Matheney v. Anderson

• Decision Date: 30 July 1999
• Docket Number: No. 3:98 CV 183 AS.,3:98 CV 183 AS.
• Citation: 60 F.Supp.2d 846
• Parties: Alan L. MATHENEY, Petitioner, v. Ron ANDERSON, Superintendent, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana

60 F.Supp.2d 846

Alan L. MATHENEY, Petitioner, v. Ron ANDERSON, Superintendent, Respondent.

No. 3:98 CV 183 AS.

United States District Court, N.D. Indiana, South Bend Division.

July 30, 1999.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Marie F Donnelly, Alan Freedman, Chicago, IL, for Alan L Matheney, petitioner.

Andrew L Hedges, Michael A Hurst, Indiana Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, for Ron Anderson, Superintendent, respondent.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ALLEN SHARP, District Judge.

Petitioner, Alan Lehman Matheney, was convicted of murder in a state court trial conducted in South Bend, Indiana, and was sentenced to death by the judge conducting that trial upon the recommendation of the jury that heard the case. The within petition was filed by counsel in this Court on April 14, 1998 and oral argument was heard in South Bend, Indiana on July 9, 1998. This Court greatly appreciates the high degree of professional competence displayed by appointed counsel for this petitioner.

The extensive state record has been filed and examined by this Court under the mandates of Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963) and under the mandates of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b). Immediate reference is made to the two decisions in this case by the Supreme Court of Indiana, namely Matheney v. State, 583 N.E.2d 1202 (Ind. 1992), cert. denied, 504 U.S. 962, 112 S.Ct. 2320, 119 L.Ed.2d 238 (1992) and Matheney v. State, 688 N.E.2d 883 (Ind.1997), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 119 S.Ct. 1046, 143 L.Ed.2d 53 (1999). This petitioner is now confined on death row at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana in this district.

As a preliminary matter, this court notes that on July 21, 1999, this court received by fax two documents from attorney Alan Freedman, counsel for petitioner. Both documents were authored pro se by Matheney. The first is a motion to the Supreme Court of Indiana to allow Matheney to proceed pro se and to have attorneys Alan Freedman and Marie Donnelly removed as legal counsel. The second is a motion to this court to withdraw his appeals. The court notes that as of the date of this opinion, these documents have not been received directly from Matheney or filed in the official court file. Thus, the court will address the petition for writ of habeas corpus on the merits as presented by counsel.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

On and immediately before March 4, 1989, this petitioner was incarcerated in the Correctional Industrial Complex at Pendleton, Indiana, upon a sentence imposed in a court in St. Joseph County, Indiana on November 23, 1987, for battery upon Lisa Bianco, his former wife, and for confinement of his children¹. On March 4, 1989, the appropriate authorities of the Indiana Department of Corrections authorized this petitioner to have an eight hour pass release from the Correctional Industrial Complex at Pendleton, Indiana. The pass was limited both as to time and locale and authorized only a trip to Indianapolis. Notwithstanding these limitations, the petitioner immediately drove to the South Bend area, went to the house of a friend, Rob Snider, changed clothes, removed an unloaded shotgun from that house and took it with him. Snider and the occupants of the house disclaim any knowledge of the petitioner removing the aforesaid unloaded shotgun. He then drove to an area in Mishawaka, Indiana, which, as every Hoosier geography student must know, is a side by side city municipality with South Bend. He parked near the house occupied by Lisa Bianco and broke into it through the back door. She ran from that house pursued by this petitioner, and the chase was witnessed by neighbors who saw it and testified about it. He caught Bianco and beat her to death with the shotgun, which broke into pieces. One observer confronted the petitioner, chased him to his car, which he got in and drove away. He soon thereafter surrendered to police authorities. The autopsy indicated that Bianco died as a result of trauma to the head from a blunt instrument.

In the lengthy and complicated proceedings in the state court it does not appear that this petitioner ever seriously disputed the facts with regard to the killing of Lisa Bianco by him. He thus does not make a challenge to this federal habeas petition on the basis of factual or actual innocence. Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298, 115 S.Ct. 851, 130 L.Ed.2d 808 (1995). The total tactics with reference to the defense of this case are complicated and must be reviewed in some considerable detail, but it appears that the fundamental thrust of the defense was not to dispute the killing but to argue for some version of insanity. The center-piece of his contentions for paranoid delusional disorder was that his ex-wife, Lisa Bianco, and Michael Barnes, then the elected prosecuting attorney of St. Joseph County, Indiana, were having an affair and that his imprisonment at the Pendleton correctional facility was a part of a conspiracy between his ex-wife and the local prosecutor to keep him out of the way.

