State v. Hugueley
| Decision Date | 15 March 2006 |
| Citation | 185 S.W.3d 356 |
| Parties | STATE of Tennessee v. Stephen Lynn HUGUELEY. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
F. Michie Gibson, Jr. and T.J. Cross-Jones, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Stephen Lynn Hugueley.
Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; Michelle Chapman McIntyre and Michael Markham, Assistant Attorneys General; Elizabeth T. Rice, District Attorney General; Terry D. Dycus and Colin Campbell, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.
CORNELIA A. CLARK, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which WILLIAM M. BARKER, CJ., and E. RILEY ANDERSON, and JANICE M. HOLDER, JJ., joined. ADOLPHO A. BIRCH, JR., J., filed a concurring and dissenting opinion.
Defendant, Stephen Lynn Hugueley, was convicted by a jury of one count of first degree premeditated murder. During the penalty phase of the trial, the jury found four aggravating circumstances: (1) Defendant was previously convicted of one or more felonies whose statutory elements involved the use of violence to the person; (2) the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse beyond that necessary to produce death; (3) Defendant committed the murder while he was in a place of lawful confinement; and (4) the victim was a corrections employee. See Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-13-204(i)(2), (5), (8), (9) (Supp.1999). Additionally, the jury determined that the evidence of these aggravating circumstances outweighed the evidence of mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. at (g)(1). The jury thereupon sentenced Defendant to death. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and the death sentence.
After the case was docketed in this Court, we entered an order identifying several issues for oral argument.1 We now hold as follows: (1) the trial court did not commit reversible error in concluding that Defendant failed to establish purposeful discrimination by the prosecution in its exercise of peremptory challenges in violation of Batson v. Kentucky and J.E.B. v. Alabama ex rel. T.B.; (2) the trial court did not commit reversible error in refusing to dismiss prospective juror Watkins for cause; and (3) the death sentence is valid under this Court's mandatory review pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-13-206(c)(1) (2003). We agree with the Court of Criminal Appeals' conclusions with respect to the remaining issues, the relevant portions of which are included in the appendix to this opinion. Accordingly, the Court of Criminal Appeals' judgment is affirmed.
The evidence adduced at Defendant's trial established that, on January 17, 2002, Defendant was an inmate at the Hardeman County Correctional Facility, where he was housed in the "F" pod. That day, correctional counselor Delbert Steed entered the "F" pod in order to counsel inmates. Mr. Steed was sitting at a table when Defendant approached from behind and began stabbing Mr. Steed with a homemade weapon. Defendant stabbed Mr. Steed a total of thirty-six times. Defendant did not cease stabbing the victim until the handle of his homemade weapon broke off. Once Defendant was unable to continue using his weapon, he lay down on the floor of the pod and permitted other correctional officers to restrain and remove him. The victim was recovered with the sharpened portion of the weapon still embedded in his back, and he was transported to the infirmary.
Mary Harris testified that she was working in the control room from which she could view the activity occurring in the pod. She observed Defendant approach the victim from behind and begin stabbing him. Upon witnessing Defendant's attack on Mr. Steed, she called for assistance. Another female officer opened the door to the pod and told Defendant to stop. At that, Defendant rose and started toward the officer "with the knife drawn back like he was going to stab her." The officer closed the door, and Defendant returned to the victim, recommencing his attack. Ms. Harris testified further that Officer Donald Watkins entered the pod and told Defendant to stop. According to Ms. Harris, Defendant stabbed the victim once or twice more and then stopped when the handle on the weapon broke. At that point, Defendant allowed himself to be taken into custody.
Donald Watkins testified that he is a Senior Correctional Officer at the Hardeman County Correctional Facility. He responded to Ms. Harris' call for assistance. As he looked through the door into the pod, he saw Defendant kneeling down next to the victim. When he saw Defendant stab the victim with a homemade weapon, he entered the pod shouting, Mr. Watkins stated that Defendant complied immediately and lay face down on the floor. Mr. Watkins called for medical assistance, and when he heard the victim making a groaning noise "like he was in pain," Mr. Watkins tried to reassure the victim that help was coming.
