Williams v. Sellers

• Decision Date: 30 August 2021
• Docket Number: CV412-106
• Parties: JOSEPH WILLIAMS, Petitioner, v. WARDEN ERIC SELLERS, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Georgia

JOSEPH WILLIAMS, Petitioner, v. WARDEN ERIC SELLERS, Respondent.

No. CV412-106

United States District Court, S.D. Georgia, Savannah Division

August 30, 2021

ORDER

WILLIAM T. MOORE, JR. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

Before the Court is Petitioner Joseph Williams's Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus under 28 U.S.C. § 2254. (Doc. 1.) After careful consideration of the parties' briefings (Docs. 87, 90, 94), Petitioner's petition (Doc. 1) is DENIED. The Clerk is DIRECTED to close this case.

BACKGROUND ^[1]

I. UNDERLYING CRIME

The facts of Petitioner's underlying criminal case were set forth by the Supreme Court of Georgia:

[O]n July 24, 2001, Williams was a jail inmate at the Chatham County Detention Center. See O.C.G.A. § 17-10-30(b)(9) ("murder was committed by a person in, or who has escaped from, the lawful custody of a peace officer or place of lawful confinement"). Seven other inmates, including Michael Deal, were being held in the same unit as Williams. Williams and four of the other inmates, Leon McKinney, Pierre Byrd, Michael Wilson, and John McMillan, discovered a loose window and used an improvised chisel to chip away at the wall around it. Deal inquired what the men were doing but left when he was told "to mind his own business." Williams and other inmates began to suspect that Deal had informed, or was going to inform, the jail authorities about the escape plan. McKinney suggested stabbing Deal with the improvised chisel, but Williams objected that there would be too much blood and that their plan would be frustrated. The group then carried out an alternative plan to strangle Deal and make the killing appear to be a suicide. McKinney engaged Deal in a discussion about their relative body sizes and then, facing Deal, lifted him in a "bear hug." Williams then began strangling Deal from behind with an Ace bandage. Deal fell to the floor but did not immediately lose consciousness. The evidence is unclear whether it was Wilson or Byrd, but one of those two men then assisted Williams by taking one end of the Ace bandage and completing the strangulation in a "tug-of-war." Byrd invited Anthony King, an inmate who had been friendly with Deal, into Byrd's cell to distract King as Deal's body was moved. Williams then dragged Deal's body to Deal's cell, flushed the Ace bandage down the toilet, cleaned up blood and hair on the floor with a rag, flushed the rag, tied a bed sheet around Deal's neck, and finally, with the assistance of McKinney and McMillan, lifted Deal's body and tied the bed sheet to a grate in the ceiling to make the death appear to be a suicide. After the murder, Williams and Byrd favored also killing King and Dewey Anderson, but McKinney and McMillan objected. Byrd, later troubled by dreams about the victim, contacted his attorney, passed a note about the murder to a jail guard, and then directed authorities to the improvised chisel, the loosened window and a letter about the murder written to him by Williams. Williams confessed in an audiotaped interview conducted by a GBI agent.

Williams v. State, 281 Ga. 87, 88-89, 635 S.E.2d 146, 147-49 (2006).

II. PLEA AND SENTENCING PHASE OF TRIAL

Petitioner was arrested on August 3, 2001 for the murder of Michael Deal. (Doc. 9, Attach. 1 at 39-41.) On October 31, 2001, Petitioner was indicted in Chatham County, Georgia, for murder and felony murder.^[2] (Id. at 43-44.) Michael Edwards and Tammy Cox Stokes^[3] were appointed to represent Petitioner. (Doc. 10, Attach. 3 at 7.)

Petitioner's trial began on March 26, 2004. (Doc. 10, Attach. 17 at 1.) On April 1, 2004, prior to striking a jury, Petitioner stated that he wanted to plead guilty to the charge of murder. (Doc. 11, Attach. 2 at 68-69.) During an ex parte hearing, Petitioner also expressed that he did not want his counsel to present mitigation evidence during the sentencing phase of trial. (Doc. 11, Attach. 3 at 14.) The following exchange occurred between Petitioner and the trial court:

Court: You don't want [trial counsel] to put on any of the evidence that they've developed to show the jury why the jury should return a verdict of less than death?

Petitioner: I don't-I don't want that.

Court: Okay. Can you tell me why you don't want that?

Petitioner: Well, I don't-I don't feel too enthusiastic about them knowing about my past, my childhood and things like that. I'd rather keep it to myself. It's personal.

Court: But you do realize that that increases the chance that the jury could return a verdict of death?

Petitioner: Yes, ma'am.

(Id.)

