Lenz v. True
| Decision Date | 20 May 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 7:04CV00347.,7:04CV00347. |
| Citation | 370 F.Supp.2d 446 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Virginia |
| Parties | Michael William LENZ, Petitioner, v. William Page TRUE, Warden, Sussex I State Prison, Respondent. |
Jennifer L. Givens, Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, Charlottesville, VA, and James C. Turk, Jr., Stone Harrison & Turk, P.C., Radford, VA, for Petitioner.
Paul C. Galanides, Assistant Attorney General of Virginia, Richmond, VA, for Respondent.
Petitioner Michael William Lenz, an inmate at a Virginia correctional facility, was convicted in state court of the capital murder of a fellow inmate and sentenced to death. After unsuccessfully challenging his conviction and the imposition of the death penalty both on direct appeal and in state collateral proceedings, Lenz now petitions for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. § 2254 (West 1994 & Supp.2004). For the reasons stated in this opinion, the respondent's Motion to Dismiss must be granted.
In affirming Lenz's conviction and sentence on direct appeal, the Supreme Court of Virginia summarized the facts as follows:
During the early evening of January 16, 2000, the defendant, [Brent H.] Parker, Jeffrey Remington, and three other inmates attended a meeting of a group referred to as the Ironwood Kindred. The meeting occurred in Building J-5, which is a part of the Augusta Correctional Center.
Earl Jones, a correctional officer, was assigned to Building J-5 that evening. Jones permitted the six inmates to enter a room where the meeting occurred. He closed the door, which contained windows, and "secured" the room.
As Jones sat down at his post outside the meeting room and began to "sort through" inmate passes that he had collected, he "noticed a commotion." Jones "got on" his radio and requested help from other correctional officers because he observed a fight. As Jones walked toward the room where the inmates were meeting, three of the inmates "ran out of the room," and one of the inmates said, "[t]hey're stabbing him."
Jones went to the door and saw "Remington and Lenz stabbing Parker." Parker was lying "on his back; on the floor, between Remington and Lenz." Parker As Parker tried to use his hands to "block" the knives from piercing his body, the defendant and Remington "took their free hand[s]; pushed [Parker's] hands aside and then stabbed him."
Jones opened the meeting room door and ordered the defendant and Remington to stop stabbing Parker. Jones testified, "[t]hey simply looked at me and went back to stabbing him." Jones used his radio again to request help and asked his fellow correctional officers to hurry because Remington and the defendant "were trying to kill this guy." Jones did not go into the room because Remington and the defendant had knives, and Jones was unarmed.
Edward V. Houching, a correctional officer, responded to Jones' request for assistance. When Houching arrived at the meeting room, he saw the defendant and Remington stab Parker between 10 to 15 times as Parker was lying on the floor in a fetal position. Like Jones, Houching ordered the defendant and Remington to stop, but they continued to stab Parker. Parker was not "doing anything to defend himself," and the defendant "was bent over, stabbing [Parker], over and over and over."
Within a few seconds after Houching arrived at the meeting room, two sergeants and correctional officer John Edward Simmons also responded. Simmons saw the defendant stab Parker six or seven times in an area that extended from Parker's "underarm" to his waist as Parker was lying on his side on the floor. Simmons also saw Remington stab Parker in the shoulder and back. After a sufficient number of correctional officers arrived at the meeting room, the officers, some of whom were armed with mace, entered the room, and Simmons told the defendant and Remington "to drop" their knives. The defendant placed his knife on a table, and Remington eventually surrendered his knife. The officers placed handcuffs on the defendant and Remington and escorted them from the area.
Rita K. Dietz, a registered nurse employed at the Augusta Correctional Center, rendered emergency assistance to Parker. When she walked into the meeting room to assist him, he was "very pale" and "surrounded by blood." As she approached him, she noticed that his shirt was soaked in blood. She ripped his shirt off. She testified that "[e]very time I encountered a couple of wounds, I encountered more wounds." She described Parker's medical condition as "[v]ery critical." She placed bandages on his wounds until she "ran out." She testified,
at that point, the stretcher had arrived. So we took the sheet off the stretcher ... Parker was still alive, and he helped roll onto the sheet. And we lifted the sheet up, which the one wound, out of the left side, just poured like water; like somebody had turned a faucet on, when we lifted him. And we got him on the stretcher.
Parker was transported by ambulance to the Augusta Medical Center, where he died.
Gregory Price Wanger, the Assistant Chief Medical Examiner for the Western District of Virginia, performed an autopsy on Parker's body. Wanger testified that Parker had sustained 68 stab wounds and one cut wound, all of which were inflicted upon Parker when he was alive. Dr. Wanger explained that a stab wound is "shorter on the surface than it is deep" and "implies a thrusting motion[,]" whereas a cut wound "is longer on the surface than it is deep" and "implies a slashing-like motion." The stab wounds penetrated Parker's chest, abdomen, back, left arm, and right forearm.
Dr. Wanger identified 40 stab wounds, "from the upper part of [Parker's] chest down through the middle and center part of the chest, and into the abdomen." These wounds all contributed to his death. Parker's left lung and liver were stabbed seven times each and the wounds produced serious internal bleeding. The wounds to Parker's lungs would have been fatal without the other wounds. Additionally, "the wounds to the liver; by themselves, would have been fatal without the other wounds to [his] body."
Lenz v. Commonwealth, 261 Va. 451, 544 S.E.2d 299, 301-02 (2001) ("Lenz I").
During the sentencing phase of the trial, the jury heard evidence from the Commonwealth regarding the defendant's prior convictions for possession of a firearm after having been convicted of a felony, and breaking and entering. Id. at 302. The jury also heard the following mitigation evidence from the defendant:
Martin Rogozinski, a psychologist employed at the Augusta Correctional Center, testified that he spoke with the defendant soon after Parker was murdered and that it was Rogozinski's opinion that the defendant had murdered Parker based "solely on a religious conviction."
The defendant testified during the penalty phase. He stated that he was a practicing member of the "Asatru" religion. According to the defendant, several inmates had approached him and asked him to "construct" an Asatru group, but his efforts to do so were "thwarted" by Parker.
The defendant testified that on the evening of the murder, he planned to perform an Asatru ceremony in the meeting room. The defendant recited poetic literature and then asked Parker to approach an altar. The defendant testified that
I called [Parker] up to the altar and I asked — and I said to him, "It's been a long, hard path between us." And [Parker] said, "Yes, it is." And I pulled the knife out of my pocket. And I said, "Are you trying to take it to the next step?" And he said, "Yes, I am." And so I stabbed him.
The defendant admitted that he did not like Parker, that he had planned to kill Parker that day, and that he had threatened others in the meeting room with the knife.
The defendant presented the testimony of Gary Lee Bass, the Chief of Operations at the ...
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