Van Hook v. Anderson, No. C-1-94-269.

• Decision Date: 19 January 2001
• Docket Number: No. C-1-94-269.
• Citation: 127 F.Supp.2d 899
• Parties: Robert VAN HOOK, Petitioner, v. Carl ANDERSON, Warden, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio

127 F.Supp.2d 899

Robert VAN HOOK, Petitioner, v. Carl ANDERSON, Warden, Respondent.

No. C-1-94-269.

United States District Court, S.D. Ohio, Eastern Division.

January 19, 2001.

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OPINION AND ORDER

SMITH, District Judge.

This is a death penalty habeas corpus action filed by petitioner, Robert Van Hook, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. After being convicted of capital murder and aggravated robbery by a three-judge panel, and after a mitigation hearing to address sentencing issues, Van Hook was sentenced to death by the same panel on August 8, 1985. After exhausting all available state court remedies, Van Hook filed this habeas corpus petition on April 29, 1997. A stay of execution has been issued. This order will address the questions of whether any of Van Hook's claims for relief must be denied on grounds that they were procedurally defaulted during the course of state court proceedings, and whether he has successfully demonstrated the existence of cause sufficient to excuse that default.

Van Hook has never denied killing the victim, but maintains that he did so under a rage precipitated by homosexual panic and severe borderline personality disorder so consuming and debilitating that he lacked the requisite intent to make him guilty of the offense of aggravated murder or eligible for the death penalty. He also challenges the legality of his conviction and sentence on grounds that incriminating statements he made were improperly admitted at trial, that information obtained from a cellmate informant was improperly admitted at trial, and that his trial attorneys provided constitutionally deficient assistance during the trial and penalty phases, especially in failing to investigate, develop, and present evidence demonstrating his mental disorders and the role they played in the commission of the offense. Van Hook also challenges the constitutionality of Ohio's death penalty scheme, and argues that racism and a lack of due process have tainted everything in Hamilton County from the jury selection process, to capital indictment decisions, to the manner in which capital postconviction actions are handled.

I. Factual History

The details of this capital murder and aggravated robbery are set forth in numerous state court opinions, including the Ohio Supreme Court's published opinion in State v. Van Hook, 39 Ohio St.3d 256, 530 N.E.2d 883 (1988). That account is reprinted below verbatim.

It was established at trial that on the evening of February 18, 1985, Robert Van Hook, appellant herein, went to a downtown Cincinnati establishment called the Subway Bar. There, he approached David Self. The two engaged in conversation while consuming alcoholic beverages for approximately two to three hours. As they left together, Self stopped briefly to explain to the bartender that he and appellant were planning to go to Self's apartment.

At the apartment, appellant lured Self into a vulnerable position and, with no provocation, attacked him. Initially, appellant strangled Self into a state of unconsciousness. He then took a paring knife from the victim's kitchen and stabbed the victim behind the right ear, aiming the thrust upward toward the brain, accompanied by a blade-twisting movement. Appellant then stabbed the victim's neck in numerous places, each stab wound accompanied by cutting motions. Several of these wounds penetrated over halfway through the neck and apparently represented appellant's efforts to decapitate the victim. Appellant then made an incision on the victim's body from the abdomen up to and over the sternum. The victim's abdominal cavity was opened so that his liver was visible. Appellant then stabbed upward a number of times, penetrating the liver and eventually penetrating the abdominal wall into the heart in three places. He placed a small bottle which had contained amyl nitrate, its cap, a cigarette butt and the paring knife into the victim's abdominal cavity.

Appellant then searched much of the apartment including a chest of drawers and a jewelry box. There was evidence that particular items of jewelry were taken, including specific testimony that the victim's gold chain necklace, which he had worn into the bar earlier that evening, was missing. Thereafter, appellant looked into the victim's refrigerator for food, but not seeing anything that "[he] liked," he prepared his departure from the apartment. Such preparation included smearing his bloody fingerprints, and turning up the volume on the stereo system.

After leaving the apartment, appellant went to the home of Dr. Robert Hoy, a family friend. There, under the guise of recovering from a fight with his stepfather, appellant borrowed money and ate a large meal. He then left and eventually arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. There, he evaded detection until April 1, 1985, when, pursuant to information given by appellant's family, he was arrested by the Oakland Park police.

Id. at 256-57, 530 N.E.2d 883.

