Pruett v. Thigpen, EC84-31-LS.

• Decision Date: 21 March 1986
• Docket Number: No. EC84-31-LS.,EC84-31-LS.
• Citation: 665 F. Supp. 1254
• Parties: Marion Albert PRUETT, Petitioner, v. Morris THIGPEN, Commissioner, Mississippi Department of Corrections, Donald A. Cabana, Superintendent, Mississippi State Penitentiary, and State of Mississippi, Respondents.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Mississippi

665 F. Supp. 1254

Marion Albert PRUETT, Petitioner, v. Morris THIGPEN, Commissioner, Mississippi Department of Corrections, Donald A. Cabana, Superintendent, Mississippi State Penitentiary, and State of Mississippi, Respondents.

No. EC84-31-LS.

United States District Court, N.D. Mississippi, E.D.

March 21, 1986.

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Stephen B. Bright, Atlanta, Ga., William Sebastian Moore, Jackson, Miss., Robert E. Morin, Rockville, Md., for petitioner.

Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Atty. Gen., Marvin L. White, Jr., Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, Miss., William S. Boyd, III, White & Morse, Gulfport, Miss., for respondents.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

SENTER, Chief Judge.

Presently before the court is Marion Albert Pruett's petition for writ of habeas corpus. On November 2, 1981, Marion Albert Pruett was indicted by the Grand Jury of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi, for the September 17, 1981, capital murder of Opal H. Lowe, a/k/a Peggy Lowe. Venue was moved to Lowndes County, Mississippi, and in a bifurcated trial, as required by state statute, petitioner was found guilty of the crime of capital murder and sentenced to death. Mr. Pruett perfected a timely appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court assigning the following as reversible error:

1. The lower court erred in assuming jurisdiction and venue over appellant on the charge of capital murder; in overruling appellant's motion to quash the indictment, directed verdict, and peremptory instruction; and in granting the State's Instruction S-1.

2. The lower court erred in overruling appellant's motion to suppress evidence and admitting confessions into evidence which were illicited from appellant by promises of drugs from authorities.

3. The lower court erred in seating Mr. Sidney Graham (Juror # 8) on the jury and appellant was denied the opportunity to exercise peremptory challenges in an intelligent and knowledgeable manner because of said juror's misstatements during voir dire.

4. The lower court erred in admitting an edited television interview into evidence at the sentencing phase of the trial.

The Mississippi Supreme Court denied relief on February 23, 1983, Pruett v. Thigpen, 431 So.2d 1101 (Miss.1983). The United States Supreme Court likewise denied Pruett's petition for writ of certiorari. On November 22, 1983, Pruett filed with the Mississippi Supreme Court a petition for writ of error coram nobis. In this petition, Pruett asserted nineteen claims of constitutional error, to-wit:

A. Lack of jurisdiction and constitutional venue.

B. Denial of fair trial due to community prejudice.

C. Failure to excuse for cause a juror prejudiced against petitioner.

D. The death qualification of petitioner's jury.

E. Use of petitioner's involuntary and unconstitutionally obtained statement.

F. Unconstitutional use of unrelated bad acts.

G. Use of inflammatory photographs.

H. Improper closing argument—Guilt-Innocence.

I. Denial of fair trial — Guilt — Innocence.

J. Juror's violation of oath.

K. Consideration of improper aggravating circumstances.

L. Improper limitation of testimony by and cross-examination of mitigating witnesses.

M. Improper instructions and improper jury findings at sentencing.

N. Improper closing argument — sentencing.

O. Denial of fundamentally fair sentencing hearing.

P. Inadequate sentencing report.

Q. Inadequate appellate review.

R. Discriminatory application of the death penalty.

S. Ineffective assistance of counsel.

The state supreme court refused to reach the merits of this petition, relying on petitioner's failure to raise these claims on direct appeal. Thereafter, Pruett filed his petition for writ of habeas corpus in this court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 asserting as grounds for relief the same nineteen claims which he brought before the Mississippi Supreme Court in his petition for error coram nobis review. On November 24, 1984, we denied the state's motion to dismiss this petition on the grounds of procedural forfeiture due to the Mississippi Supreme Court's invocation of a newly constricted scope of error coram nobis review and thereby concluded that for purposes of federal review, petitioner's claims must be considered to have been effectively exhausted as required by statute and decisional law.¹

