Turner v. Wong

641 F.Supp.2d 1010

Thaddaeus Louis TURNER, Petitioner, v. Robert K. WONG, as Acting Warden of San Quentin State Prison,^* Respondent.

No. 1:91-cv-00153-LJO.

United States District Court, E.D. California.

August 4, 2009.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Charles Trudrung Taylor, Lang Richert & Patch Katherine Louise Hart, Law Offices of Katherine Hart, Fresno, CA, Joseph Schlesinger, Federal Public Defender, Sacramento, CA, for Petitioner.

Ward Allen Campbell, California Department of Justice, Sacramento, CA, for Respondent.

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER FOLLOWING EVIDENTIARY HEARING GRANTING PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

LAWRENCE J. O'NEILL, District Judge.

  I. Factual Background and Trial Proceedings .................................... 1014
 II. Post-Trial Procedural History ............................................... 1016
III. Standard of Review .......................................................... 1017
 IV. Alleged Ineffective Assistance of Counsel During Penalty Proceedings (Claim
      5) ........................................ ................................ 1018
     A. Summary of the Relevant Facts ............................................ 1018
        1. Guilt Phase Trial Proceedings ......................................... 1018

           a. Mr. Hallford's Guilt Phase Opening Statement ....................... 1018
           b. Mr. Ellery's Guilt Phase Opening Statement ......................... 1019
           c. Guilt Phase Testimony of Gregory Mayo .............................. 1019
           d. Guilt Phase Testimony of Augusti Albritton ......................... 1020
           e. Guilt Phase Testimony of Detective Craig Wright .................... 1020
           f. Guilt Phase Testimony of Detective Henry Strength .................. 1021
           g. Guilt Phase Testimony of Detective John Harris ..................... 1021
           h. Guilt Phase Testimony of Pathologist Malcolm Murdoch, M.D. ......... 1022
           i. Guilt Phase Testimony of Rita Dienst ............................... 1022
           j. Guilt Phase Testimony of Turner .................................... 1022
           k. Guilt Phase Testimony of Bartender Jay Bradshaw .................... 1026
           l. Guilt Phase Testimony of Phillip M. Hamm, Jr., Ph.D. ............... 1026
           m. Guilt Phase Testimony of Lee Stewart Coleman, M.D. ................. 1029
           n. Mr. Hallford's Guilt Phase Summation ............................... 1029
           o. Mr. Ellery's Guilt Phase Summation ................................. 1030
           p. Mr. Hallford's Guilt Phase Rebuttal ................................ 1031
           q. Guilt Phase Deliberations .......................................... 1031
        2. Penalty Phase Trial Proceedings ....................................... 1031
           a. Penalty Phase Testimony of Dr. Murdoch ............................. 1031
           b. Penalty Phase Testimony of Detective Strength ...................... 1032
           c. Penalty Phase Testimony of Ruth Turner ............................. 1032
           d. Penalty Phase Testimony of Lisa Haynes ............................. 1032
           e. Penalty Phase Testimony of Elijah Barber ........................... 1032
           f. Penalty Phase Testimony of Lewis Coleman ........................... 1033
           g. Penalty Phase Testimony of Kathryn Carter .......................... 1033
           h. Penalty Phase Jury Instructions .................................... 1033
           i. Mr. Hallford's Penalty Phase Summation ............................. 1033
           j. Mr. Ellery's Penalty Phase Summation ............................... 1034
           k. Mr. Hallford's Penalty Phase Rebuttal .............................. 1035
           l. Penalty Phase Deliberations ........................................ 1035
        3. Turner's motion for modification of the death verdict ................. 1035
        4. Evidence Presented at the Evidentiary Hearing ......................... 1036
           a. Turner Family and Friend Witnesses ................................. 1037
              (1) Evelyn Turner .................................................. 1037
              (2) Elizabeth Turner ............................................... 1041
              (3) Oweida Doxey ................................................... 1044
              (4) Ruth Evelyn Turner ............................................. 1046
              (5) Yvonne Turner Haynes ........................................... 1052
              (6) Thaddaeus Jefferson Turner ..................................... 1053
              (7) Pam Butler ..................................................... 1053
              (8) Kathryn Carter Senegal-Price ................................... 1054
              (9) Lewis Coleman .................................................. 1056
              (10) Sandra Goodman ................................................ 1057
              (11) March 31. 1980 Probation Report ............................... 1057
           b. School and Academic Records ........................................ 1058
           c. Witnesses Acquainted with Mr. Savage ............................... 1058
              (1) Betty Means Tavares ............................................ 1058
              (2) Joyce Slaton ................................................... 1059
           d. Investigating Officers ............................................. 1060
              (1) Detective Strength ............................................. 1060
              (2) Detective Jill Mayer ........................................... 1061
           e. Expert Witnesses ................................................... 1061
              (1) Trevor D. Glenn. M.D. .......................................... 1061
              (2) Ernest D. Lykissa, Ph.D. ....................................... 1062
              (3) Dean Warden .................................................... 1062
              (4) Stephen M. Pittel, Ph.D. ....................................... 1062
              (5) Phillip M. Hamm Jr., Ph.D. ..................................... 1064
              (6) Howard B. Terrell, M.D. ........................................ 1070
              (7) Reese T. Jones, M.D. ........................................... 1079
           f. Trial Defense Team Witnesses. ...................................... 1083

