Hunt v. State
| Citation | 691 A.2d 1255,345 Md. 122 |
| Decision Date | 18 March 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 30,S,30 |
| Parties | Flint Gregory HUNT v. STATE of Maryland. ept.Term 1996. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of Maryland |
Fred Warren Bennett, Assigned Public Defender, Washington, DC, for Appellant.
Gwynn X. Kinsey, Jr., Assistant Attorney General (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General, on brief), Baltimore, for Appellee.
Argued before MURPHY, C.J. * , ELDRIDGE, RODOWSKY, CHASANOW, KARWACKI and BELL, JJ., and MARVIN H. SMITH, Judge (retired), Specially Assigned.
The instant appeal is from the Order of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City denying the second petition for post-conviction relief filed by appellant, Flint Gregory Hunt. This is the fourth time Hunt has sought our review of his capital conviction and sentence. He was convicted by a jury in 1986 of first degree murder and handgun violations. His sentence of death was vacated by us on direct appeal; his murder conviction was affirmed. 1 Hunt v. State, 312 Md. 494, 540 A.2d 1125 (1988). A second jury sentenced Hunt to death following a resentencing hearing. We affirmed that judgment, and his petition to the Supreme Court of the United States for writ of certiorari to review that affirmance was denied. Hunt v. State, 321 Md. 387, 583 A.2d 218 (1990), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 835, 112 S.Ct. 117, 116 L.Ed.2d 86 (1991). He then filed his first petition for post-conviction relief, which was denied by the circuit court after an evidentiary hearing. This Court denied his application for leave to appeal that denial on June 25, 1993, by an unreported order. The Supreme Court denied discretionary review of that matter. Hunt v. Maryland, 510 U.S. 1171, 114 S.Ct. 1206, 127 L.Ed.2d 554 (1994).
Hunt then challenged his conviction and sentence in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland by filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus. His habeas petition was premised upon his belief that, had he been effectively represented by counsel, he would have been convicted of second degree murder, thus removing the death penalty from the range of sentences to which he was exposed. In Hunt v. Smith, 856 F.Supp. 251 (D.Md.1994), the district court rejected Hunt's claim the he had been denied effective assistance of counsel. It also declined to rule that due process encompasses an absolute right to appeal a circuit court's denial of post-conviction relief. His appeal from that court's decision was subsequently consolidated with a motion to vacate that judgment. The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit later affirmed both the district court's denial of habeas corpus relief and the motion to vacate. Hunt v. Nuth, 57 F.3d 1327 (4th Cir.1995), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1054, 116 S.Ct. 724, 133 L.Ed.2d 676 (1996). Much like the district court, it held that Hunt neither received ineffective assistance of counsel nor was deprived of his rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments by virtue of the lack of the ability to obtain appellate review of a denial of post-conviction relief as a matter of right.
Hunt's second petition for post-conviction relief, the subject of the instant appeal, was filed on September 29, 1995. 2 After an evidentiary hearing on the petition, the circuit court issued an Order in which it denied the substance of Hunt's claims. It also stated that, given its decision, the question of Hunt's possible waiver of the issues raised need only be accorded cursory consideration. Without deciding whether a right requiring a Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938), "knowing and intelligent" waiver was involved, see Curtis v. State, 284 Md. 132, 395 A.2d 464 (1978), the hearing court simply found as fact that Hunt had not knowingly and intelligently waived the assignments of error posed in his petition. Following rendition of the circuit court's Order, a Warrant of Execution was obtained. This Court stayed the execution and granted Hunt leave to appeal from the circuit court's denial of his petition. Before this Court, he seeks a new trial or, in the alternative, a resentencing hearing.
Prior to a recitation of the issues presented for our consideration, we shall recount the facts underlying the murder:
"While on patrol the evening of November 18, 1985 at approximately 5:20 p.m., Officer Vincent Adolfo noticed a new Cadillac with a missing window covered with plastic. In addition to the driver, the vehicle contained three other occupants. The officer, following a routine stolen car inquiry, learned that the car had been stolen. He broadcast a description of the occupants of the car and noted that the driver was 'not breaking any laws right now.'
Two officers in separate patrol cars, responding to Officer Adolfo's request for back-up, attempted to block the path of the on-coming Cadillac. Upon nearing the roadblock, the driver, later identified as Hunt, jumped out of the car while it was still moving and ran up a nearby alley. The Cadillac then struck one of the parked patrol cars and stopped; an officer detained the three passengers who were still in the car.
