Meyer v. Branker

• Decision Date: 13 November 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-26.,06-26.
• Citation: 506 F.3d 358
• Parties: Jeffrey Karl MEYER, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Gerald J. BRANKER, Warden, Central Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

506 F.3d 358

Jeffrey Karl MEYER, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Gerald J. BRANKER, Warden, Central Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 06-26.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued September 25, 2007.

Decided November 13, 2007.

ARGUED: Paul MacAllister Green, Durham, North Carolina, for Appellant. Valerie Blanche Spalding, Special Deputy Attorney General, North Carolina Department of Justice, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: M. Gordon Widenhouse, Jr., Rudolf, Widenhouse & Fialko, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for Appellant. Roy Cooper, Attorney General of North Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Before WILKINSON, NIEMEYER, and SHEDD, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge WILKINSON wrote the opinion, in which Judge NIEMEYER and Judge SHEDD joined.

OPINION

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

Nearly twenty years ago, Jeffrey Karl Meyer pled guilty to two counts of first degree murder for fatally stabbing an elderly couple during the commission of a robbery. Since then, three separate capital juries have sentenced him to death, and the North Carolina Supreme Court has twice vacated his sentence on direct appeal due to irregularities in the sentencing proceedings. Throughout this time, Meyer's guilt has never been in doubt, and he has never argued that he did not commit the crimes in question.

Meyer now challenges his third capital sentence, raising claims relating to the effectiveness of his counsel, his awareness of the consequences of his plea, and the sentencing court's refusal to admit potentially mitigating evidence. These claims have been heard and rejected by the same state courts that twice vacated Meyer's earlier death sentences. We have reviewed Meyer's claims with care, and we affirm the district court's dismissal of Meyer's federal habeas petition.

I.

A.

The North Carolina Supreme Court has provided a detailed account of the facts of Meyer's case on direct appeal, see State v. Meyer, 353 N.C. 92, 540 S.E.2d 1 (2000), so we need only summarize the salient evidence here.

On December 1, 1986, Jeffrey Karl Meyer and Mark Thompson broke into a home owned by Paul and Janie Kutz. At the time, Meyer and Thompson were heavily armed and dressed in the clothing of "ninja" warriors: "oriental assassins from feudal times, highly trained in martial arts and stealth." State v. Meyer, 330 N.C. 738, 741, 412 S.E.2d 339, 341 (1992). Meyer and Thompson, soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, had been planning to rob the elderly Kutzs for some time.

Upon entering the house, Meyer and Thompson encountered the sixty-eight year-old Mr. Kutz. Meyer initially shot Mr. Kutz with a blow gun, a martial arts weapon that launches sharp darts from a hollow tube. After Mr. Kutz continued to advance, Meyer stabbed him with a butterfly knife. Meyer and Thompson proceeded to stab Mr. Kutz above the left eye, above the right collar bone, across the neck, twice in the upper left chest, in the rib cage, above the left elbow, four times in the back of his chest, and to the left and right of his spine. In addition, defensive wounds were found on Mr. Kutz's left hand, demonstrating an attempt to fend off an attacker. Testimony at trial indicates that Mr. Kutz may have remained alive and conscious for between thirty seconds and five minutes after the stab wounds were inflicted.

Meyer and Thompson then proceeded to stab and kill the sixty-two year-old Mrs. Kutz with butterfly knives. Mrs. Kutz, who was found in a bedroom down the hallway from Mr. Kutz, was stabbed approximately twenty-five times. She also displayed defensive wounds on her hands. Due to the fact the autopsy found Mrs. Kutz's lungs markedly expanded with trapped air and blood, it is likely that Mrs. Kutz remained alive after receiving the stab wounds.

Overwhelming evidence linked Meyer and Thompson to the crimes. First, in the early morning hours after the killing, a military police officer, Robert Provalenko, intercepted Meyer and Thompson, dressed in "ninja" pants and boots, as they drove through a restricted area of Fort Bragg. In their car, Officer Provalenko found jewelry, a TV, and credit cards that were later found to be stolen from the Kutzs' house, as well as a significant arsenal of weaponry, including butterfly knives, nunchucks, and a blowgun.

