Woodards v. Maxwell

• Decision Date: 10 September 1969
• Docket Number: Civ. A. 8045.
• Parties: John Elmer WOODARDS, Petitioner, v. E. L. MAXWELL, Warden, Ohio Penitentiary, Respondent.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio

303 F. Supp. 690

John Elmer WOODARDS, Petitioner, v. E. L. MAXWELL, Warden, Ohio Penitentiary, Respondent.

Civ. A. 8045.

United States District Court S. D. Ohio, E. D.

September 10, 1969.

Gerald A. Messerman, Cleveland, Ohio, for petitioner.

Paul W. Brown, Atty. Gen. of Ohio and Leo Conway, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

OPINION AND ORDER

KINNEARY, District Judge.

This is an action brought by the petitioner, a state prisoner, for a writ of habeas corpus under the provisions of 28 U.S.C.A. § 2241 et seq. The constitutional errors asserted by the petitioner in his Supplemental Amended Petition are essentially as follows:

1. Petitioner was denied a fair trial in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution by being compelled to appear before the jury trying him, in a trial which lasted from January 20, 1964 to January 31, 1964, with his hands shackled and strapped to his body.

2. Petitioner was denied, (1) a fair trial in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, and, (2) the right to confront witnesses against him in violation of the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution as incorporated by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by the prosecutor's repeated unsworn assertions of personal knowledge of facts damaging to petitioner's defense.

3. Items seized from petitioner's home in violation of protections guaranteed by the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution were introduced into evidence against petitioner at his trial.

4. Oral admissions obtained from petitioner after seventy-one hours of detention and interrogation were introduced against petitioner at trial in violation of rights guaranteed by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.

5. In determining what evidence should be admitted and what evidence excluded on the question of petitioner's mental condition, and in instructing the jury regarding the test to be applied in determining whether petitioner was mentally responsible for having committed the offense charged, the trial court, in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, precluded examination of the question of petitioner's capacity to control his behavior.

6. By sentencing petitioner to death pursuant to a jury verdict which, under Ohio law, carries a mandatory death penalty, the trial court violated rights guaranteed by the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment and by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

7. By instructing the jury that petitioner bore the burden of proof on the issue of insanity, and that he could sustain that burden only by demonstrating, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he lacked the mental capacity to commit the offenses charged, the trial court erroneously relieved the state of the burden of establishing guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

8. By striking from the jury panel all veniremen who expressed conscientious objection to the imposition of the death penalty, the trial court denied petitioner the right to be tried by a fair and impartial jury in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

9. By entrusting the jury with the absolute power to determine whether petitioner should live or die if he were found guilty of the offense charged, and by offering no reasonable guidelines to the jury relevant to the exercise of discretion vested in the jury, the trial court denied petitioner a fair trial in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Under the doctrine of Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 313, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963) the Court held an evidentiary hearing in order to reveal material facts, especially relative to the petitioner's claim concerning his shackling at trial, which were not adequately developed at the state court proceedings.

Both parties have submitted post hearing memoranda and the Court has considered this case on the basis of these memoranda, all other pleadings filed by either party, all exhibits submitted and received in evidence at the hearing, the testimony of all witnesses, and finally, the oral arguments of counsel.

Facts:

On Saturday, July 13, 1963, Margaret Van Arsdale, a woman 85 years of age, was discovered dead in the utility room of her home in Columbia Station, Ohio (a small community just west of Cleveland, Ohio). A blanket was wrapped around her body and tied with her nightclothes and underclothes.

An autopsy showed that all her ribs had been broken, her spleen ruptured and her perineum and vaginal wall torn. She had suffered injuries to her head, left forearm, right hand and other parts of her body.

About noon that same day, two sheriff's cars were dispatched to the residence of the petitioner, John Woodards, a former tenant of the victim. No one was at home. A deputy entered the house and took a pair of work boots which he placed in his car. Shortly thereafter, Woodards arrived and was arrested by the officers. He was informed that he was wanted for questioning in connection with a gas station robbery which had occurred the night before.

One of the deputies accompanied Woodards into his house where the petitioner identified and gave to the deputy the clothes which he said he had been wearing the night before. He was then taken to county jail. The deputy later returned for more clothing which the petitioner's wife gave him.

Woodards was questioned briefly, was fingerprinted on July 13 and was held in jail. On Monday, July 15, at about 1:15 P.M., he was questioned for the first time concerning the murder of Mrs. Van Arsdale. At that time, he was informed by a deputy sheriff that he was not required to make any statement and was advised by an assistant prosecutor of his federal and state constitutional rights, including the fact that any statement he might make could be used against him.

The deputy in charge of the investigation read to Woodards from a book on the subject of sexual deviations of older women and asked him whether he did not want to relieve the load on his shoulders. Woodards then made a statement which the court reporter transcribed. He agreed to go to the Van Arsdale residence and reenact the incident. During the drive to and from the scene, he was questioned, and the questions and answers were taken down in shorthand by a deputy sheriff. Upon their return to the jail, Woodards was taken before a magistrate at the Elyria Municipal Court and charged with first degree murder. On July 16, he was represented by counsel, waived preliminary hearing and was bound over to the Grand Jury.¹

The petitioner was indicted for first degree murder on July 23, 1963 and at the arraignment on July 26, while represented by counsel, Woodards pleaded not guilty.

In the trial before a jury, Woodards testified in his own behalf as to the events which took place on the night of July 12, 1963.²

The jury convicted the petitioner of murder in the first degree, without a recommendation of mercy, and the mandatory death sentence was imposed. After appellate affirmance of this conviction in the Ohio courts (see State v. Woodards, 6 Ohio St.2d 14, 215 N.Ed.2d 568 (1966)), this action for a writ of habeas corpus was filed and the petitioner was granted an indefinite stay of execution of his death sentence by this Court on December 23, 1966 pending the outcome on the merits of this action.

The Court first focuses its attention on the contention of the petitioner which relates to the striking from the jury panel all veniremen who expressed conscientious objection to the imposition of the death sentence. The resolution of this issue hinges directly on the applicability of a recent case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States, Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968).

In Witherspoon, the Court attempted to be as clear as possible in stating the holding of the case.

Specifically, we hold that a sentence of death cannot be carried out if the jury that imposed or recommended it was chosen by excluding veniremen for cause simply because they voiced general objections to the death penalty or expressed conscientious or religious scruples against its infliction. No defendant can constitutionally be put to death at the hands of a tribunal so selected. Witherspoon, supra, 391 U.S. at 521-523, 88 S.Ct. at 1776-1777.

Among the exhibits admitted by the Court during the course of the evidentiary hearing was Joint Exhibit 1-D, which is the transcript of the voir dire examination of the jurors held prior to the petitioner's murder trial. This examination took place on January 20, 1964, and contains the questions and answers of some twenty-seven members of the jury panel. Of these twenty-seven persons, twenty-four of them were examined to determine their qualifications to sit as regular jurors, while the remaining three were examined in relation to their qualifications as alternate jurors. Because none of the alternate jurors participated in the deliberations or verdict at the conclusion of petitioner's trial, the Court will not consider their examination relevant in the discussion of the Witherspoon issue.

As has been stated, there were twenty-four members of the jury panel questioned with respect to their qualifications as regular jurors. Of this number, twelve were excused, five peremptorily by the defendant-petitioner, and seven by the trial judge. The circumstances under which these seven members of the jury panel were excused by the trial judge constitute the present area of judicial inquiry.

Joint Exhibit 1-D reveals the...