King v. State
| Decision Date | 01 August 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. C2-01-2251.,C2-01-2251. |
| Citation | 649 N.W.2d 149 |
| Parties | Scott Nolan KING, Petitioner, Appellant, v. STATE of Minnesota, Respondent. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Scott Nolan King, Stillwater, for Appellant.
Mike Hatch, Minnesota Attorney General, St Paul, Amy Klobuchar, Hennepin County Attorney, Linda M. Freyer, Assistant County Attorney, Minneapolis, for Respondent.
Considered and decided by the court en banc without oral argument.
Appellant Scott Nolan King appeals from the denial of his second petition for postconviction relief, stemming from his conviction for first-degree murder while attempting to commit first-degree criminal sexual conduct for the 1992 killing of Gwendolyn Lewis. We affirmed his conviction on direct appeal, State v. King, 513 N.W.2d 245, 249 (Minn.1994) (King I), and affirmed the denial of his first petition for postconviction relief, King v. State, 562 N.W.2d 791, 797 (Minn.1997) (King II). In his second petition for postconviction relief appellant argues inter alia that (1) DNA testing procedures used in his case were unreliable and that the DNA evidence should have been suppressed; (2) the statute under which he was convicted, Minn.Stat. § 609.185(2) (1990), has been rendered unconstitutional since his conviction; (3) the district court erroneously admitted into evidence his statements to police without first specifying whether it had viewed a videotape of the police interrogation; and (4) he was deprived of the effective assistance of trial and appellate counsel. The postconviction court denied the request for an evidentiary hearing and for relief, ruling that appellant's claims were procedurally barred because each claim had been raised or should have been raised on direct appeal or in his first postconviction proceeding. Appellant requests that we address his claims on the merits and reverse the postconviction court's judgment denying relief.1 We hold that the postconviction court did not abuse its discretion by denying an evidentiary hearing and by denying relief. Therefore, we affirm.
On or about February 6, 1992, Gwendolyn Lewis was stabbed to death in her Minneapolis apartment. The medical examiner found semen in Lewis's vagina, in her anus, and on her buttocks, and testified that the evidence was "highly suggestive" that sexual activity occurred after death. Later the police received information that appellant had admitted to killing Lewis and obtained a search warrant to remove appellant's blood for comparison with semen samples from the crime scene. Appellant told police officers that he knew about DNA analysis and was happy to give a blood sample because he did not have sex with Lewis. When analysis showed appellant's DNA matched the DNA profile of the semen from the crime scene, appellant was arrested. When informed of the test results and that he was under arrest for Lewis's murder, appellant stated,
During police interrogation appellant provided several versions of what occurred on the night of February 6, 1992. He initially denied having sex with Lewis, but later admitted that Lewis had consensual vaginal sex with him in exchange for crack cocaine; however he denied having anal sex with Lewis or killing her. During two days of interrogation appellant told police that he had discovered the body after the murder, and that Lewis had been killed by an unidentified Cuban or by one of her neighbors. Later in the interrogation appellant said, He also stated, "I done killed this woman," "I guess I did," and "It ain't nobody else." In his formal statement, he admitted that it was "possible" that he killed Gwendolyn Lewis "[b]ecause * * * there was no one there but her and me." Appellant never said that he knew for sure that he had killed Lewis.
