Jacobs v. Horn
| Decision Date | 20 January 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 01-9000.,01-9000. |
| Citation | 395 F.3d 92 |
| Parties | Daniel JACOBS, Appellant v. Martin HORN, Commissioner, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections; Conner Blaine, Jr., Superintendent of the State Correctional Institution, Greene County; Joseph P. Mazurkiewicz, Superintendent of the State Correctional Institution at Rockview. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Stuart B. Lev, (Argued), Matthew C. Lawry, Defender Association of Philadelphia, Federal Capital Habeas Corpus Unit, Philadelphia, for Appellant.
Jonelle H. Eshbach, (Argued), Office of Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, for Appellees.
Before SCIRICA, Chief Judge, McKEE and FUENTES, Circuit Judges.
OPINION OF THE COURT
Pennsylvania inmate Daniel Jacobs was sentenced to death for murdering his girlfriend Tammy Mock and to life in prison for murdering their baby Holly Jacobs. On federal habeas review, the District Court concluded that Jacobs' trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance during the penalty phase for failing to investigate and present mitigating evidence concerning Jacobs' cognitive and emotional impairments and his childhood and family background. The District Court conditionally granted a writ of habeas corpus to allow the Commonwealth to resentence Jacobs. The District Court rejected each of Jacobs' remaining challenges to his convictions and sentences.
Jacobs now appeals from the District Court's denial of federal habeas relief on several of his claims challenging his convictions.1
For the following reasons, we will reverse the District Court's denial of habeas corpus relief on Jacobs' claim that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance during the guilt phase by failing to adequately investigate, prepare, and present mental health evidence in support of his diminished capacity defense. We will affirm the District Court's denial of habeas corpus relief on each of Jacobs' remaining claims.
Daniel Jacobs and his girlfriend Tammy Mock lived in an apartment in York, Pennsylvania, with their seven-month-old daughter Holly Jacobs. In February 1992, York police received a telephone call from Jacobs' mother, Delois Jacobs, in Virginia, who under a fictitious identity asked them to check on Tammy and Holly. This telephone call prompted the police to check the apartment, where they found Tammy and Holly dead in the bathtub. Tammy had been stabbed more than 200 times. Holly died from drowning and had no stab wounds or evidence of trauma. The police tracked down Delois, who gave a statement that Jacobs had admitted in telephone conversations that he had killed both Tammy and Holly. Delois also testified at a preliminary hearing that Jacobs admitted killing Tammy and Holly.
In preparation for trial, counsel consulted with Dr. Robert Davis, a psychiatrist with a clinical and forensic practice. Dr. Davis conducted a mental health evaluation of Jacobs regarding his criminal responsibility and competency to stand trial. Counsel did not inform Dr. Davis that Jacobs was subject to the death penalty, and did not provide him with materials concerning Jacobs' background or the background of the offenses. Dr. Davis reported orally to counsel that he found no evidence of a major mental illness. At counsel's request, Dr. Davis did not prepare a written report.
Jacobs was tried before a jury in the York County Court of Common Pleas for the first degree murders of Tammy and Holly. At trial, Jacobs denied killing Holly. He testified that Tammy killed Holly and that he stabbed Tammy to death after losing control at the sight of Holly dead in the bathtub. He presented a heat of passion and diminished capacity defense, i.e., that he was incapable of forming a specific intent to kill her given his mental state at the time of the killing. Delois testified that Jacobs admitted in his telephone calls that he killed Tammy, but that she could not remember whether he also admitted that he killed Holly. The Commonwealth presented Delois' pretrial statements that Jacobs admitted to killing both Tammy and Holly.
The jury found Jacobs guilty of murder in the first degree of both Tammy and Holly. Jacobs was sentenced to death for murdering Tammy and to life in prison for murdering Holly. On direct appeal, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the judgments of sentence. Commonwealth v. Jacobs, 536 Pa. 402, 639 A.2d 786 (1994) ("Jacobs I"). Jacobs pursued state collateral relief under Pennsylvania's Post Conviction Relief Act ("PCRA"). The PCRA court conducted hearings and denied all relief in an oral decision rendered June 13, 1997. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed. Commonwealth v. Jacobs, 556 Pa. 138, 727 A.2d 545 (1999) ("Jacobs II").