A two count information for murder and burglary was filed against this petitioner on March 7, 1989 and was amended on March 20, 1989 to include the presence of two aggravating circumstances for the purpose of imposing capital punishment. The initial charge was signed by Richard Bonne, a Mishawaka police officer, and the additional counts were signed by Prosecutor Michael Barnes. These charges were filed in the St. Joseph Superior Court in South Bend, Indiana, before the Honorable Jeanne J. Swartz (now Jordan). Judge Swartz appointed the Public Defender's Office to represent Matheney, and on March 14, 1989, Philip Skodinski entered his appearance as a public defender on behalf of Matheney. On March 21, 1989, Charles Lahey entered his additional appearance on behalf of Matheney. It is undisputed that neither of these attorneys had ever previously tried a capital murder trial.

On March 14, 1989, the date of his entry into the cause, Skodinski filed a notice of insanity defense and request for examination for purposes of determining competency to stand trial and sanity at the time of the offense. That motion was granted, and Judge Swartz appointed Drs. Myron Berkson and George Batacan to perform the mental examination. Although the reports of Drs. Berkson and Batacan were not a part of the record below either on direct appeal or on post-conviction relief, they have been presented to this court. Dr. Batacan's undated report does not address the question of competency for trial, but does opine that Matheney was sane at the time of the offense. Dr. Berkson's report, dated April 19, 1989, notes in its initial paragraph that the request for examination included both questions of sanity and competency, but his report only addresses the sanity issue, in which Dr. Berkson found Matheney to be sane at the time of the offense. At his deposition on May 22, 1989, Dr. Berkson referred to a prior occasion when he had opined on Matheney's competency in 1987, in which case he had found Matheney to be competent for his sentencing in the battery and confinement case. During the prosecutor's examination of Dr. Berkson at the deposition, Dr. Berkson mentioned that he had discussed the roles of the judge, prosecutor and defense counsel with reference to making a competency determination, but nowhere in the deposition did he proffer his opinion as to Matheney's competency in 1989.

On March 20, 1989, the state moved for a change of venue, which Matheney, by counsel, opposed. As the parties did not agree on the change of venue, Judge Swartz recused herself and provided a panel of St. Joseph County judges from which the parties could select a new judge. After the selection process, Judge William Whitman was assigned the case on March 27, 1989.

While the cause was before Judge Whitman, Matheney filed several pro se motions, including a motion for appointment of counsel on July 19, 1989, a motion for immediate hearing on motion for appointment of legal counsel on August 2, 1989, and a motion for change of venue on December 21, 1989. Matheney also sent letters directly to Judge Whitman, including a letter on August 7, 1989 which accompanied his August 2 motion and further asked the judge to recuse himself because Matheney wanted to call him as a witness. Shortly after that last motion, Matheney's attorneys filed a motion for change of judge on December 28, 1989. Judge Whitman held a hearing on the pro se motion for change of venue and motion for change of judge on January 2, 1990. In that proceeding this petitioner told Judge Whitman that the case should be moved from St. Joseph County, Indiana because of the relationship between Lisa Bianco and Michael Barnes. He claimed that that relationship prevented him from securing competent counsel and expressed concern that defense witnesses might be threatened or harassed. He also claimed that he had consulted with at least ten attorneys about the case. He also expressed concern about the wiretap on his family's telephone. He told Judge Whitman that an expert corroborated the phone tap and he complained about the police breaking into his relatives homes to steal evidence. After that hearing, Judge Whitman granted the motion for change of venue, and after the parties made their strikes against the list provided by Judge Whitman, the cause was transferred to the Lake County Superior Court on January 25, 1990. On that same day, attorneys Skodinski and Lahey filed a motion to withdraw as counsel due to their status as part-time public defenders.

Judge James Letsinger of the Lake County Superior Court took jurisdiction of the case on January 29, 1990, and on January 30, 1990, he denied the motion to withdraw filed by attorneys Skodinski and Lahey. However, he did appoint Scott L. King as local counsel on February 1, 1990, and King² became lead counsel for Matheney.

On March 6, 1990, attorney King...