Williams v. Cain

• Decision Date: 03 October 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-31167,96-31167
• Citation: 125 F.3d 269
• Parties: Dobie Gillis WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. Burl CAIN, Acting Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, Louisiana, Respondent-Appellant-Cross-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 269

125 F.3d 269

Dobie Gillis WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellee-Cross-Appellant, v. Burl CAIN, Acting Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, Louisiana, Respondent-Appellant-Cross-Appellee.

No. 96-31167.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Oct. 3, 1997.

Thomas S. Fraser, Clinton E. Cutler, John M. Koneck, Fredrikson & Byron, Minneapolis MN, Nicholas Joseph Trenticosta, Loyola Death Penalty Resource Center, New Orleans, LA, for Williams.

Dorothy Ann Pendergast, Metairie, LA, Don M. Burkett, Burkett & Chevallier, Many, LA, Charles Blaylock Adams, Jones & Adams, Couchatta, LA, for Cain.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Before JOLLY, BENAVIDES and STEWART, Circuit Judges.

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge:

Dobie Gillis Williams has been sentenced to death by the state of Louisiana. In this federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus he challenges both his conviction and death sentence on multiple grounds. The district court granted the petition on the ground that Williams had received ineffective assistance of counsel, but only at his sentencing hearing, and thus set aside the death sentence unless Louisiana conducted a new sentencing hearing. The district court rejected Williams's other claims. Louisiana appeals the grant of habeas relief on the ineffective assistance of counsel claim, and Williams cross-appeals the denial of two of his other claims. We conclude that the district court erred in finding that Williams's counsel provided ineffective assistance during the sentencing hearing. We also reject Williams's claim concerning discrimination in the selection of the grand jury foreman as procedurally barred, and conclude that the jury's consideration of an invalid aggravating factor at sentencing does not require that Williams's death sentence be vacated. In short, we reinstate the death sentence.

I

On the evening of July 6, 1984, Mrs. Sonja Knippers fell asleep on her living room sofa while watching television. She awoke just past midnight and stopped in the bathroom before going to bed. When she closed the bathroom door, she discovered Williams hiding behind it, pantless and brandishing a knife. Mrs. Knippers began to scream. Williams locked the bathroom door and stabbed Mrs. Knippers repeatedly with the knife before fleeing out the bathroom window. Although fatally injured, Mrs. Knippers was able to unlock the bathroom door after Williams fled. Her husband carried her to the living room, where she bled to death in his arms.

Mr. Knippers informed police that his wife had screamed that a black man was trying to kill her. At the time, Williams, who is black, was staying at the home of his grandfather on a five-day furlough while serving a prison sentence for a prior burglary conviction. Police suspected Williams because his grandfather's home was nearby. Williams was taken in for questioning, and ultimately confessed to the crime after investigators observed fresh scratches and other abrasions on his arms and legs. Williams's statement led the investigators to the murder weapon, found in the grass outside the Knipperses' home, and to the shirt that he was wearing at the time of the crime, which he had hidden underneath the porch at his grandfather's house.

II

Williams was indicted for first degree murder by a grand jury in Sabine Parish, Louisiana. Because of extensive pretrial publicity, the trial was moved to Grant Parish, where Williams was convicted by a jury after a five-day trial. During the guilt phase of the trial, Williams's attorney, Mr. Michael Bonnette, attempted to prevent a capital conviction by challenging the existence of the aggravating factors that the jury must find to convict for first degree murder rather than second-degree murder. Bonnette's efforts were unsuccessful, and Williams was convicted of first degree murder.

During the sentencing hearing that followed the guilt phase of the trial, Bonnette made statements referring to mitigating evidence, but did not call any witnesses. Bonnette did cross-examine one of the state's witnesses. The jury recommended that Williams be sentenced to death, finding two statutory aggravating factors: (1) that Williams was engaged in the perpetration of an aggravated burglary or an attempted aggravated rape, and (2) that the offense was committed in an especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner.

Williams's conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Louisiana Supreme Court. State v. Williams, 490 So.2d 255 (La.1986). His petition for a writ of certiorari was denied by the Supreme Court, and his conviction became final on June 26, 1987. Williams v. Louisiana, 483 U.S. 1033, 107 S.Ct. 3277, 97 L.Ed.2d 780 (1987).

