Williams v. French
| Decision Date | 18 May 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 97-19,97-19 |
| Citation | 146 F.3d 203 |
| Parties | Larry Darnell WILLIAMS, Petitioner--Appellant, v. James B. FRENCH, Warden, Central Prison, Raleigh, North Carolina; Michael F. Easley, Attorney General of North Carolina, Respondents--Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
ARGUED: Sean Patrick Devereux, Pitts, Hay, Hugenschmidt & Devereux, P.A., Asheville, NC; Anthony Lynch, Marion, NC, for Appellant. Barry Steven McNeill, Special Deputy Attorney General, North Carolina Department of Justice, Raleigh, NC, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Michael F. Easley, Attorney General of North Carolina, North Carolina Department of Justice, Raleigh, NC, for Appellees.
Before HAMILTON, Circuit Judge, BUTZNER, Senior Circuit Judge, and MOON, United States District Judge for the Western District of Virginia, sitting by designation.
Affirmed by published opinion. Judge HAMILTON wrote the opinion, in which Senior Judge BUTZNER and Judge MOON joined.
Following a jury trial in the Superior Court for Gaston County, North Carolina, Larry Darnell Williams was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Eric Joines. He now appeals the district court's denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254. 1 We affirm.
On the early morning of June 3, 1979, Eric Joines was robbed and shot in the back of his head at close range with a .20 gauge sawed-off shotgun. At the time he was shot, Joines was working the late shift at the Service Distributors station on Highway 321 North in Gastonia, North Carolina. As a result of his injuries, Joines died one week later.
At Williams' trial, two accomplices, Linda Massey and her cousin, Darryl Brawley, testified that on the night of June 2, 1979, Williams, Massey, Brawley, and an unidentified fourth person were riding around together in Charlotte, North Carolina in a car belonging to another of Massey's cousins, Robert Brown. Massey and Brawley also testified that Williams had a .20 gauge sawed-off shotgun with him in the car. After drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, and taking Valium during the course of the evening, the group traveled on Interstate 85 from Charlotte to Gastonia. The group got off at an exit in Gastonia and traveled past the station where Joines worked. Shortly thereafter, the group returned to the station, where Williams and the unidentified fourth person got out of the car, with Williams armed with his sawed-off shotgun, and entered the station and robbed Joines of approximately $274. Williams then ordered Joines to lie face down on the floor. Following Joines' compliance with Williams' order, Williams shot Joines in the back of his head.
After the Joines shooting, the group traveled to Concord, North Carolina, where they stopped at a "7-11" convenience store. Williams and the unidentified fourth person got out of the car and entered the store. Shortly thereafter, Williams returned to the car, got his sawed-off shotgun, and went back into the store where he robbed and fatally shot the store clerk, Susan Verle Pierce.
On September 10, 1979, a Gaston County grand jury indicted Williams for the first-degree murder and armed robbery of Joines. Following a jury trial in June 1980, Williams was convicted of both charges. 2 In the bifurcated proceeding, the State presented evidence of only one aggravating circumstance, that Joines' murder was part of a course of conduct in which Williams engaged and which included the commission by Williams of other crimes of violence against another person or persons, to wit, the robbery and murder of Susan Verle Pierce, see North Carolina General Statutes § 15A-2000(e)(11). The jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating circumstance outweighed the mitigating circumstances 3 and recommended that Williams be sentenced to death. The trial court sentenced Williams in accordance with the jury's recommendation. 4
On direct appeal, the North Carolina Supreme Court affirmed Williams' conviction and sentence. See State v. Williams, 305 N.C. 656, 292 S.E.2d 243, 264 (1982). On November 29, 1982, the United States Supreme Court denied Williams' petition for a writ of certiorari. See Williams v. North Carolina, 459 U.S. 1056, 103 S.Ct. 474, 74 L.Ed.2d 622 (1982).
On April 5, 1983, Williams filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254 in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, alleging approximately seventeen grounds for relief. Contemporaneously, Williams filed a motion to consolidate one of his claims, challenging the use of "death-qualified" juries, 5 with similar claims being raised by three other non-capital habeas petitioners. On June 9, 1983, United States District Judge James B. McMillan entered an order granting the motion to consolidate. Following further briefing, Williams filed a motion for partial summary judgment on a different claim, that three jurors were excused for cause in violation of Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968).