Before trial appellant moved to suppress his statements to the police, claiming the statements were involuntary because of his vulnerable state of mind during interrogation. Appellant also moved to suppress DNA evidence on the basis that blood samples taken from him were obtained in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. The district court denied these motions and admitted the statements, as well as DNA evidence. At trial the state's expert laid a foundation for the DNA evidence, establishing that the laboratory conducts "restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis" where the scientist analyzes a series of six "autorads" from each DNA sample. The scientist testified that the DNA profile he obtained from three samples of semen found on Lewis's buttocks and in her vagina "match[ed]" the DNA profile from appellant's blood. The expert also testified that in order to establish the probability of a "random match" where two individuals share the same DNA profile, the sample was compared to a database of nearly 800 individuals made up of Caucasians, Native Americans and African Americans. The expert testified that in this case, the probability of a random match between appellant's DNA and each of the racial databases was less than 1 in 1 billion. At trial, appellant's theory of the case was that he had consensual sex with Lewis on February 6, then left her apartment. Appellant contended that his confession was involuntary because he confessed after a lengthy interrogation and did not give sufficient details of the crime to corroborate his confession. Key evidence against appellant at trial included (1) testimony that appellant supplied crack cocaine to the residents of the building, including Lewis, (2) testimony of multiple witnesses that placed appellant in the apartment across the hall from Lewis's apartment on the day Lewis's death was believed to have occurred; (3) testimony that several days after the murder appellant admitted killing Lewis; (4) appellant's inconsistent statements to police; (5) expert testimony that the DNA in defendant's blood matched the DNA in the semen found in and on Lewis's body and that the possibility of a random match was 1 in 1 billion, and (6) Spreigl evidence that in December 1987 appellant had brutally assaulted another female acquaintance while threatening to kill her, and had dragged her partially clad body down a flight of stairs, leaving a trail of blood as he did so. The jury found appellant guilty of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
On direct appeal, appellant's counsel— who was not appellant's trial counsel— argued that the results of appellant's blood test should have been suppressed because the affidavit supporting the search warrant contained a misrepresentation,2 that appellant's statements to the police should have been suppressed as fruits of an unlawful search and because appellant was not advised of his Miranda rights before making certain statements, and that the district court erred in admitting Spreigl evidence. Appellant filed a pro se brief on appeal, arguing that his conviction should be reversed on six grounds, including ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to call three witnesses, including the doctor who performed Lewis's autopsy, arguing that the doctor could establish that her body showed no signs of trauma associated with sexual intercourse. In King I we held that the search warrant was valid, any error in admitting appellant's statement made when the search warrant was executed was harmless and that the Spreigl evidence was properly admitted. See King I, 513 N.W.2d at 248-49. We also noted that we had considered appellant's pro se brief and—without written analysis of each argument —concluded that appellant received a fair trial and was properly convicted. See id. at 249.
In 1996 appellant filed his first petition for postconviction relief, seeking vacation of his sentence or a new trial. Appellant asserted that (1) the district court erred in admitting DNA evidence without first conducting a Frye hearing and (2) he was denied effective assistance of counsel because his trial counsel did not request a Frye hearing and because his appellate counsel did not appeal the Frye issue. Appellant requested an evidentiary hearing on his petition. Appellant's petition for an evidentiary hearing and for postconviction relief was denied in all respects by the same district court judge that presided over the trial and sentencing. In denying appellant's petition, the postconviction court concluded that appellant did not raise any novel claims, that the grounds for relief he presented were known at the time of his appeal, that he had received effective representation at trial and a fair trial, and that he had failed to meet his burden of proving that his appellate counsel's representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness. We affirmed the postconviction court's denial of relief. King II, 562 N.W.2d at 797.3
Next appellant filed the petition for postconviction relief at issue here. In this second petition in state court appellant made the following claims: (1) DNA testing procedures used in his case were unreliable and the DNA evidence should have been suppressed; (2) the statute under which he had been convicted, Minn.Stat. § 609.185(2), should be declared unconstitutional; (3) the district court erroneously admitted into evidence his statement to police without first specifying whether it had viewed a videotape of the police interrogation; (4) he was deprived of the effective assistance of trial and appellate counsel; (5) the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to support the jury verdict that the crime occurred in Hennepin County. Appellant also requested an evidentiary hearing on these claims and requested the appointment of counsel.
On November 8, 2001, the postconviction court denied appellant's second petition concluding that: (1) appellant "failed to affirmatively prove" that his trial or appellate counsel was ineffective under the Strickland...
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