Williams v. Calderon, 93-99006

• Decision Date: 07 April 1995
• Docket Number: No. 93-99006,93-99006
• Citation: 52 F.3d 1465
• Parties: Keith Daniel WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Arthur CALDERON, Warden, San Quentin State Prison, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1465

52 F.3d 1465

Keith Daniel WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Arthur CALDERON, Warden, San Quentin State Prison Respondent-Appellee.

No. 93-99006.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Dec. 14, 1994.

Decided April 7, 1995.

Richard B. Mazer, San Francisco, CA, and David A. Nickerson, Sausalito, CA, for petitioner-appellant.

J. Robert Jibson, Deputy Atty. Gen., Sacramento, CA, for respondent-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.

Before: POOLE, DAVID R. THOMPSON, and TROTT, Circuit Judges.

POOLE, Circuit Judge:

Petitioner Keith Daniel Williams, sentenced to death for committing three murders, appeals the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. Secs. 1291 and 2253. Although we agree that some of Williams' claims identify defects in his sentencing, none of these flaws rise to the level of prejudicial or harmful error warranting habeas relief. We therefore affirm.

I

Keith Daniel Williams, Robert Tyson, and three others were out driving on Saturday, September 30, 1978, when their car broke down. Williams and Tyson decided to rob a nearby camper. They forced the couple occupying the vehicle out and, as the couple fled, Williams fired several shots over their heads into the air.

In part to sell off the contents of the camper, Williams, Tyson and others ¹ held a yard sale. On Friday, October 6, Miguel Vargas, Salvadore Vargas and Lourdes Meza came to the sale. Miguel expressed interest in selling his car for $1500. He returned the next day with Meza and agreed to sell the car. One of the members of the group wrote out a check on a checkbook stolen from the camper. Vargas also expressed interest in buying Williams' Beretta.

After Vargas and Meza left, Williams told Tyson how easy he thought it would be to "just get rid of them." A rough plan was formed to go to their place in Merced and retrieve the bad check; Williams intended to kill the three. Williams proceeded to clean his and Tyson's guns. That night, he sent two of the women in the group out to hustle money or prostitute themselves in order to obtain gas money. When that failed, Williams himself went out Sunday morning and sold a camera, and others in the group cashed more checks from the stolen checkbook. With money for gas, Williams and Tyson then left for the Vargas' farmhouse. They stopped along the way and had at least two beers.

Upon arrival, Williams and Tyson found Miguel Vargas, Salvadore Vargas, Meza, and three others. They drank and discussed selling Williams' gun. After the others left, Williams and Tyson retrieved their guns from the car. Williams pulled a gun on Miguel Vargas, but Tyson turned the situation into a joke and Williams and Tyson left briefly, purportedly to get beer. They returned within 15 minutes with guns drawn. Williams ordered Tyson to guard Miguel while he went upstairs. There he found Salvadore and Meza. Williams ordered Tyson to bring Miguel upstairs and take Meza downstairs and "take care of her." After asking where the bad $1500 check was, Williams shot Salvadore and Miguel twice each.

Williams retrieved two guns, Meza's purse, and the check, and the three then left the farmhouse. They drove for more than an hour, during which time Williams had intercourse with Meza in the back seat. When the three finally stopped in a remote area, Williams took Meza from the car and shot her four times. Meza's naked body was left abandoned in a field.

During this entire period, Williams consumed a disputed amount of alcohol, morphine, codeine, heroin and marijuana.

Williams and Tyson returned to the Tyson's place, and Williams then left for good. Tyson became nervous and confessed to the police within the week; Williams was picked up the next month and also confessed.

Williams was charged with murder with special circumstances under California's 1977 death penalty law. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and was examined by two court appointed psychiatrists, Drs. Brannan and Lloyd, each of whom found him sane. Williams' defense proceeded on a theory of diminished capacity. Williams was found guilty on three counts of first-degree murder. The jury found nine of 10 special circumstances true--six multiple-murder circumstances, two robbery circumstances, and one kidnapping circumstance. It found not true the charged rape circumstance. The jury then found Williams sane, and returned a sentence of death on all three counts.