On January 12, 1984, Judge McMillan entered an order holding that the use of "death-qualified" juries violated the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, and that one of the prospective jurors at Williams' trial was improperly excused for cause from the petit jury in violation of Witherspoon. See Keeten v. Garrison, 578 F.Supp. 1164 (W.D.N.C.1984). None of the other claims in Williams' habeas petition was addressed by Judge McMillan. On March 5, 1984, in accordance with his decision, Judge McMillan granted Williams a new trial and sentencing, but stayed his judgment pending appeal by the State.
On August 21, 1984, we reversed the grant of habeas relief, holding that the use of "death qualified" juries did not violate the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, and that none of the prospective jurors in Williams' petit jury was excluded in violation of Witherspoon. See Keeten v. Garrison, 742 F.2d 129, 133-35 (4th Cir.1984). On May 27, 1986, the Supreme Court denied certiorari review in Keeten. See Keeten v. Garrison, 476 U.S. 1145, 106 S.Ct. 2258, 90 L.Ed.2d 702 (1986). Following the denial of Williams' petition for a writ of certiorari in Keeten, Williams' federal habeas petition lingered in the district court for some time.
In August 1990, the Gaston County Superior Court set Williams' execution for November 2, 1990, but Judge McMillan entered a stay on September 7, 1990 pending further order of the court, so as to allow the adjudication of Williams' federal habeas petition. The case continued to linger in the district court and, in June 1993, the case was reassigned to United States District Judge Graham C. Mullen because of Judge McMillan's pending retirement.
In April 1994, Williams was permitted to return to state court to exhaust his state remedies. Williams filed a motion for appropriate relief in state court and, following an evidentiary hearing, that motion was denied on November 17, 1995. On November 7, 1996, the North Carolina Supreme Court denied Williams' petition for a writ of certiorari. See State v. Williams, 344 N.C. 738, 478 S.E.2d 12 (1996).
When the case returned to federal court, it was assigned to a magistrate judge for the preparation of a report and recommendation. Because this case had withered on the vine for so long, the magistrate judge ordered Williams to file an amended petition. The magistrate judge's order directed Williams to state all claims in the amended petition "in light of all case developments to date, as well as whatever changes may have occurred in the law." On January 16, 1997, Williams filed an amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus. On March 31, 1997, the magistrate judge filed a report and recommendation, recommending that Williams' amended federal habeas corpus petition be denied, and that the stay entered previously by Judge McMillan be dissolved. On May 28, 1997, Judge Mullen adopted the magistrate judge's memorandum and recommendation, and entered an order denying Williams' amended habeas petition. Williams noted a timely appeal.
Each of the claims raised by Williams in this appeal, save two, was found in state court to be procedurally defaulted. As to each claim held to be procedurally defaulted, the state court concluded that Williams was in a position to raise the claim on direct appeal, but did not, and, therefore, the claim was procedurally defaulted under North Carolina General Statutes § 15A-1419(a)(3), which provides that a claim is not cognizable on state habeas if the defendant was in a position to raise the claim in a previous appeal. The state court's application of a procedural default rule brings into play the federal rules of procedural default.
Under the doctrine of procedural default, absent cause and actual prejudice or a miscarriage of justice, 6 a federal habeas court may not review constitutional claims when a state court has declined to consider their merits on the basis of an adequate and independent state procedural rule. See Harris v. Reed, 489 U.S. 255, 262, 109 S.Ct. 1038, 103 L.Ed.2d 308 (1989). 7 Such a rule is adequate if it is regularly or consistently applied by the state court, see Johnson v. Mississippi, 486 U.S. 578, 587, 108 S.Ct. 1981, 100 L.Ed.2d 575 (1988), and is independent if it does not "depend[ ] on a federal constitutional ruling," Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 68, 75, 105 S.Ct. 1087, 84 L.Ed.2d 53 (1985). 8
Under federal habeas law, we are not at liberty to question a state court's application of a state procedural rule because a state court's finding of procedural default is not reviewable if the finding is based upon an adequate and independent state ground. See Harris, 489 U.S. at 262, 109 S.Ct. 1038; Barnes v, Thompson, 58 F.3d 971, 974 n. 2 (4th Cir.1995). The state procedural rule applied in this case, North Carolina General Statutes § 15A-1419(a)(3), is an independent and adequate state...
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