State v. Defoe

• Decision Date: 15 April 2010
• Docket Number: No. 161PA09.,161PA09.
• Citation: 691 S.E.2d 1
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Daniel Easley DEFOE.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

691 S.E.2d 1

STATE of North Carolina v. Daniel Easley DEFOE.

No. 161PA09.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

April 15, 2010.

Roy Cooper, Attorney General, by G. Patrick Murphy, Special Deputy Attorney General, for the State.

Staples S. Hughes, Appellate Defender, by Daniel Shatz, Assistant Appellate Defender, for defendant-appellant.

TIMMONS-GOODSON, Justice.

The issue presented in these cases is whether the General Assembly's 2001 amendments¹ to the capital punishment statutes abrogated this Court's decision in State v. Rorie, 348 N.C. 266, 500 S.E.2d 77 (1998), so that the superior courts now have authority to declare a case noncapital as a sanction for the State's noncompliance with Rule 24 of the General Rules of Practice for the Superior and District Courts. We hold that the 2001 amendments eliminated the rationale on which Rorie was decided, and thus, legislatively abrogated our holding. However, there is an insufficient showing of prejudice to justify declaring the cases noncapital. Therefore, we affirm the trial court's ruling permitting the cases to proceed capitally.

I. Background

On or about 25 March 2006, defendant was arrested for the murders of Laxavier Jamiel Henry and Billy Glenn Medford, the first murder allegedly occurring on 10 March 2006 and the second on 23 March 2006. The grand jury returned true bills of indictment charging defendant with first-degree murder in both cases on 8 May 2006.²

On 21 June 2006, an assistant district attorney filed an "Application for Rule 24 Pre-Trial Conference and Notice of Intent to Seek Death Penalty" that listed the docket numbers of both murder cases against defendant. Rule 24 requires

a pretrial conference in every case in which the defendant stands charged with a crime punishable by death. No later than ten days after the superior court obtains jurisdiction in such a case, the district attorney shall apply to the presiding superior court judge or other superior court judge holding court in the district, who shall enter an order requiring the prosecution and defense counsel to appear before the court within forty-five days thereafter for the pretrial conference.

Gen. R. Pract. Super. & Dist. Cts. 24, 2009 Ann. R. N.C. 21.

In accord with Rule 24, the assistant district attorney's 21 June 2006 application requested the trial court "to schedule a Pretrial Conference in the above captioned matter within the next forty-five (45) days." The application also gave notice "to the above named Defendant and the Court, of the State's intent to seek the death penalty." However, the application was filed more than ten days after the grand jury returned the indictments, and the pretrial conference did not occur within forty-five days thereafter.

At some point, the Richmond County District Attorney's Office determined it had a conflict of interest and could not prosecute defendant for the murders. In a letter dated 28 November 2007, well over a year after the initial request for a Rule 24 conference, the Richmond County District Attorney's Office requested the Attorney General's Office to prosecute the murder charges against defendant. The Attorney General's Office agreed to prosecute both cases and requested the relevant files in a letter dated 3 December 2007. The Richmond County District Attorney's Office completed transfer of its relevant files by April or May 2008.

On 19 June 2008, defendant, through his counsel, filed a "Motion to Compel Compliance" complaining of the State's failure to provide discovery and to conduct a Rule 24 hearing. Specifically, the Motion to Compel asserted that a written discovery request filed on 12 June 2006 had gone unanswered despite numerous oral follow-up requests. The Motion to Compel also noted that the State had not yet conducted a Rule 24 hearing, notwithstanding its request two years earlier. Defendant requested various forms of relief, including dismissal, sanctions, and an order to compel discovery. Notably, however, the motion also stated that defense counsel "does not know but will be able to better determine whether or not the Defendant has been prejudiced by the delay of the State." No order ruling on the Motion to Compel is contained in the record, but defendant's later filings indicate that the State provided "a banker's box full of Discovery" in July 2008.