Jacobs then filed the current habeas corpus petition in the District Court, in which he presented fifteen claims for relief.2 Without conducting an evidentiary hearing, the District Court granted habeas relief as to Jacobs' claim of ineffective assistance of counsel during the penalty phase for failing to investigate and present mitigating evidence concerning Jacobs' cognitive and emotional impairments, and evidence that he suffers from the effects of a traumatic and neglectful childhood. Jacobs v. Horn, 129 F.Supp.2d 390, 405-08 (M.D.Pa.2001) ("Jacobs III"). According to the District Court, if counsel had investigated Jacobs' background and childhood, he would have discovered the following facts. Jacobs' mother Delois drank heavily while she was pregnant with Jacobs. His alcoholic father severely beat her in the presence of their children. After Delois left Jacobs' father when Jacobs was very young, she was involved in relationships with several men who drank heavily and abused her, as well as Jacobs. Jacobs' older brother also beat him constantly and stabbed him on one occasion. When he was about six years old, Jacobs suffered brain damage due to a car accident. As a young teenager, Jacobs often acted like a child and required his mother's assistance in getting dressed. Relatives who visited the home sometimes found Jacobs sitting at home undressed, dirty, and unkempt. One of Delois' boyfriends, with whom she was involved for about ten years, would become intoxicated with Jacobs then fly into a rage and beat him. As Jacobs grew older, he attempted to assist his mother by working but was unable to find and maintain employment.
Based on counsel's failure to discover and present mitigating evidence3 at the penalty phase, the District Court conditionally granted the writ of habeas corpus to allow the Commonwealth to resentence Jacobs for murdering Tammy. Id. at 423. The District Court found each of Jacobs' remaining challenges to his convictions either lacking in merit or procedurally barred from federal habeas review. Jacobs timely appealed. The District Court issued a certificate of appealability and stayed its order pending appeal.
Our jurisdiction is based on 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 2253. The District Court had jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 2241 and 2254. Because the District Court ruled on Jacobs' habeas corpus petition without conducting an evidentiary hearing, our review of the District Court's decision is plenary. See Marshall v. Hendricks, 307 F.3d 36, 50 (3d Cir.2002).
We apply the same standards as the District Court, as mandated by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"):
An application for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court shall not be granted with respect to any claim that was adjudicated on the merits in State court proceedings unless the adjudication of the claim —
(1) resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States; or
(2) resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.
28 U.S.C. § 2254(d); Marshall, 307 F.3d at 50. A federal habeas court must presume that a state court's findings of fact are correct. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1). The petitioner bears the burden of rebutting the presumption of correctness by clear and convincing evidence. Id.
A state court decision is contrary to Supreme Court precedent under § 2254(d)(1) where the state court reached a "`conclusion opposite to that reached by Court on a question of law or if the state court decides a case differently than Court has on a set of materially indistinguishable facts.'" Marshall, 307 F.3d at 51 (quoting Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 413, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000)). A state court decision is an unreasonable application under § 2254(d)(1) if the court "identifies the correct governing legal rule from the Supreme Court's cases but unreasonably applies it to the facts of the particular case or if the state court either unreasonably extends a legal principle from the Supreme Court's precedent to a new context where it should not apply or unreasonably refuses to extend that principle to a new context where it should apply." Gattis v. Snyder, 278 F.3d 222, 228 (3d Cir.2002) (citing Williams, 529 U.S. at 407, 120 S.Ct. 1495). The unreasonable application test is an objective one — a federal court may not grant habeas relief merely because it concludes that the state court applied federal law erroneously or incorrectly. Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 520-21, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003); Gattis, 278 F.3d at 228.
AEDPA's deferential standards of review do not apply "unless it is clear from the face of the state court decision that the merits of the petitioner's constitutional...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Com. v. Tedford
...barring Federal habeas corpus relief." See 42 Pa.C.S. § 9543(a)(3)(iii) (repealed effective January 16, 1996). Citing Jacobs v. Horn, 395 F.3d 92, 117-18 (3d Cir.2005), appellant contends that federal habeas law in the Third Circuit does not recognize "procedural default" for Pennsylvania c......
-
Mandeville v. Smeal, CIVIL ACTION NO. 3:CV-09-1125
...held that Pennsylvania's test for assessing ineffective assistance of counsel claims is not contrary to Strickland. Jacobs v. Horn, 395 F.3d 92, 107 n.9 (3d Cir. 2005); Werts v. Vaughn, 228 F.3d 178, 204 (3d Cir. 2000). Thus, under § 2254(d)(1), the relevant inquiry in assessing ineffective......
-
Dickey v. Davis
...excludes] others, there is a strong presumption that he did so for tactical reasons rather than through sheer neglect." Jacobs v. Horn , 395 F.3d 92, 118 (3d Cir. 2005), citing Yarborough v. Gentry , 540 U.S. 1, 8, 124 S.Ct. 1, 157 L.Ed.2d 1 (2003) ; cf. People v. Lucas , 12 Cal.4th 415, 48......
-
Boretsky v. Ricci
...the instruction in a manner that relieved the Commonwealth of its burden of proof with respect to first degree murder"); Jacobs v. Horn, 395 F. 3d 92, 111 (3d Cir. 2005) ("On federal habeas review, the relevant question is 'whether the ailing instruction by itself so infected the entire tri......