Prejean v. Blackburn

• Citation: 570 F. Supp. 985
• Decision Date: 05 August 1983
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 81-0632.
• Parties: Dalton PREJEAN v. Frank C. BLACKBURN, et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Louisiana

570 F. Supp. 985

Dalton PREJEAN v. Frank C. BLACKBURN, et al.

Civ. A. No. 81-0632.

United States District Court, W.D. Louisiana, Monroe Division.

August 5, 1983.

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Thomas E. Guilbeau, Lafayette, La., John Charles Boger, Deborah Fins, New York City, Anthony G. Amsterdam, Stanford University Law School, Stanford, Cal., for plaintiff.

J. Nathan Stansbury, Dist. Atty., Lafayette, La., for defendants.

OPINION

NAUMAN S. SCOTT, Chief Judge.

I. BACKGROUND

Dalton Prejean, a 17 year old black male, was convicted by a jury in the Fourth Judicial District Court, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, of first degree murder for the shooting death of Louisiana State Police Officer Donald Cleveland. At the sentencing phase of the trial, the jury found one statutory aggravating circumstance,¹ and after considering the mitigating circumstances, unanimously recommended the death penalty—a verdict binding upon the trial judge. See La.C.Cr.Pr. art. 905 et seq.

Prejean's conviction and sentence were appealed to and affirmed by the Louisiana Supreme Court. State v. Prejean, 379 So.2d 240 (La.1979), rehearing denied January 28, 1980. Petitioner then sought relief from the United States Supreme Court by writ of certiorari which was denied. Prejean v. Louisiana, 449 U.S. 891, 101 S.Ct. 253, 66 L.Ed.2d 119, rehearing denied 449 U.S. 1027, 101 S.Ct. 598, 66 L.Ed.2d 489 (1980).

Petitioner next sought post-conviction relief by filing an application for a writ of habeas corpus in the Fourth Judicial District Court, Ouachita Parish. After hearing on April 9, 1981, said application was denied. Thereafter petitioner filed an application for a stay of execution and for review of an application for post-conviction relief which were denied by the Louisiana Supreme Court. State of Louisiana, ex rel. Prejean v. Blackburn, 397 So.2d 517 (La. 1981).

Petitioner immediately sought a stay of execution and filed an application for writ of habeas corpus before this court. 28 U.S.C. §§ 2251, 2254. Considering the time constraints and the facial substantiality of the claims presented, we stayed the execution pending our determination of the merits. 28 U.S.C. § 2251. See Rosenburg v. United States, 346 U.S. 273, 73 S.Ct. 1152, 97 L.Ed. 1607 (1953) (per curiam). See also Evans v. Bennett, 440 U.S. 1301, 99 S.Ct. 1481, 59 L.Ed.2d 756 (1979); Shaw v. Martin, 613 F.2d 487 (4th Cir.1980).

Subsequently, petitioner filed a motion seeking abatement of our consideration of his Section 2254 motion, pending disposition by the United States Supreme Court of Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982), alleging that the Eddings case presented a question of constitutional law, the answer to which would undoubtably pertain to the instant case. Due to the prerequisite of exhaustion of remedies found in 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b) and (c), we dismissed Prejean's application for writ of habeas corpus without prejudice and ordered a temporary stay of execution, to expire on October 15, 1981, to afford Prejean an opportunity to present his unexhausted claim which was based on Eddings to the Louisiana Supreme Court. On October 13, 1981, we extended our temporary stay of execution until November 6, 1981.

Petitioner reapplied to the Louisiana Supreme Court for supervisory writs. The application was denied on November 27, 1981, and that court granted a stay order to permit Prejean to apply to Federal Court for further relief. State ex rel. Prejean v. Blackburn, 407 So.2d 1189 (La.1981).

Again considering the time constraints and the facial substantiality of petitioner's claims, we stayed the execution pending our determination on the merits. Petitioner's application for habeas corpus relief under Section 2254 is now before this court.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

In Sumner v. Mata, 449 U.S. 539, 101 S.Ct. 764, 66 L.Ed.2d 722 (1981), the United States Supreme Court elucidated the review guidelines of the federal habeas court, under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). There is a presumption of correctness in a State court's factual findings unless one of the seven conditions specifically set forth in § 2254(d) is found to exist by the federal habeas court. See Williams v. Blackburn, 649 F.2d 1019 (5th Cir.1981); Germany v. Estelle, 639 F.2d 1301 (5th Cir.1981); Thomas v. Estelle, 582 F.2d 939 (5th Cir.1978). So long as there are "written findings, written opinion, or other reliable and adequately written indicia," the court's findings are sufficient. Sumner v. Mata, supra 449 U.S. at 546-47, 101 S.Ct. at 769, 66 L.Ed.2d at 730-31.

