State v. Atkins

• Citation: 505 S.E.2d 97,349 N.C. 62
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina
• Decision Date: 09 October 1998
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Randy Lynn ATKINS.

505 S.E.2d 97

349 N.C. 62

STATE of North Carolina v. Randy Lynn ATKINS.

No. 9A94.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

October 9, 1998.

Michael F. Easley, Attorney General by G. Patrick Murphy, Special Deputy Attorney General, for the State.

Center for Death Penalty Litigation by Kenneth J. Rose, Durham, for defendant-appellant.

LAKE, Justice.

Defendant was indicted on 12 April 1993 for first-degree sexual offense and for the first-degree murder of his eight-month-old son, Lyle James Atkins. On 18 November 1993, defendant entered into a plea agreement in which he agreed to plead guilty to the first-degree murder charge and the State agreed to dismiss the pending sexual offense charge and not to submit any evidence pertaining to this or any other sexual assaults purportedly committed by defendant. Following a capital sentencing proceeding pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000, the jury recommended that defendant be sentenced to death for the murder of his infant son. Judge Saunders sentenced defendant accordingly.

The State presented evidence at the sentencing proceeding tending to show that, on 16 March 1993, defendant inflicted fatal injuries to his son, Lyle. Defendant, Lyle, and Lyle's mother were living together at the time at the Lazywood Mobile Home Park in Buncombe County.

Lyle's mother, Ms. Colleen Shank, testified that on the morning of 16 March 1993, she asked defendant to watch Lyle while she washed some clothes. Ms. Shank stated that she heard a "bang." Following the "bang," Ms. Shank heard Lyle begin to cry, and she rushed to the living room. Ms. Shank testified that she then observed defendant hitting Lyle's head against the trailer wall a "few times." She testified further that she saw defendant "swing him [Lyle] very strong" and that "Lyle hit the wall very hard." Ms. Shank tried to comfort Lyle and attempted to lay the child down to rest. However, Lyle soon began to cry, and Ms. Shank noted that he was turning blue. The mother administered CPR and requested that defendant go to a neighbor's home to call 911 for emergency assistance.

Defendant then went to the home of a neighbor and called 911. The 911 operator testified that defendant responded to her questions concerning medical history related to Lyle's emergency by replying "it [Lyle] may have been sick two or three days, but no other." Lyle's mother testified that while waiting for emergency personnel to arrive, defendant told her, "Don't say anything, because I will hurt you too."

Following the arrival of emergency medical personnel, Lyle was transported by helicopter to Mission Memorial Hospital in Asheville. Upon admission to the hospital, Lyle was noted to be limp, not moving, and exhibiting a slow heart rate. The admitting physician noted numerous injuries to the small child, including bruising on both sides of his head, an older bruise on his left elbow, bruising on his right wrist and right hand, a deformation of his pelvis, and an improperly healed fracture of his right lower leg.

A detective from the Woodfin Police Department questioned defendant and Ms. Shank in the waiting room of the hospital. Defendant initially told the officer that Lyle had stopped breathing "because of the Ker-O-Sun heater." Defendant responded to the officer's further inquiry by adding that "a couple of days ago I was holding him, and he slipped and fell, and he hurt his arm." The officer subsequently arrested both defendant and Ms. Shank and transported them to the Buncombe County jail. Later that day, while in police custody, defendant issued a written statement in which he admitted the following:

Today Lyle was crying as I was holding him, and my temper and patience snapped again, as he was crying and crying no matter how soothing and gentle I was. He just kept crying, and I couldn't handle him any more, and I started hitting him on the side of his head and trying to get him to stop crying, and he wouldn't. I kept telling him to stop it, and he wouldn't, and I kept on hitting him with my hand on his head.

Despite aggressive medical efforts to save Lyle's life, he died at Asheville's Mission Memorial Hospital on 18 March 1993. Following Lyle's death, defendant was indicted for the first-degree murder of his infant son. Defendant entered into a plea agreement dated 18 November 1993, consenting to a guilty plea to first-degree murder. As a condition to the plea, the State agreed to dismiss the first-degree sexual assault charge pending against defendant.

