Thigpen v. Smith

• Decision Date: 13 March 1985
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 82-0456-H.
• Citation: 603 F. Supp. 1519
• Parties: Donald THIGPEN, Petitioner, v. Fred SMITH, et al., Respondents.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Alabama

603 F. Supp. 1519

Donald THIGPEN, Petitioner, v. Fred SMITH, et al., Respondents.

Civ. A. No. 82-0456-H.

United States District Court, S.D. Alabama, S.D.

February 28, 1985.

As Amended March 13, 1985.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

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John L. Carroll, Mandell & Boyd, Montgomery, Ala., Jack Greenberg and James M. Nabrit, III, John Charles Boger, Anthony G. Amsterdam, N.Y. Univ. Law School, Stanley A. Teitler, New York City, for petitioner.

Ed Carnes, Asst. Atty. Gen., Montgomery, Ala., for respondents.

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

HAND, Chief Judge.

This death penalty case came before the Court pursuant to a petition for writ of habeas corpus, 28 U.S.C. § 2254, filed by Donald Thigpen. Petitioner was convicted in 1976 of violating Title 14, § 319 Code of Alabama, 1940 (Recompiled 1958). That statute, since repealed, provided for a mandatory sentence of death where an inmate under a sentence of life imprisonment was convicted of murder. Petitioner has challenged § 319's constitutionality, both facially and as applied.¹ For the reasons set forth below, this Court has concluded that there is no merit to the petition, and that this cause is due to be dismissed with prejudice.

I. FINDINGS OF FACT

Based upon the briefs and arguments of counsel, as well as the record as a whole,² the Court enters the following Findings of Fact:

1. On December 30, 1970, Donald Thigpen killed his girlfriend, Cassie Lee Davis, by shooting her at close range with a shotgun. Following a trial to a jury, Thigpen was convicted of the crime of first degree murder and sentenced to death. On May 15, 1973, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction, but pursuant to Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S.Ct. 2726, 33 L.Ed.2d 346 (1972), reduced petitioner's sentence of death to life imprisonment. Thigpen v. State, 50 Ala. App. 176, 277 So.2d 922, 926 (1973). It appears from the language in that opinion ("the sentence is reduced to life imprisonment") that Thigpen may have been eligible for parole at some future date.

2. In April of 1975, while still under a sentence of life imprisonment, Thigpen and ten other inmates escaped from Holman Prison. In the course of the escape attempt, he and Pedro Williams, who escaped with him, murdered one Henry Lambeth. On August 17, 1976, petitioner was convicted and sentenced to death in the Circuit Court of Escambia County, Alabama for violation of Title 14, § 319, Code of Alabama, 1940 (Recompiled 1958) (repealed, effective January 1, 1980). Section 319 provided as follows:

Any convict sentenced to imprisonment for life, who commits murder in the first degree while such sentence remains in force against him, shall, on conviction, suffer death.

3. Testimony at the trial established that Thigpen, Williams and others escaped on April 16, 1975, and that Henry Lambeth was murdered early in the morning of April 17, 1975. Thigpen and Williams were apprehended in a pickup truck, following a high speed chase, later that morning. The truck was found to be registered to Henry Lambeth. (Escam. Tr. Vol. II, 32-33, 35, 74-75)³ Mr. Lambeth, an elderly man, owned a farm located a few miles from Holman Prison. (Id.) Two Holman prison employees, who knew Mr. Lambeth, went to his farm to check on him because of the report that his pickup truck had been recovered in the possession of two escapees. (Id. at 32) Mr. Lambeth's wife had last seen her husband when he left the house in his pickup truck at approximately 6:00 A.M. that morning for the purpose of mending a fence where some of his cows had been getting out of their pasture. (Id. at 21-23, 32) The correction officials found where Mr. Lambeth had been working on a fence. (Id. at 32) Under the fence was a large puddle of blood, and nearby was an ax and some loose fence posts. (Id. at 33-34, 40-41, 51-53, 78-82; Vol. III, 5-7) The correction officials found Mr. Lambeth's body in an old abandoned house nearby. (Escam. Tr. Vol. II, 33, 51-53, 78-82; Vol. III, 3, 4, 8) It was estimated that Mr. Lambeth was murdered some time between 6:00 A.M. when he left the house with his pickup truck and 8:20 A.M. to 9:00 A.M., when Thigpen and Williams were spotted driving the pickup truck some 20 to 30 miles away. (Escam. Tr., Vol. II, 21-22, 57, 63)

4. There was testimony at trial by a pathologist, who was unable to state specifically what instrument was used to kill Mr. Lambeth, but that the wounds found on Mr. Lambeth's body were consistent with those that could be inflicted with an ax or a hatchet, Thigpen v. State, 355 So.2d 392, 394 (Ala.Crim.App.), aff'd, 355 So.2d 400 (Ala.1977), and with those that could be inflicted with a fence post. (Escam. Tr. Vol. II, 111-112) The blue jeans, shirt, and undershirt worn by Thigpen at the time of his arrest had bloodstains on them. Testimony established that the blood was different from Thigpen's blood type and matched Mr. Lambeth's blood type. (Id. at 28-29, 87, 98-100, 103-109, 112-113)