On 7 November 2008, the State filed a "Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty" and an "Application for Pre-Trial Conference on Charge of First Degree Murder" pursuant to Rule 24.³ Both were signed by two special deputy attorneys general. On 11 November 2008, defendant responded by filing a "Motion to Strike State's Notice of Intent to Seek Death Penalty As Well As Preclude State from Seeking the Death Penalty" ("Motion to Strike"). The Motion to Strike alleged that the two and one-half year delay from the date of indictment violated defendant's constitutional and statutory rights to a "correct Rule 24 Hearing," a speedy trial, and timely discovery. The Motion to Strike stated further that "the delay has impaired Defendant's ability to challenge not only his identification but the circumstances surrounding any involvement he may have had with regard to the crimes charged." The Motion to Strike complained that witnesses' recollections may have been compromised. Defendant made essentially the same assertions in two contemporaneous filings—a "Motion to Preclude State from Applying for a Pre-Trial Conference on Charge of First-Degree Murder" and a "Motion to Dismiss Case for the State's Flagrant Violation of Defendant's Rights."

The parties appeared before the trial court on 1 December 2008 for an anticipated hearing on the State's application for Rule 24 conference and defendant's motions in opposition. The Rule 24 conference did not occur as expected, and the trial court entered an order resetting the hearing for 8 January 2009. The parties agreed that the period between 1 December 2008 and 8 January 2009 would not be a basis for either side to claim prejudice.

The State's application for Rule 24 conference and defendant's motions in opposition were heard on 8 January 2009, more than thirty months after the initial filing by the State on 21 June 2006 of the application for Rule 24 conference. Defendant argued that the State was in continuous violation of Rule 24 and that he had suffered serious prejudice from the State's failure to hold a timely pretrial conference. Specifically, defendant asserted that he had been unable to obtain funding for second counsel, private investigators, or mitigation specialists. Defendant argued that the 2001 amendments abrogated the Rorie decision, thus permitting the trial court to declare the cases noncapital as a sanction for the State's egregious noncompliance with Rule 24.

The trial court disagreed with defendant. Acknowledging that the 2001 amendments changed the law, the court nonetheless ruled that, based on Rorie, it lacked authority to declare the cases noncapital. Furthermore, the trial court was "not convinced that there is any prejudice." The court noted that defendant could have applied for second counsel, an investigator, and a mitigation specialist at any time, and also observed that the "cases are not scheduled for trial in the near future." Without authority to declare the cases noncapital for the State's failure to comply with Rule 24, and a lack of prejudice to justify that sanction in any event, the trial court overruled defendant's objections to the Rule 24 conference. Thereafter, the trial court heard the prosecutor's forecast of aggravating circumstances and ruled that the cases could proceed capitally. This Court allowed defendant's petition for writ of certiorari to review the trial court's rulings on defendant's objections to the violation of Rule 24.

II. Analysis

Defendant first argues that the 2001 amendments abrogated this Court's holding in Rorie by granting district attorneys discretion in first-degree murder cases when evidence of one or more aggravating circumstances exists. With that discretion, defendant argues, superior courts have authority to declare the case noncapital when the State fails to comply with the mandates of Rule 24. The State contends that defendant "misapprehends the effect" of the 2001 amendments. We agree with defendant.

Prior to 2001, the capital punishment statutes, as interpreted in judicial decisions, mandated district attorneys to seek the death penalty in first-degree murder cases if there was evidence of an aggravating circumstance. See Rorie, 348 N.C. at 270-71, 500 S.E.2d at 80 (citing N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000 (1997)); State v. Britt, 320 N.C. 705, 709-10, 360 S.E.2d 660, 662-63 (1987); State v. Jones, 299 N.C. 298, 308-09, 261 S.E.2d 860, 867 (1980). District attorneys had no discretion to prosecute a first-degree murder case noncapitally when evidence of an aggravating circumstance existed. E.g., Rorie, 348 N.C. at 271, 500 S.E.2d at 80.

In Rorie, the Court was confronted with the question of whether the trial court exceeded its authority to enforce Rule 24 by precluding the State from prosecuting a first-degree murder case capitally. Id. at 267, 500 S.E.2d at 78. The trial court found and concluded as a matter of law

that the most important purpose of Rule 24 is to assure that the Defendant has effective assistance of counsel and that on these facts, there has been a substantial violation of the defendant's rights to effective assistance of counsel by virtue of the state's failure to timely file its Rule 24 Petition and the Court will preclude the state from seeking the death penalty.

Id. at 268, 500 S.E.2d at 78-79. The State conceded, and this Court recognized in Rorie, that trial courts of this State have inherent authority to enforce procedural and administrative rules, including Rule 24. Id. at 269, 500 S.E.2d at 79. The courts' inherent authority to enforce Rule 24, however, stops short of actions that are "inconsistent with the Constitution...