Wellons v. Warden, Ga. Diagnostic & Classification Prison

• Decision Date: 14 January 2013
• Docket Number: No. 11–14935.,11–14935.
• Citation: 695 F.3d 1202
• Parties: Marcus A. WELLONS, Petitioner–Appellant, v. WARDEN, GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION PRISON, Respondent–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

695 F.3d 1202

Marcus A. WELLONS, Petitioner–Appellant,

v.WARDEN, GEORGIA DIAGNOSTIC AND CLASSIFICATION PRISON, Respondent–Appellee.

No. 11–14935.

United States Court of Appeals,Eleventh Circuit.

Sept. 19, 2012.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Jan. 14, 2013.

Jeffrey Lyn Ertel, Fed. Def. Program, Inc., Mary Elizabeth Wells, Law Office of M.E. Wells, Atlanta, GA, for Petitioner–Appellant.

Beth Attaway Burton, Atty. Gen.'s Office, Atlanta, GA, for Respondent–Appellee.

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

Before DUBINA, Chief Judge, TJOFLAT, and WILSON, Circuit Judges.

WILSON, Circuit Judge:

Marcus Wellons, a death row inmate, appeals the district court's denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In his petition, Wellons contends that he was denied a fair trial by an impartial judge and an unbiased jury, because the jury gave the judge and the bailiff inappropriate gag gifts at the conclusion of the trial. Wellons also contends that there was racial discrimination in the selection of the jury. We affirm the district court's denial of relief.

I. History

A. Factual Background

During the summer of 1989, Wellons lived with his girlfriend, Gail Saunders, and her fourteen-year-old son in Saunders's apartment. The son was friends with fifteen-year-old India Roberts, who lived in the same apartment complex. On August 30, 1989, Saunders ended the relationship with Wellons. That night Saunders stayed with a friend and Wellons stayed in the apartment. Over the course of the night, Wellons became distraught and unbalanced. He desperately tried to reach Saunders by telephone. Wellons was angry because he could not find her and began drinking heavily. He then destroyed Saunders's apartment and property and attempted to hide the destruction by calling 911 to report a robbery.

Several hours later, at approximately 8:00 a.m., India Roberts left her home to catch the school bus. Shortly thereafter, a neighbor heard muffled screams coming from the Saunders's apartment.

Around 2:00 p.m., Wellons attempted to borrow a car from an acquaintance who worked at a nearby grocery store. The acquaintance refused. Approximately thirty minutes later, Theodore Cole, a retired military police officer, was driving by a wooded area near Saunders's apartment complex. Cole spotted in the distance a person carrying what appeared to be a body wrapped in a sheet. He drove back to the apartment complex and saw a man throw a sheet into the woods; Cole then called 911. The police found India Roberts's body near the location where Cole had spotted the man in the woods. Cole positively identified Wellons as the man he saw carrying the sheet. The police eventually found several items belonging to India Roberts inside Saunders's apartment.

B. Trial and Appeals

Wellons was charged with the malice murder and rape of India Roberts. During jury selection, the prosecutor used his peremptory strikes to remove three of the four African Americans from the jury venire. Wellons objected, asserting that the prosecutor had a race-based motive for removing the jurors in violation of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). The race-neutral reason proffered by the prosecutor was that the jurors were hesitant about their willingness to impose the death penalty, if necessary. The trial court found no purposeful discrimination and overruled the objection to the peremptory strikes.

During the trial, Wellons did not dispute that he murdered and raped India Roberts; rather, he claimed he was either not guilty by reason of insanity or guilty but mentally ill. However, Wellons did not present any mental health expert testimony during the trial. The jury found Wellons guilty of malice murder and rape. After finding two statutory aggravating circumstances, the jury recommended that Wellons be sentenced to death for the murder, and life imprisonment for the rape.

During the post-trial interviews of the jurors, defense counsel learned that some jurors gave gag-gifts to one of the bailiffs and the trial judge either near the end of or immediately following the penalty phase. Specifically, some jurors gave the Judge ¹ chocolate candy in the shape of a penis and Bailiff LP chocolate candy shaped as female breasts. Counsel also learned that while the sequestered jurors ate dinner at a local restaurant, the Judge spoke to them. Relying on this information, Wellons moved for a new trial and recusal of the Judge. The court denied both motions. During the state and federal proceedings, Wellons was never given an evidentiary hearing regarding his claims of juror, bailiff, and judicial misconduct.

