Putman v. Turpin
| Citation | 53 F.Supp.2d 1285 |
| Decision Date | 09 June 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. Civ.A. 7:97-CV-31(HL).,Civ.A. 7:97-CV-31(HL). |
| Parties | William Howard PUTMAN, Petitioner, v. Tony TURPIN, Warden, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, Respondent. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Georgia |
Marcia G. Shein, Atlanta, GA, Stephen C. Bayliss, Atlanta, GA, for William Howard Putman, petitioner.
Paula K. Smith, Atlanta, GA, for Tony Turpin, respondent.
William Howard Putman has petitioned this Court for a Writ of Habeas Corpus, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. For the reasons set forth below, the Petition is hereby DENIED.
From September 13-17, 1982, Petitioner William Howard Putman was tried before a jury for the malice murders of David Hardin and his wife, Katie Christine Back. He was found guilty and sentenced to death for each murder. The murder convictions and death sentences were confirmed on direct appeal. Putman v. State, 251 Ga. 605, 308 S.E.2d 145 (1983). Petitioner filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus and a motion for stay of execution in the Superior Court of Butts County on September 18, 1984. The court found that the nine claims raised lacked merit and denied Petitioner's motion for a stay of execution. Putman v. Kemp, No. 84-v-6518 (Butts Sup.Ct. September 18, 1984).
Without appealing to the Supreme Court of Georgia, Petitioner then filed a federal habeas petition and a motion for stay of execution in this Court on September 19, 1984. Putman v. Kemp, Civil Action No. 84-79 (M.D.Ga. Dec. 4, 1984). This Court granted a stay of execution on September 19, 1984. However, the case was voluntarily dismissed on December 4, 1984, for lack of exhaustion because of the pendency of the Butts County case.
During the pendency of the federal petition, Petitioner's new counsel filed on October 18, 1984, a motion for new trial or, in the alternative, to set aside judgment in order to reopen the evidence in the state habeas corpus case. The state habeas court denied this motion the following day. Counsel also filed an amendment to the Butts County petition in which he raised a claim for ineffective assistance of trial counsel. In addition, he filed a notice of appeal from the denial of habeas relief by the state habeas court one month before, as well as an application for a certificate of probable cause to appeal. The application was granted by the Supreme Court of Georgia on November 19, 1984, and the case remanded for an evidentiary hearing on the issue of trial counsel's alleged ineffectiveness.
A full evidentiary hearing was held on August 27, 1985. The state habeas court subsequently found no merit to either the ineffective assistance claim or any of the other issues raised in Petitioner's two amendments to the original petition. On July 12, 1989, the Georgia Supreme Court denied the application for a certificate of probable cause to appeal. The United States Supreme Court subsequently denied certiorari. Putman v. Zant, 493 U.S. 1012, 110 S.Ct. 575, 107 L.Ed.2d 569 (1989).
In June 1992, Petitioner filed a second petition for writ of habeas corpus in the Superior Court of Butts County. Putman v. Zant, No. 92-v-319 (Butts Sup.Ct. filed June 12, 1992). On September 23, 1993, the state habeas court found that grounds II through XIV of the petition were successive and dismissed them on that basis. The Court declined to dismiss as successive ground I, which alleged six violations of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). After a hearing on the issue, the Court denied relief as to the Brady claims, finding that one was successive and the remaining five lacked merit. The Supreme Court of Georgia denied the application for certificate of probable cause to appeal on January 18, 1995, and denied the motion for reconsideration on April 20, 1995. The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari on December 4, 1995, and denied rehearing on January 22, 1996. Petitioner has now filed the instant petition for federal habeas corpus relief.
On direct appeal, the Supreme Court of Georgia made the following findings of fact in this case:
In the early morning hours of July 10, 1980, David Hardin and his wife Katie, residents of Kentucky, were shot to death at an Interstate 75 rest area near Lenox, Georgia. Truck driver William Howard Putman was arrested and charged with two counts of murder. The victims spent the week preceding their deaths vacationing in Daytona Beach with their three children and David's niece Beverly Culver. They left Daytona Beach in their blue Dodge sedan on the evening of July 9 and arrived at the Lenox rest area some time prior to 3:00 a.m. on the tenth. They parked in the automobile parking lot of the rest area and went to sleep.