II. State Court Procedural History¹

This case has followed the typical procedural path through the state court system. After being sentenced to death, Van Hook filed a direct appeal which was pursued through the First District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court. Throughout his direct appeal proceedings, Van Hook was represented by the same two attorneys who had represented him at trial. Represented by the Ohio Public Defender's Office, Van Hook then filed a post-conviction petition which, after it was denied, was appealed to both the First District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court. Van Hook also filed a motion for delayed reconsideration in the court of appeals, as authorized by State v. Murnahan, 63 Ohio St.3d 60, 584 N.E.2d 1204 (1992), alleging that his appellate attorneys had provided ineffective assistance in not raising certain assignments of error. The court of appeals dismissed Van Hook's motion as untimely, and Van Hook appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court. Van Hook also filed a similar motion for delayed reconsideration in the Ohio Supreme Court, arguing that his appellate attorneys had been ineffective before that court. The Ohio Supreme Court dismissed the motion, concluding that Van Hook was not entitled to the effective assistance of counsel during a second appeal as of right.

A. Trial and Direct Appeal

Robert Van Hook was indicted by the Hamilton County Grand Jury on April 18, 1985 on one count of aggravated murder, with a death penalty specification, and one count of aggravated robbery. On April 23, 1985, he entered a written plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, which triggered court-ordered psychiatric evaluations. Van Hook waived his right to a jury trial, and was tried, pursuant to Ohio law, by a three-judge panel. The trial commenced on July 15, 1985, and, on July 29, 1985, the three-judge panel found him guilty as charged. Following a two-day break, the mitigation hearing commenced. On August 8, 1985, the three-judge panel sentenced Van Hook to death on the aggravated murder count, and a prison term of ten (10) to twenty-five (25) years on the aggravated robbery count.

Represented by the same two attorneys who represented him at trial, Van Hook appealed the judgment to the Ohio Court of Appeals for the First Appellate District, and raised eight assignments of error. On May 13, 1987, the court of appeals affirmed the judgment against petitioner in full. After conducting its own independent review, the court of appeals also concluded that the aggravating factors substantially outweighed the mitigating circumstances, and that the death sentence was not inappropriate or disproportionate. State v. Van Hook, C-85-0565, 1987 WL 11202 (Hamilton Cy. Ct.App. May 13, 1987), exhibit 26 vol.II to petitioner's appendix of the state court record.

The same two attorneys subsequently initiated an appeal to the Supreme Court of Ohio, but, on July 13, 1987, Van Hook filed a pro se motion to dismiss his attorneys and appoint new counsel. Van Hook argued that his attorneys had failed to raise numerous laudable issues and that he was unable to assert the ineffectiveness of his attorneys until they were removed from his case. On September 2, 1987, the Ohio Supreme Court denied petitioner's motion to dismiss his attorneys. Exhibit 13 vol.III to petitioner's appendix of the state court record. Van Hook's attorneys proceeded, accordingly, to prosecute his appeal to the Supreme Court of Ohio and raised four propositions of law. On November 9, 1998, the Ohio Supreme Court affirmed the judgment against Van Hook. State v. Van Hook, 39 Ohio St.3d 256, 530 N.E.2d 883 (1988). After conducting its own independent review, the Ohio Supreme Court also found that the aggravating factors substantially outweighed the mitigating factors, and that the death sentence was neither inappropriate nor disproportionate.

Justice Wright authored a dissenting opinion, which Justice Brown joined. Justices Wright and Brown were of the view that the State failed to prove that Van Hook had initiated further discussions with law enforcement officers after invoking his right to counsel, and therefore, that inculpatory statements made by Van Hook to Cincinnati law enforcement officers in Florida, while awaiting extradition to Ohio, should have been suppressed.

On November 21, 1988, Van Hook's attorneys filed a motion for rehearing on the issue of whether petitioner's confession should have been suppressed. On December 21, 1988, the Ohio Supreme Court summarily dismissed the motion. Exhibit 25 vol.III to petitioner's appendix of the state court record.

On March 27, 1989, the Supreme Court of the United States denied Van Hook's petition for a writ of certiorari. Exhibit 6 vol.IV to petitioner's appendix of the state court record. On May 15, 1989, the Supreme Court denied his motion for rehearing. Exhibit 8 vol.IV to petitioner's appendix of the state court record. During those proceedings, Van Hook was represented by not only the...