Williams thereafter filed several state court petitions for post-conviction relief. Judge Hiram Wright of the Thirty-Fifth Judicial District Court of Louisiana, Grant Parish, held evidentiary hearings in 1988 to address Williams's claims concerning ineffective assistance of counsel during the penalty phase and the admissibility of his confession, ultimately rejecting both claims. Numerous additional claims were considered and rejected by Judge Wright in 1992. The Louisiana Supreme Court denied supervisory writs with respect to these claims. In 1993, the Louisiana Supreme Court granted a supervisory writ with respect to Williams's claim concerning discrimination in the selection of the grand jury foreman. Judge Wright subsequently held an evidentiary hearing on that claim, and rejected the claim. The Louisiana Supreme Court later denied Williams's further request for a supervisory writ, ending the state post-conviction proceedings.

Williams filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal district court on April 25, 1996, raising some twenty grounds of relief. The district court found that Bonnette, Williams's counsel, failed to adequately investigate Williams's background and to present available mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of the trial. The district court found that Bonnette's failure to prepare for the penalty phase of the trial was unreasonable, such that Williams was effectively "without counsel during the penalty phase of his trial." The court found that "[t]he absence created a constitutionally impermissible condition," and ruled that Williams's death sentence therefore violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the federal Constitution. The court rejected Williams's nineteen other claims, including the claims concerning discrimination in the selection of the grand jury foreman and constitutional defects in the jury instructions during the penalty phase.

The state timely appealed the district court's judgment granting a writ of habeas corpus on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel during the sentencing phase of the trial. Williams cross-appealed, and filed a request for a certificate of appealability in accordance with the new requirements imposed by the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), Pub.L. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214 (1996). We granted Williams a certificate of appealability limited to two of his claims: (1) whether racial discrimination in the selection of the grand jury foreman requires that his indictment be set aside and his conviction and sentence be vacated, and (2) whether constitutional defects in the jury instructions during the penalty phase of his trial require that his sentence be vacated.

III

A

We must first consider the applicability of the AEDPA to Williams's appeal. At the time that Williams requested a certificate of appealability, the Fifth Circuit had held that the deferential standard for federal habeas review of state court decisions imposed by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), as amended by the AEDPA, applied to cases pending at the time of the AEDPA's enactment. Drinkard v. Johnson, 97 F.3d 751, 766 (5th Cir.1996), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 1114, 137 L.Ed.2d 315 (1997). However, the Supreme Court's recent decision in Lindh v. Murphy, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 2059, 138 L.Ed.2d 481 (1997), overrules Drinkard's conclusion that the amended § 2254 may be applied retroactively. We must therefore determine whether, for AEDPA purposes, Williams's petition was already pending on April 24, 1996, the effective date of the AEDPA.

Williams argues that his case was "pending" as of the effective date of the AEDPA because he had filed motions for a stay of execution, to proceed in forma pauperis and for appointment of counsel on April 23, 1996 one day before the AEDPA became effective. In support of his position, Williams cites the Supreme Court's decision in McFarland v. Scott, 512 U.S. 849, 114 S.Ct. 2568, 129 L.Ed.2d 666 (1994). In that case, the Court held that the filing of a motion for a stay of execution and for appointment of counsel establishes a "post-conviction proceeding" within the meaning of 21 U.S.C. 848(q)(4)(B), which establishes a right to appointed counsel for indigent habeas applicants, such that a federal court had jurisdiction to appoint counsel even without the filing of a valid habeas corpus petition. Id. at 855-58, 114 S.Ct. at 2572-73. The court further observed that the appointment of counsel would be "meaningless" in McFarland's case unless the court also enjoyed the authority to stay McFarland's execution so that counsel could have time to prepare a habeas petition. The Court therefore held that where a motion for stay has been filed, "a district court has jurisdiction to enter a stay of execution where necessary to give effect" to the right to appointed counsel. Id. at 859, 114 S.Ct. at 2574.

The Court in McFarland did not decide whether the filing of a motion to stay and to appoint counsel "initiated a habeas corpus proceeding." ¹ Instead, the court found that the relevant statutes used the terms "post-conviction proceeding" and "habeas corpus proceeding" interchangeably, and that entering a stay of execution even without a formal...