Maples v. Dunn

• Decision Date: 14 September 2015
• Docket Number: CASE NO. 5:03-CV-2399-SLB
• Parties: CORY R. MAPLES, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON S. DUNN, Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Alabama

CORY R. MAPLES, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON S. DUNN, Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, Respondent.

CASE NO. 5:03-CV-2399-SLB

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA NORTHEASTERN DIVISION

September 14, 2015

MEMORANDUM OPINION

This case is presently before the court on Cory R. Maples's Amended Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus, (doc. 24),¹ seeking relief from his state-court conviction for capital murder and death sentence pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Maples was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the murders of Stacy Alan Terry and Barry Dewayne Robinson, II. He has filed this petition seeking habeas relief pursuant to § 2254 based, inter alia, on the alleged constitutionally-ineffective assistance of his trial counsel. For the reasons set forth below, the court finds that Maples's Amended Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus is due to be denied.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. THE OFFENSE CONDUCT .............................................. 4

II. THE SENTENCING ORDER ............................................ 6

III. PROCEDURAL HISTORY ............................................ 12

IV. APPLICABLE STANDARDS OF REVIEW .............................. 15

A. HABEAS STANDARD OF REVIEW ............................... 15

1. Generally ................................................. 15

2. The Rule 32 Court's Order ................................... 16

B. EXHAUSTION, PROCEDURAL DEFAULT, AND THE CAUSE-AND-PREJUDICE STANDARD ..................................... 19

C. CLAIMS OF INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL ............ 21

1. The Performance Prong ..................................... 22

2. The Prejudice Prong ........................................ 25

3. Deference Accorded State Court Findings of Historical Fact and Decisions on the Merits When Evaluating Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claims ................................................ 27

D. EVIDENTIARY HEARING ...................................... 29

V. THE POST-REMAND INEFFECTIVE-ASSISTANCE CLAIMS .............. 30

VI. THE INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL CLAIMS ................ 34

A. INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL AT THE GUILT PHASE OF TRIAL ..................................................... 34

1. Counsel's Chosen Strategy Not to Investigate, Pursue, and Present a Defense Based on Intoxication Was Unreasonable ............. 34

a. History of the claim ................................... 34

b. Prejudice ........................................... 39

c. Evidence at trial ...................................... 41

i. Maples's videotaped confession .................... 41

ii. Testifying guilt phase witnesses who saw Maples before the murders .................................... 46

iii. Guilt phase witnesses who saw Maples after the murders .......................................... 52

iv. Additional witnesses counsel failed to adequately interview or investigate ............................... 58 d. Notice of Maples's extreme intoxication through penalty-phase testifying witness Dr. Shealy ......................... 65

e. Discussion .......................................... 70

2. Counsel's Failure to Request the Assistance of a Pharmacologist or Other Expert in Drug Interactions ............................... 74

3. Counsel Failed to Request Jury Instructions on Intoxication and Manslaughter .......................................... 77

4. Counsel Was Ineffective for Admitting Critical Elements of the Charged Offenses During Closing Argument and Arguing a Position That Was Inconsistent with His Opening Statement ..................... 80

a. Maples's claim ....................................... 80

b. Counsel's Arguments ................................. 85

c. Discussion .......................................... 90

5. Alabama's System of Indigent Representation in Capital Cases Contributed to Counsel's Deficiencies and Further Deprived Maples of Effective Assistance of Counsel .................................... 92

B. INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL AT THE PENALTY PHASE OF TRIAL ..................................................... 100

1. Alabama Code § 13A-5-46(f) ................................ 102

2. Counsel Failed to Adequately Investigate Maples's Family History and Character References .................................... 104

a. Procedurally barred allegations ......................... 104

b. Maples's family history (abuse and abandonment by his mother) ................................................ 108

i. The trial evidence .............................. 109

a. Dr. Allen Shealy ......................... 109

b. Philip Maples ............................ 110

c. Elyse Maples ............................ 112

d. Kenneth Maples ......................... 112

ii. The alleged undisclosed evidence ................. 113

a. Philip Maples ........................... 113

b. Denise Imgrund .......................... 114

c. Elyse Maples ............................ 115

d. Other Family Members .................... 116

iii. Analysis ..................................... 117

c. Maples's Character References ......................... 122

i. The trial evidence .............................. 123

ii. The post-conviction allegations ................... 124

iii. Analysis ..................................... 127 3. Counsel Failed to Adequately Investigate Mr. Maples's Drug Addiction and Attempted Recovery, Depression, and Suicide Attempts ..... 133

