Jeffers v. Lewis

• Decision Date: 31 August 1992
• Docket Number: No. 86-1840,86-1840
• Citation: 974 F.2d 1075
• Parties: Jimmie Wayne JEFFERS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Samuel A. LEWIS, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Donald Wawrzaszek, Superintendent, Arizona State Prison, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1075

974 F.2d 1075

Jimmie Wayne JEFFERS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Samuel A. LEWIS, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Donald Wawrzaszek, Superintendent Arizona State Prison, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 86-1840.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted July 24, 1991.

Decided Aug. 31, 1992.

Donald S. Klein and Frank P. Leto, Deputy Public Defenders, Pima County Public Defender, Tucson, Ariz., for petitioner-appellant.

Paul J. McMurdie, Chief Counsel, Asst. Atty. Gen., Phoenix, Ariz., attorney for respondents-appellees.

On remand from the United States Supreme Court.

Before: PREGERSON and CANBY, Circuit Judges, and WILSON, District Judge ^*

PREGERSON, Circuit Judge:

Jeffers was convicted of murder in Arizona state court and sentenced to death. After the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and sentence, Jeffers petitioned the United States District Court for a writ of habeas corpus. The writ was denied, 627 F.Supp. 1334, and Jeffers appealed to this court. With regard to the issues raised by Jeffers's conviction, we affirmed the district court's decision to deny the writ. But we reversed the district court's decision to deny the writ with regard to the sentence of death. Jeffers v. Ricketts, 832 F.2d 476 (9th Cir.1987). The Supreme Court then reversed our ruling on the sentence, Lewis v. Jeffers, 497 U.S. 764, 110 S.Ct. 3092, 111 L.Ed.2d 606 (1990), and returned this case to us for resolution of the issues we did not consider earlier. Now, after considering these remaining issues regarding the constitutionality of the sentence of death, we again reverse the district court and remand for issuance of the writ.

I

The Arizona capital sentencing statute requires the state trial court to preside over an evidentiary hearing on the existence of aggravating and mitigating factors. The trial court is required to make findings on the existence of any aggravating factors listed in the statute. If the trial court finds any aggravating factors, it must then make findings on the existence of mitigating factors. The final step requires the trial court to impose a sentence of death if it determines that there are no mitigating factors sufficiently substantial to call for leniency.

At the time Jeffers was sentenced in 1980, the statute listed five specific mitigating factors. Ariz.Rev.Stat. 13-703(G)(1)-(5). It also had been amended to include a general catch-all provision which made it clear, in accordance with the Supreme Court's decision in Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978), that the list of mitigating factors was not exclusive. Thus, the amended statute provides that mitigating circumstances include "any factors proffered by the defendant or the state which are relevant in determining whether to impose a sentence less than death, including any aspect of the defendant's character, propensities or record and any of the circumstances of the offense...." Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-703(G). In this opinion, we use the label "nonstatutory" mitigating factors to refer to mitigating factors that are not specifically enumerated in subsections (G)(1)-(G)(5), but are nevertheless included in the broad catch-all provision required by Lockett.

The trial court sentenced Jeffers to death on the basis of two aggravating circumstances. First, the sentencing court found that, while committing the crime, Jeffers knowingly created a grave risk of death to another person in addition to the victim. Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-703(F)(3). Second, the trial court found that Jeffers committed the crime in a manner that was "especially heinous, cruel and depraved." Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-703(F)(6).

The Arizona Supreme Court held that the "grave risk of death" aggravating circumstance did not apply to the facts of the case. State v. Jeffers, 135 Ariz. 404, 661 P.2d 1105, 1129-30, cert. denied, 464 U.S. 865, 104 S.Ct. 199, 78 L.Ed.2d 174 (1983). The Arizona Supreme Court also held that the murder was not especially cruel but affirmed the finding that it was especially heinous and depraved. 661 P.2d at 1130-31. The Arizona Supreme Court thus reversed the finding of one aggravating circumstance and modified the finding on the second. Nevertheless, instead of remanding the case to the trial court for resentencing, the Arizona Supreme Court affirmed Jeffers's sentence of death.

In part II, we explain that the Arizona courts failed to consider adequately certain mitigating evidence advanced by Jeffers. In part III, we discuss the consequences of the Arizona Supreme Court's ruling that the sentencing court relied on an invalid aggravating factor. We conclude that the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the sentence of death without carefully reweighing the mitigating evidence in light of the one remaining aggravating factor. The sentence of death therefore cannot stand.

