Kasi v. Angelone
| Decision Date | 10 January 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV.A. 200CV470.,CIV.A. 200CV470. |
| Citation | 200 F.Supp.2d 585 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia |
| Parties | Mir Aimal KASI, Petitioner, v. Ronald J. ANGELONE, Director of the Virginia Department of Corrections, Respondent. |
Richard J. Cromwell, McGuire Woods LLP, Norfolk, Charles R. Burke, Virginia Beach, for Petitioner.
Katherine P. Baldwin, Robert Q. Harris, Office of the Attorney General, Richmond, for Respondent.
This matter was initiated on December 11, 2000, by a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under Title 28, United States Code, Section 2254 filed by Mir Aimal Kasi ("petitioner"). On November 10, 1997, the petitioner was convicted of capital murder, first degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding, and five counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. On February 4, 1998, the petitioner was sentenced to death for capital murder, life imprisonment for first degree murder, twenty years of imprisonment per act for the malicious wounding counts, and a total of eighteen years for the five firearm charges. The petitioner's section 2254 petition alleges violations of the federal rights pertaining to the petitioner's apprehension in Pakistan and a number of constitutional violations at trial and sentencing.
The facts relating to Kasi's actions have been fully set forth by the Supreme Court of Virginia in Kasi v. Commonwealth, 256 Va. 407, 508 S.E.2d 57 (1998), cert. denied, 527 U.S. 1038, 119 S.Ct. 2399, 144 L.Ed.2d 798 (1999), and by Magistrate Judge Bradberry in his September 12, 2001 Report and Recommendation ("R & R") currently before this court. Because the following review of petitioner's claims are so intertwined with the facts of the case, the court will briefly provide a summary here.
On Monday, January 25, 1993, near 8:00 a.m., a number of automobiles were stopped in two north-bound, left-turn lanes on Route 123 in Fairfax County at the main entrance to the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The vehicle operators had stopped for a red traffic light and were waiting to turn into the entrance.
At the same time, a lone gunman emerged from another vehicle, which he had stopped behind the automobiles. The gunman, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, proceeded to move among the automobiles firing the weapon into them. Within a few seconds, Frank Darling and Lansing Bennett were killed and Nicholas Starr, Calvin Morgan, and Stephen Williams were wounded by the gunshots. All the victims were CIA employees and were operators of separate automobiles. The gunman, later identified as defendant Mir Aimal Kasi, also known as Mir Aimal Kansi, fled the scene.
At this time, defendant, a native of Pakistan, was residing in an apartment in Reston with a friend, Zahed Mir. Defendant was employed as a driver for a local courier service and was familiar with the area surrounding the CIA entrance.
The day after the shootings, defendant returned to Pakistan. Two days later, Mir reported to the police that defendant was a "missing person."
On February 8, 1993, the police searched Mir's apartment and discovered the weapon used in the shootings as well as other property of defendant. Defendant had purchased the weapon in Fairfax County three days prior to commission of the crimes.
On February 16, 1993, defendant was indicted for the following offenses arising from the events of January 25th: Capital murder of Darling as part of the same act that killed Bennett, Code § 18.2-31(7); murder of Bennett, Code § 18.2-32; malicious woundings of Starr, Morgan, and Williams, Code § 18.2-51; and five charges of using a firearm in commission of the foregoing felonies, Code § 18.2-53.1.
Nearly four and one-half years later, on June 15, 1997, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) apprehended defendant in a hotel room in Pakistan. Defendant had been travelling [sic] in Afghanistan during the entire period, except for brief visits to Pakistan.
On June 17, 1997, defendant was flown from Pakistan to Fairfax County in the custody of FBI agents. During the flight, after signing a written rights waiver form, defendant gave an oral and written confession of the crimes to FBI agent Bradley J. Garrett.
Following 15 pretrial hearings, defendant was tried by a single jury during ten days in November 1997 upon his plea of not guilty to the indictments. The jury found defendant guilty of all charges and during the second phase of the bifurcated capital proceeding, fixed defendant's punishment at death based upon the vileness predicate of the capital murder sentencing statute, Code § 19.2-264.4.
On February 4, 1998, after three post-trial hearings, during one of which the trial court considered a probation officer's report, the court sentenced defendant to death for the capital murder. Also, the court sentenced defendant to the following punishment in accord with the jury's verdict: For the first-degree murder of Bennett, life imprisonment and a $100,000 fine; for each of the malicious woundings 20 years', imprisonment and a $100,000 fine; and for the firearms charges, two years in prison for the one charge and four years in prison for each of the remaining four charges.
