Walls v. State
| Citation | 926 So.2d 1156 |
| Decision Date | 09 February 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. SC03-633.,No. SC03-1955.,SC03-633.,SC03-1955. |
| Parties | Frank A. WALLS, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. Frank A. Walls, Petitioner, v. James V. Crosby, Jr., etc., Respondent. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Florida |
Harry P. Brody of Brody and Hazen, P.A., Tallahassee, FL, for Appellant/Petitioner.
Charles J., Crist, Jr., Attorney General, and Charmaine M. Millsaps, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, FL, for Appellee/Respondent.
Frank A. Walls appeals an order of the circuit court denying his motion for post-conviction relief under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.851 and petitions the Court for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(1), (9), Fla. Const. For the reasons explained below, we affirm the trial court's denial of postconviction relief and deny the petition for habeas relief.
Frank A. Walls was convicted of felony murder in the death of Edward Alger and premeditated and felony murder in the death of Ann Peterson in Okaloosa County in July 1987. Alger's and Peterson's bodies were discovered in Alger's home when he failed to report for duty at Eglin Air Force Base. Peterson was shot twice in the head; Alger was shot three times and his throat had been cut. Alger's feet and left wrist were also tied with a curtain cord.
Based on information given to investigators by Walls' former roommate, who lived adjacent to the victims, a warrant was obtained to search the mobile home where Walls lived with a roommate. During the search, several items were seized that were linked to the crime scene.
After his arrest, Walls gave a statement detailing his involvement in the murders. In his confession, Walls stated that he entered the house to commit a burglary and that he deliberately woke up the two victims by knocking over a fan. Walls made Peterson tie up Alger and then Walls tied up Peterson. At some point, Alger got loose from the bindings and attacked Walls. Walls tackled Alger and cut him across the throat with a knife. However, Alger continued to struggle, knocked the knife from Walls' hand, and bit Walls on the leg. Walls then pulled out a gun and shot Alger in the head several times. Walls untied Peterson and informed her that he did not originally intend to harm them, but Alger's attack had changed everything. During a struggle, Walls ripped off Peterson's clothes and shot her in the head. When Peterson continued to scream, Walls pushed her face into a pillow and shot her in the head a second time.
During pretrial detention, a correctional officer named Vickie Beck was asked to conduct a surveillance of Walls, because he was suspected of being involved in other murders. Beck approached Walls and assured him that anything he said to her would remain confidential. She also insisted that Walls not tell his attorney about their conversations. Beck took detailed notes of Walls' statements and behavior, which she gave to the State and the State's psychiatrists.
During a pretrial hearing to determine Walls' competency to stand trial, three experts testified that Walls was incompetent. Two other experts testified that Walls was competent to stand trial. The two experts who found Walls competent to stand trial had relied on Beck's notes in making their evaluations. The trial judge found Walls competent to stand trial and he was subsequently found guilty on all charges. The jury recommended a life sentence for Alger's murder and a death sentence for Peterson's murder. The trial court followed the jury's recommendations.
On appeal, Walls argued that Officer Beck's activities during his pretrial detention violated his constitutional right to due process. This Court determined that the State's tactics involved subterfuge and trickery and the information obtained by Officer Beck should have been excluded from all aspects of Walls' trial, including the competency determination. We also concluded that the police conduct constituted an illegal interference with Walls' attorney-client relationship. Thus, we reversed Walls' judgments and sentences and remanded for a new trial on all issues. We also ordered that any further mental health evaluations not be conducted by the experts who had received the information obtained through police subterfuge. See Walls v. State, 580 So.2d 131, 132-35 (Fla. 1991).
At Walls' retrial, venue was moved to Jackson County because of pretrial publicity. The State's guilt phase evidence consisted of physical evidence, testimony by the investigating officers, testimony by a pathologist, and Walls' taped confession, which was played for the jury. Walls presented no guilt phase case. The jury found Walls guilty on all charges—two counts of first-degree murder, burglary of a structure, armed burglary of a dwelling, and two counts of kidnapping and petit theft.
