Woodfox v. Cain

• Citation: 805 F.3d 639
• Decision Date: 09 November 2015
• Docket Number: No. 15–30506.,15–30506.
• Parties: Albert WOODFOX, Petitioner–Appellee v. Burl CAIN, Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary; James Caldwell, Respondents–Appellants.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

805 F.3d 639

Albert WOODFOX, Petitioner–Appellee
v.
Burl CAIN, Warden, Louisiana State Penitentiary; James Caldwell, Respondents–Appellants.

No. 15–30506.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Nov. 9, 2015.

805 F.3d 641

George H. Kendall (argued), Victor Genecin, Carine M. Williams, Squire Patton Boggs (US), L.L.P., New York, N.Y., Christopher Albert Aberle, Mandeville, LA, Nicholas Joseph Trenticosta, Esq., Attorney, New Orleans, LA, for Petitioner–Appellee.

James David “Buddy” Caldwell, Colin Andrew Clark, Esq., Assistant Attorney General, Kurt Lawrence Wall, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General, Baton Rouge, LA, Elizabeth Swingle Horn, Esq., Bryan Charles Reuter, Esq., Richard C. Stanley, Esq. (argued), Stanley, Reuter, Ross, Thornton & Alford, L.L.C., New Orleans, LA, for Respondents–Appellants.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.

Before KING, DENNIS, and OWEN, Circuit Judges.

Opinion

KING, Circuit Judge:

On June 8, 2015, the district court granted Petitioner–Appellee Albert Woodfox an unconditional writ of habeas corpus, barring the State of Louisiana from prosecuting him for the third time for a 1972 murder. The district court reasoned that Woodfox's case presented “exceptional circumstances” that cast doubt on the ability of the State to give Woodfox a fair retrial. The State now appeals, challenging the district court's grant of an unconditional writ. We conclude that this case does not

805 F.3d 642

involve an irremediable constitutional violation or “exceptional circumstances” meriting the writ. Accordingly, we hold that the district abused its discretion in issuing the unconditional writ. We REVERSE.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The facts and extensive procedural history of Albert Woodfox's case have been recounted time and again, but they bear repeating since they factored into the unconditional writ granted by the district court. On April 17, 1972, Correctional Officer Brent Miller, of the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, was found murdered in the prison dormitory, having been stabbed 32 times. The investigation of Officer Miller's murder soon focused on Woodfox who, at the time, was an inmate in Angola serving a fifty-year sentence for armed robbery. The State prosecuted Woodfox for Officer Miller's murder and obtained a second degree murder conviction in 1973, later affirmed by the Supreme Court of Louisiana. Woodfox pursued postconviction remedies, and in 1992, his conviction was overturned by the 18th Judicial District Court of Louisiana. That court concluded that Woodfox was “denied his constitutional right of effective assistance of counsel” at his 1973 trial.¹ Woodfox was then reindicted in March 1993 in West Feliciana Parish for Officer Miller's murder and was again found guilty in 1998. He appealed this conviction, which was affirmed by the Louisiana Court of Appeal, First Circuit.

After Woodfox exhausted his state postconviction remedies, he filed a federal habeas corpus petition on October 11, 2006, challenging the 1998 conviction on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel, state suppression of exculpatory evidence, and racial discrimination in the selection of the grand jury foreperson at his 1998 retrial. On September 25, 2008, the district court granted Woodfox a writ of habeas corpus on ineffective assistance of counsel grounds and ordered that a new trial be conducted within 120 days. Following this, on November 25, 2008, the district court issued a custody order staying the judgment requiring a new trial but granting Woodfox's release “pending the State's appeal.” The State filed an emergency motion to stay the custody order pending appeal of the September 2008 writ, and this court granted the motion on December 2, 2008, staying any release “pending further order of this court.” Woodfox v. Cain (Woodfox I), 305 Fed.Appx. 179, 182 (5th Cir.2008) (per curiam) (unpublished).

