Williams v. Norris

• Decision Date: 17 August 2009
• Docket Number: No. 07-2115.,No. 07-1984.,07-1984.,07-2115.
• Citation: 576 F.3d 850
• Parties: Marcel Wayne WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellee/Cross Appellant, v. Larry NORRIS, Director, Arkansas Department of Corrections, Respondent-Appellant/Cross Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

576 F.3d 850

Marcel Wayne WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellee/Cross Appellant, v. Larry NORRIS, Director, Arkansas Department of Corrections, Respondent-Appellant/Cross Appellee.

No. 07-1984.

No. 07-2115.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: January 15, 2009.

Filed: August 17, 2009.

Pamela Rumpz, AAG, argued, Teena Lynn Watkins, AAG, on the brief, Little Rock, AR, for appellant/cross-appellee.

Julie Bryan, AFPD, argued, Little Rock, AR, for appellee/cross-appellant.

Before LOKEN, Chief Judge, WOLLMAN and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.

LOKEN, Chief Judge.

An Arkansas jury found Marcel Wayne Williams guilty of the capital murder of Stacy Errickson and sentenced him to death. The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed the conviction and sentence. The state trial court denied Williams's petition for state post-conviction relief, and the Supreme Court of Arkansas again affirmed. Williams then filed this petition for a federal writ of habeas corpus, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel and other claims. After an evidentiary hearing, the district court granted the writ solely on the ground of ineffective assistance of counsel at the penalty phase of the trial. The State appeals, arguing that Williams established neither constitutionally deficient performance nor prejudice under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Williams cross-appeals the dismissal of other claims. After careful review of the record, we reverse the grant of habeas relief and affirm the dismissal of the remaining claims.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

Williams abducted Errickson from a suburban Little Rock convenience store on the morning of November 20, 1994. He brandished a firearm and pushed his way into her truck, forced her to withdraw $350 at several nearby ATMs, and then raped and murdered her. Nine days later, North Little Rock police arrested Williams on an outstanding warrant, suspecting he was involved in Errickson's disappearance and in sexual assaults of two other women. Williams waived his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), and made inculpatory, contradictory statements over the course of a thirteen-hour interrogation. He confessed that he abducted Errickson and forced her to make ATM withdrawals but denied sexual assault and claimed that, as far as he knew, Errickson was still alive. On December 5, 1994, police found Errickson's body buried in a shallow grave in North Little Rock. Williams's semen was found in her vagina. The medical examiner identified the cause of death as asphyxia due to suffocation.

A. The Trial. Williams was charged with capital murder, kidnapping, rape, and aggravated robbery. Two attorneys were appointed to defend him. Lead attorney Herbert Wright, a former law clerk to a state judge, had five years experience as a criminal attorney in Little Rock and had been involved in three other capital cases, one of which went to trial. Phillip Hendry was in charge of the penalty phase. He had four years experience, including two and one-half years in the Little Rock public defender's office. He had represented defendants in two other capital trials and had received training in representing capital murder defendants. A third attorney, William James, assisted the trial team. He had been licensed to practice for less than a year.

Williams's case was tried to a Little Rock jury in January 1997. During the guilt phase, defense counsel conceded guilt in the opening statement but vigorously challenged the State's evidence. That evidence, which the jury considered at the penalty phase, see Ark.Code Ann. § 5-4-602(4)(D), included autopsy photos, photos of Errickson's partially decomposed body being unearthed from a shallow grave, an ATM video showing her frightened face, testimony by other women Williams chased in his car shortly before abducting Errickson, and Williams's statement to police, in which he blamed others for the crimes and would not reveal the location of Errickson's body. He was convicted on all counts.

At the penalty phase, the State submitted three aggravating circumstances: a prior violent felony conviction (aggravated robbery), murder for pecuniary gain, and murder committed in an "especially cruel or depraved" manner. See id. § 5-4-604(3), (6), (8). The State's penalty phase evidence was compelling. Williams's prior convictions for aggravated robbery and kidnapping were introduced. Another woman testified that he abducted and sexually assaulted her four days after he abducted Errickson. Errickson's mother testified to the murder's effect on Errickson's four-year-old daughter:

On Mother's Day we went to plant some flowers on her grave, because her mama always liked flowers. Instead of Brittany helping plant flowers, she started digging a hole, where she could go be with her mama. Many times she's wished that the mean man would come and get her, where she could go be with her mama, too.