              (1) John W. Ellery ................................................. 1083
              (2) William Ray Brown .............................................. 1089
              (3) Kenneth Roberts ................................................ 1091
           g. State Appellate and Post-Conviction Attorney Witnesses ............. 1091
              (1) Dennis A Fischer................................................ 1091
              (2) John M. Bishop ................................................. 1091
              (3) Douglas W. Otto ................................................ 1091
           h. (Former) District Attorney Patrick Hallford ........................ 1092
     B. Analysis ................................................................. 1093
        1. Performance ........................................................... 1093
           a. Childhood Abuse and Dysfunctional Family Dynamics .................. 1094
           b. Borderline Intellectual Capabilities ............................... 1102
           c. Drug Abuse and Drug Abuse History .................................. 1103
           d. Mr. Savage's Sexual Practices ...................................... 1105
        2. Prejudice ............................................................. 1108
  V. Order ....................................................................... 1118
  Appendix ....................................................................... 1118

I. Factual Background and Trial Proceedings

This case involves the stabbing murder of Roy Savage on April 14, 1984. Mr. Savage was stabbed 40 to 50 times in a gruesomely bloody attack at his Merced home. Numerous household items, including a television, together with Mr. Savage's late model Cadillac, were missing from the house when sheriff's deputies commenced their investigation. In addition, two telephone cords in the house had been cut.¹ Petitioner Thaddaeus L. Turner ("Turner"), 22 years old at the time,² admitted the act of stabbing Mr. Savage, taking a television from Mr. Savage's home, and driving away in Mr. Savage's car. He denied harboring the intent to steal the television or car prior to the fatal attack, and denied cutting telephone cords or taking any other possessions. He claimed the stabbing followed Mr. Savage's unwanted sexual advances. When Turner was apprehended by a California Highway Patrol officer in Fresno, two days after Mr. Savage was killed (April 16, 1984), he was driving Mr. Savage's car. The missing television set was in the trunk and Mr. Savage's wallet was on the console of the car. None of the other household items said to have been missing from Mr. Savage's house was recovered.

Besides claiming to have been sexually attacked by Mr. Savage, Turner maintains he was an habitual PCP and marijuana user, and that he used both drugs, plus methamphetamine and alcohol, on the day of the offense. In offers of proof supporting his motion for an evidentiary hearing, and at the evidentiary hearing the Court ultimately conducted, he also presented considerable evidence of his miserable and sad childhood during which he was persistently physically abused and verbally ridiculed by his alcoholic father, while virtually neglected by his depressed, despondent mother. From the time Turner was in grade school, his father whipped him with a leather razor strap kept in the garage,³ "thumped...