U.S. v. Hall

• Decision Date: 05 July 2006
• Docket Number: No. 04-70050.,04-70050.
• Citation: 455 F.3d 508
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Orlando Cordia HALL, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

455 F.3d 508

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Orlando Cordia HALL, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 04-70050.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

July 5, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Delonia Anita Watson, Fort Worth, TX, for U.S.

Robert Charles Owen, Owen & Rountree, Austin, TX, Marcia Adele Widder, The Capital Appeals Project, New Orleans, LA, for Hall.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Before KING, SMITH and STEWART, Circuit Judges.

KING, Circuit Judge:

Defendant-appellant Orlando Hall, a federal prisoner under a sentence of death, has applied for a certificate of appealability to challenge the district court's denial of his motion to vacate his conviction and sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. Hall previously sought, and was denied, a certificate of appealability from the district court. For the reasons discussed below, we DENY Hall's application for a certificate of appealability.

I. BACKGROUND

Orlando Cordia Hall ("Hall") ran a marijuana trafficking enterprise in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, along with Bruce Webster ("Webster") and Marvin Holloway ("Holloway"). Hall, Webster, and Holloway bought marijuana in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, assisted by Steven Beckley ("Beckley"), who lived in Irving, Texas. Typically, Beckley drove the marijuana back to Arkansas, and Holloway stored the marijuana in his house.

On September 21, 1994, Holloway drove Hall from Pine Bluff to Little Rock, Arkansas, and Hall then flew from Little Rock to Dallas in order to buy marijuana. Beckley and Hall's brother, Demetrius Hall ("D. Hall") picked Hall up at the Dallas airport. Later that day, Hall and Beckley met two local drug dealers, Stanfield Vitalis ("Vitalis") and Neil Rene ("N. Rene"), at a car wash and gave them $4700 to procure marijuana. Hall and Beckley returned to the car wash to pick up the marijuana, but Vitalis and N. Rene did not return. Hall then spoke with Vitalis and N. Rene by telephone, and Vitalis and N. Rene told Hall that they had been robbed of both their car and the $4700 entrusted to them.

Hall and Beckley then gave Vitalis's and N. Rene's phone number to a friend who worked for the telephone company, and this friend told them that the number was associated with an address at the Polo Run Apartments in Arlington, Texas. Hall, D. Hall, and Beckley began surveilling this address, and they saw Vitalis and N. Rene exit an apartment and approach the same car which they claimed had been stolen along with the $4700. Based on this surveillance, Hall and Beckley concluded that Vitalis and N. Rene had lied about the robbery and had kept the $4700 for themselves.

Hall called Holloway on September 24, 1994, and instructed him to drive Webster to the airport in Little Rock. Webster then flew from Little Rock to Dallas. That evening, Hall, D. Hall, Beckley, and Webster drove to the Polo Run Apartments in a car owned by Hall's sister Cassandra. Hall and Webster each carried handguns, D. Hall carried a souvenir baseball bat, and Beckley carried duct tape and a jug of gasoline.

When they arrived, Webster and D. Hall knocked on the front door of the apartment that Vitalis and N. Rene had left. Lisa Rene ("Rene"), N. Rene's sixteen-year-old sister, was alone in the apartment and refused them entry. When Webster and D. Hall began issuing threats, Rene called her sister and 911. Webster attempted to kick in the front door, but when that failed he and D. Hall circled around to the patio and broke into the apartment through a glass door. Webster then entered the apartment, tackled Rene, and dragged her back to Hall's sister's car. The group then drove away from the Polo Run Apartments and returned to Hall's sister's apartment, where Beckley's car was parked. There, they forced Rene into Beckley's car and then drove off in a group. During this second drive Hall raped Rene. Later, the group returned to Hall's sister's apartment, and from there Beckley, D. Hall, and Webster drove back to Pine Bluff along with Rene. Hall remained behind and flew back to Arkansas the next day.

Once Beckley, D. Hall, and Webster reached Pine Bluff, Holloway provided them with money, which they used to move into a motel room. There, they tied Rene to a chair and raped her repeatedly. On September 25, 1994, Hall and Holloway arrived at the motel room and took Rene into the bathroom for approximately twenty minutes. When they emerged, Hall told Beckley, "She know too much," and then he left the motel with Holloway and Webster.

