Stevens v. McBride

489 F.3d 883

Christopher M. STEVENS, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Daniel McBRIDE, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 05-1442.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued February 7, 2006.

Decided June 18, 2007.

Kathy Lea Stinton-Glen (argued), Zionsville, IN, for Petitioner-Appellant.

James B. Martin (argued), Office of the Attorney General, Indianapolis, IN, for Respondent-Appellee.

Before RIPPLE, MANION, and WOOD, Circuit Judges.

WOOD, Circuit Judge.

Christopher Stevens, an emotionally disturbed young man who had been abused and raped as a child, was sentenced to death in Indiana state court for the molestation and brutal murder of 10-year-old Zachary Snider. At Stevens's trial, the only evidence presented by the defense concerning his mental state at the time of the killing was the testimony of a psychologist who believes that mental illness is a myth. After the Indiana courts rejected Stevens's direct appeal and post-conviction review petition, he brought this habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, claiming principally that his attorneys' investigation and presentation of expert psychological testimony at his trial amounted to ineffective assistance of counsel and deprived him of his only opportunity to avoid conviction and a death sentence. We conclude that the defense attorneys provided ineffective assistance at the penalty phase of the trial and grant Stevens's petition insofar as it relates to his sentence.

I

A

The underlying facts of this case are recounted in detail in the Indiana Supreme Court's decision affirming Stevens's conviction and sentence. See Stevens v. Indiana, 691 N.E.2d 412 (Ind.1997). Those facts are entitled to a presumption of correctness, see 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1), and they are in any event uncontested at this point. We repeat here only what is relevant to Stevens's current claims.

In February 1993, Stevens, who was 20 years old at the time, was convicted in Indiana state court of child molestation. After serving several months of his sentence, he was released on probation in May 1993. On the night before his release, Stevens had a conversation with a fellow inmate, Tracy Eastin, in which Eastin predicted that Stevens would be back in jail for the same crime again within two months. Stevens allegedly replied, "No, I won't. Next time I'll kill him."

Upon his release, Stevens went to live with his father in Cloverdale, Indiana. He soon befriended Snider, a 10-year-old who lived in the same subdivision as Stevens's father. On July 15, 1993, Snider went to Stevens's home in the late afternoon, where Stevens proceeded to molest him. Afterwards, Snider threatened to tell his parents about the assault; at this point, Stevens claims that he became scared and "clicked." He attempted to kill Snider by smothering him with a pillow and then strangling him with a cord. After those methods proved unsuccessful, Stevens eventually managed to kill Snider by suffocating him with a plastic bag. Stevens then placed Snider's body and Snider's bicycle into the back of his car, drove out into the countryside, and threw the body and bike over a bridge. Later, he returned to the site to retrieve a plastic bag that he feared, if found, might assist the police in identifying him as Snider's killer.

When Snider did not return home during the evening of July 15, his parents began to search the neighborhood. They came across Stevens in front of his house. Lying to them, Stevens denied having seen Snider all day. On July 17, the police picked up Stevens for questioning, confronting him with the fact that a witness had seen Snider's bicycle parked in front of his home on the day of the murder. Stevens admitted to police that Snider had visited him briefly, but he denied having anything to do with his disappearance. Two days later, Stevens confessed to his brother Mark Stevens that he had killed Snider, explaining in detail what had occurred and directing his brother to the bridge where the body was hidden. Mark Stevens went to the police, who later arrested Christopher Stevens.

B

After Stevens was charged with Snider's murder the State announced its intention to seek the death penalty. The Putnam County Superior Court appointed two lawyers for Stevens: Jeffrey Baldwin as lead defense counsel and Robert Clutter as second counsel. Soon thereafter, the case was transferred to the Tippecanoe County Superior Court. Baldwin retained Carol Knoy as a defense mitigation specialist. From conversations with Stevens, it quickly became apparent to the defense team that a mental health examination would be an important component of trial preparation. Stevens told his lawyers that he had been physically, mentally, and emotionally abused as a child, and had been raped by a stranger when he was 10 years old. Medical records from a psychiatric facility where Stevens was briefly a patient reported that he had attempted suicide. Doctors there had diagnosed him with major depression and possible schizophrenia. Stevens also wrote a letter to Knoy in which he stated that when he killed Snider he "put himself in Zachary's place, and he was doing to Zachary what he wished the man who had raped him would have done to him."

