Lafferty v. State

• Decision Date: 14 September 2007
• Docket Number: No. 20060201.,20060201.
• Citation: 2007 UT 73,175 P.3d 530
• Parties: Ronald Watson LAFFERTY, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. STATE of Utah, Defendant and Appellee.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

175 P.3d 530

2007 UT 73

Ronald Watson LAFFERTY, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. STATE of Utah, Defendant and Appellee.

No. 20060201.

Supreme Court of Utah.

September 14, 2007.

Rehearing Denied January 4, 2008.

Grant W.P. Morrison, William Patrick Morrison, Salt Lake City, Aric Cramer, Bountiful, for plaintiff.

Mark L. Shurtleff, Att'y Gen., Thomas B. Brunker, Christopher D. Ballard, Asst. Att'ys Gen., Salt Lake City, for defendant.

PARRISH, Justice.

INTRODUCTION

¶ 1 Plaintiff Ron Lafferty appeals the district court's entry of summary judgment in favor of the State on his claims for post-conviction relief. We affirm, holding that Lafferty failed to advance facts showing a genuine issue for trial.

BACKGROUND

¶ 2 On July 24, 1984, Ron Lafferty ("Lafferty") and his brother Dan Lafferty ("Dan") forcibly entered the home of their sister-in-law Brenda Lafferty. State v. Lafferty (Lafferty III), 2001 UT 19, ¶ 13, 20 P.3d 342. Both brothers beat Brenda severely, and one of them slit her throat.¹ Id.; State v. Lafferty (Lafferty I), 749 P.2d 1239, 1241 (Utah 1988). Dan then killed Brenda's fifteen-month-old baby, Erica, by slitting her throat. Lafferty I, 749 P.2d at 1241. Both brothers emerged from Brenda's home covered with blood and drove to Chloe Low's home, intending to murder her. Lafferty III, 2001 UT 19, ¶¶ 13-14, 20 P.3d 342. They broke into her home, but found her away. Id. ¶ 14. Upon leaving Low's home, they discussed murdering Richard Stowe, the man who had presided over Lafferty's excommunication proceedings from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and started to drive toward his home. Id. ¶¶ 9, 14. After missing the turn-off, however, they abandoned their plan. Id. ¶ 15.

¶ 3 The impetus for these gruesome acts was Lafferty's claim that he had received a divine revelation commanding that these four individuals be "removed." Id. ¶ 8 & n. 4. Lafferty crashed to the nadir of delusion and murder from his well-respected position as an ecclesiastical and civic leader in the course of approximately three years. Id. ¶¶ 3-13.

¶ 4 On May 7, 1985, Lafferty was convicted of two counts of first degree murder, two counts of aggravated burglary, and two counts of conspiracy to commit first degree murder. Id. ¶ 21. He was sentenced to death for the murder convictions. Lafferty I, 749 P.2d at 1242. This court affirmed the convictions on January 11, 1988. Id. at 1241. On federal collateral review, however, the Tenth Circuit vacated the convictions and sentence, holding that the state trial judge had evaluated Lafferty's competence under an incorrect standard. Lafferty v. Cook (Lafferty II), 949 F.2d 1546, 1548 (10th Cir. 1991).

¶ 5 On retrial in April 1996, a second jury convicted Lafferty of two counts of first degree murder, aggravated burglary, and conspiracy to commit first degree murder. Lafferty III, 2001 UT 19, ¶ 1, 20 P.3d 342. He was again sentenced to death for the murder convictions. Id. We affirmed these convictions in February 2001. Id. ¶ 151. The United States Supreme Court denied Lafferty's petition for a writ of certiorari on November 13, 2001. Lafferty v. Utah, 534 U.S. 1018, 122 S.Ct. 542 (2001).

¶ 6 Lafferty filed a preliminary petition for post-conviction relief on October 10, 2002. His original post-conviction counsel withdrew because of a conflict of interest in August 2003. Lafferty's current counsel was appointed on November 13, 2003. The post-conviction court approved Lafferty's request for an investigator and a mitigation specialist on February 18, 2004. Lafferty filed a second amended petition for post-conviction relief on October 29, 2004. The first part of the petition consists of a newly discovered evidence claim and forty-seven additional claims. The second part of the petition is a pro se filing. On February 22, 2005, the State moved to dismiss four of Lafferty's claims and moved for summary judgment on the remaining claims. The post-conviction court heard oral argument on these motions on October 6, 2005.

¶ 7 On November 29, 2005, the post-conviction court granted the State's summary judgment motion with respect to each of Lafferty's claims. A final order was entered on January 3, 2006. Lafferty appealed the post-conviction court's decision on January 31, 2006, raising thirty-six claims from the first part of his second amended petition. We have jurisdiction pursuant to Utah Code section 78-2-2(3)(i).

