Smith v. Mahoney

• Decision Date: 05 March 2010
• Docket Number: No. 94-99003.,94-99003.
• Citation: 596 F.3d 1133
• Parties: Ronald A. SMITH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Michael MAHONEY, Montana State Prison, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

596 F.3d 1133

Ronald A. SMITH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Michael MAHONEY, Montana State Prison, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 94-99003.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued April 6, 2009.

Submitted March 5, 2010.

Filed March 5, 2010.

Cliff Gardner and Lazuli Whitt, Oakland, CA, for the petitioner-appellant.

Mike McGrath, Montana Attorney General, and C. Mark Fowler, Assistant Attorney General, Helena, MT, for the respondent-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Montana, Charles C. Lovell, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-86-198-M-CCL.

Before: B. FLETCHER, SIDNEY R. THOMAS and M. MARGARET McKEOWN, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge THOMAS; Dissent by Judge BETTY B. FLETCHER.

THOMAS, Circuit Judge:

Ronald Smith murdered two men, pled guilty to the crimes, requested capital punishment, and was sentenced to death. Shortly thereafter, Smith changed his mind and requested resentencing. He was resentenced to death in 1984. Since then, Smith has challenged his death sentences in various fora, including this Court, and has been resentenced two more times, once in 1992 and again in 1995. Smith now appeals two decisions. He appeals the district court's 1994 denial of his original ineffective assistance of counsel claim, challenging his counsel's performance during the 1983 death sentencing. He also appeals the district court's 2007 denial of his challenges to the 1995 death sentence. He makes three claims: that the district court failed to consider mitigating evidence; that the district judge was biased against him; and that his continued incarceration violates the Eighth Amendment.

We affirm both the district court's 1994 decision denying Smith's ineffective assistance of counsel claim and its 2007 decision denying Smith's challenges to the 1995 death sentence.

I

A

Ronald Smith was born in Canada in 1957. In August of 1982, Smith and two friends—Rodney Munro and Andre Fontaine—left Canada for Mexico. Smith left Canada because he was "messed up emotionally," in part because of his father's rejection of Smith's daughter, and "had to get away from the environment that [he] was in in order to get calmed down." During this period, Smith, Munro, and Fontaine used drugs heavily, taking between thirty to forty hits of LSD daily.

After crossing the border into Montana, Smith, Munro, and Fontaine patronized a bar on the southeast end of East Glacier. At the bar, they met two Native American men, Thomas Running Rabbit, Jr. and Harvey Mad Man, Jr. The five men drank beers and played pool together. Smith consumed between twelve and eighteen beers that day.

After about an hour, Smith, Munro, and Fontaine took off and began hitchhiking southwest. Fontaine told Smith about his idea to steal a car for themselves even if they had to kill someone to get it. Smith agreed. Soon after, Smith, Munro, and Fontaine were picked up by Running Rabbit and Mad Man.

After about twenty minutes of driving, Running Rabbit and Mad Man left their car to urinate. While Running Rabbit and Mad Man were out of the car, Smith told Munro that they were going to kill Running Rabbit and Mad Man and steal their car. When Running Rabbit and Mad Man returned, Smith put his sawed-off rifle to the back of one of their heads and told them to get back out of the car. Smith and Munro walked Running Rabbit and Mad Man into the woods. After about fifty to seventy-five feet, Smith shot Mad Man. He turned to Munro, reloaded his rifle, and shot Running Rabbit.¹

The three men stole the car and took off. Fontaine drove at first but he was too affected to drive properly, Smith assumed the responsibility for driving. They drove to California, where Munro and Fontaine were arrested for armed robbery. Smith was arrested in Wyoming.

B

After Smith's arrest, the County Attorney in Montana offered Smith a plea bargain. In exchange for Smith's cooperation, the County would not seek the death penalty and instead recommend that the court impose two 110 year sentences. Montana law applicable at the time would have made Smith eligible for release after seventeen and a half years.

Smith rejected the bargain. At his arraignment, Smith pled guilty and testified fully to the facts of the crimes. He requested the death penalty. The court, Smith's attorney, and the County Attorney all asked Smith if he understood what he was doing, if he wished to be examined by a psychiatrist, and if he was sure of his decision. Smith answered clearly and directly that he understood his request, that he did not need a psychiatrist, and that he was sure of his decision.

