King v. Director

• Decision Date: 23 June 2016
• Docket Number: CIVIL ACTION NO. 1:01-CV-435
• Parties: JOHN WILLIAM KING, Petitioner, v. DIRECTOR, TDCJ-CID, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Texas

JOHN WILLIAM KING, Petitioner, v. DIRECTOR, TDCJ-CID, Respondent.

CIVIL ACTION NO. 1:01-CV-435

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS

June 23, 2016

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Petitioner John William King ("King"), an inmate confined in the Texas prison system, seeks a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. King is challenging his capital murder conviction and death sentence imposed by the 1st Judicial District Court of Jasper County, Texas, in Cause Number 8869, in a case styled The State of Texas v. John William King. The Director argues that the claims remaining before the court are procedurally barred. Having reviewed the submissions of the parties, the state court record, and the applicable law, the court is of the opinion the petition should be denied, and a certificate of appealability should not be issued.

I. Procedural History

King was sentenced to death for the murder of James Byrd, Jr. The offense took place on June 7, 1998. Based on the jury's answers to the special issues set forth in Article 37.071 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, the trial court sentenced King to death on February 25, 1999. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ("TCCA") affirmed the conviction. King v. State, 29 S.W.3d 556 (Tex. Crim. App. 2000). King did not file a petition for a writ of certiorari.

While the direct appeal was pending, King filed an application for a writ of habeas corpus in state court. The state habeas court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law recommending that relief be denied. The TCCA denied the application without written order. Ex parte King, No. WR-49,391-01 (Tex. Crim. App. June 20, 2001) (unpublished order).

The present proceeding began on June 28, 2001. Most of the claims presented by King were not presented to the state courts. On March 29, 2006, the court granted the Director's motion for summary judgment with respect to the grounds for relief that had been exhausted. The court granted King's motion to hold the case in abeyance while he presented his remaining claims to the state court system. His second state application was dismissed as an abuse of the writ without consideration of the merits of the claims pursuant to Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Art. 11.071 § 5(c). Ex parte King, No. WR-49,391-02, 2012 WL 3996836 (Tex. Crim. App. Sept. 12, 2012).

King returned to this court and filed an amended petition (#75) on January 21, 2013. The Director filed an answer (#77) on April 22, 2013. King filed a reply (#89) on August 20, 2013.

II. Factual Background

The TCCA discussed the factual background of the crime as follows:

The evidence at trial showed the following: George Mahathy, a life-long acquaintance of the victim, James Byrd, Jr., saw him at a party on Saturday night, June 6, 1998. Byrd left the party around 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning. Byrd asked Mahathy for a ride home, but Mahathy was riding home with someone else. As Mahathy was leaving the party, he saw Byrd walking down the road towards home, which was about a mile from the party. Steven Scott, who had known Byrd for several years, also saw him walking down the road that night. After arriving home a few minutes later, at around 2:30 a.m., Scott saw Byrd pass by in the back of an old model, step-side pickup truck painted primer-gray. Three white people were riding in the cab of the truck.

On June 7, 1998, police officers responded to a call to go to Huff Creek Road in the town of Jasper. In the road, in front of a church, they discovered the body of an African-American male missing the head, neck, and right arm. The remains of pants and underwear were gathered around the victim's ankles. About a mile and a half up the road, they discovered the head, neck, and arm by a culvert in a driveway.

A trail of smeared blood and drag marks led from the victim's torso to the detached upper portion of the victim's body and continued another mile and a half down Huff Creek Road and a dirt logging road. A wallet found on the logging road contained identification for James Byrd, Jr., a Jasper resident. Along the route, police also found Byrd's dentures, keys, shirt, undershirt, and watch. At the end of the logging road, the trail culminated in an area of matted-down grass, which appeared to be the scene of a fight. At this site and along the logging road, the police discovered a cigarette lighter engraved with the words "Possum" and "KKK," a nut driver wrench inscribed with the name "Berry," three cigarette butts, a can of "fix-a-flat," a compact disk, a woman's watch, a can of black spray paint, a pack of Marlboro Lights cigarettes, beer bottles, a button from Byrd's shirt, and Byrd's baseball cap.

