House v. Bell
| Decision Date | 22 November 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 00-6136.,00-6136. |
| Citation | 311 F.3d 767 |
| Parties | Paul Gregory HOUSE, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Ricky BELL, Warden, Respondent-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Stephen M. Kissinger (argued and briefed), Federal Defender Services, Knoxville, TN, for Petitioner-Appellant.
Alice B. Lustre, Jennifer L. Smith (argued and briefed), Office of the Attorney General, Nashville, TN, Michael E. Moore (briefed), Solicitor General, Paul G. Summers (briefed), Attorney General, Tennessee Attorney General's Office, Civil Litigation & State Services Div., Nashville, TN, for Respondent-Appellee.
Before: MARTIN, Chief Circuit Judge; MERRITT, BOGGS, NORRIS, SILER, BATCHELDER, DAUGHTREY, MOORE, COLE, CLAY, and GILMAN, Circuit Judges.
BOGGS, J. (pp. 779-787), delivered a separate dissenting opinion, in which ALAN E. NORRIS, SILER, and BATCHELDER, JJ., joined. GILMAN, J. (p. 787-780), also delivered a separate dissenting opinion.
OPINION
In this death penalty case from Tennessee, the habeas petitioner presents a strong claim of "actual innocence" or "miscarriage of justice," as we will outline below. The Supreme Court has assumed that "in a capital case a truly persuasive demonstration of `actual innocence' made after trial would render the execution of a defendant unconstitutional, and warrant habeas relief if there were no state avenue open to process such a claim." Schlup v. Delo 513 U.S. 298, 314 n. 28, 115 S.Ct. 851, 130 L.Ed.2d 808 (1995)(quoting Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390, 417, 113 S.Ct. 853, 122 L.Ed.2d 203 (1993))(O'Connor, J., concurring)(emphasis added). Justice O'Connor has referred to such an execution as a "constitutionally intolerable event." 506 U.S. at 417, 113 S.Ct. 853. As a matter of traditional comity and respect for our colleagues on the Supreme Court of Tennessee, we therefore certify certain questions to that Court in order to ascertain whether there remains a "state avenue open to process such a claim" in this case. In both capital and non-capital habeas cases, the United States Supreme Court has certified in similar situations important questions of state law which "would assist in framing the precise federal constitutional issues presented." Zant v. Stephens, 462 U.S. 862, 870, 103 S.Ct. 2733, 77 L.Ed.2d 235 (1983). For a recent certification by the Supreme Court to the Supreme Court of Arizona in a death case, see Stewart v. Smith, 534 U.S. 157, 122 S.Ct. 1143, 151 L.Ed.2d 592 (2001). We will follow that pattern of certification in this case.
The petitioner, Paul House, has been sentenced to death on the basis of a set of facts that now turns out to be false in significant respects. The prosecution's theory of the case, as argued and no doubt as accepted by the jury, was that House raped the victim and then concealed the rape by murdering her. DNA evidence has now conclusively shown that the semen introduced at House's trial to prove his sexual assault was not his semen but rather the semen of the victim's husband. In addition, two other significant events have occurred since the death penalty was imposed to cast doubt on the accuracy of the jury's verdict: first, the testimony of two independent witnesses that the victim's husband admitted that he, not the defendant, killed his wife; and second, the Assistant Chief Medical Examiner of the State of Tennessee has now concluded that the blood found on House's blue jeans was identical to the victim's blood in the vials obtained during autopsy and not consistent with blood that came from the victim at the time of the murder. As the Tennessee Supreme Court explained in reviewing House's conviction, House "never confessed to any part in the homicide, and the testimony linking him to it was circumstantial." State v. House, 743 S.W.2d 141, 143 (1987).
The dead body of Carolyn Muncey, a resident of rural Union County, Tennessee, was found on the afternoon of July 14, 1985, lying partially concealed in a brush pile at the bottom of a wooded embankment within 100 yards of her home. The previous evening, Mrs. Muncey and her two children had visited a neighbor and left at about 9:30 p.m. to return home. Muncey's older child, ten year old Laura,1 testified at trial that she was awakened late that evening by the sound of a car horn. She testified that she heard a deep voice that sounded like her grandfather asking about her father. The same voice told her mother that her father had been in a car wreck near the creek. Laura further stated that she heard her mother sobbing or crying as she left the house. When her mother did not return, the two children went to look for her at neighboring homes. Not finding her, they returned home and waited until their father Hubert Muncey arrived. Discovering that his wife was missing, he took the children back to the home of the neighbor they had visited earlier and then called for members of his family to look for his wife.
