Ray v. Thomas

• Decision Date: 26 September 2013
• Docket Number: CIVIL ACTION 11-0543-WS-N
• Citation: Ray v. Thomas, CIVIL ACTION 11-0543-WS-N (S.D. Ala. Sep 26, 2013)
• Parties: DOMINEQUE RAY, Petitioner, v. KIM THOMAS, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al., Respondents.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Alabama

DOMINEQUE RAY, Petitioner, v. KIM THOMAS, Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, et al., Respondents.

CIVIL ACTION 11-0543-WS-N

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA NORTHERN DIVISION

DONE: September 26, 2013

ORDER

This death-penalty habeas corpus action comes before the Court on petitionerDomineque Ray's Amended Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus by Prisoner in State Custody under Death Sentence (doc. 32-1), filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254.¹The respondent has filed a comprehensive Answer (doc. 15), and both sides have submitted detailed merits briefs (docs. 31 & 36) elaborating on their respective legal positions as to the eight grounds and dozens of subgrounds for relief presented in the Petition.²After careful review of these materials, as well as relevant portions of the 30-volume record of state-court proceedings, the Court finds that the Amended Petition is ripe for disposition.

I.Background.

A.The Offense.

On the evening of July 29, 1995, 15-year old Tiffany Harville went missing from her home in Selma, Alabama.Her mother filed a missing person's report, and family members posted flyers around the community.As days went by, no information surfaced concerning Harville's whereabouts.On August 16, 1995, however, a man operating a tractor and bushhog at a cotton field off County Road 62 in Dallas County, Alabama discovered human skeletal remains, which he immediately reported to law enforcement officials.A medical examiner with the Alabama Department of Forensic Science used dental records to identify the remains as Harville's.Upon examining the remains, the medical examiner observed a dozen defects in the skull consistent with stab wounds caused by a knife.Three of those defects were of sufficient severity that the weapon had penetrated the skull and entered the brain area, inflicting fatal trauma.Other marks on the bones of the hands and wrist were consistent with defensive-type wounds.

Tiffany Harville's murder went unsolved for more than two years.During this time, the Selma Police Department and Dallas County Sheriff's Department conducted an ongoing homicide investigation and fielded countless leads and tips pointing in numerous different directions.At the end of 1995, a suspect named Rod Suttle was taken into custody and ultimately indicted on charges of capital murder in connection with Harville's death; however, those charges were later dismissed.

On April 18, 1997, Domineque Ray(a 20-year old male then in custody in a local jail facility on another matter) initiated contact with Lt. Roy Freine, the Dallas County Sheriff's Department investigator who was in charge of the Harville investigation.Pursuant to that contact, Lt. Freine interviewed Ray, at which time Ray announced that he possessed information concerning Harville's death.After Lt. Freine read Ray his Miranda rights, Ray volunteered that he was an eyewitness to Harville's murder.Ray elaborated that Suttle (whom Ray knew by the name "Tie") had killed Harville, and that three other females (Erica Powell, Latonya Simmons, and Pat Simmons) had been present and complicit in the crime.On April 24, 1997, Ray picked Suttle out of a police lineup in Mobile, Alabama, as Harville's killer.Ray signed a statement that afternoon confirming that Suttle "is the same individual that murdered Tiffany Harville by cutting her throat and stabbing her several times in the head with a knife."(Vol. 4, R-13at 546.)

The Harville investigation's big break occurred on August 18, 1997.On that date, Marcus Owden voluntarily approached law enforcement after experiencing a spiritual awakening.³Owden gave a statement to Lt. Freine implicating both himself and Ray in Harville's murder.On the strength of this new information, Ray was taken into custody and questioned on August 19, 1997.(Vol. 4, R-13at 548.)Ray agreed to waive his Miranda rights, and proceeded to give a statement that differed markedly from those he had made in April 1997.Specifically, Ray stated that he and Owden were alone with Harville on the night of the murder, that Owden had raped Harville, that Ray had pretended to rape her (without actually performing sexual intercourse), and that both of them had stabbed her.(Id. at 552.)Ray admitted that his earlier statements had been false, but stated that it had been Owden's idea to implicate Suttle since they knew Suttle had been arrested for the crime anyway.(Id.)In a tape-recorded statement played to the jury at trial, Ray said that Harville voluntarily went with Owden and Ray that evening, that Owden made sexual advances toward Harville, that Harville told Owden to stop, that Owden proceeded to have sex with Harville, that Ray then acted like he had sex with her (but did not), that Owden had sex with Harville again even though she told him she did not want him to do it, that Harville threatened to report the sexual assault to her mother, and that Owden then produced a knife that primarily Owden (but also Ray) used to stab Harville to death.(Id. at 555-60.)