4. Counsel Failed to Present Evidence of Maples's Assistance to the Police in Their Enforcement of Drug Law Violations .................. 142

5. Counsel Failed to Procure a Competent Psychological Evaluation .... 148

6. Counsel Failed to Investigate Maples's Post-Arrest Behavior ....... 156

7. Counsel Failed to Investigate Maples's Head Trauma ............. 157

C. COUNSEL WERE INEFFECTIVE FOR USING CONTRADICTORY STRATEGIES IN THE GUILT PHASE AND PENALTY PHASE .... 165

D. COUNSEL'S CUMULATIVE ERRORS ............................ 176

CONCLUSION ........................................................ 177

CERTIFICATE OF APPEALABILITY ..................................... 177

I. THE OFFENSE CONDUCT

In its decision denying Maples relief on direct appeal, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals adopted the statement of facts set forth in the trial court's sentencing order. These facts were set forth in the court's prior Memorandum Opinion and are not disputed.

At some time in the late evening hours of Friday, July 7, 1995, or the early morning hours of Saturday, July 8, 1995, Stacy Alan Terry, Barry Dewayne Robinson II, and the Defendant, [Cory]² Ross Maples, arrived at the residence of the Defendant on Mud Tavern Road in Morgan County. All three of the young men were acquaintances. Mr. Terry, whose nickname was ["]Twinky,["] and the Defendant had spent the evening of July 7 drinking, playing pool, and ["]riding around["] in Mr. Terry's 1995 Camaro. The Defendant and Mr. Terry had attended high school together until the Defendant dropped out his senior year. As evidenced by the testimony of family and friends, the two young men had spent a considerable amount of time together during the week preceding [the murders].

Mr. Robinson was new to the area, but had known Mr. Terry and the Defendant for several months. Mr. Robinson asked Mr. Terry for a ride home from the pool hall where all three young men were playing pool.

Once the three young men arrived at the home of the Defendant, [Cory] Maples, he left the car and went into the mobile home. The defendant picked up a .22 caliber rifle and walked back outside to the car where Mr. Terry and Mr. Robinson sat getting ready to leave. The Defendant walked to the driver's side of the car and shot Mr. Terry twice in the head and then shot Mr. Robinson twice in the head.

At some time around 1:00 a.m. on July 8, 1995, the Defendant's half-brother, Daniel Maples, and his friend, Matt Shell, arrived at the residence on Mud Tavern Road and found the body of Stacy Terry lying in the driveway close to the trailer where the Defendant and his half-brother lived with their father and the Defendant's stepmother.

At some time around 9:00 p.m. on July 8, 1995, the Decatur police received a report of a body found in a creek commonly referred to as Mud Tavern Creek, one mile down the road from the Defendant's residence. The body was identified as that of Barry Robinson II.

During the ensuing investigation of the two young men's murders, officers of the Morgan County Sheriff's Department obtained information that implicated [Cory] Ross Maples in the killings of Mr. Terry and Mr. Robinson. The officers began to look for the Defendant and Mr. Terry's missing Camaro with the personalized tag bearing the word ["]TWINK.["]

In the late evening of August 1, 1995, the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department received a telephone call from an individual who had spotted the Defendant at the Best Rest Motel off I-10 in Nashville. The individual had seen a picture of the Defendant and heard a description of the car from a local television station. Members of the Nashville Police Department apprehended the Defendant at the motel. The Defendant was then transported to the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department where he was held until members of the Morgan County Sheriff's Department arrived. During the early morning hours of August 2, 1995, the Defendant gave Investigators Howard Battles and Byron Whitten of the Morgan County Sheriff's office a statement of confession to the murders.

Mr. Terry and Mr. Robinson died as a result of gunshot wounds to the head. Both young men were shot twice in the head. The medical examiner determined that each man's death was instantaneous to the shots to the head. The wounds were consistent with an execution-type slaying. The evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant shot both men. He was armed with a .22 caliber rifle which belonged to his father.

Evidence, both circumstantial and direct, overwhelmingly supported the foregoing finding: Count I of the indictment charged the

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