Smith explained his reasons for seeking death. He testified that he considered himself to be a violent person; that he was uninterested in rehabilitation; that he felt no remorse; and that part of the reason he killed the two men was that he had always had "kind of a morbid fascination to find out what it would be like to kill somebody." He testified that he was "extremely satisfied" with the representation provided by his attorney. The transcripts suggest that Smith remained affectless during his remarkably lucid and direct testimony.

Judge Michael Keedy sentenced Smith to death,² emphasizing that Smith's request for death was "nothing more than a curious element in this case" and that it did not effect his decision.

Soon after the 1983 death sentence, Smith changed his mind and asked the court to reconsider the sentence. He conceded that his previous testimony had been exaggerated to increase the chances that he would receive the death penalty. Smith requested that he be examined by a qualified psychiatrist to determine whether he suffered from a mental disease or defect or whether he suffered from a diminished capacity on the day of the murders due to drugs or mental illness, either of which might qualify as mitigating evidence.

The Montana district court granted the motion and ordered that Smith be evaluated by Dr. Stratford, a forensic psychiatrist who was to testify at a resentencing hearing. At the hearing, Dr. Stratford testified that "he found no evidence that the use of drugs or alcohol affected the defendant's capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct, conform his conduct to the requirements of law, or form a criminal intent." State v. Smith, 217 Mont. 461, 705 P.2d 1087, 1090 (1985). Rodney Munro also testified. He stated that "at the time of the crime, [he] was experiencing confusion, flashes of light and hallucinations, having ingested approximately the same amount of drugs and alcohol as the defendant." Id. Smith moved for an additional psychiatric evaluation, but the court denied the request. Id. at 1090-91.

Smith testified at the resentencing hearing. He stated that he had originally asked for death because he had been deeply depressed, partially because "he had been placed in solitary confinement without fresh air, sunlight, or exercise." Smith v. McCormick, 914 F.2d 1153, 1156 (9th Cir.1990). Having been transferred to a different prison arrangement, "he was more optimistic about surviving in prison." Id. Also, family members visited Smith and urged him to live. Id. Because at the original sentencing hearing he was angling for the death penalty, he had "purposefully omitted reference to any mitigating factors." Id.

In February 1984, the court affirmed its death sentence. The court found that "Defendant['s] voluntar[y] and unhesitating[] ingest[ion of] substantial quantities of alcohol on the day these crimes were committed, and numerous tablets or `hits' of LSD in the days prior thereto, does not relieve him of responsibility for his actions." Smith's "choice to execute [Mad Man and Running Rabbit] was conscious, calculated, and deliberate." The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the judgment. State v. Smith, 217 Mont. 461, 705 P.2d 1087 (1985), cert. denied 474 U.S. 1073, 106 S.Ct. 837, 88 L.Ed.2d 808 (1986).

In 1986, Smith filed a federal petition for writ of habeas corpus. The federal district court denied relief on summary judgment. Smith, 914 F.2d at 1156. Smith appealed. A panel of this Circuit reversed and remanded the case to the district court with instructions to (1) conduct an evidentiary hearing on Smith's ineffective assistance of counsel claim, and (2) remand to the state court to resentence Smith with the benefit of a competent psychiatrist and a consideration of the mitigating factors that Smith presented. Id. at 1170. As a result of the panel decision, the case was bifurcated into state (resentencing) and federal (ineffective assistance of counsel) proceedings.

In the state proceedings, the Montana district court resentenced Smith to death, now for a third time. The Montana Supreme Court vacated the death sentence and remanded for resentencing by a different judge. State v. Smith, 261 Mont. 419, 863 P.2d 1000, 1017 (1993). Montana District Judge John W. Larson assumed the case. Judge Larson held hearings and took testimony from Smith; Smith's daughter; Smith's sister; Andre Fontaine; Rod Munro; Shawn Tontrel, a psychiatric social worker; Dr. Evans, a psychologist; Dr. Pittel, a chemical dependency expert; John Salmonson, Smith's prison teacher; and Richard Wood, a corrections specialist.

At the hearings, Smith testified about his family, his troubled childhood, his tumultuous relationship with his father, his use of alcohol and drugs beginning at the age of eleven, his criminal history, the discovery of his daughter and his father's rejection of his daughter, and his close relationships with his sister and daughter. Tontrel testified about Smith's childhood, the "very, very severe[ ]" physical abuse Smith suffered at the hands of his parents the physical abuse his mother suffered at the hands of his father, and the genuine remorse that Smith felt for his crimes. Dr. Evans testified about the extensive psychological tests she conducted on Smith. She testified that at the time of the murders, Smith "was suffering from or...