Schlup v. Delo

912 F. Supp. 448, 1995 WL 793315
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedDecember 8, 1995
Docket4:92CV443
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 912 F. Supp. 448 (Schlup v. Delo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schlup v. Delo, 912 F. Supp. 448, 1995 WL 793315 (E.D. Mo. 1995).

Opinion

912 F.Supp. 448 (1995)

Lloyd SCHLUP, Petitioner,
v.
Paul DELO, Superintendent Potosi Correctional Center, Respondent.

No. 4:92CV443.

United States District Court, E.D. Missouri, Eastern Division.

December 8, 1995.

*449 Sean D. O'Brien, Kris T. Daniel, Missouri Capital Punishment Resource Center, Kansas City, MO, for petitioner.

Frank A. Jung, Attorney General of Missouri, Assistant Attorney General, Jefferson City, MO, for Paul Delo.

Stephen D. Hawke, Attorney General of Missouri, Assistant Attorney General, Jefferson City, MO, Denise G. McElvein, Attorney General of Missouri, Assistant Attorney General, St. Louis, MO, for Michael Bowersox.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

HAMILTON, Chief Judge.

This matter is before the Court on remand from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. In an Order entered August 23, 1993, this Court denied the petition of Lloyd Schlup for writ of habeas corpus on grounds that Petitioner failed to show cause for failing to raise his new claims previously. The Court also held that Petitioner failed to satisfy the "actual innocence" standard set forth in Sawyer v. Whitley, 505 U.S. 333, 112 S.Ct. 2514, 120 L.Ed.2d 269 (1992) for showing that "a fundamental miscarriage of justice would result from failure to entertain the claim." The Eighth Circuit affirmed. Schlup v. Delo, 11 F.3d 738 (8th Cir.1993). Petitioner appealed to the United States Supreme Court which granted certiorari to consider the applicability of the Sawyer standard to Petitioner's claims.

In Schlup v. Delo, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 115 S.Ct. 851, 867, 130 L.Ed.2d 808 (1995), the Supreme Court held that the "[Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 106 S.Ct. 2639, 91 L.Ed.2d 397 (1986)] `probably resulted' standard rather than the more stringent Sawyer standard must govern the miscarriage of justice inquiry when a petitioner who has been sentenced to death raises a claim of actual innocence to avoid a procedural bar to the consideration of the merits of the constitutional claims." Id. at ___, 115 S.Ct. at 867. The Court explained that the Carrier standard requires a petitioner to establish that "`a constitutional violation has probably resulted in the conviction of one who is actually innocent.'" Id. (quoting Carrier, 477 U.S. at 496, 106 S.Ct. at 2649).

At the conclusion of the Schlup opinion, the Court stated that

[t]he fact intensive nature of the inquiry, together with the District Court's ability to take testimony from the few key witnesses if it deems that course advisable, convinces us that the most expeditious procedure is to order that the decision of the Court of Appeals be vacated and that the case be remanded to the Court of Appeals with instructions to remand to the District Court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Id. at ___, 115 S.Ct. at 869. In view of the Schlup opinion, the Court conducted an evidentiary hearing the week of November 20, 1995[1] to assist the Court in analyzing Petitioner's claim of actual innocence which he asserts as a means to overcome the procedural bar to the Court's consideration of the merits of his claims for habeas relief.

ANALYSIS

Petitioner filed his initial petition on or about March 11, 1992.[2] Petitioner asserts the following seven claims in support of his petition: (1) Petitioner has newly discovered evidence that establishes his innocence of the murder;[3] (2) trial counsel was ineffective *450 because he failed to interview or call as witnesses several individuals who could have testified that Petitioner was not present at the scene of the murder; (3) trial counsel was ineffective because he failed to investigate, rebut, and object to the testimony of state's key witnesses; (4) the prosecution failed to disclose material exculpatory evidence concerning Petitioners' involvement in the murder; (5) trial counsel failed to conduct a reasonable investigation into Petitioner's background and mental health; (6) trial counsel was ineffective because he failed to conduct an investigation into the facts and circumstances of the aggravating circumstances presented during the penalty phase of the trial; and (7) the prosecution failed to disclose exculpatory evidence concerning the aggravating circumstances. Petitioner's claims 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7 were raised for the first time in the initial petition filed with this Court (hereinafter "the new claims"). Petitioner raised claims 2 and 5 in his first petition for habeas relief (hereinafter "the successive claims"). In previously considering the instant petition for habeas relief, the Court determined that review of Petitioner's new and successive claims was procedurally barred. Additionally, the Court determined that Petitioner failed to establish cause and prejudice with respect to claims 1, 3, 4, 6, and 7. (August 23, 1993 Order, p. 7). The Court also determined that Petitioner failed to satisfy the Sawyer v. Whitley, 505 U.S. 333, 349, 112 S.Ct. 2514, 2524, 120 L.Ed.2d 269 (1992), actual innocence standard with respect both to Petitioner's new and successive claims. As discussed above, the Supreme Court held that the appropriate standard to be applied in this type of case is not found in Sawyer, but in Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 106 S.Ct. 2639, 91 L.Ed.2d 397 (1986). Accordingly, the Supreme Court remanded this case so that the Court could consider Petitioner's claim of actual innocence under the Carrier standard.[4]

For the Court to reach the merits of Petitioner's claims for habeas relief, the Court must find that, considering all of the evidence, "it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have found petitioner guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." Schlup v. Delo, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 115 S.Ct. 851, 867, 130 L.Ed.2d 808 (1995). In making that determination, the Court may consider

`all evidence, including that alleged to have been illegally admitted (but with due regard to any unreliability of it) and evidence tenably claimed to have been wrongly excluded or to have become available only after trial.'

Schlup, ___ U.S. at ___, 115 S.Ct. at 867 (quoting Friendly, Is Innocence Irrelevant? Collateral Attack on Criminal Judgments, 38 U.Chi.L.Rev. 142, 160 (1970)).

A. New Evidence

Petitioner presents as new evidence the testimony of several eyewitnesses attesting to Petitioner's innocence. Additionally, Petitioner presents the testimony of Robert Faherty and John Green whose statements call into question whether Petitioner could have participated in the murder of Arthur Dade and still arrived in the dining room just over a minute before the distress call was received. After considering this evidence, the Court finds the testimony of the eyewitnesses credible and believable. The Court also finds the testimony of Faherty and Green believable. Accordingly, the Court *451 concludes that "it cannot be said that a juror, conscientiously following the judge's instructions requiring proof beyond a reasonable doubt, would vote to convict." Schlup, ___ U.S. at ___, 115 S.Ct. at 869.

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Bluebook (online)
912 F. Supp. 448, 1995 WL 793315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schlup-v-delo-moed-1995.