Robinson v. Thomas

• Decision Date: 27 April 2017
• Docket Number: No. 16-12,No. 16-11,16-11
• Citation: 855 F.3d 278
• Parties: Marcus Reymond ROBINSON, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Edward THOMAS, Warden of Central Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina, Respondent-Appellee. Tilmon C. Golphin, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Edward Thomas, Warden of Central Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

855 F.3d 278

Marcus Reymond ROBINSON, Petitioner-Appellant,

v.Edward THOMAS, Warden of Central Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina, Respondent-Appellee.

Tilmon C. Golphin, Petitioner-Appellant,

v.Edward Thomas, Warden of Central Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 16-11

No. 16-12

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: January 25, 2017

Decided: April 27, 2017

ARGUED: David Weiss, CENTER FOR DEATH PENALTY LITIGATION, Durham, North Carolina, for Appellants. Danielle Marquis Elder, NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Donald H. Beskind, DUKE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW, Durham, North Carolina, for Appellant Marcus Reymond Robinson. Kenneth J. Rose, CENTER FOR DEATH PENALTY LITIGATION, Durham, North Carolina; Jay H. Ferguson, THOMAS, FERGUSON & MULLINS, LLP, Durham, North Carolina, for Appellant Tilmon C. Golphin. Roy Cooper, Attorney General of North Carolina, Jonathan P. Babb, Special Deputy Attorney General, NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Before KING, AGEE, and FLOYD, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Agee wrote the opinion, in which Judge King and Judge Floyd joined.

AGEE, Circuit Judge:

After being sentenced to death upon first-degree murder convictions, Marcus Robinson and Tilmon Golphin (collectively, "Petitioners") sought post-conviction relief in state court pursuant to North Carolina's Racial Justice Act ("RJA"), N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 15A-2010 to 2012 (2009) (repealed 2013). Following separate evidentiary hearings, the North Carolina trial court awarded relief under the RJA, reducing their death sentences to life imprisonment. The State of North Carolina ("the State") appealed, and the North Carolina Supreme Court vacated and remanded their cases to the state trial court for additional RJA proceedings. Petitioners then brought separate actions in federal district court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2241, each maintaining that a second RJA proceeding would violate their rights under the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The district court abstained from exercising federal jurisdiction pursuant to Younger v. Harris , 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), under the precept that a federal court "should not act to restrain a [state] criminal prosecution, when the moving party has an adequate remedy at law and will not suffer irreparable injury if denied equitable relief." Id. at 43–44, 91 S.Ct. 746. As an alternate basis for its judgment, the district court held that Petitioners had also failed to exhaust their state remedies. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the district court's decision to abstain from intervening in Petitioners' ongoing state court proceedings under Younger .

I.

A.

Enacted in August 2009, the RJA redefined eligibility for the death penalty in North Carolina, providing that no person whose judgment was sought or obtained on the basis of race could be sentenced to death, and establishing a procedure for previously sentenced capital defendants to challenge their death sentences. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-2010 (2009). For such post-conviction challenges, the RJA authorized state trial courts to hold evidentiary hearings and to make factual findings as to whether race was a significant factor in leading to a death sentence. Id. § 15A-2012(a). For defendants who established entitlement to post-conviction relief under the RJA, the statute mandated "that the death sentence imposed by the judgment shall be vacated and the defendant resentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole." Id. § 15A-2012(a)(3).

On July 2, 2012, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted amendments to the RJA, but preserved its retroactive application to all death row inmates, as well as the provision that a successful claim would result in vacatur of the death sentence and imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment with no mechanism for appeal of that sentence. See 2012 N.C. Sess. Laws 471, § 3(g).

The next year, the North Carolina General Assembly repealed the RJA effective June 19, 2013. See 2013 N.C. Sess. Laws 368, § 5(a). The repeal statute provided that it applied to all pending RJA motions filed prior to the effective date of the repeal, and that all such motions were void. Id. § 5(d). In addition, the repeal statute also provided that it applied to litigants who obtained relief under the RJA, but whose relief could be vacated on appeal:

This section does not apply to a court order resentencing a petitioner to life imprisonment without parole pursuant to the provisions of Article 101 of Chapter 15A of the General Statutes prior to the effective date of this act if the order is affirmed upon appellate review and becomes a final Order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction. This section is applicable in any case where a court resentenced a petitioner to life imprisonment without parole pursuant to the provisions of Article 101 of Chapter 15A of the General Statutes prior to the effective date of this act, and the Order is vacated upon appellate review by a court of competent jurisdiction .

