Reddix v. Thigpen

• Decision Date: 19 November 1986
• Docket Number: No. 86-4066,86-4066
• Citation: 805 F.2d 506
• Parties: Willie N. REDDIX, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Morris L. THIGPEN, Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, Eddie Lucas, Warden, Mississippi State Penitentiary, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 506

805 F.2d 506

Willie N. REDDIX, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Morris L. THIGPEN, Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, Eddie Lucas, Warden Mississippi State Penitentiary Respondents-Appellees.

No. 86-4066.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Nov. 19, 1986.

Steven L. Winter, Coral Gables, Fla., Charles H. Ramberg, Jackson, Miss., for petitioner-appellant.

Marvin L. White, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Edwin L. Pittman, Atty. Gen., Amy D. Whitten, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, Miss., for respondents-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.

Before CLARK, Chief Judge, REAVLEY and JOLLY, Circuit Judges.

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:

This case, in which the State of Mississippi sentenced appellant Willie N. Reddix to death, returns to us after we remanded to allow the district court to consider various issues it had not addressed. Our previous opinion granted Reddix habeas relief with respect to the penalty phase of his trial, but reversed the district court's grant of relief as to the guilt phase. On remand, the district court denied relief on all the issues it reconsidered, but consistent with our opinion granted relief unless the state resentenced Reddix or vacated his death sentence and imposed a lesser penalty. Reddix appeals the denial of the writ.

I

Since this is our third opinion in this case, Reddix v. Thigpen, 728 F.2d 705 (5th Cir.), reh'g denied, 732 F.2d 494, cert. denied, 469 U.S. 990, 105 S.Ct. 397, 83 L.Ed.2d 331 (1984), we state only the facts and procedural history necessary to make clear the events that occurred after our prior opinions.

Nearly twelve years ago in Biloxi, Mississippi, Willie Reddix distracted the proprietor of a downtown store so that Larry Jones, Reddix's companion on that day, could sneak up behind the victim and kill him with repeated blows from a wrench. Reddix and Jones then took money and clothes from the store.

Reddix was tried and convicted of felony murder, but the Supreme Court of Mississippi reversed. Reddix v. State, 342 So.2d 1306 (Miss.1977). At a second trial, the jury reached the same result and sentenced Reddix to death. The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed, Reddix v. State, 381 So.2d 999 (Miss.1980), and later denied Reddix's Petition for Writ of Error Coram Nobis.

Reddix then filed a federal habeas corpus petition. In an opinion that addressed all Reddix's contentions, the district court initially granted summary judgment to the state and denied Reddix partial summary judgment and an evidentiary hearing. The district court shortly thereafter responded to Reddix's motion for reconsideration by completely vacating its initial opinion and judgment above. Reddix v. Thigpen, 554 F.Supp. 1212 (S.D.Miss.1983). In an about-face, the district court not only granted Reddix habeas relief as to the death penalty under Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 102 S.Ct. 3368, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982), but also granted relief from the murder conviction on the basis that the record did not show that Reddix had the required intent to commit murder. The district court ordered Reddix to be set free because he had already been adequately punished for his only crime: robbery.

In Reddix I, we reversed the district court's decision nullifying the conviction and setting Reddix free, and remanded for further consideration. We held, however, that the district court appropriately granted relief on the Enmund issue, and that the writ should therefore issue unless the state resentenced Reddix to a sentence less than death or resentenced Reddix under Mississippi law consistent with our opinion. Our holding was based on the failure of a trial court instruction to make clear that Reddix must have personally intended to kill, and we specifically held that a jury could reimpose the death penalty if it found that Reddix personally intended to kill. On rehearing, we adhered to our original opinion. Reddix II. In the meantime, the United States Supreme Court decided Cabana v. Bullock, --- U.S. ----, 106 S.Ct. 689, 88 L.Ed.2d 704 (1986), a Mississippi death penalty case concerning whether jury instructions properly required a personal intent to kill. The Bullock Court held that the instruction was erroneous, but that the requirement, drawn from the eighth amendment, that the defendant be found to have personally intended to kill, could be satisfied by findings by a judge as well as by a jury. Consequently, a federal habeas court must search the entire state record to determine whether, at any level, the proper finding of intent has been made. If it has, the finding binds us under Sumner v. Mata, 449 U.S. 539, 101 S.Ct. 764, 66 L.Ed.2d 722 (1981). If the finding of intent has not been made by either judge or jury, the Bullock Court indicated that, as a matter of comity, the state court should first be allowed to determine whether the petitioner personally intended to kill.