Petitioner has exhausted his State remedies regarding the many claims presented to us. In our review of the State court record, we have found that many of petitioner's claims have been factually determined, as evidenced by an opinion of the trial judge, written findings by the Louisiana Supreme Court, and findings by the State court in its review application for post-conviction relief.² The petitioner's burden of proof is not as great where no written findings support a State court's habeas decision. For both categories of claims we have endeavored to thoroughly investigate the record of the case. However, our disposition of the latter group of issues necessarily entails a more independent degree of findings under Sumner and the language of § 2254(d). We then are guided by the dictates of Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Based upon the record and the nature of petitioner's claims, no evidentiary hearing at which testimony is introduced is necessary.³

III. CLAIMS

Petitioner has raised eleven separate claims for us to consider: (1) the admission of gory photos, (2) the systematic exclusion by the prosecutor of prospective black jurors, (3) the exclusion from the jury venire of a certain socio-economic class, (4) the death qualification of the jury, (5) the exclusion of a prospective juror in violation of Witherspoon, (6) the illegality of the sentencing instructions, (7) the prospective rebuttal of mitigating circumstances, (8) the intentional racial discrimination in the imposition of the death sentence, (9) the limiting of mitigating circumstances, (10) the denial of due process in the affirmance of the death sentence, and, (11) the excessiveness and disproportionality of the death sentence. Due to either their factual or legal similarity, we have combined several of these claims in our discussion below.

Prejean contends that his rights to a fair trial under the Sixth Amendment, as applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, and his rights to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment were violated by the introduction into evidence of two photos of the victim, alleged to be gruesome and inflammatory to the jury. The standard to be utilized by the Federal Court in a habeas corpus case in reviewing the state trial court's actions in admitting evidence was recently discussed by the Fifth Circuit in Nettles v. Wainwright, 677 F.2d 410 (5th Cir.1982):

"As a general rule, a federal court in a habeas corpus case will not review the trial court's actions in the admission of evidence. Lisenba v. California, 314 U.S. 219, 228, 62 S.Ct. 280, 286, 86 L.Ed. 166 (1941); Gebhart v. Beto, 441 F.2d 319, 321 (5th Cir.1971). While it is true that an evidentiary ruling which deprives a state court defendant of fundamental fairness is cognizable on habeas corpus, see Barnard v. Henderson, 514 F.2d 744 (5th Cir. 1975), the federal court will make inquiry `only to determine whether the error was of such magnitude as to deny fundamental fairness to the criminal trial.' Hills v. Henderson, 529 F.2d 397, 401 (5th Cir. 1976). The admission of prejudicial evidence justifies habeas corpus relief only if the evidence `is material in the sense of a crucial, critical, highly significant factor.' Hills, 529 F.2d at 401 (quoting Corpus v. Beto, 469 F.2d 953, 956 (5th Cir.1972), cert. denied 414 U.S. 932, 94 S.Ct. 236, 38 L.Ed.2d 162 (1973))." Id. at 414-415.

The prosecution introduced the photographs for the purpose of showing the exact location of the body after the shooting and the identity of the decedent.⁴ The manner of the shooting and the decedent's identification as a police officer are relevant to the crime of first degree murder with a sentence of death⁵ and although these facts may have been able to be established by other means, we find that upon reviewing the photographs we can not conclude that the admission of the photographs constituted an abuse of discretion of the magnitude needed to deprive petitioner of a fair trial or due process.⁶

The next group of claims, numbers two through five in the above list, deal with alleged violations of petitioner's Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights allegedly occurring due to the jury's composition and/or the manner in which the jury was selected.

Prejean alleges that at his trial the prosecutor, in a parish with alleged historical racial prejudice, used peremptory challenges to exclude all prospective black jurors resulting in petitioner's trial before an all white jury. This contention without more, is not sufficient to support a constitutional claim for habeas corpus relief. See generally Huffman v. Wainwright, 651 F.2d 347 (5th Cir.1981). However, under Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965), followed by the Fifth Circuit in United States v. McLaurin, 557 F.2d 1064 (5th Cir.1977), if there is a showing that over a period of time the prosecutor used peremptory challenges for the systematic exclusion of blacks from jury service, then an equal protection claim is raised under the 14th Amendment.⁷ The petitioner has had ample opportunity in the past to introduce the evidence needed to substantiate this claim, and has failed to do so. At trial, Prejean objected to the jury panel but offered no evidence in support of his claim of systematic exclusion. Again on motion for new trial and at the...