Springer v. Collins

• Decision Date: 17 November 1978
• Docket Number: No. 78-6062,78-6062
• Citation: 586 F.2d 329
• Parties: Robert Bruce SPRINGER, Appellee, v. George COLLINS, Warden of the Maryland Penitentiary, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 329

586 F.2d 329

Robert Bruce SPRINGER, Appellee, v. George COLLINS, Warden of the Maryland Penitentiary, Appellant.

No. 78-6062.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Submitted July 27, 1978.

Decided Nov. 17, 1978.

Francis Bill Burch, Atty. Gen. of Md., Clarence W. Sharp, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Md., Chief, Crim. Div., John P. Stafford, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen. of Md., Baltimore, Md., on brief for the appellant.

Roland Walker, Baltimore Md., on brief, for appellee.

Before WINTER and HALL, Circuit Judges, and FIELD, Senior Circuit Judge.

FIELD, Senior Circuit Judge:

After waiving trial by jury, Robert Bruce Springer was tried to the court and convicted in the Circuit Court for Cecil County, Maryland, of carnal knowledge of a female child under the age of fourteen years, as well as the possession and distribution of certain controlled drugs. Springer did not appeal his conviction, but subsequently sought relief in the state court under the Maryland Post Conviction Procedure Act, charging that the failure of his trial counsel to investigate and/or develop a defense of insanity constituted ineffective assistance of counsel. Following an evidentiary hearing in that proceeding, relief was denied, and an application for leave to appeal was denied by the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland. Thereafter, Springer filed a petition for habeas corpus relief in the district court, raising the same constitutional question. The district court, acting upon the evidence developed in the state court proceedings, concluded that the failure of Springer's counsel to explore the possibility of an insanity defense was outside the range of competence expected of him as a defense attorney and granted habeas corpus relief. ¹ Maryland has appealed.

As noted by the district court, the essential facts are not disputed. On the night of Sunday September 2, 1973, Springer visited the home of his girl friend, Joan Fuentes, the mother of the victim. During the course of the evening Springer had consumed certain drugs ² and alcohol and also induced Mrs. Fuentes and the victim to take some drugs. Springer made sexual advances toward the young girl who was then eleven years old, and talked of having intercourse with her. Becoming alarmed, Mrs. Fuentes drove to the police station and asked the police for assistance. Shortly after midnight several officers returned with her to her home where they found Springer and the victim lying naked and apparently unconscious on a couch in the living room. The officers took several photographs and finally managed to awaken Springer. Springer refused to dress himself and remained naked while being taken into custody. The victim was taken to the hospital in a critical condition and was placed in intensive care. It was ascertained by the attending physician that she had consumed drugs and had been sexually molested.

Some two days before the offense, in the early morning hours of Saturday, September 1, Springer had been involved in an automobile accident when he passed out after having consumed a large quantity of drugs and alcohol. On that occasion Springer was arrested and confined overnight and while in custody his stomach had been pumped out. When he was released from jail on Sunday morning he joined some friends and after picking up some beer and a pint of 190 proof grain alcohol they went to the home of one of the friends and started taking pills, drinking beer and alcohol and smoking marijuana. As a result, Springer passed out for a while, and after he came to drove with some difficulty to the apartment of Mrs. Fuentes. Springer, who was thirty-three years old, had been using alcohol for a number of years, and had been using drugs for some eight months prior to the offense. Based upon his experience, he was aware that he could take Qualudes and still have a "general idea" of what was going on, but that Tuinal had a more dramatic effect upon him. As he expressed it in his testimony, "(with Tuinal) you forget. You can't remember. That's all. After a certain point you just don't remember anything." Trial Tr. at 183. Springer testified that ordinarily he limited himself to four pills but that on the day in question he "kinda let loose" and took many more than he had on prior occasions.

Following his arrest Springer retained as his counsel an attorney who had been practicing in Cecil County for over fourteen years. In his practice the attorney had represented defendants in twenty or more serious felony cases, and four or five of those cases involved insanity defenses and psychiatric evidence. The attorney had known Springer for some ten years during which time he had seen him on both a social and business basis, having represented Springer in other criminal and civil proceedings, including a divorce action. He knew that Springer had been steadily employed by a firm in Newark, Delaware, for four years prior to the incident. Springer told his attorney that he had no recollection of having committed the offense or of having taken part in most of the alleged occurrences during that evening. From their discussions, it was clear that over the weekend Springer had been on a drug and alcohol binge and in the course of his investigation the attorney talked with some of Springer's companions who described his condition on Sunday evening as "drunk and/or stoned." The attorney was aware of the fact that over the years Springer had used both drugs and alcohol, but in his contacts with Springer he had observed nothing which was abnormal or indicated that a psychiatric evaluation was in order. Springer had never participated in any psychiatric examination, counseling or treatment. On this point Springer testified that he had not indicated to his attorney that he was a problem drinker; that he had never considered any AA program since he did not think it was necessary. As he put it, "I never really got into any trouble to maybe bring it to light that I maybe needed help." Post-conviction Tr. at 67.

Prior to trial, the attorney talked with Springer on several occasions, developing the factual background of the charges and possible avenues of defense. ³ At the pretrial stage the attorney discussed with the State's Attorney the possibility of a plea bargain and filed a comprehensive motion for inspection and discovery. In the course of his trial preparation the attorney obtained the hospital records pertaining to the diagnosis and treatment of the victim which revealed that sperm was present in the victim's vagina. He also learned of the existence of the photographs taken by the police on the night of the offense. In the light of these developments his counsel advised Springer to elect a court trial rather than try the case before a jury.

At trial, Springer's attorney attempted to raise a doubt in the court's mind as to the occurrence of intercourse, suggesting that the hospital records had not been properly maintained. This argument was based upon the absence of direct testimony regarding the occurrence of intercourse and the generally accepted belief that large quantities of drugs and alcohol have a depressant effect on sexual potency. He also urged upon the court that the requisite intent to support the charge of carnal knowledge was lacking, contending that Springer was too intoxicated to have such intent. The trial court, however, found from the evidence that the act of intercourse had occurred, and rejected the intoxication defense upon the ground that under Maryland Law intoxication is not a defense to the crime of rape. ⁴

Some time after his conviction Springer retained his post-conviction counsel, and in January, 1975, he was examined by Dr. Allen S. Greenberg, a neuropsychiatrist. Based upon this examination and an interview with Springer's mother, Dr. Greenberg concluded that Springer was suffering from an alcoholic psychosis at the time of the commission of the crime. ⁵ In the light of this report the district court found that "there was evidence, including Springer's past problems and the nature of the crime itself, which seemingly was sufficient to have alerted trial counsel to the possibility of successfully asserting an insanity defense." 444 F.Supp. Supra, at 1064, and concluded that counsel's failure to explore and advance such a defense amounted to a deprivation of Springer's Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance under Marzullo v. Maryland, 561 F.2d 540 (4 Cir. 1977).

In Marzullo we formally jettisoned the "farce and mockery" test of Root v. Cunningham, 344 F.2d 1 (4 Cir. 1965), and drawing upon McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970), adopted as an appropriate standard for determining the...