Williams v. Ozmint, 06-16.

• Citation: 494 F.3d 478
• Decision Date: 27 July 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-17.,No. 06-16.,06-16.,06-17.
• Parties: Luke A. WILLIAMS, III, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Jon OZMINT, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections, Respondent-Appellant. Luke A. Williams, III, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Jon Ozmint, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

494 F.3d 478

Luke A. WILLIAMS, III, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Jon OZMINT, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections, Respondent-Appellant.

Luke A. Williams, III, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Jon Ozmint, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 06-16.

No. 06-17.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: May 22, 2007.

Decided: July 27, 2007.

ARGUED: Donald John Zelenka, Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, for Jon Ozmint, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections. David Isaac Bruck, Washington & Lee University, School of Law, Lexington, Virginia, for Luke A. Williams, III. ON BRIEF: Henry Dargan McMaster, Attorney General, John W. McIntosh, Chief Deputy Attorney General, Derrick K. McFarland, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, for Jon Ozmint, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections. Keir M. Weyble, Columbia, South Carolina, for Luke A. Williams, III.

Before NIEMEYER and MICHAEL, Circuit Judges, and WILKINS, Senior Circuit Juge.

Reversed in part and affirmed in part by published opinion. Judge MICHAEL wrote the opinion, in which Judge NIEMEYER and Senior Judge WILKINS joined.

OPINION

MICHAEL, Circuit Judge:

Luke A. Williams, III, was convicted and sentenced to death in South Carolina state court for the 1991 murders of his wife and son. The Supreme Court of South Carolina affirmed his conviction and sentence and later denied his application for post-conviction relief. Thereafter, Williams petitioned for habeas review in federal court. The district court issued the writ, concluding that Williams received ineffective assistance when his counsel failed to request a jury instruction that the term "life imprisonment" should be understood in its "ordinary and plain meaning." See State v. Davis, 306 S.C. 246, 411 S.E.2d 220, 222 (1991). The state appeals, and we must reverse. We conclude that the Supreme Court of South Carolina did not unreasonably apply Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), when it determined that Williams's defense was not prejudiced by the lack of a plain meaning instruction. We also reject Williams's cross-appeal, concluding that the state supreme court did not unreasonably apply the standards enunciated in Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), when it determined that the evidence was sufficient to establish that Williams committed the murders and that venue was proper in Edgefield County, South Carolina.

I.

The facts, as recounted by the Supreme Court of South Carolina in its opinion in Williams's direct appeal, are as follows:

At approximately 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, June 19, 1991, the bodies of Linda Williams (Wife) and Shawn Williams (Son) were discovered inside the family van in a forest in Edgefield County, South Carolina, approximately six miles from their home near Augusta, Georgia. The front bumper of the van was against a tree, and fire had partially damaged the vehicle. The investigators detected a strong odor of gasoline and found several metal cans containing gasoline inside the van. Wife was discovered in the driver's seat, which was positioned so far back that her feet could not reach the pedals, and Son was seated in the front passenger seat. Blood was found on a piece of PVC pipe on the van's floorboard. Wife was dressed in a gray t-shirt, gray sweatpants pulled down to her upper thigh, light pink socks, nylon panties, and she was not wearing a bra or shoes. Son was also shoeless and was wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants.

Wife suffered a black eye, a contusion on the bridge of her nose, contusions on her left forearm, and abrasions on her left shoulder. These injuries were consistent with having been caused by a human fist. The autopsy revealed that Wife's cause of death was blunt head trauma due to a beating. Son suffered a bruise to his forehead, as well as abrasions to his chin, back, and right side of his neck. His cause of death was asphyxiation due to manual strangulation. Wounds created by the fire were postmortem. Although the deaths occurred within the same time frame, a specific time of death was not determined.

At trial, several friends of Wife testified that she always dressed neatly and would not go out in public dressed in a t-shirt without a bra. Additionally, they stated that because Wife was short in stature, she always positioned the driver's seat of the van close to the steering wheel. One friend stated that she last spoke with Wife by telephone at 2:50 p.m. on June 18, 1991. A neighbor testified that on June 19, 1991, a car drove into the driveway at Williams' home between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. Further testimony established that at approximately 7:00 a.m. on June 19, 1991, Wife's van was not parked in the driveway.

