Schneider v. Delo, 95-2969

• Decision Date: 25 July 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-2969,95-2969
• Parties: Eric Adam SCHNEIDER, Appellant, v. Paul DELO, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 335

85 F.3d 335

Eric Adam SCHNEIDER, Appellant, v. Paul DELO, Appellee.

No. 95-2969.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted April 8, 1996.

Decided May 30, 1996.

Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc Denied July 25, 1996.

Laura B. Allen, St. Louis, Missouri, argued, for appellant.

Frank A. Jung, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Jefferson City, Missouri, argued, for appellee.

Before RICHARD S. ARNOLD, Chief Judge, WOLLMAN and HANSEN, Circuit Judges.

RICHARD S. ARNOLD, Chief Judge.

Eric Adam Schneider, who is under sentence of death for the murders of Richard Schwendemann and Ronald Thompson, appeals from the District Court's ¹ denial of his petition for habeas corpus. We affirm.

I.

In order to place Schneider's legal arguments in context, we begin by briefly summarizing the facts of the crime. ²

On January 7, 1985, Schneider and two friends, David Morgan and Charles Palmer, visited the home of Roland Johnson. While there, Schneider, who was carrying a sawed-off .22 caliber rifle, said that he "had to do a job or rob somebody." On January 11, Schneider borrowed twenty dollars from Johnson. He told Johnson that he was "planning something" and would repay Johnson on January 13. On the afternoon of January 12, Schneider, Palmer, and Morgan were seen leaving Palmer's apartment. They returned later that night, carrying personal property that had belonged to the victims, Richard Schwendemann and Ronald Thompson. Patricia Woodside, who had agreed to purchase the victims' video-cassette recorder, commented that Schneider had "made a killing." Schneider responded, "Yes. A couple of them."

The next morning, Schneider and Morgan discussed their crime with Patrick Schaffer. Schneider stated that after he, Palmer, and Morgan had arrived at the victims' home, they bound the victims and moved them to the basement. After Schwendemann started "getting tough," Schneider shot him in the back. Palmer slit Thompson's throat. Schneider and Palmer went upstairs and asked Morgan to watch the victims. But Morgan wandered away and when he returned, Thompson was missing. Morgan yelled for Schneider. Schneider and Morgan found Thompson staggering on the poolside patio and saw him fall into the pool.

When the police arrived at the victims' home, they discovered Schwendemann's body in the basement and Thompson's in the swimming pool. Schwendemann had two broken ribs and had been shot in the back and forehead with bullets from Schneider's gun. Thompson had fifteen stab wounds to his neck, scalp, chest, side, and back.

The jury found Schneider guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action, first-degree robbery, and first-degree burglary. It recommended two sentences of death, finding that the murders were committed for the purpose of receiving money or some other thing of monetary value, that the murders involved torture or depravity of mind, and that Schneider committed the murders while carrying out a first-degree burglary.

The Missouri Supreme Court affirmed Schneider's convictions and sentence. State v. Schneider, 736 S.W.2d 392 (Mo.1987) (en banc), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1047, 108 S.Ct. 786, 98 L.Ed.2d 871 (1988). Schneider unsuccessfully sought post-conviction relief under Mo.S.Ct.R. 29.15, and the Missouri Supreme Court affirmed. Schneider v. State, 787 S.W.2d 718(Mo.) (en banc), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 882, 111 S.Ct. 231, 112 L.Ed.2d 186 (1990). Schneider then filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, which the District Court denied. Schneider v. Delo, 890 F.Supp. 791 (E.D.Mo.1995).

On appeal, Schneider raises three arguments. He claims that he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel at the guilt and penalty phases of his trial; that the prosecutor made a number of improper statements during closing argument; and that the trial court unconstitutionally refused to permit him to introduce certain mitigating evidence at the penalty phase.

II.

Schneider argues that he did not receive effective assistance of counsel because his lawyer failed to have him examined by a psychiatrist and, at the penalty phase, presented only limited testimony regarding his social history.

A.

Before addressing the substance of Schneider's argument that his counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate his mental condition, we must first decide whether part of this claim is procedurally barred. In the appeal from the denial of his Rule 29.15 motion for post-conviction relief, Schneider alleged:

The trial court clearly erred in denying appellant's motion to vacate sentence because counsel was ineffective in failing to seek a mental evaluation in mitigation of punishment.... Appellant was prejudiced in that the jury was denied important information on which to base a life sentence, particularly his capacity for feeling, remorse, and rehabilitation.