II

Jeffers argues that the sentencing court in this case failed to consider adequately certain mitigating evidence. In mitigation, Jeffers introduced evidence of heroin addiction, of heroin use and alcohol intoxication at the time of the murder. He presented the history of his stormy love-hate relationship with the victim, including evidence that she had provoked him by informing on him to the police. In addition, Jeffers introduced evidence that he continued to deny involvement in the murder when he spoke with a psychiatrist while under the influence of sodium amytal.

We conclude that the sentencing court failed to consider adequately Jeffers's evidence in mitigation. We further conclude that the sentencing court's error was not cured by the Arizona Supreme Court's review of Jeffers's sentence. Under our decision in Smith v. McCormick, 914 F.2d 1153 (9th Cir.1990), the sentence of death cannot stand.

A

In considering the evidence that Jeffers was a heroin addict and was under the influence of heroin and alcohol at the time of the murder, the sentencing court inquired whether the evidence satisfied the first specific mitigating circumstance described in the statute. See Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-703(G)(1). Subsection (G)(1) provides that there is a mitigating circumstance if "[t]he defendant's capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was significantly impaired, but not so impaired as to constitute a defense to prosecution." Id. Applying the standard of that statutory mitigating circumstance, the sentencing court declined to find that Jeffers was "significantly impaired" in his ability to conform to the law or to understand that his actions were wrong. The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed the sentencing court's conclusion that the statutory mitigating circumstance of significant impairment was not proved. State v. Jeffers, 135 Ariz. 404, 661 P.2d 1105, 1132 (1983).

The sentencing court, however, did not consider the evidence of addiction and intoxication as a nonstatutory mitigating circumstance. Such consideration is mandated under the holding of Smith v. McCormick, 914 F.2d 1153 (9th Cir.1990). In Smith, the Montana courts erred by rejecting mitigating evidence of mental impairment simply because it did not rise to a level substantial enough to satisfy the wording of Montana's statutory mitigating circumstance. "Because the evidence of mental impairment did not rise to the statutory level of 'extreme' or 'substantial,' the evidence was 'rejected' as a mitigating circumstance, rather than considered, as a mitigating circumstance of lesser weight, along with other factors." Smith, 914 F.2d at 1167.

The sentencing court in Jeffers's case erred in the same manner as the Montana courts did in Smith. Once the sentencing court concluded that Jeffers's narcotics addiction and alcohol intoxication did not meet the statutory standard of "significant impairment," it ended its inquiry. Jeffers's mitigating evidence of drug and alcohol intoxication received no further consideration. ¹ If the sentencing court had conducted the proper inquiry, it would have gone on to consider whether this evidence of drug and alcohol use was nevertheless sufficient to establish a nonstatutory mitigating circumstance, possibly in combination with other nonstatutory mitigating evidence. ²

The second mitigating factor specified in the statute applies if "[t]he defendant was under unusual and substantial duress, although not such as to constitute a defense to prosecution." Ariz.Rev.Stat. § 13-703(G)(2). It was under this factor that the sentencing court analyzed Jeffers's evidence of his emotional love-hate relationship with the victim and the evidence that she provoked Jeffers by informing on him to law enforcement authorities. The sentencing court determined that this evidence did not satisfy the statutory mitigating circumstance of "unusual and substantial duress," and the state supreme court affirmed. 661 P.2d at 1132. Under Smith v. McCormick, however, the sentencer is required to go on to consider whether the evidence is sufficient to establish a nonstatutory mitigating circumstance. In doing so, the sentencer must consider the evidence in combination with other relevant nonstatutory mitigating evidence, such as Jeffers's intoxication and heroin addiction. The special verdict of the sentencing court does not suggest that it considered this mitigating evidence any further, either separately or in combination, after determining that it failed to qualify as a statutory mitigating factor.

As a third element in mitigation, Jeffers presented evidence that he continued to deny involvement in the murder when he spoke with a psychiatrist under the influence of sodium amytal. The fact that Jeffers denied his guilt under such circumstances provides additional evidentiary support for the proposition that Jeffers committed the crime while suffering from some degree of mental impairment. See Godfrey v. Kemp, 836 F.2d 1557, 1559 (11th Cir.1988). The sentencing court did not discuss the sodium...