Riley v. Snyder, Civ. A. No. 91-438-JJF.
| Decision Date | 20 December 1993 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 91-438-JJF. |
| Citation | 840 F. Supp. 1012 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Delaware |
| Parties | James William RILEY, Petitioner, v. Robert E. SNYDER, Warden, Delaware Correctional Center, and Charles M. Oberly, III, Attorney General of the State of Delaware, Respondents. |
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Lawrence J. Connell, of Widener University School of Law. Thomas J. Allingham, II, and Mary M. MaloneyHuss, of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Wilmington, DE, for petitioner.
Fred S. Silverman, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen., and Manuela DiNardo, Deputy Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Wilmington, DE, for respondents.
Presently before the Court is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The Petitioner, James William Riley, is a state prisoner. Petitioner instituted the instant action for federal habeas relief on August 12, 1991. On August 13, 1991, the Court stayed Petitioner's execution and ordered briefing on the need for an evidentiary hearing as well as the merits of Petitioner's claims. For the reasons outlined below, the Court will deny the writ on the record before it.
On February 8, 1982, Tyrone Baxter ("Baxter") and Petitioner agreed to rob a liquor store. Michael Williams drove Petitioner and Baxter to a liquor store owned by James Feeley. Upon arrival at the liquor store, Petitioner placed a quart bottle of beer on the counter and paid for it. When Mr. Feeley opened the cash register, Petitioner drew a pistol and took approximately $150.00 from the register. When Petitioner attempted to take Feeley's wallet, Feeley resisted. At the urging of Baxter, Petitioner shot Feeley in the leg. Feeley retaliated by throwing a bottle of wine at Petitioner as Baxter and Petitioner were leaving the store. Petitioner then shot Feeley in the chest at close range. Baxter hid behind a cigarette machine. Baxter and Petitioner fled, leaving Feeley mortally wounded. Williams then drove Petitioner and Baxter to a bus station.
Petitioner pleaded not guilty to each of the five charges brought against him by the State of Delaware. He testified at trial that he was in Philadelphia the entire day of the robbery. Petitioner also presented the testimony of Gary Walter Momenko, an inmate at the Delaware Correctional Center, who testified that Baxter told him that he, Baxter, not Petitioner shot Feeley.
In response to Petitioner's chief defense, the state presented evidence establishing that Petitioner's fingerprints were on the beer bottle found on the counter in the liquor store at the time of the robbery. The state also presented the testimony of Tyrone Baxter's mother that Petitioner spent the night before the robbery at her house in Dover.
On December 20, 1982, Petitioner was convicted in the Superior Court of Kent County of two counts of murder in the first degree — intentional murder and felony murder, robbery in the first degree, possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony, and conspiracy in the second degree. On December 20, 1982, Petitioner was sentenced to death for felony murder.2 On February 25, 1983, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for the intentional murder conviction, twenty years imprisonment for robbery, five years imprisonment for possession of a deadly weapon, and three years for conspiracy.
Petitioner challenged his conviction and sentence on direct appeal asserting numerous grounds including: (1) the prosecution exercised its peremptory challenges for racial reasons; (2) trial court erred in not granting Petitioner's motion for change of venue; (3) dual use of the underlying robbery conviction was improper; and (4) his sentence was disproportional. The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentences. Riley v. State, 496 A.2d 997 (Del.1985), cert. denied, 478 U.S. 1022, 106 S.Ct. 3339, 92 L.Ed.2d 743 (1986) (Riley I).
On March 6, 1987, Petitioner filed for post-conviction relief from the Superior Court. The Superior Court held three hearings on the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel on October 20, 1987, November 23, 1987, and November 25, 1987. In a twenty-seven page opinion, the Superior Court denied Petitioner's motion for post-conviction relief. In its decision, the Superior Court addressed three of Petitioner's claims, specifically: (1) the state's exercise of its peremptory challenges; (2) the adequacy of the trial court's voir dire of juror's attitudes regarding the death penalty; and (3) ineffective assistance of counsel during the penalty phase of Petitioner's trial.