Errickson's twin brother testified to her hard work and study to be a respiratory therapist, and the heartache of having to care for her grieving daughter.

The defense urged six mitigating circumstances: (1) extreme mental or emotional disturbance; (2) unusual pressures or influences; (3) reduced capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of the offense conduct, or impairment as a result of mental disease or defect, intoxication, or drug abuse; (4) youth; (5) acceptance of responsibility; and (6) remorse. See id. § 5-4-605(1)-(4). The defense offered testimony by one witness, Michael Orndorff, an Arkansas inmate whose death sentence was commuted to life without parole and who testified that life without parole was more severe punishment because of the miserable conditions of prison life.

The jury unanimously recommended a death sentence, finding that the State proved all three aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt, that Williams proved one mitigating circumstance—acceptance of responsibility—by a preponderance of the evidence, and that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt. See id. § 5-4-603. The trial court accepted the jury's recommendation. The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed. Williams v. State, 338 Ark. 97, 991 S.W.2d 565 (1999) (Williams I).

B. The State Post-conviction Proceedings. Williams petitioned for state post-conviction relief under Rule 37 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure. The trial court ordered an evidentiary hearing and appointed attorney William McLean to represent Williams during the post-conviction proceedings. McLean was qualified for a capital case appointment. See Ark. R.Crim. P. 37.5(c)(1). He had practiced criminal law for over ten years, served as lead counsel in other capital murder cases, handled other post-conviction matters, and tried at least 100 jury cases.

Williams initially urged many grounds for post-conviction relief but later withdrew all except one—that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance at the penalty phase by failing adequately to investigate and present mitigating evidence of his difficult past. At the evidentiary hearing, Williams presented testimony by his three trial attorneys. All three testified that their trial strategy was to concede guilt, in the face of the State's overwhelming evidence, and to seek mercy at the penalty phase. Lead penalty phase attorney Hendry testified that he and co-counsel interviewed Williams "a number of times," obtained his school, prison, and medical records, and reviewed the report of a state psychologist who examined Williams and determined he was competent to stand trial. See Ark.Code Ann. § 5-2-305(b)(1). As Hendry explained, this investigation apprised counsel of Williams's "troubled past":

[H]e had been in training school early, you know, 11, 12, 13 years old.... Committed another offense that ended up getting him in the Department of Corrections. From talking with him, his mother didn't provide very much of a home life for him. I believe he had a step-father or another man living in the house who he had confrontations with. I don't believe that there was a lot of food ... I think there were times where they didn't have what they needed. I believe there was some discussions of his mother having ... a revolving door.... [S]he possibly used drugs and used drugs in his presence and he used drugs with her.

Hendry testified that counsel knew from Williams's prison records that he allegedly was raped by a fellow inmate at age sixteen and had committed "major" disciplinary violations and received psychiatric treatment while incarcerated.

Counsel testified that they decided not to have Williams testify at the penalty phase because they feared damaging cross-examination about his drug use and criminal history and the gruesome details of the crime. Hendry considered Williams not to be a credible witness because of the numerous fabrications in his custodial statement. Williams told counsel he did not wish to testify. Counsel twice tried to interview Williams's mother, Sara Riggs, who briefly testified for the State during the guilt phase. Counsel elected not to call Riggs during the penalty phase because she was "not very cooperative" and because, when subpoenaed by the State to testify at a pre-trial hearing, she was "pitiful.... She could barely talk in front of just the judge and counsel." Counsel testified they did not try to contact Williams's half sister, Peggy O'Neal, because Williams told them he and Peggy lost contact nearly a decade earlier. Attorney Wright testified that Williams did not identify other family members or persons who could testify about his background. Counsel tried to locate a witness to testify to the alleged prison rape but found no one.

Lead attorney Hendry testified that counsel elected to forgo presenting potentially mitigating social history evidence because neither Williams nor his mother would...