Posted by Jonathan Adler:
*Owens v. Guida*:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_12_07-2008_12_13.shtml#1228864663
Speaking of [1]divisions on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth
Circuit, today a divided panel rejected the habeas appeal of Gaile
Owens, the [2]first woman sentenced to death in Tennessee. Among other
things, the court divided over whether Owens received ineffective
assistance of counsel because she failed to cooperate fully in her own
defense and her her attorney neglected to press what some call the "he
just needed killing" defense.
--
Chief Judge Danny Boggs wrote the majority opinion in [3]Owens v.
Guida, joined by Judge Eugene Siler, Jr. Here is how the majority
summarized the case.
Gaile K. Owens (�Owens�) is on Tennessee�s death row because she
hired Sidney Porterfield to kill her husband and Porterfield
successfully carried out his assignment. Owens appeals the district
court�s dismissal of her petition for a writ of habeas corpus. She
argues that: 1) she received ineffective assistance of counsel
(�IAC�) when trial counsel failed to adequately investigate her
background and failed to overcome the state�s hearsay objection to
one of her penalty-phase witnesses; 2) the state violated Brady v.
Maryland by failing to turn over letters between her deceased
husband and his paramour; and 3) the trial court unconstitutionally
prevented her from offering, as mitigating evidence, testimony that
she wanted to plead guilty in return for receiving a life sentence.
We reject the first argument and hold that the Tennessee courts
reasonably applied Strickland v. Washington by concluding that
Owens sabotaged her own defense and that counsel�s performance is
not deficient when counsel follows a client�s instructions.
Likewise, we reject her second argument and hold that the Tennessee
courts reasonably applied Brady because even if the letters were
favorable evidence, and were suppressed by the state, Owens was not
prejudiced because she could have presented other evidence of the
affair but chose not to do so. Finally, we reject her third
argument and hold that the Tennessee courts reasonably applied
Lockett v. Ohio in refusing to admit Owens�s evidence because no
court, let alone the Supreme Court, has held that failed plea
negotiations may be admitted at a penalty-phase hearing. Therefore,
we affirm.
Judge Gilbert Merritt wrote a strongly worded dissent. It begins:
The majority opinion slants and misconceives relevant facts and law
in this case on each of the three major issues in order to uphold
the death penalty. I will try to straighten out the case for the
reader by introducing the actual facts and the correct legal
principles to be applied. This is not a close case.
The facts about Ryan Owens� cruel and sadistic behavior toward his
wife now make an overwhelming case of domestic violence and
psychological abuse in mitigation of the murder case against Gaile
Owens. From the beginning, Mrs. Owens� counsel knew that this was
her best � indeed, her only � defense. Before trial, her counsel
told the trial court that in his opinion: �This case has a
meritorious defense in the battered-wife syndrome.� The Memphis
district attorneys obviously knew that this was the defense theory.
But this defense was never developed or even mentioned to the jury
during the trial because of the cover-up of exculpatory evidence by
the Memphis prosecutor and the complete failure of defense counsel
to conduct a proper investigation of Ryan Owens� sadistic behavior
toward his wife. I will discuss the Memphis prosecutor�s cover-up
of exculpatory evidence first, then defense counsel�s failure to
investigate and develop the defense, and finally the refusal of the
Memphis trial court to allow in evidence one of the defendant�s
best lines of mitigation testimony.
The majority responds that "for many of the points of the dissent, a
careful examination of the relevant part of this opinion, and the
cases and portions of the record cited therein, suffices for
refutation." Additional responses to the dissent are contained on
pages 19-20.
References
1. http://volokh.com/posts/chain_1228745082.shtml
2.
http://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2008/12/9/tennessee_moves_closer_to_executing_first_woman
3. http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/08a0440p-06.pdf
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