5. On April 18, 1975, the day after the murder, Pedro Williams gave a statement to an investigating officer concerning the murder. (Escam. Tr., Vol. II, 130-135) In that statement, Williams asserted that Thigpen had killed Mr. Lambeth with an ax which he (Thigpen) had gotten from the back of Lambeth's pickup truck. (Id. at 132, 134) According to Williams, he and Thigpen were hiding in some bushes near the old abandoned house when Lambeth drove up in his pickup truck and started loading fence posts. (Id. at 131-132) Then, according to Williams, the following events occurred:

I said, I think I'm going to get that truck because the keys are in it. I went directly to the truck talking (to Lambeth). How you all get over here, he said. That don't matter. He watched sic off the head and poles and load the poles. He said let me help you load the poles. He said, no, that is all right. So I was getting in the truck that time. Thigpen was standing there and saying that. I told Thigpen I said no, man. Thigpen tried to hit him in the foot with the poles or something. He grabbed an ax. It was an ax on the truck. sic

(Escam. Tr., Vol. II, 132) Thereafter, Williams went on to state:

Thigpen grabbed an ax. He grabbed the ax and hit the old man with it. The old man fell down. He told me to come over here. Come on over here and help me. I said what you done done? sic He said, I believe he is dead. Say, I got to kill him because I don't want to leave no evidence. He took him. I grabbed him by the legs. As you can see I had him by the foot to help you raise him up through the window so I started driving. sic

(Id. at 133)

6. On April 21, 1975, Williams gave a second statement to the investigators, and in that statement he once again reiterated that it was Thigpen who had struck and killed Mr. Lambeth. Williams said in part that, Thigpen walked around the old man and the man was watching Pedro (Williams) and turned his back on Thigpen and Thigpen struck him with the ax. And Pedro (Williams) said when the man fell he fell into (Williams') arms (who) lowered him to the ground. (Escam. Tr., Vol. II, 137)

7. At trial, Williams took the stand and testified that he, rather than Thigpen, actually struck and killed Mr. Lambeth. (Escam. Tr., Vol. II, 117-124, 127-129) Williams admitted making prior statements that Thigpen had murdered Lambeth, but claimed they were untrue. (Id. at 130-134, 137)

8. The record clearly indicates that Williams did not change his story until after he had plead guilty to a charge of second degree murder and had been sentenced to ninety-nine (99) years for that crime. (Escam. Tr., Vol. II, 118-119, 141) Thus, Williams had nothing to lose if he helped Thigpen out. In addition, Williams' change of story appears to have been influenced by a letter that he received from Thigpen. In that letter Thigpen: professed his great friendship for Williams; told Williams he was just like a "little bro" to Thigpen, and meant everything to him; told Williams that some day he would be able to show it; said if they got "out of this shit, we'll just try to make us some money in here and live, O.K." (Escam. Tr., Vol. III, 15) Thigpen also told Williams that he wanted Williams to be a man about their situation, because "they don't have anything on us, but they are going to try to fuck us up, you know, but you know how they are, man. Just be cool and I'll see to that everything is did right, every time so anyone come to see you, just tell them to see me!" (Id. at 15-16) Thigpen went on to urge Williams not to talk with a lawyer unless Thigpen and Williams were together, because "we need to be together." (Id. at 16) Thigpen also told Williams that he was going to have his (Thigpen's) sister write Williams, so if Williams wanted Thigpen to know anything he could write Thigpen's sister who would tell Thigpen. (Id.) Thigpen ended his letter to Williams with the statement that he should, "be cool and live on". (Id.)

9. Both of Williams' prior inconsistent statements along with the letter from Thigpen were introduced into evidence at trial. (Escam. Tr., Vol. II, 130-139; Vol. III, 15-16)

10. Thigpen took the stand, denied any involvement in the actual act of killing Mr. Lambeth, and said Williams did it. (Escam. Tr., Vol. II, 144-148) He also admitted prior convictions for grand larceny and the aforesaid conviction for the murder of his "wife" for which he was serving the life sentence at the time he escaped. (Id. at 148-149)

11. Following the close of evidence, the trial court instructed the jury, pursuant to Alabama law, that it was the jury's function to determine the weight and credibility to be given to each witness' testimony, and in doing so the jury could consider the witness' honesty, integrity and relationship to the defendant.⁴ (Escam. Tr., Vol. II, 162-163) The trial judge also instructed the jury that a witness may be impeached by a prior inconsistent statement, and that if the jury was convinced a witness...