Longworth v. Ozmint

• Decision Date: 28 July 2004
• Docket Number: No. 04-4.,04-4.
• Citation: 377 F.3d 437
• Parties: Richard LONGWORTH, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Jon E. OZMINT, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections; Henry McMaster, Attorney General, State of South Carolina, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

377 F.3d 437

Richard LONGWORTH, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Jon E. OZMINT, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections; Henry McMaster, Attorney General, State of South Carolina, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 04-4.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: June 3, 2004.

Decided: July 28, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, Solomon Blatt, Jr., J.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED: David Grant Belser, Belser & Parke, Asheville, North Carolina, for Appellant.

Donald John Zelenka, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Office Of The Attorney General Of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees.

ON BRIEF: Tanya L. Davis, Blue Hill, Maine, for Appellant.

Henry Dargan McMaster, Attorney General, John W. McIntosh, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Office Of The Attorney General Of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees.

Before NIEMEYER, MICHAEL, and GREGORY, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge NIEMEYER wrote the opinion, in which Judge MICHAEL and Judge GREGORY joined.

OPINION

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge:

In 1991, Richard Longworth was convicted in a South Carolina state court for the murders of Alex Hopps and James Greene, employees of a Spartanburg, South Carolina movie theater that Longworth and an associate robbed. Longworth was sentenced to death. Following direct appeals and petitions for post-conviction relief in state courts, Longworth filed this petition in the district court for a writ of habeas corpus, under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, raising 19 grounds in support of his petition. The district court denied Longworth's petition but granted a certificate of appealability with respect to ground 4 (that the State presented "knowingly false" testimony of a deputy sheriff), ground 11 (that one of Longworth's attorneys had an actual conflict of interest), ground 15 (that the State failed to disclose to Longworth exculpatory evidence of a deputy sheriff who believed that before trial Longworth had expressed remorse), and ground 19 (that Longworth was, for numerous reasons, deprived of the effective assistance of counsel).

We affirm. We conclude, with respect to grounds 4, 11, and 15, that the state court's post-conviction relief decision rejecting these claims was neither contrary to clearly established federal law, as determined by the U.S. Supreme Court, nor involved an unreasonable application of that law, and that the state court's decision did not involve an unreasonable determination of the facts before it. And with respect to ground 19, we conclude that it was procedurally defaulted.

I

In the evening of January 7, 1991, Longworth and his friend David Rocheville decided, while driving around in their minivan, to rob the WestGate Mall Cinema in Spartanburg, South Carolina. After entering the theater, Longworth took his handgun from his shoulder holster and gave it to Rocheville, and the two viewed a movie for a short time. The two then proceeded into the lobby to implement their plan to rob the theater of money located in the ticket booth. When they encountered an usher, Alex Hopps, walking down the hallway, Longworth knocked Hopps down, jumped on him, held his hand over Hopps' mouth, and dragged him outside of the theater through the side exit. As Longworth pinned Hopps against a waist-high bar that protected the air conditioning unit, Rocheville shot Hopps in the left side of the head. Rocheville then returned the gun to Longworth, who placed it back in his shoulder holster.

To reenter the theater, Longworth and Rocheville walked around to the front of the cinema and found the front doors locked. They motioned to James Greene, a cinema employee to whom they had waved when they initially entered the theater, and Greene opened the door. At that point, Longworth drew his gun and demanded that Greene open the safe in the ticket booth. Longworth took several money bags from the safe and ascertained from Greene that there were more bags in Greene's automobile, ready for deposit. After retrieving those bags, Longworth and Rocheville forced Greene into their minivan, which Longworth drove. Longworth again handed his gun to Rocheville and instructed him to shoot Greene if he moved. After driving away from the theater, Longworth stopped the vehicle and instructed Greene to get out, walk five paces, get on his knees, and stare straight ahead. At that point, Rocheville shot Greene in the back of the head.

Longworth and Rocheville were arrested the next day, after Rocheville had led law enforcement officers to Greene's body. After Longworth was arrested, he provided officers with a detailed state-ment of the crimes that he and Rocheville had committed. Each was indicted on two counts of murder, one count of kidnapping, and one count of armed robbery. Separate juries convicted them and sentenced them to death. The South Carolina Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentences on direct appeal. State v. Longworth, 313 S.C. 360, 438 S.E.2d 219 (1993); State v. Rocheville, 310 S.C. 20, 425 S.E.2d 32 (1993). Longworth's petition to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied. Longworth v. South Carolina, 513 U.S. 831, 115 S.Ct. 105, 130 L.Ed.2d 53 (1994).