During the penalty phase, Walls presented evidence of his long history of violent and threatening behavior, his various emotional problems, and his extensive treatment for emotional problems, including placement in a class for emotionally handicapped students in elementary school and a stay in a residential youth camp for children with emotional and behavioral problems at age fifteen. A psychiatrist who had treated Walls when he was sixteen years old stated that he had placed Walls on lithium in order to control his bipolar mood disorder. However, the psychiatrist also testified that at some point Walls ceased taking the drug. A psychologist testified that Walls' IQ had declined substantially in the years prior to trial and that Walls was impaired during the time the murder was committed.
The jury recommended the death penalty for Peterson's murder by a unanimous vote. Because of the prior jury's recommendation of life, double jeopardy precluded the possibility of a death penalty for Alger's murder on retrial. See Walls v. State, 641 So.2d 381, 386 n. 1 (Fla.1994); see also art. I, § 9, Fla. Const. The judge sentenced Walls to death for Peterson's murder, to a life sentence for Alger's murder, to five years in prison for the burglary of a structure, to twenty years for the armed burglary of a dwelling, to twenty years for each of the kidnapping counts, and to two months for petit theft. The judge found six aggravating factors: Walls was previously convicted of a violent felony based on the contemporaneous murder of Alger; the murder was committed during the course of a burglary or kidnapping; the murder was committed for pecuniary gain; the murder was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel (HAC); and the murder was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification (CCP). Walls, 641 So.2d at 386. The judge also found nine mitigating factors: Walls had no significant criminal history, was nineteen years old at the time of the crime, is emotionally handicapped, suffers from brain dysfunction and brain damage, functions at the level of a twelve year old because of his low IQ, confessed to the crimes and cooperated with the police, has a loving relationship with his parents and his disabled sibling, is a good worker, and has exhibited kindness toward helpless people and animals. Id. The judge specifically rejected the existence of the statutory mental mitigators. Id.
On appeal, Walls raised nine issues as error. He claimed: (1) the trial court should have excused a potential juror for cause or granted the defense an additional peremptory challenge to excuse the juror; (2) the State improperly exercised peremptory challenges to dismiss two black jurors based on their race; (3) the jurors were kept in session for overtaxing hours during trial; (4) the trial court gave the jury erroneous penalty phase instructions on the mitigating factors of mental disturbance, impairment, or duress and on the aggravating factors of HAC and CCP; (5) the trial court refused to provide the jury with a detailed interpretation of emotional disturbance as a mitigating factor; (6) the trial court made errors in its findings on the aggravating factors because HAC and CCP were not proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the evidence did not support the conclusion that the murder occurred during a kidnapping, the commission during a burglary aggravating factor impermissibly doubled the pecuniary gain factor, and the avoid arrest aggravator was improper; (7) the trial court required Walls to prove the mitigating factors by a preponderance of the evidence; (8) the trial court improperly rejected expert testimony that Walls was suffering from extreme emotional disturbance and substantial impairment; and (9) the death sentence was not proportionate in his case. This Court found no error and affirmed the judgment and sentences. Id. at 391. The United States Supreme Court subsequently denied Walls' petition for certiorari. See Walls v. Florida, 513 U.S. 1130, 115 S.Ct. 943, 130 L.Ed.2d 887 (1995).
Walls filed a motion to vacate his judgment and sentences in 1997, which he amended in 1997 and again in 2001. Walls' second amended motion to vacate is the subject of the instant appeal.1 The trial court conducted a Huff2 hearing in May 2002 and granted an evidentiary hearing on several of Walls' postconviction claims that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to certain evidence and to various arguments and comments by the prosecutor and for conceding guilt and eligibility for the death penalty without his consent. The trial court did not grant an evidentiary hearing on the remainder of Walls' allegations of ineffective assistance of counsel, including counsel's failure to present expert testimony regarding the effect that Ritalin and other drugs had on Walls' behavior. However, the trial court allowed Walls to present additional information and evidence on the Ritalin issue in the form of an expert report...
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