When the body of Carolyn Muncey was discovered the next afternoon, she was dressed in her nightgown, housecoat, and underclothing. Her body had significant bruises, and there were abrasions indicating a physical struggle. There was also evidence of attempted strangulation. According to Dr. Carabia, a forensic pathologist, a blow to her left forehead resulting in a concussion and hemorrhage to the right side of her brain caused her death. Carabia also testified at trial that the victim was probably knocked unconscious by the blow to the head, and died within an hour or two. He estimated the time of her death as between 9 and 11 p.m. on Saturday, July 13, but emphasized that it was a rough estimate.
The testimonial evidence presented at trial implicated both the defendant and the victim's husband, Hubert Muncey. Muncey's alibi for the night of July 13 was that he spent the evening at the weekly C & C Recreation Center community dance and did not leave until midnight. Several individuals confirmed that he was at the dance, but no one confirmed his presence there late in the evening. The following morning Muncey went to the house of a neighbor, Artie Lawson, and asked her to lie for him as an alibi witness and say that she had seen him at the dance around midnight. The record shows that at the time of the murder Mrs. Muncey and her husband had been having marital difficulties. He had been physically abusing her and she had been contemplating leaving him. Muncey's history of abusing his wife was well-known within the local community, and he acknowledged that he "smacked" his wife on more than one occasion.
The testimonial evidence presented at trial also implicated House. There was evidence showing that he was acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. Muncey and had been with them socially on a few occasions, but there was no evidence to indicate that House was aware of the Muncey's marital situation, or that there had been any previous romantic or sexual relationship between him and the victim.
In addition, on the day following the victim's disappearance, Billy Ray Hensley, a close friend of Hubert Muncey, saw Paul House on Ridgecrest Road near the site where Mrs. Muncey's body was later found concealed in the underbrush. According to Hensley, House emerged from the embankment where the body was found and was wiping his hands with a dark cloth. Hensley spoke briefly with House and left the scene. Later Hensley and a friend returned to the scene, and went to the point where he had purportedly seen House emerge from the embankment. Looking down the bank, they found the partially concealed body of Mrs. Muncey.
House admitted that he had been in the area but denied that he had seen the body of Mrs. Muncey or had any knowledge of its presence. In addition, the dark rag which he had been using when first seen was never produced. It was the theory of the State, however, that this was a dark tank top which House was shown to have been wearing on the previous evening. Hensley's testimony that he saw House emerging from the embankment was partially discredited at trial by his own statement that he saw House from about 500 feet down Ridgecrest Road, a location where the defense proved by photographic evidence that it would have been impossible for House to have been seen down the embankment.
In the days following the homicide, House gave two statements to investigating officers in which he denied being involved in the homicide. In both of these statements he stated that he had been at the trailer of his girlfriend Donna Turner the entire evening of July 13 and that he had not left until the next afternoon when he went to look for Hubert Muncey after learning of the disappearance of the latter's wife. Ms. Turner initially corroborated his alibi, but later modified her testimony to state that he had been in the trailer until about 10:45 p.m. at which time he left to take a walk. She stated that he did not take her automobile.2 When he returned an hour or so later, he was panting, hot and exhausted. He was no longer wearing either his blue tank top or his tennis shoes. The shoes were later found in an area different from the place where House told her he had lost them, but did not have blood stains on them. House told Ms. Turner that he had thrown away the navy blue tank top because it had been torn when he was assaulted by some persons who tried to kill him.
At trial, three key pieces of physical evidence implicated House. First, House had numerous scratches and bruises on his arms, hands and body, with an especially significant bruise on the knuckle of his right ring finger. House explained that these injuries had been sustained innocently earlier during the prior week, but when Ms. Turner was called as a witness, she said that she had not observed them prior to the evening...
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