In December 1994, Longworth filed an application for post-conviction relief in the Spartanburg County Court of Common Pleas, ultimately raising more than 30 grounds for relief. The state post-conviction court ("State PCR Court") permitted discovery and held a lengthy evidentiary hearing, after which it requested supplemental briefing from both parties and directed the State to submit a proposed order. The State PCR Court denied all of Longworth's claims for relief and substantially adopted the State's proposed 132-page order. Longworth v. Evatt, C.A. No. 95-CP-42 0014 (S.C.Ct. C.P. Aug. 3, 2000). The South Carolina Supreme Court denied Longworth's petition for review, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied Longworth's petition for a writ of certiorari. Longworth v. South Carolina, 536 U.S. 928, 122 S.Ct. 2599, 153 L.Ed.2d 787 (2002).

Longworth then filed the petition in this case, raising 19 grounds for relief. On 15 of the grounds, Longworth did not object to the magistrate judge's recommendations to deny the claims, and, as a result, the district court adopted the magistrate judge's recommendations and denied the claims. Longworth v. Ozmint, 302 F.Supp.2d 535, 542 (D.S.C.2003). On the remaining four grounds (grounds 4, 11, 15, and 19), the court held that ground 19 (Longworth's general claim for ineffective assistance of counsel) was procedurally defaulted and that the remaining three grounds lacked merit. Id. at 542-69. With respect to all four grounds, the district court granted a certificate of appealability pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c). Longworth v. Ozmint, 302 F.Supp.2d 569, 575 (D.S.C.2004). This appeal followed.

II

In his most substantial argument (ground 11), Longworth contends that he was denied his Sixth Amendment guarantee of effective assistance of counsel because his attorney Hubert Powell represented both Longworth and Longworth's parents and therefore labored under an actual conflict of interest that adversely affected his representation. Longworth contends:

The conflict was manifested by: 1) Powell's failure to disclose to co-counsel, defense experts or the jury mitigation evidence concerning family alcoholism and turmoil, which would have adversely affected his clients, petitioner's parents, but would have benefitted petitioner, and [Powell's failure to] develop mitigation evidence, 2) Powell's duty to protect the parents' income stream for their benefit and his own benefit, by concealing evidence of [Longworth's] parents['] alcoholism and marital discord[,] which would have cost the parents their jobs, 3) Powell's duty to protect the parents as material witnesses and/or as suspects, and 4) all other relevant facts....

Following Longworth's arrest, his parents hired Powell to represent Longworth in his capital murder trial, agreeing to pay Powell $12,000 in attorneys fees. On Powell's request for additional resources with which to represent Longworth, the state trial court appointed private attorney Andrew J. Johnston and the Spartanburg County Public Defender Office as additional counsel to "represent Richard W. Longworth ... along with Hubert H. Powell, Jr. of the Spartanburg County Bar who[ ] has been retained by the parents of Richard W. Longworth." (Emphasis added). Three days later, however, the same trial court amended its order on the initiation of the Public Defender Office to "clarify" that "Hubert H. Powell, Jr. of the Spartanburg County Bar has the position of attorney for the parents of the Defendant, Richard W. Longworth." This clarification was initiated without any request by Longworth, his parents, or Powell and without their knowledge. The apparent purpose of seeking the revised order was to make Longworth eligible for public funds to support his defense. According to Powell, he only learned of the amended order shortly before trial. He nevertheless continued to participate as a member of the defense team for Longworth and continued to prepare for trial, acting as a liaison with Longworth's family and doing substantial work on the development of mitigation evidence for the sentencing phase of the trial.

At the State PCR hearing, Longworth's mother testified that she had told Powell about alcohol abuse and domestic violence within the family and that she did not want such evidence to come out during sentencing "unless it was absolutely necessary," for fear that her foster children would be taken away and Longworth's father might lose his job. Longworth accordingly contended in the State PCR Court that the mitigation evidence was incomplete and inadequate. He pointed specifically to the testimony of Dr. David Raskin, a forensic psychiatrist, who explained in a deposition that his evaluation did not include certain information...