Resp. Ex. K at 11. The state contends that because Schneider mentioned only the prejudice he may have suffered during the penalty phase of his trial, he is procedurally barred from raising the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel at the guilt phase. See Engle v. Isaac, 456 U.S. 107, 129, 102 S.Ct. 1558, 1572, 71 L.Ed.2d 783 (1982) ("when a procedural default bars state litigation of a constitutional claim, a state prisoner may not obtain federal habeas relief absent a showing of cause and actual prejudice").

The requirement that federal habeas claims must have been presented in state court is not meant to trap a petitioner who has poor drafting skills. The stakes in habeas cases are too high for a game of legal "gotcha." Accordingly, in deciding whether a habeas claim has been fairly presented in state court, we "have not applied an unreasonable standard." Kenley v. Armontrout, 937 F.2d 1298, 1302 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 964, 112 S.Ct. 431, 116 L.Ed.2d 450 (1991). We require that the "same factual arguments and legal theories should be present in both the state and federal claims." Ibid.

Did Schneider present to the state courts the factual arguments and legal theories for his guilt-phase claim? Hill v. Lockhart, 28 F.3d 832 (8th Cir.1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 778, 130 L.Ed.2d 673 (1995), answers this question. In state court, Hill had specifically addressed only the prejudice he had suffered at the penalty phase from his lawyer's failure to investigate his mental condition. We rejected the state's argument that Hill had defaulted on his guilt-phase ineffective-assistance claim:

Significantly, the legal analysis to be applied by this court to Mr. Hill's claim, i.e., ineffective assistance of counsel related to failure to present evidence of an extensive history of mental illness is the same regardless of which of the discrete aspects of the state court trial is at issue--the guilt phase or the penalty phase. The question of mental condition, moreover, cannot neatly be divided into sanity at the time of the offense as the relevant issue at the guilt phase, and mitigating evidence as the relevant issue at sentencing. [A criminal defendant's] intellectual understanding of his actions and their gravity [is] clearly in issue at both phases of the proceedings.

Id. at 835 (citations omitted). The same reasoning applies to this case, and we hold that Schneider's guilt-phase claim is not procedurally barred.

We now come to the substance of Schneider's ineffective-assistance claim. In order to prevail, Schneider must show that his counsel's performance fell below professional standards and that his defense was prejudiced by his counsel's ineffectiveness. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 688, 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2068, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984); Payne v. United States, 78 F.3d 343, 345 (8th Cir.1996).

Schneider points out that his lawyer had access to the report from a court-ordered psychiatric examination which was performed in 1983, after Schneider had been arrested for burglary. Although the report concluded that Schneider did not suffer from any mental disease or defect and was competent to stand trial, the report did state that Schneider had cut his wrists while in prison and had a history of drug abuse, and that two of his sisters had undergone psychiatric treatment. Moreover, Schneider's school and military records indicated that he had sustained three head injuries when he was a child and that, as an adult, he had been diagnosed with hyperactivity and insomnia. Schneider argues that an effective lawyer would have responded to this evidence by arranging for another psychiatrist to examine Schneider.

We need not decide whether the performance of Schneider's counsel fell below the standard required by the Sixth Amendment. If "it is easier to dispose of an ineffectiveness claim on the ground of lack of sufficient prejudice, [that] course should be followed." Strickland, 466 U.S. at 697, 104 S.Ct. at 2069. A defendant is prejudiced by his lawyer's performance if "there is a reasonable probability [i.e. a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome] that, but for counsel's errors, the result of the [guilt or penalty] proceeding[s] would have been different." Id. at 694, 104 S.Ct. at 2068. Even if Schneider's counsel had been ineffective for failing to arrange a second psychiatric examination, our confidence in the outcome of the guilt and penalty phases of Schneider's trial would not be undermined.

During Schneider's state post-conviction proceedings, Dr. A.E. Daniel, a forensic psychiatrist, examined him. Dr. Daniel concluded that Schneider's speech, comprehension, thinking, and reasoning abilities were normal. Dr. Daniel did diagnose Schneider as suffering from attention-deficit disorder (formerly known as "hyperactivity"), a condition which, in Dr. Daniel's words, is manifested by a "failure to sustain attention on a given task, particularly for children, school tasks." P.C. Tr. Vol. I, 9. ³

Schneider argues that there is a reasonable...