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the state trial court's Batson decision and Wellons's convictions and sentences. Wellons v. State, 266 Ga. 77, 463 S.E.2d 868 (1995). After the Supreme Court of the United States denied certiorari, Wellons v. Georgia, 519 U.S. 830, 117 S.Ct. 97, 136 L.Ed.2d 52 (1996), Wellons sought state habeas corpus relief, which was denied in an unpublished order on July 20, 1998. The Georgia Supreme Court, on January 9, 2001, denied Wellons's application for a certificate of probable cause to appeal. The Supreme Court of the United States again denied Wellons's petition for a writ of certiorari. Wellons v. Turpin, 534 U.S. 1001, 122 S.Ct. 476, 151 L.Ed.2d 390 (2001).

On May 19, 2004, Wellons filed a § 2254 petition in the Northern District of Georgia. The district court denied Wellons's petition. A Certificate of Appealability (“COA”) was granted on the claim of juror, bailiff, and judicial misconduct, but no COA was grated on the Batson claim. On review we affirmed the district court's denial of Wellons's petition. See Wellons v. Hall, 554 F.3d 923 (11th Cir.2009), vacated,558 U.S. 220, 130 S.Ct. 727, 175 L.Ed.2d 684 (2010) (per curiam). In denying Wellons's claim of jury, bailiff, and judicial misconduct, we found that Wellons was not entitled to discovery or an evidentiary hearing because the decisions of the Georgia courts to not grant discovery were “based on adequate and independent state law procedural grounds.” Id. at 935 (internal quotation marks omitted). We also found that even if the claims were not procedurally barred “we would not disturb the Georgia Supreme Court's conclusions on the merits of these claims.” Id. at 937–38. The Supreme Court granted Wellons's petition for a writ of certiorari, vacated our opinion, and remanded in light of Cone v. Bell, 556 U.S. 449, 129 S.Ct. 1769, 173 L.Ed.2d 701 (2009). Wellons, 558 U.S. 220, 130 S.Ct. at 732. We then remanded the case to the district court so that the parties could conduct discovery on the circumstances surrounding the alleged misconduct. Wellons v. Hall, 603 F.3d 1236, 1237 (11th Cir.2010). The district court permitted discovery on the claim of juror, bailiff, and judicial misconduct and carefully considered the new evidence. In a thorough order, the district court denied relief. The district court issued a COA on the misconduct claim, and we issued a COA on the Batson claim.

II. Standard of Review

We review the district court's denial of a petition for writ of habeas corpus de novo. Jamerson v. Sec'y for Dep't of Corr., 410 F.3d 682, 687 (11th Cir.2005). We also review the district court's conclusions of law and mixed questions of law and fact de novo. Parker v. Head, 244 F.3d 831, 836 (11th Cir.2001). Finally, we review the district court's factual findings for clear error. Id.

Wellons's petition is governed by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), as amended by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), Pub.L. No. 104–132, 110 Stat. 1214 (1996). Under AEDPA, federal courts review state court judgments utilizing a highly deferential standard. Jamerson, 410 F.3d at 687. When a state court has adjudicated a claim on the merits, we can only grant relief if that decision was “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court” or if that decision “was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).

A state court's adjudication is contrary to federal law if it “arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by [the Supreme] Court on a question of law or if the state court decides a case differently than [the Supreme] Court has on a set of materially indistinguishable facts.” Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 413, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 1523, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). A state court's adjudication is unreasonable if the state court “identifies the correct governing legal principle from th[e] Court's decisions but unreasonably applies that principle to the facts of the prisoner's case.” Id.

In reviewing whether a state court's decision was based on an “unreasonable determination of the facts” under § 2254(d)(2), we presume the state court's factual findings are correct, and the petitioner has the burden to rebut those facts by clear and convincing evidence. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1); see also Miller–El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 340, 123 S.Ct. 1029, 1041, 154 L.Ed.2d 931 (2003). This statutory presumption of correctness applies to the factual determinations of both state trial and appellate courts. Bui v. Haley, 321 F.3d 1304, 1312 (11th Cir.2003).

III. Batson Claim

We begin with the Batson claim. In Batson, the Supreme Court held that the prosecution violates the Equal Protection Clause when it strikes potential jurors solely on the basis of race. 476 U.S. at 93–94, 106 S.Ct. at 1721–22. In Purkett v. Elem, the Supreme Court summarized the three-step process required to establish a claim under Batson.Elem, 514 U.S. 765, 767, 115 S.Ct. 1769, 1770–71, 131 L.Ed.2d 834 (1995) (per curiam). The first step requires the opponent of the peremptory challenge to establish a prima facie case of discrimination. Id., 115 S.Ct....