ANALYSIS

¶ 8 Lafferty's numerous post-conviction claims fall into five broad categories. First, he argues that his trial and appellate counsel were ineffective. Second, he argues that the post-conviction court erred in dismissing twenty-five of his claims on the basis that they could have been brought on direct appeal. Specifically, he argues that an ineffective assistance of counsel claim was implied in each of these dismissed claims, thus creating adequate grounds for reviewing them in post-conviction proceedings. Third, he contests the post-conviction court's holding that he failed to establish the necessary facts to justify a trial on his claim that time and money constraints precluded his post-conviction counsel from satisfying the ABA guidelines for representing capital defendants. Fourth, Lafferty argues that an evaluating psychologist's testimony about "situational competence" in a subsequent and unrelated trial constitutes new evidence, entitling him to a new trial. Finally, Lafferty argues that his Sixth Amendment right to counsel was violated because his trial counsel also represented his co-defendant Dan with respect to charges arising from the same criminal episode.

¶ 9 We review the denial of post-conviction relief for correctness, affording no deference to the lower court's legal conclusions. Taylor v. State (Taylor II), 2007 UT 12, ¶ 13, 156 P.3d 739.

I. INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL

¶ 10 Lafferty alleges that his trial counsel was ineffective for (1) failing to request that the jury be sequestered, (2) failing to conduct an adequate mitigation investigation, (3) failing to meet the requirements outlined in rule 8 of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure and the ABA guidelines for representing capital defendants, and (4) failing to object to the prosecutor's closing argument. Lafferty alleges that his appellate counsel was ineffective for (1) failing to meet the qualifications outlined in rule 8 of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure and the ABA guidelines and (2) failing to appeal the trial court's denial of his request for a change of venue.

A. Ineffective Assistance of Trial Counsel

¶ 11 Implicit in the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of counsel is the right to effective assistance of counsel, Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 686, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), because "it envisions counsel's playing a role that is critical to the ability of the adversarial system to produce just results." Id. at 685, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Consequently, there are circumstances where counsel's assistance is so lacking that it undermines the proper functioning of the adversarial process and the reliability of the outcome. Id. at 686, 104 S.Ct. 2052. To prove ineffective assistance of counsel, a petitioner must establish (1) "that counsel's performance was deficient," and (2) that "the deficient performance prejudiced the defense." Id. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052. These prongs may be addressed in either order. Id. at 697, 104 S.Ct. 2052.

¶ 12 To establish that counsel was deficient, a petitioner must overcome the strong presumption that counsel rendered constitutionally sufficient assistance, id. at 689-90, 104 S.Ct. 2052 by showing that counsel's conduct "fell below an objective standard of reasonableness" under prevailing professional norms, id. at 688, 104 S.Ct. 2052. The Supreme Court has rejected the invitation to provide more specific guidelines for determining effective assistance; instead, courts should evaluate whether counsel's assistance was reasonable "considering all the circumstances." Id. Professional standards and guidelines can assist in that evaluation but are by no means definitive. Id.

¶ 13 To establish that deficient performance prejudiced the defense, a petitioner "must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different." Id. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Reasonable probability is defined as "probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome." Id. Having outlined the legal requirements for ineffective assistance, we now turn to Lafferty's specific claims.

1. Jury Sequestration

¶ 14 Lafferty argues that, given the high-profile nature of the case, his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to request that the jury be sequestered. Focusing on the fact that one initially sympathetic juror was excused because of outside interference, Lafferty further argues that, had the jury been sequestered, this juror would have remained on the jury and possibly voted against the death penalty. Lafferty relies on this example of outside interference to underscore the likelihood that prejudice resulted from the lack of jury sequestration.

¶ 15 As a matter of law, Lafferty's argument does not meet the showing required under Strickland. Lafferty offers no support for his proposition that reasonable counsel "surely" would have moved to sequester the jury in such a "high profile case." Moreover, the fact that an initially sympathetic juror was excused does not establish prejudice. The Constitution guarantees a defendant the right to an impartial jury, U.S. Const. amend. VI; State v. Wach, 2001 UT 35, ¶ 36, 24 P.3d 948, not a jury of a particular composition, Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522, 538, 95 S.Ct. 692, 42 L.Ed.2d 690 (1975); State v. Tillman, 750 P.2d 546, 575 (Utah 1987). The contamination and subsequent dismissal of one potentially sympathetic juror has no effect on the seated jury's impartiality.

¶ 16 We are cognizant of circumstances where...