United States v. Fields

516 F.3d 923, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 4018, 2008 WL 483281
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 25, 2008
Docket05-7128
StatusPublished
Cited by71 cases

This text of 516 F.3d 923 (United States v. Fields) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Fields, 516 F.3d 923, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 4018, 2008 WL 483281 (10th Cir. 2008).

Opinion

TACHA, Circuit Judge.

Edward Leon Fields Mlled Charles and Shirley Chick at the Winding Stair Campground in the Ouachita National Forest on July 10, 2003. He had seen the couple there days earlier and drove there the evening of July 10 with a homemade ghillie suit (a covering for head and body made to resemble underbrush that Fields referred to as his sniper suit) and a camouflaged and powerfully scoped rifle in his truck. He found the Chicks on a vista some distance from their campsite. He retrieved the rifle, put on the ghillie suit, and hid near their campsite as it grew dark. In time, the Chicks came back to the campsite and sat at a table. Fields waited and watched them for about twenty minutes. When Charles told Shirley he was going to the tent, Fields shot him in the face. As Charles slumped to the table, Shirley got up and began running toward the couple’s van. Fields shot at her and a bullet tore through her foot. She reached the passenger door of the van, but was shot again, on the side of her head. Fields caught up and shot her once more, in the back of the head, in the doorway of the van. Shirley died as a result of both head wounds. Fields returned to the table and shot Charles a second time in the head. Charles also died as a result of both of his wounds.

Physical evidence indicated that Fields then left the campsite and only returned hours later, when he broke the driver’s window of the van and stole some items. He rummaged through only the driver’s area of the van; the rest of the van and the Chicks’ tent were untouched. A tip eventually led police to Fields’ truck, where they found the rifle, the ghillie suit, and some of the items stolen from the Chicks’ van. In the meantime, Fields had been taken in for questioning. He initially denied any connection to the crime, but confessed when confronted with the evidence taken from his truck.

An indictment was obtained in the Eastern District of Oklahoma against Fields charging, among other crimes, two first-degree murder counts under 18 U.S.C. § 1111. Fields pled guilty and a capital sentencing proceeding was conducted pursuant to the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 (FDPA), 1 in particular 18 U.S.C. §§ 3591-94. At the conclusion of the proceeding, the jury determined that Fields was eligible for a death sentence under §§ 3591(a)(2) and 3593(e)(2) by finding, unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt, (1) that he possessed the requisite homicidal intent, and (2) the presence of one (here, two) statutorily defined aggravating factors (“statutory aggravators”): substantial planning and premeditation to cause death (§ 3592(c)(9)), and multiple intentional killings committed in a single episode (§ 3592(c)(16)).

The jury then turned to the ad hoc non-statutory aggravators framed and formally noticed by the government under § 3593(a). Such aggravators do not affect a defendant’s eligibility for a death sentence, but contribute to the jury’s assessment of whether a death sentence, if available, should be imposed. The jury found, again unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt, that Fields (1) posed a future danger to the lives and safety of other persons; (2) caused permanent loss to Charles Chick’s family, friends, and community; (3) caused permanent loss to Shir *928 ley Chick’s family, friends, and community; and (4) inflicted mental anguish on Shirley Chick before her death.

Next, the jury considered a host of mitigating factors offered by the defense. At least one juror found,, by the required preponderance of the evidence, that (1) Fields did not have a significant prior criminal history; (2) Fields served in and was honorably discharged from the Navy; (3) Fields had worked as a state prison guard; (4) Fields has special talents in cooking, art, and computers; (5) Fields is a loved father; (6) Fields is a loved brother; (7) Fields is a loved son; (8) Fields is a valued friend; (9) Fields’ father died months before the offenses; (10) Fields’ mother moved away weeks before the offenses; (11) Fields’ ex-wife and their children moved away months before the offenses; (12) Fields’ ex-wife recently had cancer that may or may not be in remission; (13) Fields’ death will impact his children, family, and friends; (14) Fields cooperated with authorities after his arrest; (15) Fields confessed to the crimes; (16) Fields pled guilty to the crimes; and (17) Fields sought treatment for mental illness. All jurors, however, rejected several miti-gators, including that (1) Fields’ capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct and conform his conduct to the law was significantly impaired; (2) Fields committed the offenses under severe mental or emotional disturbance; (3) Fields expressed remorse for the crimes; and (4) Fields will not present a future danger to society by being imprisoned for life without possibility of release.

Finally, pursuant to § 3593(e), the jury weighed all of the aggravating and mitigating factors to determine whether the ag-gravators sufficiently outweighed the miti-gators to justify a sentence of death. The jury concluded, unanimously, that they did. Thereafter, the district court imposed death sentences on both murder counts.

Fields now appeals, challenging the jurisdictional basis for his federal conviction, which is a matter not waived by his guilty plea, see, e.g., United States v. Kunzman, 125 F.3d 1363, 1365 (10th Cir.1997), abrogated on other grounds by Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 478, 120 S.Ct. 1595, 146 L.Ed.2d 542 (2000), and raising many other objections with respect to the sentencing proceeding. Addressing each of these matters in turn, we conclude that federal jurisdiction was properly exercised and that no reversible error occurred in the proceedings.

I. FEDERAL TERRITORIAL JURISDICTION

Fields was convicted of murder “[wjithin the ... territorial jurisdiction of the United States.” 18 U.S.C. § 1111(b). Under 18 U.S.C. § 7(3) that territorial jurisdiction includes “lands reserved or acquired for the use of the United States, and under the exclusive or concurrent jurisdiction thereof.” Thus, satisfaction of the latter conditions is a jurisdictional element of the offense of conviction. See United States v. Young, 248 F.3d 260, 275 (4th Cir.2001).

Fields challenges federal territorial jurisdiction here on three alternative grounds: (1) Oklahoma either reserved exclusive jurisdiction over the national forest land where the murders took place, or ceded only a limited proprietary jurisdiction to the United States, in neither ease allowing for the exercise of federal territorial jurisdiction; (2) if Oklahoma purported to cede true concurrent jurisdiction, federal statutes controlling at the time the land was acquired did not authorize the United States to exercise concurrent territorial jurisdiction over the national forest land; and/or (3) the United States in any event did not accept such jurisdiction. We reject *929

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
516 F.3d 923, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 4018, 2008 WL 483281, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-fields-ca10-2008.