On May 5, 1988 Petitioner moved for reargument and appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court. Subsequently, Petitioner filed a motion requesting the Delaware Supreme Court to stay briefing on his appeal and to remand his case to the Superior Court to consider his motion for reargument. On July 19, 1988, the Delaware Supreme Court remanded Petitioner's case to the Superior Court, as requested.
On November 15, 1988, the Superior Court granted in part Petitioner's motion for reargument. Following an evidentiary hearing, the Superior Court found no merit to Petitioner's claim of racial discrimination based on Batson. The Superior Court also summarily rejected Petitioner's remaining claims for post-conviction relief as having been previously raised and rejected by either the Superior Court or the Delaware Supreme Court. On December 21, 1990, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Superior Court's decision denying Petitioner post-conviction relief. Riley v. State, 585 A.2d 719 (Del.1990), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 2840, 115 L.Ed.2d 1008 (1991) (Riley II).3
Petitioner filed this petition for a writ of habeas corpus on August 12, 1991. In his petition, Petitioner raises the following grounds for relief: (1) the prosecutor's use of peremptory challenges to strike three black persons on the venire violated his rights under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments; (2) ineffective assistance of counsel; (3) remarks by the prosecutor and the trial court during the penalty phase violated his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights; (4) improper jury instructions following the penalty hearing violated his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights; (5) trial court's failure to question prospective jurors about whether they would be inclined automatically to impose the death penalty violated Petitioner's Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights; (6) trial court's failure to grant Petitioner's motion for change of venue based on alleged prejudicial pretrial publicity violated his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights; (7) the use of Petitioner's conviction on the robbery charge as a basis for the first degree murder conviction and as a statutory aggravating circumstance violated his rights guaranteed by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments; (8) the trial court's failure to appoint co-counsel or an investigator violated his rights guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments; (9) the Delaware Supreme Court's proportionality review was so arbitrary and capricious it violated Petitioner's rights to due process and equal protection as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, and the resulting death sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
Before turning to the substantive merits of Petitioner's claims, the Court must satisfy itself that Petitioner has exhausted each of his claims in state court, 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b), and that federal habeas review of any of the claims is not barred because a Delaware state court has determined that Petitioner defaulted the claim by failing to comply with a state procedural rule. Coleman v. Thompson, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 2546, 115 L.Ed.2d 640 (1991); Santana v. Fenton, 685 F.2d 71, 73 (3d Cir.1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1115, 103 S.Ct. 750, 74 L.Ed.2d 968 (1983). A review of the state court proceedings reveals that, with the exception of one claim,4 Petitioner has presented each of his claims to the state court either on direct appeal or in post-conviction proceedings. Therefore, the Court concludes that Petitioner has exhausted his state court remedies as to each of his claims. It is also apparent, again excepting one claim, that Petitioner has not procedurally defaulted on any of his claims. Accordingly, the Court will address the merits of each of Petitioner's claims.
Petitioner has requested an evidentiary hearing on most of the claims set forth in his petition. Rule 8 of the Rules Governing Section 2254 Cases provides that the Court, "after the answer and the transcript and the record of state court proceedings are filed, shall, upon review of those proceedings ... determine whether an evidentiary hearing is required." The burden is on the Petitioner to establish that an evidentiary hearing is needed. Reese v. Fulcomer, 946 F.2d 247, 255 (3d Cir.1991), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 112 S.Ct. 1679, 118 L.Ed.2d 396 (1992).
The Court has before it copies of the essential motions, briefs and orders filed in the Petitioner's state court proceedings, the transcripts of two hearings in which the trial judge denied Petitioner's motion for appointment of counsel, the trial transcript, and the transcripts of the two post-conviction evidentiary hearings conducted by the state court. Upon review of these materials and the factual determinations made by the state judges contained therein, the Court concludes that the state court record provides a sufficient basis upon which to decide the merits of Petitioner's claims. Although Petitioner, citing Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 313-19, 83 S.Ct. 745, 757-60, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963), asserts that further factual findings are required as to some claims, and that the factual findings of the state courts...
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