Later arrivals at the rest area included Verlin Colter, who parked two spaces to the right of the Hardins, and Dessie Harris, who parked across the drivethrough, opposite the Hardin automobile. Dessie testified that, upon her arrival, she spread a blanket on the hood of her car. As she sat on the blanket, smoking a cigarette, she observed a darkcolored "semi," pulling a flat-bed trailer, drive slowly several times through the automobile parking lot. The truck eventually parked at the end of the parking lot. The driver got out, reached into the cab of the truck, retrieved an object and walked toward her car. He stopped under a nearby tree, approximately five feet from Dessie, and whistled at her. She stared at him but said nothing. The man then walked behind her car and proceeded across the parking lot. He went around to the front of the Hardin automobile and stood there for a few moments.
In the meantime, Verlin Colter arrived and parked. He observed that a darkcolored semi with an empty, yellow flat-bed trailer was parked at the end of the automobile parking lot and that a man was standing in front of the blue Dodge, whose occupants were all apparently asleep.
Dessie testified that the man walked around to the driver's side of the Hardin automobile. She heard a loud noise and then the man ran to the passenger side of the car. Verlin testified that, just as he lay down in his automobile, he heard a loud noise that sounded like a firecracker. He looked up and saw a woman in the front passenger seat of the Dodge opening the passenger door. The man he had seen earlier ran around the car to her door. Beverly Culver, who had been asleep in the back seat of the Dodge with Katie's two older children, testified that she was awakened by a loud noise. She saw a man standing outside the car, next to David Hardin, who lay in the driver's seat with his head resting on the back of the seat, next to the door. The man hurried to the passenger side of the car.
Beverly, Verlin and Dessie all observed what happened next: As Katie Hardin tried to get out of the car, the man grabbed her and demanded that she go with him. She refused, and screamed for David, who lay fatally wounded in the driver's seat. The man shot Katie in the head. He then reached into the car and placed something into the waist-band of his pants. He ran to his truck and drove off, headed north.
Verlin called the police, who arrived at the rest area just before 5:30 a.m. Based on information obtained from the witnesses, a lookout was posted for a white male, proceeding north on Interstate 75, driving a dark-blue or black truck pulling an empty, yellow flat-bed trailer.
A truck fitting this description was spotted by police just south of Cordele and followed to a rest area in Dooly County. The truck parked in the exit lane of the rest area and the driver went to the restroom. Backup units arrived and the driver, William Howard Putman, was arrested after he returned to his truck. Officers smelled alcohol on Putman's breath and he was initially taken to the Dooly County Sheriff's Office for an intoximeter test, which indicated that Putman's blood alcohol level was .13 grams/percent. Putman had what appeared to be blood on his left pants leg.
Officers recovered a .38 caliber revolver from under the driver's seat of Putman's truck. The revolver had three live rounds and two spent cartridges in its chamber. A gun case and David Hardin's wallet lay on the passenger seat.
Putman was returned to Cook County at approximately 7:30 a.m. Dessie Harris was at the courthouse, having just given a statement to investigators. As she stood outside smoking a cigarette, Putman arrived in a police car. She immediately recognized him as the man who had shot David and Katie Hardin.
At approximately 2:30 p.m. of the same day, the body of William Gerald Hodges was found slumped over the wheel of his automobile in the parking lot of a truck stop in Valdosta. He had been shot in the head and shoulder. The pathologist who conducted the autopsy testified that a time of death could not be established with any certainty. However, lividity patterns indicated that death had occurred some time prior to Hodges' arrival at the morgue at 3:10 p.m. A .38 caliber bullet was recovered from the interior of his automobile and another was recovered from inside his skull.
After Putman's arrival in Cook County, his clothing was removed from him and the contents of his pockets were inventoried. In his shirt pockets were two .38 caliber cartridges and an insurance card bearing the name William G. Hodges. In the pockets of his trousers were a gold Timex wristwatch and two gold rings, one having a red stone and the other a blue stone. The rings and the watch were identified by friends as having belonged to William Hodges. Serological examination of the reddishbrown substance on the leg of Putman's trousers and on the blue-stone ring established that the substance was blood having characteristics consistent with the blood of William Hodges and inconsistent with the blood of 98.3 percent of the general population. A fresh...
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