Stano v. Dugger, 88-3375

• Decision Date: 17 November 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-3375,88-3375
• Citation: 889 F.2d 962
• Parties: Gerald Eugene STANO, Petitioner-Appellant, Cross-Appellee, v. Richard L. DUGGER, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, Respondent-Appellee, Cross-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 962

889 F.2d 962

Gerald Eugene STANO, Petitioner-Appellant, Cross-Appellee, v. Richard L. DUGGER, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, Respondent-Appellee, Cross-Appellant.

No. 88-3375.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Nov. 17, 1989.

As Amended Dec. 12, 1989.

Mark E. Olive, Georgia Resource Center, Inc., Atlanta, Ga., for petitioner-appellant, cross-appellee.

Margene A. Roper, Belle Turner, Asst. Attys. Gen., Daytona Beach, Fla., for respondent-appellee, cross-appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Before TJOFLAT, Chief Judge, FAY and JOHNSON, Circuit Judges.

TJOFLAT, Chief Judge:

In this case, Gerald Eugene Stano appeals from the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Because we conclude that the State of Florida violated Stano's rights under the sixth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution, we reverse the district court and direct that, on receipt of our mandate, the district court grant Stano's petition.

I.

On August 15, 1982, Stano confessed to the murder of Susan Bickrest, whose body was discovered on December 19, 1975, floating in Spruce Creek in Volusia County, Florida. A forensic examination revealed that Bickrest had died the previous day from suffocation caused by strangulation and drowning. On October 8, 1982, two months after confessing to the Bickrest murder, Stano confessed to the murder of Mary Kathleen Muldoon, whose body was discovered in November 1977, lying face down in a drainage ditch in an isolated area of New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Forensic examination revealed that Muldoon died as the result of a gunshot wound to the head as well as drowning. On January 18, 1983, a Florida grand jury indicted Stano for the murders of Bickrest and Muldoon.

On March 11, 1983, the Volusia County Circuit Court held an arraignment, and Stano tendered a plea of guilty on each charge. Following an exchange between Stano's attorney, the trial judge, and Stano, the judge accepted Stano's guilty pleas. On June 13, 1983, the judge imposed the death penalty in both cases.

On appeal, the Supreme Court of Florida affirmed Stano's convictions and his death sentence. See Stano v. State, 460 So.2d 890 (Fla.1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1111, 105 S.Ct. 2347, 85 L.Ed.2d 863 (1985). The Governor of Florida subsequently signed a warrant for Stano's execution. Stano then petitioned the state courts for post-conviction relief, which the Supreme Court of Florida ultimately denied. See Stano v. State, 520 So.2d 278 (Fla.1988).

On April 27, 1988, the Governor of Florida again issued a warrant for Stano's execution. Stano proceeded to mount another attack against his convictions in the state courts, and on May 16, 1988, the Supreme Court of Florida denied him relief. See Stano v. Dugger, 524 So.2d 1018 (Fla.1988). On May 17, 1988, Stano petitioned the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida for a writ of habeas corpus. After conducting an evidentiary hearing, the court on the same day denied Stano's petition. On May 18, 1988, this court granted Stano's petition for a certificate of probable cause and for a stay of execution. See Stano v. Dugger, 846 F.2d 1286 (11th Cir.1988). Stano now appeals from the district court's denial of habeas relief. We address Stano's claim that the trial court's acceptance of his guilty pleas denied him his right to assistance of counsel under the sixth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution. ¹

II.

The sixth amendment to the United States Constitution provides, in pertinent part, that "[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence." U.S. Const. amend. VI. ² The federal courts have long recognized this right to counsel as fundamental to our criminal justice system. As Justice Sutherland wrote in 1932 for the Court in Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45, 53 S.Ct. 55, 77 L.Ed. 158 (1932):

The right to be heard would be, in many cases, of little avail if it did not comprehend the right to be heard by counsel. Even the intelligent and educated layman has small and sometimes no skill in the science of law. If charged with crime, he is incapable, generally, of determining for himself whether the indictment is good or bad. He is unfamiliar with the rules of evidence. Left without the aid of counsel he may be put on trial without a proper charge, and convicted upon incompetent evidence, or evidence irrelevant to the issue or otherwise inadmissible. He lacks both the skill and knowledge adequately to prepare his defense, even though he have a perfect one. He requires the guiding hand of counsel at every step in the proceedings against him. Without it, though he be not guilty, he faces the danger of conviction because he does not know how to establish his innocence. If that be true of men of intelligence, how much more is it true of the ignorant and illiterate, or those of feeble intellect. If in any case, civil or criminal, a state or federal court were arbitrarily to refuse to hear a party by counsel, employed by and appearing for him, it reasonably may not be doubted that such a refusal would be a denial of a hearing, and, therefore, of due process in the constitutional sense.