Second, forensic evidence placed Meyer and Thompson at the scene of the crime. A police investigation found footprints consistent with ninja boots in the dirt around the house, as well as on a dining room chair. Human blood consistent with the type of both victims was present on the butterfly knives recovered by Provalenko, and fibers found on one or both of the knives were consistent with the upholstery of the chair in which Mr. Kutz's body was found, a blue blanket found with Mrs. Kutz's body, and the pink nightgown worn by Mrs. Kutz at the time of her death. Fibers from the blanket and sheets in the Kutzs' bedroom were also found on the "ninja" clothing worn by both Meyer and Thompson on the night of the murders.

Third, Dale Wayne Wyatt, a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg waiting to appear in court on a worthless-check charge, testified that he met Meyer on December 3, 1986 in a holding facility during his detention. According to Wyatt, Meyer confessed to shooting Mr. Kutz with a blowgun and then stabbing him. Meyer also told Wyatt that he had been dressed as a "ninja" at the time of the crime.

On February 2, 1987, Meyer was indicted on one count of burglary, two counts of armed robbery, and two counts of first degree murder. On May 12, 1988, Meyer pled guilty to the robbery and burglary charges. Four days later, Meyer pled guilty to two counts of first degree murder. The trial judge accepted the murder pleas and, in open court, confirmed that Meyer had discussed the charges with counsel, understood what they meant, and knew he would be sentenced to either life imprisonment or death on each count. The pleas were accepted and recorded the next day after the State's presentation of their factual basis.

B.

No fewer than four capital juries have been impaneled to sentence Meyer.

Meyer's first capital sentencing proceeding began on June 3, 1988. This sentencing hearing ended in a mistrial, however, after Meyer escaped from the Cumberland County Jail and failed to appear in court during the presentation of his own evidence. Meyer was recaptured a week later.

A second sentencing jury was impaneled on October 24, 1988. At this hearing, the State presented the evidence discussed above demonstrating how Meyer committed the crimes. In mitigation, Meyer presented expert testimony which indicated that, at the time of the crimes, he suffered from a dissociative personality disorder, a mental illness which causes a person to detach himself from reality. After hearing the evidence, the jury recommended the death sentence for each first degree murder. The North Carolina Supreme Court subsequently vacated Meyer's death sentences on direct appeal because the jury instructions had erroneously required unanimity in the finding of mitigating circumstances. See Meyer, 412 S.E.2d at 343-44.

A third sentencing hearing was held in late August 1995. The State and Meyer both presented substantially the same evidence they had presented at the previous proceeding, and the jury again recommended the death sentence for each first degree murder. Meyer directly appealed his sentence to the North Carolina Supreme Court, and the Court again vacated the death sentences and remanded for a new trial. This time, the Court found error when the trial judge conducted an unrecorded in-chambers conference without Meyer's presence. See State v. Meyer, 345 N.C. 619, 623, 481 S.E.2d 649, 652 (1997).

The capital sentencing proceeding from which Meyer now seeks habeas relief, his fourth, began on January 28, 1999. The State presented substantially the same evidence it had at the two previous sentencing proceedings. This time, the defense did not present mental health testimony; instead, defense counsel, in his opening statement, argued that the motive for Meyer's crime was theft, not violence: "They did not intend to hurt anyone." The defense counsel's closing argument was that Meyer's intent involved fantasy and theft, that the murders were unplanned and spontaneous, and that Meyer was mentally ill.

After deliberations, the jury found four aggravating factors for each of the two murders: (1) the capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of or an attempt to commit burglary, (2) the capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of or an attempt to commit robbery, (3) the murder for which the defendant stands convicted was part of a course of conduct that included another crime of violence against another person, and (4) the capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel. See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-2000(e) (2005). In mitigation, the jury found only one statutory mitigating circumstance submitted — the fact that Meyer had no prior criminal history — and rejected all nine of the proffered non-statutory mitigating factors. See id. § 15A-2000(f).

Based on these findings, on February 3, 1999, the jury recommended the death sentence for each of the first degree murders and the court duly imposed these sentences. On December 21, 2000, the North Carolina Supreme Court found no error and affirmed the two death sentences. See Meyer, 540 S.E.2d at 18. Meyer subsequently petitioned the United States Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. The Court denied the writ on October 1, 2001. See Meyer v. North Carolina, 534 U.S. 839, 122 S.Ct. 93, 151 L.Ed.2d 54 (2001).

C.

Meyer next sought post-conviction relief from his capital sentence. In April 2002, Meyer filed a motion for appropriate relief ("MAR") in state court, seeking review of various claims of error that arose out of his state court proceedings. On ...