Davis v. State

897 So. 2d 960, 2004 WL 1470943
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 1, 2004
Docket2002-CA-00028-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 897 So. 2d 960 (Davis v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. State, 897 So. 2d 960, 2004 WL 1470943 (Mich. 2004).

Opinion

897 So.2d 960 (2004)

Kenneth Leon DAVIS
v.
STATE of Mississippi.

No. 2002-CA-00028-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

July 1, 2004.
Rehearing Denied October 7, 2004.

*962 Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel by David Paul Voisin, Robert M. Ryan, attorneys for appellant.

*963 Office of the Attorney General by Marvin L. White, Jr., attorney for appellee.

EN BANC.

WALLER, Presiding Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. Kenneth Leon Davis was convicted of capital murder in the shooting death of Bobby Joe Biggert. A Hinds County jury sentenced him to death. His direct appeal was affirmed by this Court in 1991. Davis v. State, 660 So.2d 1228 (Miss.1995). The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari, Davis v. Mississippi, 517 U.S. 1192, 116 S.Ct. 1684, 134 L.Ed.2d 785 (1996), and rehearing. Davis v. Mississippi, 518 U.S. 1039, 117 S.Ct. 7, 135 L.Ed.2d 1102 (1996).

¶ 2. Thereafter, Davis sought post-conviction relief by filing a petition in the Mississippi Supreme Court. This Court granted Davis permission to file his petition for post-conviction relief in the Circuit Court of Hinds County. Davis was allowed to present several specific claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. All other claims were dismissed. After a hearing, the trial judge determined that Davis had not shown any constitutional deprivation of effective assistance of counsel. The request for post-conviction relief was denied. Davis's appeal from that order is before the Court.[1]

¶ 3. After a full review of the record at trial, the transcript of the hearing on the post-conviction relief proceedings and the briefs filed in this matter, the Court finds that Davis received effective assistance of counsel and that the petition for post-conviction relief was properly denied.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶ 4. The facts are thoroughly set out in Davis v. State, 660 So.2d 1228 (Miss.1995). At approximately four o'clock in the afternoon on February 23, 1989, Tammy Slaton was at work at Dr. Duck's Pawn Shop in Jackson. Kenneth Davis entered the store, pointed a pistol at her, and demanded that she give him the store's cash. Davis also demanded the keys to Slaton's car which was parked outside. Slaton gave Davis approximately $400 in cash and her keys. Davis then forced her at gunpoint into a storeroom where he tied her hands with a piece of bed sheet. While Davis was with Slaton in the storeroom, Bobby Joe Biggert, an off-duty policeman, entered the pawnshop as a customer. Biggert found no one in the main part of the store and came into the storage area looking for assistance. Davis immediately confronted Biggert with the pistol. Shortly thereafter, Davis fired one shot from the small caliber pistol. The shot struck Biggert in the head, and Biggert fell to the ground. Slaton asked Davis not to hurt her, and Davis told her that he was not going to hurt her. He fled the scene in Slaton's 1980 maroon Camaro. Slaton was able to untie her wrists and call for help. Emergency personnel rushed Biggert to the hospital but his wound proved to be fatal. Biggert died two days after the shooting.

¶ 5. Law enforcement authorities immediately began searching for the maroon Camaro. The car was found in a wooded area near Lake Dockery in the Byram area. A search of the area around the location of the automobile was conducted. Officers found a .22 caliber pistol, a box of *964.22 caliber ammunition, a hunting knife, a knife scabbard, a pair of faded red overalls, a denim jacket, a baseball type cap, and a hood. One identifiable fingerprint was found on the knife. Authorities matched that fingerprint to a print of Davis's which the F.B.I. had on file. The pistol was traced through A.T.F. records to a house burglary in Jackson which occurred the day before Biggert's shooting. After further investigation of the burglary and after determining that Davis's fingerprint was on the knife found near the stolen car, officers named Kenneth Davis as a suspect in both the house burglary and the pawn shop shooting. Pursuant to a warrant, officers performed a search of Davis's trailer in Rankin County. Inside the trailer, officers found a white bed sheet with a floral pattern. Part of the sheet had been torn or cut away. The floral patterned sheet found in the trailer matched the piece of sheet with which Slaton's hands had been tied. Officers also found items stolen in the home burglary in Davis's trailer.

¶ 6. Police officers canvassed businesses in the area around the pawn shop. At trial, two employees of the Dairy Queen, located across the street from the pawn shop, testified that Davis had been in the restaurant immediately prior to the robbery. Two Dairy Queen customers also identified Davis and stated that Davis had been in the Dairy Queen shortly before the shooting. Additionally, a motorist on the street outside the pawn shop testified that he saw Davis cross the street in front of him and walk into Dr. Duck's. Perhaps the most damaging testimony to Davis was Slaton's positive identification of him at trial as the robber and killer.

¶ 7. Davis was convicted of capital murder and was sentenced to death. This Court affirmed the conviction and sentence. Davis v. State, 660 So.2d 1228 (Miss.1995). Pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. §§ 99-39-1 et seq., Davis sought post-conviction relief in this Court. By order entered on June 26, 1997, this Court granted Davis permission to pursue his petition for post-conviction relief in the trial court. An order of clarification was entered by this Court on September 11, 1997. In that order, this Court determined that Davis could present five specific claims of ineffective assistance of counsel in post-conviction proceedings. The Court determined that all other claims raised in the petition for post-conviction relief were barred.

¶ 8. The Circuit Court of Hinds County held a hearing on Davis's petition for post-conviction relief in December of 2001. At that hearing, Davis presented claims that his trial and appellate attorneys had been ineffective. After the conclusion of the hearing, the trial court denied Davis's request for post-conviction relief, and this appeal ensued.

ANALYSIS

¶ 9. On appeal, Davis presents three issues related to his claim that he did not receive effective assistance of counsel. Davis was represented at trial and on appeal by William Kirksey and Merrida Coxwell. At the time of their representation of Davis, both attorneys had extensive criminal defense experience in both capital and non-capital cases.

¶ 10. The standard for determining if a defendant received effective assistance of counsel is well established. "The benchmark for judging any claim of ineffectiveness [of counsel] must be whether counsel's conduct so undermined the proper functioning of the adversarial process that the trial cannot be relied on as having produced a just result." Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 686, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). A defendant must demonstrate that his attorney's *965 actions were deficient and that the deficiency prejudiced the defense of the case. Id. at 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052. "Unless a defendant makes both showings, it cannot be said that the conviction or death sentence resulted from a breakdown in the adversary process that renders the result unreliable." Stringer v. State,

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Bluebook (online)
897 So. 2d 960, 2004 WL 1470943, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-state-miss-2004.