Ex Parte Spencer

337 S.W.3d 869, 2011 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 541, 2011 WL 1485448
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 20, 2011
DocketAP-76244
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 337 S.W.3d 869 (Ex Parte Spencer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex Parte Spencer, 337 S.W.3d 869, 2011 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 541, 2011 WL 1485448 (Tex. 2011).

Opinions

OPINION

MEYERS, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court

in which KELLER, P.J., and PRICE, WOMACK, JOHNSON, HERVEY, and COCHRAN, JJ., joined.

[871]*871Applicant, Benjamine1 John Spencer, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 35 years’ confinement. He filed a motion for new trial, which was granted. On retrial, he was convicted of aggravated robbery and sentenced to life in prison. The conviction was affirmed on appeal. Spencer v. State, No. 05-88-00397-CR (Tex.App.-Dallas May 3, 1989) (not designated for publication). Applicant filed an application for writ of habeas corpus claiming that he is actually innocent, that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance, and that the State violated Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), and Mooney v. Holohan, 294 U.S. 103, 55 S.Ct. 340, 79 L.Ed. 791 (1935).

The trial court held an evidentiary hearing and recommended that we grant relief. We remanded the case to the trial court for additional findings and conclusions. After receiving the trial court’s findings and conclusions, we filed and set this case for submission and ordered the parties to brief whether Applicant properly raised a free-standing actual innocence claim, whether the evidence he relies on is newly discovered or newly available, whether we should consider advances in science and technology when determining whether evidence is newly discovered or newly available, and whether Applicant has shown by clear and convincing evidence that no reasonable juror would have convicted him in light of the new evidence. Relief is denied.

BACKGROUND

At around 10:45 p.m. on March 22, 1987, police received a call that a man was lying face down in the street. When they arrived, they found the victim, Jeffrey Young, unconscious and bleeding. He was taken to the hospital, where he died. It was later determined that he died from severe skull fractures that were a result of multiple blows to the head. Less than two hours after the victim was found in the street, police received a call about a BMW parked in a nearby alley. They quickly ascertained that the car belonged to the victim.

Two days later, a witness, Gladys Oliver, went to the police station to tell what she had seen in the alley that night and also to give the police the names of others who may-have seen something. 'She-had heard that the police were accusing another man named Spencer, Van Mitchell Spencer, of stealing the BMW, and she wanted to inform them that it was Applicant, Benja-mine John Spencer, whom she had seen getting out of the car. Based on the information from Oliver and the other witnesses, Applicant and his co-defendant, Nathan Robert Mitchell, were arrested the next day.

Several eyewitnesses who lived in the area where the victim and his car were found testified at Applicant’s trial. Charles Stewart testified that he saw the victim get pushed out of the car, saw the car pull into the alley, and saw Applicant get out of the passenger’s side of the car and Mitchell get out of the driver’s side. He saw Applicant jump Gladys Oliver’s fence and go through her back yard. He testified about the lighting conditions in the alley, including that these was a streetlight in the alley and a light in the back of one of the houses that backed up to the alley. He also stated that the lights inside the car came on when the doors opened, and he recognized Applicant and Mitchell.

Donald Merritt testified that he saw a white man lying in the street struggling to breathe and with blood on his head. Mer[872]*872ritt stayed at the scene until paramedics arrived. He later saw the BMW in the alley and saw Applicant’s co-defendant standing by the car. He said he could see clearly because there was a streetlight nearby.

The alley where the BMW was found was behind Gladys Oliver’s house. She testified that she saw the BMW stopped behind her neighbor’s house and saw Applicant get out of the passenger’s side of the car and Mitchell get out of the driver’s side. She said she saw Applicant go through one neighbor’s yard and knock on another neighbor’s door. Oliver stated that there was a streetlight in the alley and a large light in the back of her neighbor’s house that lit her yard. She claimed that when she went to the front of her house, she saw Applicant’s car parked in the street, but it was gone about 15 minutes later. She did not tell the police this the day after the offense when they went door-to-door asking questions, but two days later she went to the police station to tell them what she had seen and claimed that she was afraid for her life.

Jimmie Cotton testified that he was in his kitchen cooking dinner when he saw the BMW pull into the alley. He noticed the BMW because it was not the sort of car he usually saw in the neighborhood. He said that when the car doors opened, a light came on, and he saw Applicant get out of the passenger side. Cotton saw Applicant climb the fence around Gladys Oliver’s yard and later saw him get into his own car and drive away. Cotton testified that he could see everything in the alley because there was a streetlight just behind his house and his neighbor had a porch light on.

Danny Edwards was one of Applicant’s cellmates. Edwards informed police that Applicant told him about the crime. He testified that Applicant said he hit the victim in the head with a gun, put him in the back seat of the car, hit him a couple more times while they were driving, and then kicked him from the car. Edwards said that Applicant planned to take the car to a chop shop.

Applicant offered testimony at trial that, on the night of the offense, he drove Ramona Williams and her friend to church. He said he spent the rest of the evening with Ramona’s sister, Christie, first at her house and then at the park, and that Ramona saw Applicant’s car at the park at around 11 p.m. when she was returning home from church.

A jury found Applicant guilty of murder in 1987, and after his motion for a new trial was granted, a separate jury found him guilty of aggravated robbery in 1988. His co-defendant, Mitchell, was also found guilty based on much of the same eyewitness testimony that was raised in both of Applicant’s trials.

APPLICANT’S WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

Applicant raises the following issues in his application for writ of habeas corpus:

(1) The State failed to disclose evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 [83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215] (1963);
(2) The State knowingly relied on perjured testimony in violation of Mooney v. Holohan, 294 U.S. 103 [55 S.Ct. 340, 79 L.Ed. 791] (1935);
(3) Trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance; and
(4) Applicant is actually innocent.

Applicant states that his trial was “constitutionally deficient.” He claims that Edwards’ testimony was perjured and that he testified falsely in exchange for a reduced sentence. He also claims that Edwards recanted his testimony in 2002. [873]

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Bluebook (online)
337 S.W.3d 869, 2011 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 541, 2011 WL 1485448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-spencer-texcrimapp-2011.