In 2010, this court vacated the September 2008 writ. Under the Anti–Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), the district court was required to give deference to a state habeas court's decision on the merits unless it was contrary to or an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). Because we found that the state habeas court's decision denying Woodfox relief on his ineffective assistance of counsel claims was not contrary to or an unreasonable application of federal law, we held that the district court erred in not deferring to the state court and in granting the September 2008 writ. Woodfox v. Cain (Woodfox II), 609 F.3d 774, 794–817 (5th Cir.2010). However, we remanded to the district court to resolve the remaining issue of alleged racial discrimination in the selection of the grand jury foreperson, an issue that had not been

805 F.3d 643

decided by the district court. Id. at 817–18.

On remand, the district court granted habeas relief on the ground that the selection process for grand jury forepersons in West Feliciana Parish was racially discriminatory at the time of Woodfox's indictment. The district court based its holding on the fact that African-Americans were substantially underrepresented as grand jurors in proportion to their total population in the Parish. The State had not rebutted this prima facie case of discrimination because West Feliciana Parish's selection procedure for grand jury forepersons allowed in subjective criteria that could include race and gender. Woodfox v. Cain, 926 F.Supp.2d 841, 844–57 (M.D.La.2013). The State again appealed. This court affirmed the grant of habeas relief on November 20, 2014, and remanded the case to the district court “for further proceedings consistent with th[e] opinion.” Woodfox v. Cain (Woodfox III), 772 F.3d 358, 383 (5th Cir.2014), cert. denied, ––– U.S. ––––, 136 S.Ct. 38, 193 L.Ed.2d 26 (2015).

The case went back to the district court, and on February 6, 2015, Woodfox filed a motion under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 23(c) requesting release from his imprisonment for the 1998 murder conviction. Before the district court ruled on the motion and one day after the Fifth Circuit issued its mandate on February 11, 2015, the State reindicted Woodfox for the murder of Officer Miller and moved him from Angola to West Feliciana Parish Prison. Without considering the validity of the 2015 reindictment, the district court held a hearing on March 2, 2015 regarding Woodfox's motion requesting release.

The district court ultimately decided Woodfox's motion for release and granted an unconditional writ of habeas corpus barring retrial on June 8, 2015. The district court recognized that such a writ was “an extraordinary remedy [issued] in the rarest of circumstances.” Woodfox v. Cain , No. 06–789–JJB–RLB, 108 F.Supp.3d 401, 405, 2015 WL 3549787, at *2 (M.D.La. June 8, 2015) [hereinafter Woodfox (M.D.La.) ]. But it held that the writ was merited where a retrial could not remedy an underlying constitutional violation or where a case presented “exceptional circumstances.” Id. at 406, 2015 WL 3549787, at *3. While the district court recognized that the constitutional violation identified in Woodfox III “could, conceivably, be corrected by the re-arrest and reindictment of Mr. Woodfox,” his case presented “exceptional circumstances” that would render a new trial unjust. Id.

In particular, the court pointed to seven factors that, taken in total, warranted an unconditional writ. First, the court noted that Woodfox was “sixty-eight-years-old and in poor health.” Id. at 410, 2015 WL 3549787, at *8. Second, the court believed the lapse of time between Woodfox's first trial in 1973 and a third trial would prejudice his ability to present a defense because the case was premised on eyewitness testimony and key witnesses for the prosecution from the 1973 trial were no longer alive. Id. at 410–13, 2015 WL 3549787, at *8–10. This was particularly worrisome to the district court because evidence had emerged subsequent to the 1973 trial (but before the 1998 retrial) undermining the credibility of these witnesses, who could no longer be cross-examined. Third, the district court pointed to litigation tactics used by the State, which cast doubt on its ability to provide a fair retrial. Id. at 412–14, 2015 WL 3549787, at *10–11. These tactics included having a prosecutor vouch for a key witness at retrial² and the State's

805 F.3d 644

attempts in 2015 to “moot” the case by reindicting and transferring Woodfox. Id. Fourth, the district court believed that there was evidence suggesting Woodfox's actual innocence, including exculpatory statements from witnesses and a lack of physical evidence tying Woodfox to the murder. Id. at 413–15, 2015 WL 3549787, at *11–12. Fifth, Woodfox's four-decades-plus imprisonment in solitary confinement was beyond what other defendants had faced. Id. at 414–15, 2015 WL 3549787, at *12. Sixth, both of Woodfox's previous trials suffered from the same constitutional defect of racial discrimination in the grand jury foreperson selection, “giv[ing] [the] [c]ourt reason to...