondent. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Florida |
Neal A. Dupree, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel, and Suzanne Myers Keffer, Assistant CCRC-South, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Appellant/Petitioner.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, Florida, and Katherine V. Blanco, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, FL, for Appellee/Respondent.
Patrick Charles Hannon appeals an order of the circuit court denying his motion for postconviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850.1 Hannon also petitions the Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const.
Patrick C. Hannon was convicted of the first-degree murders of Brandon Snider and Robert Carter. See Hannon v. State, 638 So.2d 39, 41 (Fla.1994). The jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. See id. Following that recommendation, the trial court imposed separate death sentences on Hannon for the murders of Snider and Carter. See id. On direct appeal, this Court affirmed Hannon's convictions and sentences. See id. at 44. There, the Court detailed the facts surrounding the murder:
Around Christmas 1990, Brandon Snider, a resident of Tampa, went to Indiana to visit relatives. While there, he went to the home of Toni Acker, a former girlfriend, and vandalized her bedroom. On January 9, 1991, Snider returned to Tampa.
On January 10, 1991, Hannon, Ron Richardson, and Jim Acker went to the apartment where Snider and Robert Carter lived. Snider opened the door and was immediately attacked by Acker, who is Toni Acker's brother. Acker stabbed Snider multiple times. When Acker was finished, Hannon cut Snider's throat. During the attack, Snider's screams drew the attention of his neighbors. They also drew the attention of Carter, who was upstairs. Hearing the screams, Carter came downstairs and saw what was happening. He then went back upstairs and hid under his bed. Hannon and Acker followed Carter upstairs. Then Hannon shot Carter six times, killing him.
In July 1991, Hannon was brought to trial for the murders of Snider and Carter. [N. 1] During the trial, Richardson reached an agreement with the State. He pled guilty to being an accessory after the fact and testified against Hannon. Hannon was found guilty of both murders. After a penalty proceeding, the jury unanimously recommended death.
[N. 1] Acker was tried in a separate proceeding, was convicted, and was sentenced to two life sentences.
In sentencing Hannon to death, the trial judge found three aggravating circumstances applicable to both the murders of Snider and Carter—(1) previous conviction of a violent felony (the contemporaneous killings); (2) the murders were committed during the commission of a burglary; and (3) the murders were heinous, atrocious, or cruel (HAC). See id. With regard to Carter, the trial court found the additional aggravating factor that the murder was committed to avoid or prevent a lawful arrest. See id. In mitigation, the trial court considered testimony from Hannon's mother and father that Hannon was not a violent person and also considered that Hannon's original codefendant, Richardson, was no longer facing the death penalty. See id. The trial court found no statutory mitigating factors. See id. The trial court found that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors and sentenced Hannon to death for each murder. See id. On direct appeal, this Court upheld Hannon's convictions and sentences. See id. at 44.
On direct appeal, Hannon asserted the following issues: the trial court erred in striking prospective jurors Ling and Troxler for cause; the trial court erred in admitting certain statements by a prosecution witness, over defense objection; the trial court erred in admitting into evidence the bloody shorts and shirt worn by Snider when he was murdered and the testimony of Judith Bunker, a forensic consultant in the field of blood stain pattern analysis and crime scene reconstruction; the HAC instruction given to the jury was unconstitutionally vague; the facts of the instant case did not support the finding of HAC; the evidence did not support the aggravating circumstance that the murder of Carter was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing lawful arrest; Florida's HAC aggravating circumstance itself is unconstitutionally vague, is applied in an arbitrary and capricious manner, and does not genuinely narrow the class of persons eligible for the death penalty; the facts do not support the prior violent felony aggravating factor; and the sentencing order was insufficient. See id. at 41-44. This Court denied all of Hannon's claims. See id.
On March 17, 1997, Hannon filed a shell motion for postconviction relief presenting 34 claims. Hannon filed an amended motion to vacate judgment on April 10, 2000, presenting 21 claims.2 A Huff3 hearing was held on November 16, 2001.4 On that same day, the trial court issued an order reflecting its determination that an evidentiary hearing was required to address seven of Hannon's claims.5 The evidentiary hearing was conducted on February 18, 2002, and June 21, 2002. On February 3, 2003, the trial court issued an order denying Hannon postconviction relief. This appeal followed.
Hannon asserts that his trial counsel, Joseph Episcopo, provided ineffective assistance in failing to depose Ron Richardson or request a continuance; in failing to adequately prepare for the State's blood spatter expert, Judith Bunker; and in failing to question Michelle Helm with regard to Ron Richardson's alleged jealousy. Following the United States Supreme Court's decision in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), this Court has held that for ineffective assistance of counsel claims to be successful, two requirements must be satisfied:
First, the claimant must identify particular acts or omissions of the lawyer that are shown to be outside the broad range of reasonably competent performance under prevailing professional standards.
Second, the clear, substantial deficiency shown must further be demonstrated to have so affected the fairness and reliability of the proceeding that confidence in the outcome is undermined.
Maxwell v. Wainwright, 490 So.2d 927, 932 (Fla.1986). Because both prongs of the Strickland test present mixed questions of law and fact, this Court employs a mixed standard of review, deferring to the circuit court's factual findings (if they are supported by competent, substantial evidence), but reviewing the circuit court's legal conclusions de novo. See Stephens v. State, 748 So.2d 1028, 1032 (Fla.1999).
There is a strong presumption that trial counsel's performance was not ineffective. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 690, 104 S.Ct. 2052. A fair assessment of attorney performance requires that "every effort be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel's challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel's perspective at the time." Id. at 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052. The defendant carries the burden to "overcome the presumption that, under the circumstances, the challenged action `might be considered sound trial strategy.'" Id. (quoting Michel v. Louisiana, 350 U.S. 91, 101, 76 S.Ct. 158, 100 L.Ed. 83 (1955)). "Judicial scrutiny of counsel's performance must be highly deferential." Id. It is under this legal framework that Hannon's claims are addressed.
A. Failure to Depose Ron Richardson or Request a Continuance
Hannon asserts that trial counsel was deficient in failing to depose Ron Richardson after discovering during trial that Richardson was to testify against Hannon. Hannon claims that trial counsel had a duty to investigate Richardson's relationship with Hannon and his influence on Hannon, as well as to impeach Richardson. This Court has held that "when a failure to depose is alleged as a part of an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, the appellant must specifically set forth the harm from the alleged omission." Brown v. State, 846 So.2d 1114, 1124 (Fla.2003) (citing Magill v. State, 457 So.2d 1367, 1370 (Fla.1984)).
At the evidentiary hearing, Hannon's trial counsel testified that the defense theory was an alibi defense, specifically that neither Hannon nor Richardson was at the crime scene when the crimes were committed, and that both Hannon and Richardson were playing a drinking game at Richardson's house the night of the crimes.6 Trial counsel testified that he did not direct any investigation into Richardson's background and did not remember if he had ever obtained Richardson's criminal history before the trial began. Trial counsel further testified that he did not obtain any additional investigative material concerning Richardson's relationship with Hannon after Richardson, in a surprise move, turned to testify for the State during trial. Trial counsel stated that the trial judge offered him an opportunity to depose Richardson after the State disclosed during trial that Richardson would be presented as a witness for the State but Hannon's trial counsel decided that he would not conduct a deposition at that point because he believed Richardson's story was totally fabricated, and that his best trial strategy was to question Richardson immediately in the presence of the jury instead of creating an opportunity for Richardson to rehearse his testimony during a deposition.
Counsel cannot be deemed ineffective merely because...
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