Williams' appeal and first state habeas petition were denied in their entirety. People v. Williams, 44 Cal.3d 883, 245 Cal.Rptr. 336, 751 P.2d 395, cert. denied, 488 U.S. 900, 109 S.Ct. 249, 102 L.Ed.2d 237 (1988). His second state habeas petition received a postcard denial. Williams then filed his first federal habeas petition. The district court, after granting an evidentiary hearing only on Williams' claim that the prosecution presented perjured testimony, and after considering the case for 26 months, denied all 19 of Williams' claims. Williams v. Vasquez, 817 F.Supp. 1443 (E.D.Cal.1993). This timely appeal followed.

We review de novo the district court's denial of William's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Brown v. Borg, 951 F.2d 1011, 1014 (9th Cir.1991). We consider first, in Secs. II-V, four alleged trial errors. Williams contends that 1) he was denied effective assistance of counsel due to his attorney's incompetence, 2) he was denied effective assistance of counsel because his attorney was burdened by a conflict of interest, 3) he was denied his constitutional right to psychiatric assistance, and 4) his trial was infected by the perjury of the prosecution's main witness. In Secs. VI-VIII, we next consider instructional and penalty-phase challenges by Williams to 1) the jury's special circumstance instructions, 2) the adequacy of the guidance the penalty-phase instructions provided the jury, and 3) the trial court's consideration of various allegedly impermissible factors in ruling on a motion to modify Williams' sentence. In Sec. IX, we review procedural challenges to the district court's handling of this case, including its denial of an evidentiary hearing on all but one of Williams' claims. Finally, in Sec. X, we consider Williams' constitutional challenges to the overall sentencing scheme applied to him.

II

Williams contends that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel at the guilt, sanity, and penalty phases of his trial. We review de novo the denial of this claim. Paradis v. Arave, 20 F.3d 950, 959 (9th Cir.1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 915, 130 L.Ed.2d 796 (1995). We agree with the district court's conclusion that Williams was not prejudiced by his counsel's performance.

Under the familiar Strickland test, Williams must establish both deficient performance by counsel and that that deficiency prejudiced him. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2064, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). "The essence of an ineffective assistance of counsel claim is that 'counsel's conduct so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a just result.' " Paradis, 20 F.3d at 959 (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 686, 104 S.Ct. at 2063). In establishing prejudice, Williams "must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different." Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. at 2068. Counsel's errors must be "so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable." Id. at 687, 104 S.Ct. at 2064.

A

The gravamen of Williams' complaint is that his trial counsel, Roland Howard ("R. Howard"), failed to conduct an adequate investigation of a possible diminished capacity defense. ² See Sanders v. Ratelle, 21 F.3d 1446, 1456 (9th Cir.1994) ("[C]ounsel must, at a minimum, conduct a reasonable investigation enabling him to make informed decisions about how best to represent his client." (emphasis in original)). Here, Williams alleges that R. Howard failed to examine Williams' previous medical records or to seek appointment of an independent psychiatrist to examine Williams, and was unaware of California Penal Code Sec. 987.9, authorizing funding for experts for indigent defendants in capital cases. Williams presents declarations from five psychiatrists who have examined him since 1988 who now say that he was suffering from diminished capacity at the time of the killings.

Like the district court, we decline to consider whether Williams has established cause, because we conclude that he cannot establish prejudice. ³ In reaching this conclusion, we need not ask whether introduction of the opinions of the five favorable psychiatrists Williams has now found would have made a difference to the jury in 1979, as Williams would have us do. Instead, we consider whether, if Howard sought appointment of a psychiatric expert, and if, upon evaluation, that psychiatrist reached conclusions approximating those of Williams' habeas psychiatrists (rather than confirming the opinions of Brannan and Lloyd), such testimony, combined with the introduction of Williams' medical records, would have made a difference. We can only conclude that it would not.

The defense proceeded on a theory of diminished capacity; Williams does not challenge this decision, arguing only that stronger evidence should have been identified and introduced. However, contrary evidence of Williams' intent to kill and his ability to maturely and meaningfully reflect on his actions was simply overwhelming. See Cal.Penal Code Sec. 188 (defining malice); People v. Horn, 12 Cal.3d 290, 298, 115 Cal.Rptr. 516, 524 P.2d 1300 (1974) (defining premeditation). Williams' own testimony, both on the stand and during a taped confession played for the jury, was so clear, lucid, and...