Officer Adolfo pursued Hunt into the alley. Upon apprehending him, the officer positioned him against a wall and tried to handcuff Hunt. Hunt pushed away, knocking the officer off balance. Hunt then pulled a .357 Magnum [single-action revolver] from his jacket and shot Officer Adolfo in the chest at close range. Within seconds, as the officer reeled from the first shot, Hunt shot him again, this time in the back. Hunt fled the scene of the crime. Officer Adolfo was pronounced dead at the hospital at 6 p.m.
In the meantime, Hunt had called his friend, Angelo Williams, and asked him to keep the gun for him, saying that he had just shot a policeman. Hunt and his girl friend, Deborah Powell, then went to his sister's house, only to leave when a television broadcast indicated that Hunt was being sought in connection with the murder. Hunt's sister later testified at trial that Hunt had seemed fine at the time, although Ms. Powell said that Hunt had been taking drugs earlier that afternoon and appeared 'high' when he had left her.
The next day, Hunt and Powell drove to Camden, New Jersey. En route, Hunt admitted to Powell that he had shot the policeman. Hunt then boarded a bus to Santa Monica, California, leaving Powell behind. He was apprehended at a Tulsa, Oklahoma bus station five days later."
Hunt, 312 Md. at 498-99, 540 A.2d at 1126-27. Further facts will be recited as we address the individual questions presented.
At this juncture in the proceedings, Hunt mounts a five-pronged attack upon the circuit court's denial of his petition for post-conviction relief. He asks:
"1. Whether the Circuit Court erred in finding Appellant was not deprived of his right to an impartial jury at his capital resentencing trial when:
(a) one juror who sat (Diana Void) failed to disclose, both at the jury orientation session and on voir dire, a pending criminal charge that would have statutorily disqualified her from jury service under Md. Cts. & Jud. Proc. Art., § 8-207(b)(5) and which would have been a basis for an automatic challenge for cause; and
(b) one juror who sat (Patrick Russ) intentionally failed to respond to a question on voir dire that he had been the victim of a crime of violence which may have provided sufficient basis for a challenge for cause and, at a minimum, created a presumption of juror bias against Russ which remained unrebutted by the State.
2. (a) Whether the Circuit Court erred in finding that the reasonable doubt instructions given at Appellant's guilt/innocence trial and at his capital resentencing trial did not lower the State's burden of proof, contrary to this Court's decision in Wills v. State, 329 Md. 370, 620 A.2d 295 (1993); and
(b) Assuming, arguendo, the reasonable doubt instructions violated Wills, is Appellant entitled to retroactive application of Wills under either Md. Ann.Code art. 27, § 645A(d) or as a matter of federal constitutional law?
3. Whether the Circuit Court erred in its determination that the State did not violate Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150[, 92 S.Ct. 763, 31 L.Ed.2d 104] (1972), Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83[, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215] (1963), and Napue v. Illinois, 360 U.S. 264[, 79 S.Ct. 1173, 3 L.Ed.2d 1217] (1959) by
(a) failing to disclose exculpatory evidence that prior to Appellant's trial the State promised its key witness on premeditation, Aaron McNair, that it would bring his cooperation to the attention of the judge sentencing McNair on a pending assault charge; and
(b) compounding this failure to disclose by deliberately eliciting and then failing to correct Aaron McNair's false testimony about the promise.
4. Whether the State violated Giglio and Napue by eliciting from Aaron McNair false testimony about Appellant "chasing" the officer up the alley as he fired a second shot, or alternatively, whether it violates due process and the prohibition against cruel and/or unusual punishment to carry out an execution when it has been shown that the conviction and sentence were premised on materially false testimony.
5. Whether Appellant's trial attorneys rendered ineffective assistance of counsel when:
(a) they tendered erroneous jury instructions on the effect of voluntary intoxication and failed to object to the instructions as given; and
(b) they failed to object to an improper and confusing instruction on the trial court's definition of first degree murder."
In response, the State asserts that these issues have been waived or finally litigated within the meaning of Maryland Code (1957, 1996 Repl.Vol.), Article 27, § 645A.
This Court first addressed the matter of the failure of a defendant to preserve issues for post-conviction review in Curtis v. State, supra, 284 Md. 132, 395 A.2d 464. Specifically, in that case, we were called upon to determine the scope of Art. 27, § 645A(c) 3; that is,...
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