State ex rel. Clayton v. Griffith

• Decision Date: 14 March 2015
• Docket Number: No. SC 94841,SC 94841
• Citation: 457 S.W.3d 735
• Parties: State ex rel. Cecil Clayton, Petitioner, v. Cindy Griffith, in Her Capacity as Warden, Potosi Correctional Center, Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

457 S.W.3d 735

State ex rel. Cecil Clayton, Petitioner

v.Cindy Griffith, in Her Capacity as Warden, Potosi Correctional Center, Respondent.

No. SC 94841

Supreme Court of Missouri, en banc .

Opinion issued March 14, 2015

Clayton was represented by Jeannie Willibey of the public defender's office in Kansas City, (816) 889–7699; Pete Carter of the public defender's office in Columbia, (573) 777–9977; Elizabeth Unger Carlyle, an attorney in Kansas City, (816) 525–6540; and Susan M. Hunt, another attorney in Kansas City, (816) 221–4588.

The state was represented by Michael J. Spillane, Caroline M. Coulter and Gregory Michael Goodwin of the attorney general's office in Jefferson City, (573) 751–3321.

Opinion

Paul C. Wilson, Judge

On February 6, 2015, this Court scheduled the execution of Petitioner Cecil Clayton (“Clayton”) for March 17, 2015. On March 10, 2015, Clayton filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus claiming that he is not competent to be executed under Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399, 106 S.Ct. 2595, 91 L.Ed.2d 335 (1986), Panetti v. Quarterman, 551 U.S. 930, 127 S.Ct. 2842, 168 L.Ed.2d 662 (2007), and section 552.060.1, RSMo 2000. Addressing the merits of Clayton's petition, this Court finds that he has failed to make the threshold showing required by Ford and Panetti to justify staying his execution so that his competence can be determined after an evidentiary hearing.

Background

Clayton's conviction and death sentence were affirmed by this Court in State v. Clayton, 995 S.W.2d 468, 472 (Mo. banc 1999) (Clayton I ). His motion for post-conviction relief was overruled, and this Court affirmed that decision as well. Clayton v. State, 63 S.W.3d 201 (Mo. banc 2001) (Clayton II ). The United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Judge Laughrey presiding, denied Clayton's federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus, Clayton v. Luebbers, 2006 WL 1128803 (April 27, 2006) (Clayton III ), and that decision was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals in Clayton v. Roper, 515 F.3d 784 (8th Cir.2008) ( Clayton IV ).

I. Clayton's Crime

Clayton's petition does not claim that he is innocent of the crime for which he has been sentenced to death. In 1996, Clayton became angry at his girlfriend in a convenience store in Purdy, Missouri. Clayton I, 995 S.W.2d at 473–74. When Clayton pushed his girlfriend, a clerk in the store phoned the sheriff's department. The Purdy police chief arrived and waited there until Clayton and his girlfriend left separately. Id. at 473. Within an hour, Clayton drove his truck to his girlfriend's residence. She was not there, but her sister called the sheriff's department when she saw Clayton sitting in his truck in their driveway. Id. Deputy Castetter was dispatched and arrived at the residence at 10:03 p.m. Three or four minutes later, two other deputies arrived to help Deputy Castetter deal with Clayton. When they arrived, however, they found Deputy Castetter in his patrol car, bleeding profusely from a point-blank gunshot wound to his forehead. Id. His gun was still in his holster. Deputy Castetter was taken to the hospital but soon died of his wound. Id. at 474.

Within 15 minutes of this murder, Clayton arrived at a friend's house, brandished a pistol, and exclaimed “would you believe me, if I told you that I shot a policeman, would you believe me?” Id. Clayton told his friend he needed him to provide an alibi. Clayton then drove his friend to Clayton's house. Less than a half hour after the crime, the two arrived at Clayton's home just as the police were arriving there to question him about Deputy Castetter's murder. Clayton asked his friend “should I shoot them?” His friend answered “No.” Id. Clayton got out of his truck and, claiming he could not hear the officers, walked away from them and toward the side of his house with his right hand in his pocket. The officers saw him take something out of the pocket and put it in a stack of concrete blocks next to his house.

The officers arrested Clayton and later found his gun among the concrete blocks. Id. In a subsequent interrogation, Clayton stated that Deputy Castetter “probably should have just stayed home” and that “he shouldn't have smarted off to me.” Clayton added, however, “I don't know because I wasn't out there.” Later, Clayton admitted his involvement in Deputy Castetter's murder to a cellmate. Clayton II, 63 S.W.3d at 204.