A bath towel and Son's tennis shoes with blood stains on them were found at Williams' home. In addition, Williams' right hand was severely bruised and swollen — this injury was consistent with having occurred on June 19th. Williams told a friend that on the day of the homicides, Wife and Son were planning to go shopping at Columbia Mall in Columbia, South Carolina. Prior to receiving the autopsy results, Williams informed the friend that Wife had been beaten to death, and Son had been strangled with a plastic wire wrap similar to wire wrap Son had in his bedroom. When asked if he killed Wife and Son, Williams did not respond.

Williams and Wife were experiencing significant marital and financial difficulties. Neighbors and friends stated that they frequently overheard Williams and Wife engaging in hostile arguments. One neighbor testified that she heard a "loud thump" during one of the arguments. In addition, Williams and Wife had declared bankruptcy, and foreclosure proceedings had been initiated against their home.

Williams had substantially increased life insurance benefits on Wife and Son during May of 1991, designating himself as beneficiary. On May 7, 1991, Williams upgraded existing policies with Allstate Insurance Company to include auto related death benefits in the amounts of $100,000 for Wife and $20,000 for Son. Williams forged Wife's name on the enrollment form. After their deaths, Williams made claims under two Allstate policies in the amounts of $200,000 on Wife and $45,000 on Son. Williams also took out new life insurance policies for Wife and Son with State Farm Insurance Company effective May 30, 1991, providing Wife with death benefit insurance in the amount of $250,000 and Son with $25,000 in death benefit insurance. [Williams applied for $500,000 in death benefit insurance for Wife; however, until the policy was approved a binder limited the amount of coverage to $250,000.] Williams indicated on the claims forms that Wife and Son had died in Edgefield County, South Carolina.

State v. Williams, 321 S.C. 327, 468 S.E.2d 626, 628-29 (1996).

At the conclusion of the state's case, Williams moved for a directed verdict, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to convict him of the murders, that Edgefield County, South Carolina, was not the proper venue, and that the Edgefield County circuit court lacked subject matter and personal jurisdiction. The circuit court denied the motion, and Williams thereafter declined to testify or present other evidence. The jury returned a guilty verdict on both charges of murder. In the penalty phase the jury recommended death sentences, finding two (statutory) aggravating circumstances: (1) that Williams committed the murders for monetary gain and (2) that he murdered two or more persons by one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct. The circuit court followed the jury's recommendation and imposed a separate death sentence for each murder. In his direct appeal to the Supreme Court of South Carolina, Williams claimed, among other things, that the evidence was insufficient to establish venue and guilt. The state supreme court, in a thorough opinion, affirmed Williams's convictions and sentences, id., and the U.S. Supreme Court denied his petition for a writ of certiorari, Williams v. South Carolina, 519 U.S. 891, 117 S.Ct. 230, 136 L.Ed.2d 161 (1996).

Williams filed two applications for state post-conviction relief, the second of which was granted by the circuit court (PCR court). The PCR court concluded that Williams was denied effective assistance of counsel because his trial counsel failed to request a jury instruction that the term "life imprisonment" should be understood in its ordinary and plain meaning. According to the PCR court, the instruction was necessary to ensure that the jury understood the nature of its life imprisonment option. The PCR court therefore granted Williams a new sentencing proceeding. The state then petitioned the Supreme Court of South Carolina for a writ of certiorari, and that court reversed the decision of the PCR court. Although the state supreme court concluded that Williams's counsel was ineffective for failing to request a plain meaning instruction, it ultimately determined that Williams was not prejudiced by the deficient performance. Specifically, the court found "no evidence in the record to support the ... conclusion ... that had the jury been given a `plain meaning' charge there is a reasonable possibility it would have [reached a different result and] returned two life sentences." J.A. 188.

Next, Williams filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court, and that court granted relief. First, the district court agreed with the Supreme Court of South Carolina that Williams's counsel was ineffective for failing to request a plain meaning instruction. Second, the court determined that counsel's ineffectiveness "was reasonably likely to have affected the outcome of [Williams's] capital sentencing hearing" because,...