The following evening, police stopped Shawn Berry for a traffic violation in his primer-gray pickup truck. Behind the front seat, police discovered a set of tools matching the wrench found at the fight scene. They arrested Berry and confiscated the truck. DNA testing revealed that blood spatters underneath the truck and on one of the truck's tires matched Byrd's DNA. In the bed of the truck, police noticed a rust stain in a chain pattern and detected blood matching Byrd's on a spare tire.

Six tires that were on or associated with Berry's truck were examined. Three of the four tires on the truck were of different makes. Tire casts taken at the fight scene and in front of the church where the torso was found were consistent with each of these tires. An FBI chemist detected a substance consistent with fix-a-flat inside one of the six tires.

Shawn Berry shared an apartment with Lawrence Russell Brewer and [King]. Police and FBI agents searched the apartment and confiscated [King's] drawings and writings as well as clothing and shoes of each of the three roommates. DNA analysis revealed that the jeans and boots that Berry had been wearing on the night of the murder were stained with blood matching Byrd's DNA. An analyst with the FBI lab determined that a shoe print found near a large blood stain on the logging road was made by a Rugged Outback brand sandal. [King] owned a pair of Rugged Outback sandals and had been seen wearing them on the evening of the murder. Shawn Berry also owned a pair of Rugged Outback sandals that were a half size different from [King's]. One of the pairs of these sandals confiscated from the apartment bore a blood stain matching Byrd's DNA. A Nike tennis shoe with the initials "L.B." in the tongue also was stained with blood matching Byrd's.

DNA analysis was also conducted on three cigarette butts taken from the fight scene and logging road. DNA on one of the cigarette butts established [King] as the major contributor, and excluded Berry and Brewer as contributors, but could not exclude Byrd as a minor contributor. Brewer was the sole contributor of DNA on the second cigarette butt. The third cigarette butt revealed DNA from both a major and minor contributor. Shawn Berry was established as the major contributor of DNA on the third cigarette butt; however, [King], Brewer, and Byrd were all excluded as possible minor contributors of the additional DNA.

Tommy Faulk testified that Berry, Brewer, and [King] frequented his home and had played paintball in the woods behind his trailer. Police conducted a search of these woods and found a large hole covered by plywood and debris. Underneath the cover, they discovered a 24-foot logging chain that matched the rust imprint in the bed of Berry's truck.

The State presented evidence of [King's] racial animosity, particularly towards African-Americans. Several witnesses testified about how [King] refused to go to the home of an African-American and would leave a party if an African-American arrived. In prison, [King] was known as the "exalted cyclops" of the Confederate Knights of America ("CKA"), a white supremacist gang. Among the tattoos covering [King's] body were a woodpecker in a Ku Klux Klansman's uniform making an obscene gesture; a "patch" incorporating "KKK," a swastika, and "Aryan Pride"; and a black man with a noose around his neck hanging from a tree. [King] had on occasion displayed these tattoos to people and had been heard to remark, "See my little nigger hanging from a tree."

A gang expert reviewed the writings that were seized from the apartment and testified that [King] had used persuasive language to try to convince others to join in his racist beliefs. The writings revealed that [King] intended to start a chapter of the CKA in Jasper and was planning for something big to happen on July 4, 1998. The expert explained that to gain credibility [King] would need to do something "public." He testified that leaving Byrd's body in the street in front of a church—as opposed to hiding it in one of the many wooded areas around town—demonstrated that the crime was designed to strike terror in the community.

[King] neither testified nor made a formal statement to police. But he sent letters concerning the night of the murder to the Dallas Morning News and to Russell Brewer while he and Brewer were in jail awaiting trial. The following portion of the letter to the Dallas Morning News was read into the record:

Given a description as to the whereabouts of the dirt trail where an alleged beating of the deceased occurred, it's essential to acknowledge the fact that Shawn Berry co-inherited a small tract of land adjacent to the tram road, which he visited quite frequently.

Therefore, the fact that my cigarette lighter with "Possum" inscribed upon it was found near the scene of the crime, along with other items—i.e., several hand tools with "Berry" inscribed on them, a compact disk belonging to Shawn Berry's brother Lewis, and my girlfriend's watch, as well as items of the deceased—are all verified facts implementing that these items could have fallen from Shawn Berry's truck during a potential struggle with the deceased while on the tram road.

However, unacknowledged facts remain, that I, along with Russell Brewer and Lewis Berry, had been borrowing Shawn Berry's truck to commute

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