David Lee Roberts v. Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections

677 F.3d 1086, 2012 WL 1320220, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 7860
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedApril 18, 2012
Docket10-15259
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 677 F.3d 1086 (David Lee Roberts v. Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
David Lee Roberts v. Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections, 677 F.3d 1086, 2012 WL 1320220, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 7860 (11th Cir. 2012).

Opinions

PER CURIAM:

David Roberts, an Alabama state prisoner, appeals from the district court’s denial [1088]*1088of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition challenging his conviction for capital murder. We issued a Certificate of Appealability on the following three issues: (1) whether Roberts’s trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate and/or present evidence to support an insanity defense despite entering a plea of “not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity”; (2) whether the trial court improperly refused to instruct Roberts’s jury on the lesser included offense of felony murder; and (3) whether the state court erred when it reversed Roberts’s death sentence but remanded the case for a new penalty-phase hearing before the trial court, not before a jury.1 Roberts argues that the state court’s resolution of each of these issues was contrary to or involved an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law.

I. BACKGROUND

Roberts was convicted in December 1992 for two counts of capital murder and following the conclusion of the penalty phase hearing, the jury recommended that he be sentenced to life without parole by a majority vote of seven to five. Nearly two years later in May 1994, the trial court held a sentencing hearing and rejected the jury’s recommendation, sentencing Roberts to death.

The facts of the offense as recounted by the state appellate court on direct appeal are as follows:

Roberts had been a houseguest of Wendell Satterfield. On April 22, 1992, Satterfield’s girlfriend, Annetra Jones, was sleeping on a couch in Satterfield’s den. Roberts left his job and went to Satterfield’s residence around noon on that day. He packed his belongings, stole money from the victim’s wallet, and shot her three times in the head with a .22 caliber rifle while she slept. Jones died within seconds. Roberts poured flammable liquid on her body and on the floor in the den, then set fire to a piece of paper he had placed under the couch. In the bedroom in which Roberts had stayed, which was in the basement of Satterfield’s house, Roberts set another fire, causing major damage to the room and sending smoke throughout the house. Roberts left the house, taking with him a variety of items, such as the murder weapon and other guns. He hid this evidence, but later led the police to the hiding place.
Law enforcement authorities questioned Roberts and he gave several statements. He admitted shooting Jones and setting Satterfield’s house on fire. In his last statement, Roberts said that he had set the house on fire to get back at Satterfield for threatening his parents; he said that he did not know that Jones would be at the house and he did not know why he shot her.
At the sentencing hearing before the jury, the State presented evidence that Roberts had previously been convicted of second degree burglary and first degree theft, and that he had been on parole for less than two months when he committed this crime. Roberts’s brother, Terry, and his mother, Brenda, testified that Roberts was nervous, slept poorly, and had a history of drug abuse. Terry Roberts also testified that two days before the murder, Satterfield made what could be construed as a threat against their father.
[1089]*1089At the sentence hearing before the court, Roberts testified that he was sorry about what had happened. He stated that an “older individual” had threatened to kill his parents, that the pressure had built up over time, that he had no one to turn to for help, and that he did what he thought he needed to do at the time. He also testified that the “older individual” told him to burn the house and to shoot Annetra Jones.2

Roberts’s conviction was affirmed on direct appeal, however, his sentence was reversed and remanded because the trial court had improperly excluded certain evidence during the sentencing hearing.3 Upon remand, the trial court held another sentencing hearing, without a jury, and again sentenced Roberts to death.4 After further clarification, the trial court’s sentencing order was affirmed by both the appellate court,5 and the Alabama Supreme Court.6 The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari.7

Roberts timely filed his state petition for post-conviction relief pursuant to Rule 32 of the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure (“Rule 32 Petition”). Following an evidentiary hearing, the state trial court8 entered an order denying relief on every claim. Roberts raised only three claims of ineffective assistance of counsel on appeal, which were denied by the state appellate court and for which a writ of certiorari was not granted. Roberts filed his federal petition for writ of habeas corpus, which the district court denied, and we granted a certificate of appealability on the issues noted above.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

When reviewing the district court’s grant or denial of habeas relief, we review its conclusions on legal questions and mixed questions of law and fact de novo and its findings of fact for clear error. Walls v. Buss, 658 F.3d 1274, 1277 (11th Cir.2011). Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Pub.L. 1-4-132, 110 Stat. 1214 (“AED-PA”), a federal court may not grant habeas relief unless the state court’s decision on the merits of the petitioner’s claim was “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). The Supreme Court has explained the requirements of § 2254(d) as follows:

Under the “contrary to” clause, a federal habeas court may grant the writ if the state court arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by this Court on a question of law or if the state court decides a case differently than this Court has on a set of materially indistinguishable facts. Under the “unreasonable application” clause, a federal habeas court may grant the writ if the state court identifies the correct governing legal principle from this Court’s decisions [1090]*1090but unreasonably applies that principle to the facts of the prisoner’s case.

Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 412-13, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000).

III. DISCUSSION

A. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel During the Guilt Phase of Trial

Roberts argues that his Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of trial counsel was violated because his trial counsel, Ed Odum, asserted a plea of “not guilty or not guilty by reason of insanity” in the presence of the jury but failed to investigate or to present any evidence in support of this plea. The state argues that the failure to investigate mental insanity is procedurally defaulted.

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Bluebook (online)
677 F.3d 1086, 2012 WL 1320220, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 7860, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/david-lee-roberts-v-commissioner-alabama-department-of-corrections-ca11-2012.