Ray's story deviated in certain particulars from that which Owden had given to Lt. Freine.For instance, Owden indicated that he and Ray had planned on raping Harville all along, that Ray had cut Harville first, that Ray had slashed Harville's throat, and that approximately 10 of the stab wounds were inflicted by Ray.(Id. at 577-78.)According to Owden, while he was raping her, she cried out for help, "God, God, help me.Please help me, God."(Id. at 594.)Owden also stated that the two of them had robbed Harville of her money (roughly $7 in cash) and her underwear after they killed her.(Id. at 578.)Owden testified in substantially this manner at trial, including specific testimony that both of them had engaged in "raw brutal"sexual intercourse with Harville against her will, that Ray had cut Harville in the neck first and stabbed her some more before Owden joined in, and that when they drove away from the murder scene, Ray possessed the murder weapon, Harville's money and her clothes.(Id. at 603-10.)⁴

B.Indictment, Trial, and Death Sentence.

In September 1997, Ray was indicted in the Circuit Court of Dallas County, Alabama, and charged with capital murder in the death of Tiffany Harville, pursuant to Alabama Code § 13A-5-40(a)(3).(Vol. 1, R-1at 14-15.)The final iteration of the indictment charged Ray with two counts of capital murder, including one count of murdering Harville while engaging or attempting to engage in sexual intercourse with her by forcible compulsion (Count 1) and one count of murdering Harville while committing a theft of her money or property (Count 2).(Id. at 84-85.)Selma attorneys Alston Keith and George Jones were appointed to represent Ray.On September 15, 1997, the trial judge granted the parties' joint request that Ray receive a mental examination.(Id. at 18-20.)In the spring and summer of 1998, defense counsel filed a series of motions, including motions for discovery, a motion requesting funds to hire an investigator to assist the defense, multiple motions for change of venue, a motion to suppress Ray's statement, and a motion seeking funds to hire an expert in forensic neuropsychology.

On August 31, 1998, Attorneys Keith and Jones filed their first motion to withdraw from the case, for the stated reason that Ray "refuses to cooperate with counsel in negotiating a plea agreement," despite the fact that the State had "proffered a very favorable plea offer."(Vol. 1, R-1at 72-74.)The motion also reflected that Ray had repeatedly expressed a lack of trust and confidence in his attorneys, such as complaining in open court that they were not "representing [him] right."(Id.)The attorney-client relationship continued to deteriorate thereafter, with counsel filing an amended motion setting forth additional facts on September 3, 1998.(Id. at 80-82.)Yet another iteration of the motion to withdraw followed on September 9, 1998, based on an incident in which Ray informed counsel that he knew of witnesses who could provide favorable testimony, but refused to provide their names or to disclose the substance of theiranticipated testimony.(Id. at 89-90.)⁵On or about October 1, 1998, the trial court relieved Keith and Jones of their representation of Ray, and appointed William Whatley to represent him instead.(Id. at 139-40.)On March 1, 1999, the trial judge granted a defense motion by appointing Juliana Taylor to serve as co-counsel for Ray in connection with the Harville trial.(Id. at 146.)

Jury selection was conducted on July 26, 1999, and the trial commenced the following morning in Selma, with Circuit Judge Thomas ap R. Jones presiding.At the end of the day on July 28, 1999, the jury returned a unanimous verdict finding Ray guilty on both Count 1 (murder during the commission of rape, first degree) and Count 2 (murder during the commission of robbery, first degree).(Vol. 2, R-2at 277.)On July 29, 1999(four years to the day after Harville's disappearance), the penalty phase of the trial took place, at the conclusion of which the jury returned a recommendation by a vote of 11 to 1 that Ray be sentenced to death.(Id. at 276.)

After a separate sentencing hearing at which both sides had the opportunity to present additional testimony and argument, Judge Jones entered a Sentencing Order on September 27, 1999.(Vol. 2, R-2at 284-92.)In that Order, the trial judge found that the following statutory aggravating circumstances had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt: (i) Ray had previously been convicted of another capital offense;⁶(ii) Ray committed the capital offense while engagedin or attempting to commit the crime of rape in the first degree; and (iii) Ray committed the capital offense while engaged in or attempting to commit the crime of robbery in the first degree.With respect to mitigating circumstances, the trial judge found that the only statutory mitigator present was Ray's young...