Cuevas v. Lynaugh

754 F. Supp. 1127, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18072, 1990 WL 255896
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedMay 23, 1990
DocketCiv. A. No. H-89-1577
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 754 F. Supp. 1127 (Cuevas v. Lynaugh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cuevas v. Lynaugh, 754 F. Supp. 1127, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18072, 1990 WL 255896 (S.D. Tex. 1990).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

NORMAN W. BLACK, District Judge.

Petitioner, currently in the custody of the Texas Department of Corrections, filed this federal habeas corpus action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Petitioner was indicted on September 4, 1974, for the felony offense of capital murder while attempting to escape from the Walls Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections in Huntsville, Texas.

Petitioner was tried by a jury in Harris County on three occasions. His first two convictions and death sentences were reversed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals due to errors in the jury selection process. Cuevas v. State, 575 S.W.2d 543 (Tex.Crim.App.1978); Cuevas v. State, 641 S.W.2d 558 (Tex.Crim.App.1982). In the third trial the jury returned a verdict of guilty of the offense charged and sentenced Petitioner to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed on July 1, 1987. Cuevas v. State, 742 S.W.2d 331 (Tex.Crim.App.1987); reh. denied, Nov. 4, 1987, cert. denied, 485 U.S. 1015, 108 S.Ct. 1488, 99 L.Ed.2d 716 (1988).

Petitioner’s execution date was initially scheduled for November 2, 1988. However, after Petitioner filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus with the trial court the execution date was changed to February 1, 1989 to allow the state adequate time for filing a response. Petitioner’s execution was later reset for April 5, 1989 and then to May 9, 1989 so that all issues could be properly addressed. Upon review, the trial court concluded that the requested relief should be denied and the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed. Ex parte Cuevas, Application No. 19,807-01.

A petition for writ of habeas corpus and motion for stay of execution was filed in this Court on May 3, 1989 and the following day a stay of execution was granted. This Court ordered Petitioner to file an amended petition on or before October 23, 1989 raising all claims currently known to him on pain of waiver. No amended petition was filed, no other habeas corpus petitions are pending and no petitions for writ of certiorari have been filed on Petitioner’s behalf.

This Court is of the opinion Petitioner has exhausted all of his state remedies with respect to his current claims. Therefore, the Court will examine the merits of his application for writ of habeas corpus.

Petitioner contends he is entitled to relief for the following reasons:

1. The exclusion of prospective juror Glenda Davis violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals incorrectly applied [1130]*1130the Wainwright v. Witt standard to this claim.

Petitioner alleges that his rights under the eighth and fourteenth amendments were violated when the trial court excused venire member Glenda Davis because of her personal feelings regarding the death penalty. In a separate claim Petitioner contends the Court of Criminal Appeals denied him due process by applying ex post facto the standards set forth in Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 105 S.Ct. 844, 83 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985) rather than the standards in effect at the time of trial found in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968) and Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38, 100 S.Ct. 2521, 65 L.Ed.2d 581 (1980).

Prospective juror Davis revealed during voir dire that she was opposed to the death penalty and could not find a person guilty knowing the death penalty was a possible punishment. According to Petitioner, Davis equivocated throughout questioning by the prosecutor and defense counsel and the record demonstrates that she was not so irrevocably opposed to the death penalty that she would automatically vote against it. Therefore, he claims, her elimination from the jury violated the requirements of Witherspoon.

The United States Supreme Court held in Witherspoon that when the state excuses for cause all prospective jurors who have religious or conscientious objections to the death penalty it violates Defendant’s sixth and fourteenth amendment rights. The Court concluded that potential jurors can be subject to challenge based on their religious or conscientious scruples only if it is unquestionably apparent that they would vote against the death penalty automatically or that these views would prohibit them from making an unbiased determination on the question of guilt.

The Witherspoon decision was later clarified by the Supreme Court in Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 105 S.Ct. 844, 83 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985) and in so doing, reaffirmed the standard for juror exclusion set forth in Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38, 100 S.Ct. 2521, 65 L.Ed.2d 581 (1980). It is now clear that the standard for determining when a prospective juror may be excused for cause due to his views regarding capital punishment is “whether the juror’s view would prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath.” Witt, 469 U.S. at 424, 105 S.Ct. at 852. In essence Witt abolished the “automatic decision making” test found in With-erspoon and upheld the standard found in Adams which does not require a venire member’s bias to be proven with “unmistakable clarity.” Id.

Petitioner believes that by using the Witt standard the Court of Criminal Appeals made an ex post facto application of a criteria not in place at the time of trial. The United States Constitution expressly prohibits ex post facto laws which operate retroactively to make criminal an act which when done was not criminal or to aggravate a crime or increase the punishment therefore. Cummings v. Missouri, 4 Wall. 277, 325-26, 18 L.Ed. 356 (1867). However, if a procedural change occurs which neither increases punishment nor changes the elements of the offense nor alters the facts necessary to prove someone’s guilt there is no ex post facto violation. Weaver v. Graham, 450 U.S. 24, 29 n. 12, 101 S.Ct. 960, 964 n. 12, 67 L.Ed.2d 17 (1981). If no substantive rights are affected there is no ex post facto violation even if the change works to the disadvantage of a defendant. See Beazell v. Ohio, 269 U.S. 167, 46 S.Ct. 68, 70 L.Ed. 216 (1925).

In this case the change set forth in Witt regarding the qualifications of jurors in capital cases is procedural, not substantive; therefore, no ex post facto violation occurred. In addition, although Davis did equivocate as to whether she could set aside her personal feelings, the record shows that after extensive questioning she concluded that in her opinion the death penalty was never an appropriate punishment and that she could not take the oath for a juror. Since it is “unmistakably clear” Davis would have voted in a way that the death penalty would not be imposed, even under the

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754 F. Supp. 1127, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18072, 1990 WL 255896, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cuevas-v-lynaugh-txsd-1990.