Pursuant to his employment by the Tennessee Department of Correction as an Internal Affairs Investigator, Mr. Joseph Vernon reported to the crime scene where he collected evidence and took photographs. Mr. Vernon was present when the murder weapon was removed from Mr. Steed's body. He described the weapon as a "quarter inch rod that ha[d] been sharpened to a very fine point" on one end. Mr. Vernon stated that the point was "razor sharp." The weapon measured approximately eleven inches long. The handle of the weapon was a "Magic Marker" pen.
Mr. Don Dunaway, also an Internal Affairs Investigator with the Tennessee Department of Correction, interviewed Defendant after the killing. After being informed of his rights and agreeing to waive them, Defendant gave Mr. Dunaway a lengthy statement in which he described his intense dislike of the victim. Mr. Dunaway testified about the statement. Additionally, an audio tape of Defendant's statement was played for the jury, and a transcript of the tape was provided. Defendant described numerous conflicts and confrontations that he had had with Mr. Steed in his capacity as a correctional officer. Defendant claimed that Mr. Steed had threatened to write him up and told Defendant that he was
Defendant killed the victim on a Thursday. Defendant told Mr. Dunaway that he began thinking about killing the victim on the previous Monday. On that day, he got his weapon but then decided to "just . . . leave it alone." Defendant described to Mr. Dunaway what then occurred on Thursday, while Mr. Steed was in the pod:
I started to walk up and say something to him, and one of the little gang members that he talked to a lot there, run up and set down at the table and started talkin' to him. And I stood over to the side for a few minutes, and he looked at me, and he just shook his head . . . just turned around and faced the other direction. And I said, "F[__]k this!" And I went to the house, and got my damn knife and packed my property up real quick . . . throwed my s[__]t in a box and un-done my TV, and set it over to the side, and went and killed his ass! It was that plain and simple.
Defendant admitted to Mr. Dunaway that he intended to kill the victim by stabbing "the most vital organs first . . . the heart and the lung."
Mr. Dunaway testified that in May of 2003, Defendant wrote a letter to the district attorney. Mr. Dunaway obtained this letter and subsequently verified with Defendant that he had written and signed it. This letter was admitted into evidence and states, in pertinent part, the following: "I did with malicious intent premeditatedly murder Delbert Steed, and as indicated in my statement to Internal Affairs, I have no regret or remorse for this crime and I fully intended to kill others that day but was unable to do so because the handle on my weapon broke."
Dr. O'Brian Clary Smith testified as an expert in the field of forensic pathology about the autopsy to the victim. Dr. Smith removed the murder weapon from the victim's back. He stated that the victim's cause of death was "[m]ultiple stab wounds, thirty-six." Twelve of these wounds were lethal. Dr. Smith testified that there were ten wounds to the victim's chest area, three of which were fatal. There were fourteen wounds to the victim's back area, nine of which were fatal. Additionally, there was one wound to the victim's abdomen and eleven wounds to the victim's left arm.
Defendant testified at trial. He stated about his attack on the victim:
I was stabbing Counselor Steed. He was laying on the floor, stomach down. I was trying to drive it plumb through and hit the concrete below him. That was my intentions. I heard the door pop behind me. I turned around and it was the Watkins guy that testified yesterday, and a little girl named Perry. When I seen them, I took one and a half steps toward them. At that time, I still had the weapon in my hand. And they said, "He's got a knife," and slammed the door.
And they stood outside the door while I stabbed the man while he was laying on the floor, face down, I stabbed him about eight more times trying to run it plumb through him. They didn't come in until when I drawed back going to hit him again, I didn't see nothing but a piece of pen, Magic Marker sticking out of my hand. . . .
At that point, Defendant threw the weapon handle away and lay down on the floor. Defendant also testified about a grievance he had filed in which he set forth various complaints about the victim and the victim's supervisor. He explained that he had made numerous cell change requests and requests to be placed in the anger management program, "all in an...
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