The State v. Motts

• Decision Date: 21 March 2011
• Docket Number: No. 26947.,26947.
• Citation: 707 S.E.2d 804,391 S.C. 635
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: The STATE, Respondent,v.Jeffrey Brian MOTTS, Appellant.

391 S.C. 635

707 S.E.2d 804

The STATE, Respondent,

v.Jeffrey Brian MOTTS, Appellant.

No. 26947.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Heard Jan. 5, 2011.Decided March 21, 2011.

Chief Appellate Defender Robert M. Dudek, of South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense, of Columbia, for Appellant.Attorney General Alan Wilson, Chief Deputy Attorney General John W. McIntosh, Assistant Deputy Attorney General Donald J. Zelenka, Assistant Attorney General J. Anthony Mabry, of Columbia, Solicitor Robert Mills Ariail, of Greenville, for Respondent.Justice BEATTY.

In this capital case, a jury convicted Jeffrey Brian Motts of murdering his cell-mate at Perry Correctional Institution. Shortly after his appellate counsel filed a notice of appeal, Motts wrote to this Court indicating his desire to abandon his direct appeal and to waive all appellate review of his conviction and death sentence. In response, this Court remanded the case to the circuit court to conduct a competency hearing. Following a hearing, the circuit court found Motts competent to waive his appeals.

After conducting an extensive review of the record in this case and thoroughly questioning Motts during oral arguments before this Court, we conclude Motts is competent to waive his right to a direct appeal and that his waiver is knowing and voluntary. Additionally, we find that Motts's sentence of death is neither excessive nor disproportionate with his crime. Finally, we hold that neither the circuit court nor this Court is required to issue an order for a court-appointed psychiatrist to interview Motts, in the absence of some indicia of incompetency, immediately prior to his execution to assure that he has remained competent.

I. Factual/Procedural Background

In 1997, a Spartanburg County jury convicted Motts of the armed robbery and murder of his great-aunt and great-uncle. The trial judge sentenced Motts to life imprisonment for each murder conviction and twenty-five years' imprisonment for the armed robbery conviction.

While Motts was serving his sentences at Perry Correctional Institution in Greenville County, his cell-mate, Charles Martin, was found dead on December 8, 2005. Motts confessed to the killing. Subsequently, a Greenville County grand jury indicted Motts for Martin's murder. Based on Motts's prior murder convictions, the State sought the death penalty.

Several witnesses at trial, including Motts, testified regarding the events surrounding Martin's murder. Angered that Martin had lied to another inmate about Motts's involvement in “planting” a knife in the inmate's cell, Motts confronted Martin during the early morning hours of December 8, 2005. According to Motts, the verbal exchange escalated to a physical altercation with Motts hitting Martin in the head. Martin fell against the wall and started shaking. Motts then picked up Martin and bound his hands and feet using strips of cloth from his bed sheets. When Martin regained consciousness, he begged Motts not to hurt him. Motts responded by choking Martin to death. Because Martin continued to make what Motts described as a “ death rattle,” Motts proceeded to tie some sheets around Martin's neck to stop this noise. Martin died as the result of asphyxia due to strangulation. Motts then pushed the body under his bed in the cell.

After killing Martin, Motts smoked a cigarette, ate breakfast, smoked another cigarette, and watched television. Motts then dragged Martin's body to a common area known as “the rock.” Before placing Martin's body on “the rock,” he kicked Martin and stated “this is what snitches get.”

Motts then reported to prison guards that he had killed Martin. After the guards found Martin's lifeless body, officers with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division initiated an investigation by questioning Motts. During the questioning, Motts waived his Miranda¹ rights and then confessed to the murder.

After the jury found Motts guilty of murder, the State sought to establish the statutory aggravating circumstance that “[t]he murder was committed by a person with a prior conviction for murder.” S.C.Code Ann. § 16–3–20(C)(a)(2) (2003). Accordingly, the State presented evidence regarding Motts's 1997 convictions for the murder of his great-aunt and great-uncle.

Ultimately, the jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that the murder of Martin was committed by a person with a prior conviction for murder. As a result, the jury recommended that Motts be put to death. The trial judge denied all of Motts's post-trial motions and ordered on June 4, 2008 that Motts be put to death as a result of the conviction.

The day after sentencing, Motts's trial counsel filed a notice of intent to appeal Motts's conviction and sentence. Before any briefs were filed, Motts personally wrote to this Court requesting that his execution proceed as scheduled. Specifically, Motts expressed his desire to relieve his appellate defender, represent himself, and waive his direct appeal.