1. The Facts.

At trial, the details of this capital offense were revealed substantially through the sworn testimony of petitioner himself. On the morning of September 17, 1981, Marion Albert Pruett entered the branch office of Unifirst Savings & Loan Association for the purpose of committing an armed robbery. During the progress of the armed robbery, petitioner took Peggy Lowe as a hostage in an effort to make his escape. At gunpoint, Mrs. Lowe and the robbery proceeds were taken to Mrs. Lowe's car in which petitioner drove to another area in the Metro Center Shopping Mall parking lot. He then moved Mrs. Lowe into his own car, drove down several adjacent streets, and then to Interstate #20 on which he continued approximately one hundred miles to Sumter County, Alabama, adjacent to the Mississippi — Alabama state line. For the duration of this ride, Pruett forced Mrs. Lowe to remain on her knees on the floorboard of his car's passenger side with her shoulders, arms, and head downward on the seat. After entering the State of Alabama, Pruett left the interstate highway, drove on a gravel road for a distance, and then turned onto a lightly traveled dirt road where he stopped. The armed petitioner then led Mrs. Lowe into the surrounding woods where he forced her to disrobe except for her underclothes for the purpose of keeping her under his control and preventing her escape. Pruett then went back to his car, administered a shot of cocaine to himself, and returned to check on his prisoner. He discovered that Mrs. Lowe had moved from the area. He then, by his own sworn testimony, instructed her to get on her knees, put her face down, and repeat her husband's telephone number so that he could be called. Mrs. Lowe was in the process of complying with these instructions when petitioner shot her in the back of the head at close range. Pruett was apprehended on October 17, 1981, in the area of Stratford, Texas, when Texas state troopers stopped his vehicle for a speeding violation. A routine license check revealed that Marion Albert Pruett was wanted for armed robbery by the State of Mississippi.

II. The Merits.

The scope of habeas corpus review is constricted by the interests of comity and federalism. The purpose of this limited scope of inquiry is to require the defendant to focus on the trial court wherein any and all errors which affect the legality of a conviction should be presented and a record thereon developed. On direct appeal, the state should be given the opportunity to correct the errors of its own courts before these are presented to the federal courts in a habeas proceeding. This allows the state courts the full opportunity to develop a factual record on matters claimed as error and to correct the error if appropriate. With this basic premise in mind, the court now turns to the merits of Marion Albert Pruett's petition for habeas corpus relief. Having found no need for further evidentiary display, we base our discussion on the record before us.

A. LACK OF JURISDICTION.

Petitioner alleges that the State of Mississippi's assertion of jurisdiction over a crime which was committed in another state violated his rights under the sixth, eighth, and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution. It is uncontested that the actual murder of Peggy Lowe took place wholly within the State of Alabama.

Mississippi's assertion of jurisdiction in this action was predicated on Miss.Code Ann. § 99-11-17 (1972), which provides:

Where an offense is commenced in this state and consummated out of it, either directly or by the accused or by any means or agency procured by or proceeding from him, he may be indicted and tried in the county in which such offense commenced or from which such means or agency proceeded.

Id.

Petitioner was indicted, convicted, and sentenced to death for violating Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-19(2)(e) which defines capital murder as "the killing of a human being without the authority of law by any means or any manner when done ... by any person engaged in the commission of rape, burglary, kidnapping...." A killing is committed during the commission of a felony when there is "no break in the chain of events leading from the initial felony to the act causing death, so that the homicide is linked to or part of the series of incidents, forming one continuous transaction." Pickle v. State, 345 So.2d 623 (Miss.1977) (emphasis added). Under the Mississippi Supreme Court's definition of capital murder, the res gestae of the underlying crime begins where an indictable attempt is made and ends where the chain of events between the attempted crime or completed felony is broken. Id. at 625-26.

Petitioner has argued that the murder was not accomplished during the course of a kidnapping but rather after the abduction had ended. Upon an adequate and carefully developed factual record, the Mississippi Supreme Court determined that, even taking appellant's testimony as true, Pruett never relinquished control over his victim and therefore never abandoned the kidnapping. Petitioner has offered no new evidence with which to refute the inescapable conclusion that there was "no break in the chain of events leading from the initial felony to the act causing death." Pickle, 345 So.2d at 626.

The crime of capital murder is one discrete offense. Petitioner would have us dissect this offense into two separate crimes in an effort to defeat the jurisdiction of the State of Mississippi. Although there are two distinct components, both of which must be present to sustain a capital murder charge, under Mississippi law, the crime of capital murder was...