Id. (emphasis added).

B.

The state court proceedings for each petitioner are ongoing and present a complex web of procedural history. We include such detail here as necessary to lend context to our decision.

1.

In 1994, Robinson was convicted after a jury trial of first-degree murder for the killing of Erik Tornblom, a 17-year-old rising senior in high school. Robinson and an accomplice shot Tornblom in the face with a shotgun and then stole his car and $27. The jury found two aggravating circumstances existed that were sufficient to impose the death penalty and recommended the death sentence. The trial court imposed that sentence on August 4, 1994. Robinson appealed both his conviction and sentence, but those appeals were unsuccessful. See generally State v. Robinson , 342 N.C. 74, 463 S.E.2d 218 (1995).

Robinson's requests for state, see generally State v. Robinson , 350 N.C. 847, 539 S.E.2d 646 (1999) (denying certiorari review of state trial court's denial of post-conviction motion for appropriate relief), and federal, see generally Robinson v. Polk , 438 F.3d 350 (4th Cir. 2006) (affirming the district court's denial of a petition for the writ of habeas corpus), post-conviction relief also failed.

In 2010, Robinson sought post-conviction relief under the RJA in the state trial court. Robinson's motion alleged that race was a factor in the prosecutor's decision to seek the death penalty and the exercise of peremptory strikes, as well as the jury's decision to impose the death penalty. After a two-week evidentiary hearing, the state trial court found that racial disparities impacted Robinson's death sentence and determined that the RJA standards were satisfied so that Robinson was ineligible for the death penalty and entitled to a sentence of life imprisonment. The state trial court entered a judgment vacating the death sentence and resentencing Robinson to life imprisonment without parole.

2.

Golphin's case history tracks a similar course. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for killing North Carolina State Highway Patrol Trooper Lloyd E. Lowry and Cumberland County Deputy Sherriff David Hathcock and sentenced to death for each murder. See generally State v. Golphin , 352 N.C. 364, 533 S.E.2d 168 (2000). The conviction and sentences were affirmed on direct appeal. Id.

Golphin unsuccessfully pursued state, see generally State v. Golphin , 358 N.C. 157, 593 S.E.2d 84 (2004) (denying certiorari review of the denial of a state post-conviction motion for appropriate relief), and federal, see generally Golphin v. Branker , 519 F.3d 168 (4th Cir. 2008) (affirming the district court's denial of a petition for the writ of habeas corpus), post-conviction review.

In 2010, Golphin also filed a state motion for post-conviction relief pursuant to the RJA. Similar to Robinson, Golphin alleged race was a significant factor in the decisions to seek and impose the death penalty. The state trial court held an evidentiary hearing and concluded that statistical disparities and intentional discrimination affected Golphin's trial and capital sentencing. That court then vacated Golphin's death sentence based upon both the original RJA and amended 2012 version and re-sentenced Golphin to life imprisonment without parole.

C.

The State petitioned the North Carolina Supreme Court for review of the orders granting relief under the RJA for Robinson and Golphin in separate appeals, which Petitioners opposed. In his preliminary response brief to the State's request for a grant of certiorari, Robinson failed to raise any double jeopardy argument. Golphin, however, asserted further proceedings in the state trial court would violate his rights under the Double Jeopardy Clause in his preliminary brief opposing certiorari.

The North Carolina Supreme Court granted the State's petitions, and briefing on the merits ensued. Both Petitioners proffered Double Jeopardy Clause arguments in their merits briefing.

In December 2015, the North Carolina Supreme Court vacated the trial court's RJA orders in both cases and remanded for further proceedings, but did not explicitly address Petitioners' double jeopardy arguments. State v. Augustine , 368 N.C. 594, 780 S.E.2d 552 (2015) (mem.); State v. Robinson , 368 N.C. 596, 780 S.E.2d 151, 151–52 (2015). Both Robinson and Golphin filed motions for clarification of the Supreme Court's decision, reasserting their double jeopardy arguments, but those motions were denied without explanation. State v. Robinson , 368 N.C. 688, 782 S.E.2d 324 (2016) (mem.); State v. Augustine , 368 N.C. 681, 782 S.E.2d 323 (2016) (mem.).

The mandates of the North Carolina Supreme Court for further RJA proceedings issued to the trial court in January 2016.¹

D.

In February 2016, Robinson and Golphin separately petitioned for writs of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 in the ...