On Friday, April 2, 2004, the trial court selected a jury. (Doc. 11, Attach. 4 at 14.) Before the trial court accepted Petitioner's plea or his decision to refuse mitigation evidence, however, it ordered that Petitioner undergo a competency evaluation.^[4] (Doc. 11, Attach. 2 at 69; Doc. 11, Attach. 3 at 14.) Over the weekend, mental health professionals evaluated Petitioner, and, on Monday, April 5, 2004, the trial court conducted a competency hearing outside of the jury's presence. (Doc. 11, Attach. 4 at 37-38.)

At the competency hearing, Dr. Nic D'Alesandro and Dr. Phillip Barron testified about their competency evaluations of Petitioner. (Id. at 38-39.) Dr. D'Alesandro, the director of forensic services at Georgia Regional Hospital, opined that Petitioner was competent and was not suffering from any mental illness or intellectual disability. (Id. at 35.) Dr. D'Alesandro also opined that Petitioner was competent to enter a plea of guilty and proceed to the sentencing phase of trial. (Id.) Next, Dr. Barron, a psychologist with the Georgia Regional Hospital, testified that he concurred with Dr. D'Alesandro's conclusions and that, based on Dr. Barron's evaluation, Petitioner was competent. (Id. at 36.)

After Dr. D'Alesandro and Dr. Barron opined that Petitioner was competent to enter a plea, the trial court held an ex parte competency hearing with Petitioner and his trial counsel concerning Petitioner's decision to forgo the presentation of mitigation evidence. (Id. at 37.) On that issue, Dr. D'Alesandro testified that Petitioner was competent to decide whether to allow his trial counsel to present mitigation evidence. (Id. at 38-39.) Once again, Dr. Barron concurred with Dr. D'Alesandro's opinion and testified that Petitioner was "making a rational and well-considered decision" and that Petitioner "explicitly denied on several occasions any suicidal ideation." (Id. at 41-42.)

After the competency hearing, Petitioner pleaded guilty to the charge of malice murder and the trial proceeded to the sentencing phase.^[5] (Id. at 55, 63.) The Supreme Court of Georgia, in its opinion denying Petitioner's direct appeal, succinctly summarized the evidence that the State presented in aggravation during the sentencing phase of trial:

In support of the O.C.G.A. § 17-10-30(b)(1) aggravating circumstance, the State presented three certified convictions of Williams, one for the armed robbery of Harry Jaymes, one for the murder of Iris Hall, and one for the murder of Taureen Graham. The State also presented testimony regarding those three crimes. Harry Jaymes testified that Williams delivered some stereo equipment, that he gave Williams a cash gratuity from a bag of money, and that Williams returned with an accomplice two days later on May 27, 1999, hit Jaymes in the head repeatedly with a handgun, and threatened to kill Jaymes if he did not reveal where the bag of money was. Jaymes escaped, threw a brick through his car's window to set off the alarm, and had a neighbor call police. A GBI agent testified that Williams confessed during an audiotaped statement, which was played for the jury, to the murders of Taureen Graham and Iris Hall. Williams explained in the statement that he had been hired to murder Taureen Graham's older brother but that, on July 31, 1999, he murdered the wrong person. Janet Cooper testified that, during a drug deal on July 11, 1999, Williams held Cooper and Iris Hall at gunpoint, placed Cooper in a bathroom, and searched Hall's house. As Cooper escaped from the bathroom window, she heard the shots that killed Hall. At Williams's trial for Hall's murder, Williams "made slashing gestures and gunshot gestures" toward Cooper. Williams later, in March 2004, gave a letter to Cooper in which he stated, "I've killed many men before that incident, even killed a couple afterwards." The letter continued as follows:

August will be an even five years of incarceration for me. In those five years, I've killed two men, slit an officer's throat with a razor, stabbed two inmates, and whipped my first lawyer's ass. I am who I am, Janet. Those walls can't stop me.

The evidence also showed that Williams had committed several other criminal acts. A criminal defense attorney testified that Williams struck him repeatedly during a jailhouse interview on September 28, 2001. A prison guard testified that Williams slashed his face and throat with a razor blade embedded in a newspaper on December 17, 2001. Testimony from two prison officers to whom Williams confessed and testimony from the surviving victim showed that Williams murdered one prison inmate and repeatedly stabbed another with an improvised weapon on January 26, 2003. In his audiotaped confession about the 2003 prison attack, Williams stated that he had also planned to kill a third inmate that day but the man's cell door had been locked.

Williams, 281 Ga. at 88-89, 635 S.E.2d at 147-49.

During the State's presentation of its case in aggravation, the trial court held an ex parte hearing to allow Petitioner's trial counsel to offer proof of mitigation evidence that they would present if Petitioner permitted them to do so. (Doc. 11, Attach. 7 at 52.) The trial court emphasized that trial counsel should discuss on the record what the...