A capital sentencing proceeding was held in Superior Court, Buncombe County, beginning on 29 November 1993. The State presented evidence in support of one statutory aggravating circumstance: that the murder was "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel." N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(9) (1988) (amended 1994). An experienced pediatric radiologist testified at the sentencing proceeding concerning the extent of injuries suffered by Lyle. The testimony indicated that the eight-month-old infant exhibited the following injuries upon admission to Mission Memorial Hospital on 16 March 1993: healing fracture of the right clavicle, healing bone along the midshaft of the right upper arm, extensive injury of the left upper arm, dislocation of the left elbow, healing bone indicative of a fracture of the right hip, skull fractures and bruising on both the left and right sides, and a compression fracture of the spine. Further testimony indicated that the injuries occurred in at least two episodes of injury to Lyle. The pediatric radiologist estimated that the time of the origin of injuries ranged from four weeks prior to the hospital admission up to within a day of the admission. Several treating physicians also testified at the sentencing proceeding that Lyle exhibited symptoms of "battered child syndrome." The State presented expert testimony by Dr. Cynthia Brown, a pediatrician, who defined a "battered child" as a "child that presents with multiple purposely inflicted injuries that are of varying ages."

Defendant presented evidence of twenty-five potential mitigating circumstances in addition to the statutory "catchall" mitigating circumstance during the capital sentencing proceeding. The jury rejected all but two of these potential mitigating circumstances, finding only (1) "the [d]efendant qualifies as having a learning disability due to his IQ variations," and (2) "the [d]efendant was diagnosed by Dr. Clabe Lynn in April of 1993 as having a personality disorder and adjustment disorder with a mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct." On 8 December 1993, the jury unanimously recommended that defendant be sentenced to death.

On 21 June 1995, defendant filed a motion for appropriate relief, and this Court remanded the motion in order that an evidentiary hearing could be held. At the 11 December 1996 session of Superior Court, Buncombe County, Judge Ronald K. Payne denied defendant's motion for discovery of all documents in the State's possession concerning the case, including attorney work-product material. This Court denied review of this order on 15 January 1997. An evidentiary hearing was conducted at the 10 March 1997 session of Superior Court, Buncombe County, Judge Forrest A. Ferrell presiding. By order dated 16 May 1997, defendant's motion for appropriate relief was denied. Defendant appeals the denial of this motion to this Court, along with his sentence of death for the first-degree murder. We consider both in this review.

In his first assignment of error, defendant contends the trial court erred by permitting the State to enter into a plea agreement requiring the court to withhold evidence in support of an aggravating circumstance. Defendant argues that evidence of the first-degree sexual offense was relevant to two statutory aggravating circumstances: (1) "[t]he capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged ... in the commission of ... a sex offense"; and (2) "[t]he capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel." N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(5), (9). Defendant asserts that the plea agreement creates reversible error, as it introduces an impermissible, arbitrary factor into capital sentencing proceedings, in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 27 of the North Carolina Constitution. We hold that the plea agreement did not preclude the introduction of aggravating circumstances supported by the evidence, and therefore the trial court did not err by accepting the agreement.

Defendant is correct to note that this Court has held a district attorney may not exercise his discretion as to when an aggravating circumstance supported by the evidence will or will not be submitted to the jury. See State v. Case, 330 N.C. 161, 163, 410 S.E.2d 57, 58 (1991)

. The mandatory submission of all statutory aggravating circumstances is necessary to ensure the integrity of the capital sentencing procedure and "to prevent capital sentencing from being irregular, inconsistent and arbitrary." Id.

However, the principle enunciated by this Court in Case is clearly contingent upon the presence of genuine evidence supporting the statutory aggravating circumstances. Id. In the case sub judice, the plea agreement did not require the trial court to withhold submission of a statutory aggravating circumstance supported by credible evidence. The uncontroverted medical evidence indicated that Lyle endured an extended series of beatings, resulting in broken bones and bruises. Expert testimony further indicated that these injuries occurred during a four-week period prior to Lyle's death on 18 March 1993. The only evidence indicating a potential sexual assault was the presence of a relaxed rectal sphincter. The evidence relating to this potential sexual offense indicated that the relaxed sphincter was present in January 1993, two months prior to Lyle's murder. There was no apparent connection between this prior condition and the circumstances leading to or causing...