Williams v. Norris

• Decision Date: 15 July 2010
• Docket Number: No. 09-1062.,09-1062.
• Citation: 612 F.3d 941
• Parties: Kenneth Dewayne WILLIAMS, Appellant,v.Larry NORRIS, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

612 F.3d 941

Kenneth Dewayne WILLIAMS, Appellant,v.Larry NORRIS, Director, Arkansas Department of Correction, Appellee.

No. 09-1062.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: Dec. 17, 2009.

Filed: July 15, 2010.

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Jeffrey M. Rosenzweig, argued, Little Rock, AR, for appellant.

Kelly Hill, AAG, argued, Little Rock, AR, for appellee.

Before RILEY, Chief Judge,¹ WOLLMAN, and MELLOY, Circuit Judges.

WOLLMAN, Circuit Judge.

Kenneth Dewayne Williams was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. The district court ² denied his petition for a writ of habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. We affirm.

I.

In 1999, Williams was sentenced to life in prison for capital murder, attempted capital murder, kidnaping, aggravated robbery, theft, and arson. On September 15, 1999, Williams began serving his sentence at the Cummins Unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction. On October 3, 1999, Williams escaped from the prison by hiding in a garbage truck. He proceeded to the nearby residence of Cecil Boren, who was at home working in his garden. Williams shot Boren to death and dragged his body to a bayou. Williams stole Boren's firearms and truck and eluded police for one day. Williams was captured after a high-speed car chase that ended when the vehicle he was driving collided with a water truck, killing its driver.

In 2000, Williams was tried and convicted of the capital murder of Boren. In the penalty phase of the trial, the jury found four aggravating circumstances: (1) the murder was committed while Williams was unlawfully at liberty after a felony conviction; (2) Williams previously committed a violent felony; (3) Williams caused the death of more than one person during the criminal episode; and (4) Williams killed Boren for the purpose of evading capture. The jury found one mitigating circumstance: Williams had experienced inter-generational family dysfunction. The jury unanimously sentenced Williams to death.

Williams directly appealed his conviction and sentence to the Arkansas Supreme Court and was denied relief. Williams v. State, 347 Ark. 728, 67 S.W.3d 548 (2002) ( Williams I ). Williams then petitioned for state post-conviction relief under Rule 37 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure. The circuit court denied relief, and the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed. Williams v. State, 369 Ark. 104, 251 S.W.3d 290 (2007) ( Williams II ).

In 2007, Williams filed a petition for habeas corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. On October 31, 2008, the district court denied the petition. Williams v. Norris, No. 5:07cv00234, 2008 WL 4820559 (E.D.Ark.2008). The district court granted Williams a certificate of appealability on the following questions: (1) whether Williams' rights were violated by the trial court's refusal to provide funds or admit presentation of a corrections expert; (2) whether the trial court improperly admitted certain victim impact evidence; (3) whether Williams received ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to object to an improperly biased juror; (4) whether Williams received ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to object to the jury's failure to consider mitigating evidence; (5) whether Williams received ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to introduce supporting documentation of mitigation evidence; (6) whether Williams' right to due process was violated by being tried in prison attire while shackled and accompanied by uniformed guards, and whether the Arkansas Supreme Court decided this under the wrong legal standard; and (7) whether the trial court erred in denying Williams funding to investigate claims of juror bias. D. Ct. Order of Jan. 5, 2009. We consider each issue in turn.

II.

We review de novo the district court's conclusions of law. McGehee v. Norris, 588 F.3d 1185, 1193 (8th Cir.2009). The district court's findings of fact are reviewed for clear error. Id. On a petition for habeas corpus relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254, if an issue was fully adjudicated on the merits by the state court, then we will not grant relief unless the decision of the state court was either “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States,” id. § 2254(d)(1), or “based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” Id. § 2254(d)(2); Smith v. Spisak, ---U.S. ----, 130 S.Ct. 676, 681, 175 L.Ed.2d 595 (2010); McGehee, 588 F.3d at 1193.

A.

Williams argues that the prison's failure to prevent his escape was a relevant mitigating factor in the penalty phase of his trial and that he was improperly denied funding for a corrections expert to testify regarding the prison's negligence. The trial court ruled that such testimony was not relevant as a mitigating factor and denied the requested funding.