Subsequently, this Court issued an order remanding the matter to the trial judge, Circuit Court Judge Larry R. Patterson, and directing him to conduct a full hearing to determine whether Motts was competent to waive his direct appeal and whether his decision to waive his right to direct appeal was knowing and voluntary.

Judge Patterson ordered that Motts be examined by two qualified examiners designated by the South Carolina Department of Mental Health. Pursuant to the order, the examiners were to determine whether Motts was competent under the standard enunciated in Singleton v. State, 313 S.C. 75, 437 S.E.2d 53 (1993),² and followed in State v. Torrence, 317 S.C. 45, 451 S.E.2d 883 (1994).³

The court-appointed examiners included: Dr. Richard Frierson, a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry for the University of South Carolina School of Medicine (USCSM); Dr. Amanda (Gowans) Salas, Fellow in Forensic Psychiatry for the USCSM; and Dr. Michael Gassen, Chief Psychologist for the Department of Mental Health. The examiners evaluated thirty-four-year old Motts on October 8, 2009, November 12, 2009, and December 16, 2009.

On January 5, 2010, the court-appointed examiners submitted a joint, fifteen-page report explaining their ultimate conclusion that Motts was competent to waive his direct appeal under the standard set forth in Singleton and followed in Torrence.

On April 29, 2010, Circuit Court Judge D. Garrison Hill ⁴ held an evidentiary hearing. During the hearing, Judge Hill heard testimony from two court-appointed psychiatrists,⁵ the two trial attorneys who represented Motts in his 2007 capital trial, and Motts.

According to Dr. Frierson, the examiners reviewed the following documents: Motts's medical records dating from his childhood, transcripts from Motts's criminal trials, Motts's employment records, and Motts's records from the South Carolina Department of Corrections. In addition, the examiners compiled a “social history” by interviewing Motts, his mother, and an individual with a prison ministry who had visited Motts on death row. The examiners definitively concluded that Motts was competent to waive his right to appeal and to be executed as required under Singleton.

Motts's counsel called the two attorneys who represented Motts in his 2007 capital trial. Christopher Scalzo testified that Motts expressed “early on” that he did not wish for the jury to return a life sentence. In fact, Scalzo had Motts evaluated to determine whether he was competent to stand trial “because of [Motts's] initial desire to get the death penalty.” However, Scalzo acknowledged that there were times when Motts was “supportive of the idea of a life sentence.” Scalzo recounted Motts's closing statement to the jury in which Motts asked “the jury to give him life for his family.”

Stephen Henry, the lead counsel appointed to Motts, testified Motts was cooperative “to the point where he thought that we might have a chance of getting a life sentence.” Henry stated that Motts's “decision to die was made early and never waivered.” As to Motts's closing statement to the jury, Henry claimed Motts was “asking for his life to be spared for his parents ['] sake, not for his own.” According to Henry, Motts expressed that “he deserved the death penalty for what he did.”

Finally, Judge Hill personally questioned Motts. During this colloquy, Motts answered questions regarding his understanding of the competency proceedings, the appellate proceedings, post-conviction relief proceedings, and the death sentence. Motts also stated that he deserved the death penalty and did not want to remain incarcerated for another thirty to forty years. Motts explained that he was “100 percent” firm in his commitment to waive his appeals and that no one had threatened or coerced him to reach this decision.

On June 8, 2010, Judge Hill issued a lengthy written order in which he concluded that Motts's “decision to waive his rights to direct appeal meets the standards set forth in Singleton v. State and that his decision is one that has been knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently made after careful and thoughtful consideration.”

Upon receipt of Judge Hill's order, this Court directed Motts's appellate counsel to file a brief addressing the issue of whether Motts is competent to waive his right to direct appeal and whether his waiver is knowing and intelligent. After the parties filed their briefs, Motts wrote to this Court again expressing his “desire to waive all of [his] appeals, and sentence review, and not delay this any further.”

II. Discussion

A.

Our review of this case involves a three-part analysis. Initially, we must assess whether Motts is competent to waive his direct appeal and whether this decision is knowing and voluntary. If these questions are answered in the affirmative, the question becomes whether Motts's waiver includes this Court's proportionality review of his sentence of death. Finally, we must determine whether the circuit court or this Court has a...