Upon Knoy's recommendation, defense counsel retained as a mental health consultant clinical psychologist Dr. Lawrence Lennon, who at the time was director of a child and adolescent psychiatric center at an Indianapolis hospital. Upon meeting with Dr. Lennon for the first time, defense counsel instructed him to evaluate Stevens but not to write a report on his findings. Despite this explicit direction, Dr. Lennon wrote a report and sent it to Stevens's attorneys. The report included numerous statements that were extremely detrimental to Stevens's case. Because this report is so central to Stevens's claims, we reproduce excerpts of it here:

Mr. Stevens revealed no evidence of any hallucinations or delusions. . . . There is no reason to believe that he has ever been out of touch with reality except perhaps when he has been under the influence of drugs. . . .

He said he has molested approximately 25-30 children (mostly boys) and has shot and killed one boy out west (later he recanted this story). . . .

He rarely accepts responsibility for his actions and tries to blame others for all the problems he has encountered. . . .

The murder of Zachary appears to be directly related to his fear of having to return to prison after Zachary revealed he would report Mr. Stevens' sexual assault. Mr. Stevens did not seem to reveal sincere sorrow for killing Zachary and is much more preoccupied with saving his own life.

Sexually, Mr. Stevens seems well versed in pedophilia and readily accepts this diagnosis. . . .

Mr. Stevens is in need of intensive counseling although due to his manipulative behavior he is not now a good candidate for psychotherapy. . . .

Mr. Stevens is, at this time, a serious danger to society and there is every reason to believe he would continue to molest children, especially boys, if given another opportunity. Given his present mental state, one could not rule out another violent assault on a young victim if Mr. Stevens again felt it was necessary.

Upon receipt of the report, Stevens's lawyers immediately contacted Dr. Lennon to question why he had disobeyed their instructions. Stevens's attorney Robert Clutter testified that Dr. Lennon, echoing Marlene Dietrich's portrayal of the character Christine Helm Vole in the 1957 film version of Witness for the Prosecution, responded: "Don't worry about it. I'm sandbagging the State. . . . I'm trying to make them think that I'm going to be a good witness for them, but I'm going to take—when I take the stand, I'm going to be able to turn this all around on them."

Around the same time, Stevens's lawyers also learned that Dr. Lennon subscribed to an unusual psychological theory known as the "myth of mental illness." Stevens's lawyers believed that Dr. Lennon's belief in this theory placed him in the one percent minority of psychologists who believe that mental diseases do not exist. They concluded that he was a "quack." Stevens's lawyers also learned about Dr. Lennon's favored therapeutic technique, "trust and bonding therapy," which the lawyers (and later Dr. Lennon himself) described as "putting 18-year-olds on his lap and sticking a bottle in their mouth." Despite their serious and well-founded doubts about Dr. Lennon's fitness as a defense expert, Stevens's counsel did not seek an alternative. In addition, prior to trial the lawyers sent a copy of Dr. Lennon's report to the prosecution.

Neither Dr. Lennon nor any other mental health professional testified during the guilt phase at the trial. Instead, Stevens's counsel tried to convince the jury that Stevens was guilty of voluntary manslaughter rather than intentional homicide because he acted in a state of sudden heat provoked by Snider's threat to disclose Stevens's molestation of him. This strategy was unsuccessful, as the trial court refused to give a proposed jury instruction on voluntary manslaughter. The jury returned a guilty verdict.

At the penalty phase of the trial, defense counsel presented testimony from Stevens himself, as well as from numerous members of Stevens's family. As their final witness, Stevens's lawyers called Dr. Lennon. Dr. Lennon began his testimony by describing at length his preferred form of therapy for troubled children, stating that he typically would forcibly hold a young person down in his lap for "a fun time where the child tries to get away" until the child is exhausted and then, "we'll talk about the child, the little baby inside this boy that was never nourished, never loved ... and in some cases we'll actually give a bottle. The mother will give a bottle to the 17-year-old and 16-year-old . . . ." Dr. Lennon also described his diagnostic technique of looking at photographs of troubled children at younger ages where "[w]e see . . . a beautiful child...