II. Clayton's Brain Injury

Clayton was 56 years old in 1996 when he killed Deputy Castetter. Approximately 24 years before he committed that crime, Clayton was injured while working in a sawmill. A piece of wood broke off a log he was sawing and lodged in Clayton's head. Surgery was required to remove the object, and this procedure resulted in the loss of nearly eight percent of Clayton's brain and 20 percent of a frontal lobe. Clayton II, 63 S.W.3d at 205. At trial, Clayton's brother Marvin testified that, after the injury, Clayton changed. “He broke up with his wife, began drinking alcohol and became impatient, unable to work and more prone to violent outbursts.”Id. at 204. Another brother, Jerry, testified during the penalty phase about Clayton's “childhood and life as a part-time pastor and evangelist prior to the sawmill accident and, after the accident, his marital breakup, drinking alcohol and his antisocial personality.” Id.

III. Impact of Clayton's Injury on his Culpability and Competence

From the beginning of this prosecution, Clayton has argued that the effects of his 1972 accident left him blameless for the 1996 murder of Deputy Castetter and/or incompetent to proceed in some—but not all—stages of his case.

A. Trial

During the guilt phase of his trial, Clayton argued that the accident rendered him incapable of deliberating or forming the intent necessary for the jury to find him guilty of first-degree murder. Clayton II, 63 S.W.3d at 204. In addition to the testimony from his brother, two experts testified that he was not capable of “deliberating, planning, or otherwise coolly reflecting on a murder when agitated” and that his inculpatory statements to the police should be discounted because his injury made him unusually “susceptible to suggestion.” Id. The jury rejected this evidence and found Clayton guilty of first-degree murder. In the penalty phase of his trial, Clayton argued that his injury was a mitigating factor that should make the death penalty inappropriate in his case. Id. at 209–10. The jury rejected this as well and recommended that Clayton be sentenced to death.

Clayton did not argue at trial that he was insane at the time of the murder or that he was incompetent to stand trial. When he later claimed that his trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to challenge his competence to be tried, this Court held: “Counsel has no duty to investigate a client's mental condition where the client appears to have the present ability to consult rationally with the attorney and understand the court proceedings.” Id. at 209. Because “Clayton was able to intelligently discuss his legal options with his attorney, and even carry on correspondence with him about the case, [his] attorney could reasonably conclude that [Clayton] was competent to stand trial.” Id.

In addition, this Court held there was no evidence that Clayton actually was incompetent. Noting that the motion court had good reason to reject Clayton's expert witness's testimony in denying Clayton's motion for post-conviction relief, this Court stated that “Dr. Foster's determination is especially questionable because even though he said Clayton was incompetent at the time of his trial, he admitted that Clayton understood the role of the prosecutor, the judge, the juror, and even his own attorney in the process.” Id. More important, when this expert examined Clayton three years after his trial, Dr. Foster admitted that “Clayton knew what he was charged with, that he was facing the death penalty, and that he was able to discuss his various options with his attorney.” Id. Accordingly, this Court held: “The judge, who had also presided during Clayton's trial, had more than a reasonable basis to concluded [sic] that Dr. Foster's testimony was not credible and that Clayton was competent at the time of his trial.” Id.

B. Federal Habeas

Clayton raised numerous claims in his federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus, including many based on the impairments created by his 1972 accident and resulting brain injury. Though not conclusive of the question now before this Court, these claims and the District Court's rejection of them are relevant because Clayton's competence argument relies on a condition that existed throughout his legal proceedings and—even though his experts refer to the condition worsening with age—neither Clayton nor his experts identify any evidence to support the fact that his competence is materially worse now than in 2005 and 2006 when his federal habeas petition was litigated and rejected.

1. Dual Defense Theories

In 2006, as part of his petition for habeas relief in the federal courts, Clayton claimed that his trial counsel was ineffective for arguing both that Clayton was not the murderer and that, even if Clayton did kill Deputy Castetter, Clayton's brain injury precluded him from forming the necessary intent and deliberation. Clayton III, 2006 WL 1128803, at *5–8. The District Court noted that this Court had rejected this claim, in part, because this Court earlier had reached the conclusion that Clayton “did not have a good defense under either theory.” Id. at *7 (citing Clayton II, 63 S.W.3d at 206–07 ). The District Court held there was “ample evidence” to support this conclusion. Id. at *8.

2. Additional Evidence of Impairment at Trial

The District Court also rejected Clayton's claim that his trial counsel should have introduced voluminous records from his extended hospital stay after his injury. “The records Clayton now complains about would have complicated [the simple] picture [that couns...