Id. at 68-69, 53 S.Ct. at 64.

The importance of this right to counsel has led the courts to adopt special safeguards in order to prevent defendants from being deprived of its protection. For example, "[i]t has long been recognized that the right to counsel is the right to the effective assistance of counsel." McMann v. Richardson, 397 U.S. 759, 771 n. 14, 90 S.Ct. 1441, 1449 n. 14, 25 L.Ed.2d 763 (1970). Thus, a petitioner can obtain relief from ineffective assistance of counsel if petitioner was prejudiced by serious deficiencies in counsel's performance. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2064, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). "In some cases," moreover, the Supreme Court has held that "the performance of counsel may be so inadequate that, in effect, no assistance of counsel is provided." United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 654 & n. 11, 104 S.Ct. 2039, 2044 & n. 11, 80 L.Ed.2d 657 (1984) (quoting United States v. Decoster, 624 F.2d 196, 219 (en banc) (MacKinnon, J., concurring), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 944, 100 S.Ct. 302, 62 L.Ed.2d 311 (1979)); see Penson v. Ohio, --- U.S. ----, ----, 109 S.Ct. 346, 353-54, 102 L.Ed.2d 300 (1988). Whereas the ineffective-assistance-of-counsel analysis under Strickland focuses on counsel's actual performance at trial, Strickland, 466 U.S. at 686-87, 104 S.Ct. at 2064, the analysis under Cronic looks to "the circumstances surrounding [counsel's] representation," Cronic, 466 U.S. at 658, 104 S.Ct. at 2046.

As an additional safeguard, although courts have recognized a defendant's right to self-representation, before a trial court allows a defendant to invoke that right and relinquish the benefits of counsel, the court must ensure that the defendant does so "knowingly and intelligently," fully "aware of the dangers and disadvantages of self-representation." Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806, 835, 95 S.Ct. 2525, 2541, 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (1975).

The present case implicates both of these safeguards and can therefore be analyzed under either the ineffective-assistance-of-counsel rubric articulated in Cronic or under the waiver-of-counsel rubric articulated in Faretta. Under either analysis, however, the result is the same: in accepting Stano's guilty plea, the trial judge clearly denied Stano his sixth amendment right to assistance of counsel. We apply both analyses in turn.

III.

Crucial to our consideration of Stano's sixth amendment claim is the exchange that took place at the sentencing hearing between Stano's court-appointed lawyer, Mr. Pearl, the trial judge, and Stano himself. This exchange began with a statement by Mr. Pearl in which he told the court that he had not yet received discovery from the State and thus, not knowing what sort of evidence the State had, could not advise Stano on how to plead:

MR. PEARL: Before proceeding, Your Honor, as I have told Mr. Stano I would do, there are a couple of things I would like to inform the Court about in his presence that might appropriately be made a part of the plea dialogue.

At this time, Your Honor, I have not yet received full discovery from the state with respect to these cases and, therefore, am not prepared to say that I know all of the substantive facts concerning these two killings. The delay has been because much of the materials has not yet been received by the State and [the prosecutor] told me he would like to gather everything up at once and submit it to me rather than in installments. I agreed with that.

THE COURT: So, you're not complaining, you're just stating this for the record.

MR. PEARL: No, that is not a complaint. I'm just making my position clear in Mr. Stano's presence about the entry of his plea; that is to say, that I am not fully prepared to advise him as to whether the State has sufficient evidence to convict him or not. He is convinced that they do.

I have spoken with [the prosecutor]. I have confidence, certainly, in his integrity and honesty, and he assures me that the State can independently establish the corpus delicti in both of these cases. And Mr. Stano tells me that that is so.

Further, I have asked him about the admissions or confessions that he has made to Detective Paul Crow. And he assures me that those statements were made voluntarily, they were made competently, and intelligently after warning of his rights and that, therefore, there does not exist a good possibility that either of his admissions could be suppressed on a hearing.

He feels that he wants to go forward and enter this plea rather than go through a trial or even a delay at this time.

I have agreed that certainly he has the right to do so, but that he...