On remand to federal district court, the case was transferred to a different judge. The second judge adopted the initial district court opinion on all issues except the Enmund issue. We summarize here, however, only those issues raised on this appeal, since the issues not raised are waived. Smith v. Maggio, 664 F.2d 109, 111 n. 2 (5th Cir.1981). The district court also considered a new contention, the voluntariness of Reddix's confession. Reddix contended before the district court that he was entitled to an evidentiary hearing based on a new affidavit from a psychiatrist that stated Reddix was so mentally retarded and mentally ill at the time he waived his rights that he could not have understood a Miranda warning and that he could have been persuaded to sign any statement he was given. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). The district court determined that this confession was voluntary, relying on the findings of the Mississippi Supreme Court. Reddix v. State, 381 So.2d 999, 1005-07 (Miss.1980). The district court held that the facts concerning Reddix's capacity had been sufficiently developed at trial to show that the failure of Reddix's counsel to raise the issue of Reddix's capacity to sign the waiver was the result of a deliberate by-pass. Furthermore, the district court held that even considering the "new evidence," the record still supported a finding that Reddix understood the waiver, because the police explained it to him.

With respect to the instructions given to the jury during the guilt/innocence phase of the trial, the district court found that the state trial judge had correctly charged the jury on intent to rob, and further found that Mississippi law did not require such an intent for a robbery conviction or for murder in the course of robbery.

Reddix also challenged the instructions given to the jury at sentencing, although he had not objected to the instructions when given. The district court held that these instructions were not vague and that they adequately stated the requirement of intent to rob. It found that all Reddix's other objections to the sentencing instructions were procedurally barred because they had been rejected by the Mississippi Supreme Court or had not been raised at trial.

The district court further held that the state trial court's rulings did not transgress Beck v. Alabama, 447 U.S. 625, 100 S.Ct. 2382, 65 L.Ed.2d 392 (1980), by rejecting Reddix's instructions on various lesser included offenses since the instructions requested were not supported by the evidence. It also held that its consideration of the issue was procedurally barred. Finally, in accord with our opinion on the Enmund issue, the district court conditionally granted the writ unless the state resentenced or vacated the death sentence.

II

On appeal, Reddix argues that a Beck violation occurred when the state trial court denied his instructions on the lesser included offenses of noncapital murder, manslaughter and robbery. Furthermore, Reddix argues that he cannot be procedurally barred from raising this issue for failing to raise it on direct appeal. Reddix also argues that the jury was not properly instructed on one of the necessary elements of capital murder in the course of robbery: intent to rob. Finally, Reddix contends that he is entitled to a hearing and an independent federal determination on whether his waiver of rights and his confession were voluntary.

III

A.

We must first consider whether Reddix's argument that the state trial court erroneously failed to instruct the jury on lesser included offenses is procedurally barred, and, if not, whether Reddix's constitutional rights were violated by the rejection of his instructions.

In its finding on procedural bar, the district court relied on the fact that this point was first raised in the Petition for Writ of Error Coram Nobis to the Mississippi Supreme Court, not on the direct appeal to that court. Because of a recent case in our court, holding that during the period that included Reddix's appeal and petition for writ, the Mississippi Supreme Court did not consistently apply the rule barring consideration of claims presented for the first time in a writ of error coram nobis, we cannot hold that this issue is procedurally barred. Wheat v. Thigpen, 793 F.2d 621, 624-27 (5th Cir.1986). We therefore turn to the merits.

In the second trial, the state trial court refused Reddix's instructions on noncapital murder, manslaughter, and robbery. Reddix argues that the trial court's appreciation of when lesser-included-offense instructions should be granted did not comport with Fairchild v. State, 459 So.2d 793, 799-802 (Miss.1984). Reddix further argues that the refusal to grant the instructions placed Reddix in the same situation as the petitioner in Beck.

Fairchild was convicted of murder in the course of a robbery and sentenced to life imprisonment. At trial, the court refused Fairchild's instructions on simple murder and manslaughter....