After the petitioner was convicted and sentenced for his crimes, he promptly appealed to the Supreme Court of Virginia, listing ninety-two assignments of error.1 In its opinion, the Supreme Court of Virginia dismissed a number of errors on procedural grounds. The court analyzed a number of assignments of error on the merits and ultimately rejected all of them. Accordingly, on November 6, 1998, the petitioner's direct appeal was denied. A petition for rehearing was denied on January 8, 1999, and a petition for writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court was denied on June 24, 1999. Kasi v. Virginia, 527 U.S. 1038, 119 S.Ct. 2399, 144 L.Ed.2d 798 (1999).
On August 23, 1999, the petitioner filed for writ of habeas corpus in the Supreme Court of Virginia. After resubmitting the petition to comply with the page limit requirements of the court, the petition contained five major categories. Categories I and II concerned the petitioner's arrest, removal from Pakistan, and return to Virginia for trial. Category III dealt with the constitutionality of Virginia's capital murder statute. Category IV addressed a number of issues including the ineffectiveness of trial counsel, the time petitioner was given to prepare his defense, alleged prosecutorial misconduct, Freedom of Information Act requests, and other matters. Finally, Category V concerned ineffective assistance of counsel at trial and on appeal. On January 31, 2000, the Supreme Court of Virginia dismissed a number of petitioner's claims pursuant to the holdings of Slayton v. Parrigan, 215 Va. 27, 29, 205 S.E.2d 680, 682 (1974) (); Hawks v. Cox, 211 Va. 91, 95, 175 S.E.2d 271, 274 (1970) (); and Jenkins v. Commonwealth, 244 Va. 445, 460-61, 423 S.E.2d 360 (1992) (). The court also dismissed the petitioner's claims involving ineffective assistance of counsel on the merits. A rehearing was denied on April 21, 2000, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari review on October 2, 2000. Kasi v. Angelone, 531 U.S. 894, 121 S.Ct. 223, 148 L.Ed.2d 158 (2000).
On May 8, 2000, the Circuit Court of Fairfax County scheduled the petitioner's execution for July 7, 2000. However, on June 28, 2000, a petition was filed for the appointment of counsel for the filing of a petition for writ of habeas corpus in federal court. On July 3, 2000, the petitioner filed an application for stay of execution in federal court, and on July 5, 2000, this court entered a stay of execution, granted petitioner's motion to proceed in forma pauperis, and advised that it would consider the appointment of counsel. On August 15, 2000, counsel was appointed, and on December 11, 2000, the petition for writ of habeas corpus was filed. The petition contained the following four claims:
1. The trial court lacked personal jurisdiction;
2. Petitioner was denied the right of confrontation and cross-examination of Agent Garrett, because the court refused to permit Garrett to be examined with regard to all of his knowledge of the case;
3. Petitioner was improperly denied access to material evidence possibly favorable to his defense by the trial court's refusal to enforce subpoenas served on the FBI, CIA, and other agencies;
4. The trial court compromised petitioner's right to trial by an impartial jury when it refused a defense request for additional voir dire, following acquisition of knowledge of the unprovoked killing of four Americans in Pakistan during the trial.
On January 11, 2001, the Director of the Virginia Department of Corrections ("respondent") filed a Rule 5 answer and a motion to dismiss. Magistrate Judge Bradberry issued his R & R on September 12, 2001 recommending that the petition be dismissed and that petitioner be denied a certificate of appealability.
The petitioner has objected to each of the Magistrate Judge's recommendations to deny the claims set forth in his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Additionally, the respondent has objected to the Magistrate Judge's decision to address the merits of a number of claims, stating that the petitioner is procedurally barred from making such claims. The court, having reviewed the record in its entirety, shall make a de novo determination of the portions of the R & R to which the petitioner and ...
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Kasi v. Angelone
...of the murder of four Americans which had occurred in Karachi, Pakistan, while Kasi's trial was in progress. See Kasi v. Angelone, 200 F.Supp.2d 585, 591 (E.D.Va.2002).1 The magistrate judge concluded that all claims were exhausted, see 28 U.S.C.A. § 2254(b)(1)(A), but that none entitled hi......
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