After leaving the motel, Hall and Webster went to Byrd Lake Park and dug a grave. That evening, Hall, Webster, and Beckley took Rene to Byrd Lake Park, but they could not find the grave site in the dark, so they returned to the motel room. Early the next morning, on September 26, 1994, Beckley and D. Hall moved Rene to another motel because they were concerned that a security guard at the first motel was becoming suspicious.

Later on the morning of the 26th, Webster, Hall, and Beckley again drove Rene to Byrd Lake Park, after covering her eyes with a mask, and they took her to the grave site, which they were able to locate in the daylight. At the grave site, Hall placed a sheet over Rene's head and then hit her once in the head with a shovel. Rene screamed and attempted to run away, but Beckley grabbed her and hit her twice in the head with the shovel. Beckley then handed the shovel to Hall, and Hall and Beckley took turns beating her. When they had finished, Webster gagged Rene, dragged her into the grave, covered her with gasoline, and covered her with dirt. In its current brief before this court, the government reminds us that the medical report supported findings that Rene was alive but unconscious when she was buried by Webster, that she died from the effects of the multiple blunt force injuries she suffered during her beating, combined with asphyxia, and that she may have regained consciousness in the grave before her death. After Rene was buried, the three men returned to the motel and picked up D. Hall.

On September 29, 1994, an arrest warrant was issued in Arlington for Hall, D. Hall, and Beckley for Rene's kidnapping, and D. Hall, Beckley, and Webster were arrested. On September 30, 1994, Hall surrendered to Pine Bluff authorities in the presence of his attorney. Based on his attorney's advice, Hall did not give a statement at arrest, but he indicated that he would talk once he was transported to Texas. On October 5, 1994, Hall gave a written statement to FBI and Arlington County officials in which he substantially implicated himself in Rene's kidnapping and death.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a criminal complaint on October 26, 1994, charging Hall, D. Hall, Webster, and Beckley with kidnapping in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1). On November 4, 1994, a six-count superseding indictment was returned, charging Hall, D. Hall, Webster, Beckley, and Holloway with kidnapping in which a death occurred in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1), conspiracy to commit kidnapping in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1201(c), traveling in interstate commerce with intent to promote the possession of marijuana with intent to distribute in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1952, using a telephone to promote the unlawful activity of extortion in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1952, traveling in interstate commerce with intent to promote extortion in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1952, and using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c).

The government filed notice of its intent to seek the death penalty against Hall on February 23, 1995. The district court severed Hall's trial from the trial of his codefendants on April 6, 1995, and his trial began on October 2, 1995. On October 31, 1995, the jury convicted Hall of kidnapping in which a death occurred, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, traveling in interstate commerce to promote possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, and using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence. After a separate hearing, the jury recommended, by unanimous vote, that Hall receive the death penalty.¹

Hall appealed, and his conviction and sentence were affirmed by this court on August 21, 1998. United States v. Hall, 152 F.3d 381, 389-90 (5th Cir.1998) [hereinafter Hall]. Hall filed a petition for rehearing with this court, which was denied on October 1, 1998. Hall then petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, which was denied on May 17, 1999. Hall v. United States, 526 U.S. 1117, 119 S.Ct. 1767, 143 L.Ed.2d 797 (1999).

Hall filed his initial motion to vacate his conviction and sentence, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255, in May 2000. In June 2000, the district court granted Hall's request to file a discovery motion. Hall filed an initial discovery motion in August 2000 and a supplemental discovery motion in May 2001. The district court denied both motions in April 2002. Hall then filed a second § 2255 motion to vacate in June 2002, and he filed an amended version of this motion to vacate in September 2002. In this second amended motion, Hall raised twelve claims for relief from his conviction and sentence.² See Hall v United States, No. 4:00-CV-422-Y, slip op. at 6, 2004 WL 1908242 (N.D.Tex. Aug. 24, 2004) [hereinafter Dist. Ct. Op.].

The government filed a response to this second amended motion to vacate in January 2003, and Hall replied in March 2003. On June 7, 2004, the district court conducted an evidentiary hearing limited to the extraneous influence on the jury issues raised by Hall's third, fourth, and fifth claims for relief, which were grouped together by the district court as issue C in the list reproduced in note 2 supra. On August 24, 2004, the district court issued a comprehensive, careful memorandum opinion and order, denying all of the claims presented in Hall's § 2255 motion for relief.

Hall filed a notice of appeal from ...