The warden of the prison from which Williams escaped, Dale Reed, testified during the penalty phase of the trial. Warden Reed read from his report to the director of the Arkansas Department of Correction concerning the escape, and he detailed the failures of his staff that led to Williams' escape. J.App. at 446. Following a discussion of whether the prison negligently failed to place Williams in a maximum security facility, Williams' attorney questioned Warden Reed about the negligence of the prison and the guards on duty. Id. at 446-47. Warden Reed stated that two prison employees had negligently failed to do their required jobs and that the prison had failed in its duty to prevent Williams' escape. Id. at 450-51. Later in the penalty phase, Williams' psychologist, Dr. Mark Douglas Cunningham, testified at length about the difficulties Williams faced growing up, his exposure to violence and drugs, and his developmental disabilities. Id. at 469-517. Dr. Cunningham described the type of security facility that was appropriate for Williams to ensure that he did not harm others id. at 515-16, and he succinctly stated Williams' theory of mitigation stemming from the prison's actions.

Prosecutor: Dr. Cunningham, did I also hear you to say that it was the prison's fault that Mr. Boren is dead.

Cunningham: I'm sorry. I said that but for the negligence of security, Mr. Boren would still be alive.

Prosecutor: Well, Doctor, isn't it true that if Kenneth Williams hadn't gotten in that slop tank and got out of those prison walls, snuck across those farmlands and through those ditches, crossed the highway at Grider's-Grinder's Switch and got over there to Mr. Cecil Boren's house and if he hadn't shot him seven times, Mr. Boren wouldn't be dead?

Cunningham: That's correct.

Id. at 526-27. The jury's special verdict form listed two mitigating factors related to this theory: “The Arkansas Department of Correction was negligent to the community in classifying Kenneth D. Williams and allowing him to be placed in the medium security population of the Cummins Unit of ADC,” and “The Arkansas Department of Correction was negligent in allowing Kenneth D. Williams to escape from the Cummins Unit.” Id. at 2030-33.

On direct appeal, the Arkansas Supreme Court rejected Williams' claim, cast as a violation of his right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment as applied by Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 68, 105 S.Ct. 1087, 84 L.Ed.2d 53 (1985), concluding that the proposed evidence “cast no light on Williams' culpability. It [did] not have any tendency to diminish responsibility. It [was] not a mitigating circumstance. It was inadmissable.” Williams I, 67 S.W.3d at 563. In his federal habeas petition, Williams reasserted his Fourteenth Amendment claim, adding to it the claim that the exclusion of testimony by a corrections expert was a violation of the Eighth Amendment as applied by Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978). The district court denied relief on both claims, ruling that the Eighth Amendment claim had been defaulted because it was not fairly presented to the state court, and that even if it had been preserved, the claim failed on the merits. D. Ct. Op. at 7.

Williams argues that the trial court's exclusion of a corrections expert's testimony regarding the prison's negligence as a mitigating factor violated Williams' rights under the Eighth Amendment. A defendant has the right to present all relevant mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of a capital trial. Lockett, 438 U.S. at 604, 98 S.Ct. 2954 (plurality opinion); see Skipper v. South Carolina, 476 U.S. 1, 106 S.Ct. 1669, 90 L.Ed.2d 1 (1986) Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982). As the Court wrote in Lockett, the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments require the judge or jury “not be precluded from considering as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any of the circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death.” 438 U.S. at 604, 98 S.Ct. 2954. The Court, however, did not disturb “the traditional authority of a court to exclude, as irrelevant, evidence not bearing on the defendant's character, prior record, or the circumstances of his offense.” Id. at 604 n. 12, 98 S.Ct. 2954.

The Lockett jurisprudence requires the sentencer to consider a broad range of evidence, but relevance marks the outer limit of admissibility for purported mitigating evidence. United States v. Paul, 217 F.3d 989, 1000 (8th Cir.2000) (“There is only a constitutional violation if there exists a reasonable likelihood that the jurors believed themselves precluded from considering relevant mitigating evidence.”). Relevant mitigating evidence is “evidence which tends logically to prove or disprove some fact or circumstance which a fact-finder could reasonable deem to have mitigating value.” Tennard v. Dretke, 542 U.S. 274, 284, 124 S.Ct. 2562, 159 L.Ed.2d 384 (2004); McGehee, 588 F.3d at 1195.

In ...