U.S. ex rel. Easley v. Hinsley

305 F.Supp.2d 867

UNITED STATES of America ex rel., Ike J. EASLEY, Jr., # N-21627 Petitioner, v. Charles L. HINSLEY, Warden Tamms Correctional Center, Respondent.

No. 01 C 7117.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

February 24, 2004.

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Stephen E. Eberhardt, Attorney at Law, Crestwood, Sharon Anne Hicks, Urbana, for Ike Easley, Jr, U.S.A. ex rel., petitioner.

David Harris Iskowich, Illinois Attorney General's Office, Chicago, for George Welborn, Warden Tamms Correctional Center, respondent.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

GETTLEMAN, District Judge.

After a jury trial in the Circuit Court of Cook County, petitioner, Ike Easley, Jr. ("Easley"), was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to death. After his direct and post-conviction appeals to the Illinois Supreme Court, Easley petitioned this court for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. On January 11, 2003, former Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted Easley's death sentence to natural life in prison without the possibility of parole. Before this court is Easley's second amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed after the commutation of his death sentence. For the reasons stated below, the court denies Easley's habeas petition in its entirety.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Procedural History

Following a jury trial in the Circuit Court of Livingston County, Illinois on July 18, 1989, Easley was convicted of the first-degree murder of Robert Taylor, a superintendent at the Pontiac Correctional Center. At the time, Easley was incarcerated at Pontiac for an unrelated murder conviction. At a separate sentencing hearing, the same jury found Easley eligible for the death penalty on the ground that Easley's victim was a correctional officer, which is a statutory aggravating circumstance. The jury concluded that there were no mitigating factors sufficient to preclude imposition of the death penalty, and the trial judge therefore sentenced Easley to death.

Easley filed a direct appeal with the Illinois Supreme Court, which affirmed Easley's conviction and sentence on April 16, 1992. People v. Easley, 148 Ill.2d 281, 170 Ill.Dec. 356, 592 N.E.2d 1036 (1992)(Easley I). Easley then filed a post-conviction petition with the Livingston County Circuit Court. On August 17, 1997, the Livingston County Circuit Court granted the State's motion to dismiss Easley's post-conviction petition. The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the Circuit Court's dismissal of Easley's post-conviction petition on May 25, 2000. People v. Easley, 192 Ill.2d 307, 249 Ill.Dec. 537, 736 N.E.2d 975 (2000)(Easley II). On May 28, 2003, Easley filed his second amended petition for writ of habeas corpus with this court.

B. Trial Testimony

The following recitation of facts is drawn from the Illinois Supreme Court's ruling on Easley's direct and post-conviction appeals which facts Easley does not challenge. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1); Mahaffey v. Schomig, 294 F.3d 907, 915 (7th Cir.2002) (unless a habeas petitioner provides clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, a determination of a factual issue by a state court is presumed correct for the purposes of habeas review).

Superintendent Taylor was killed in his office at Pontiac on the morning of September 3, 1987. A "shank," or homemade knife, was recovered from the office and identified as the weapon used to murder Taylor. At trial, inmate Lawrence Spillar testified to the following events. Sometime before 11:00 a.m. on September 3, 1987, he and inmate Charles Nealy were seated in Taylor's office and Taylor was seated behind his desk, facing the two inmates. As the three men spoke, Easley ran into the office, jumped on Taylor's desk and struck him in the face. Easley then pulled a knife from his belt and stabbed Taylor. Spillar then ran from Taylor's office and collided with another inmate, Roosevelt Lucas, who was entering Taylor's office. As he left, Spillar saw Lucas hitting Taylor with a metal pipe. Spiller then watched Easley run down the gallery and discard his gloves, coat and hat.

Inmate Demetre Brown testified that shortly before 11:00 a.m. on September 3, 1987, he saw Easley sitting on a radiator located near Taylor's office. According to Brown, Easley was putting on a cap and gloves and was wearing a winter coat and white gym shoes. Brown then saw Easley run into Taylor's office and stab Taylor.

Correctional Lieutenant Shettleworth testified that he had seen Easley near Taylor's office shortly before Taylor was attacked and that Easley was wearing a heavy coat. Correctional Officer Don Lyons and Correctional Captain Donald Whitaker corroborated this testimony. Following the attack, Correctional Officer Walter Turner testified that he saw Easley alone in his cell wearing a white t-shirt and white tennis shoes.

In addition to this testimony, State witnesses also presented physical evidence linking Easley to the murder. Crime evidence technician Edward Kallel collected a metal pipe, a shank, gloves, a sheet of computer paper marked with a shoe print, and blood samples from the murder scene. Steven Kasarsky, a fingerprint examiner, testified that he found a print on the shank's handle that matched Easley's fingerprint. Michael Krieser of the Illinois State Police examined the computer paper and testified that the shoeprint left on the paper was made with the left shoe of a pair of gym shoes removed from Easley's cell. Richard Ores, the Pontiac evidence custodian, testified that he removed clothing and tennis shoes from Easley's cell. According to Ores, the clothes and shoes were damp, as if they had recently been washed or soaked.

At trial, the State's theory of the case was that Easley was a member of a street gang called the Black Gangster Disciples, which operated inside the Pontiac. The gang blamed a Pontiac correctional officer for killing another gang member, Billy Jones (a.k.a."Zodiac"), who had died in the jail earlier that year. The State sought to establish that the Black Gangster Disciples conspired to kill Taylor to avenge Jones' death and that Easley was selected to carry out this conspiracy.

Although Easley did not testify at trial, one of his post-arrest statements was allowed into evidence. After the murder, Easley was handcuffed and removed from his cell and taken to the assistant warden's office where he was met by investigators Read and Brubaker. Brubaker advised Easley of his Miranda rights and Read recorded that Easley refused to answer any questions and refused to waive his right to remain silent. Read testified that neither he nor Brubaker asked Easley any further questions after receiving his response to the Miranda warnings. Another investigator, Deputy Director Gerald Long, then entered the room and was advised by the officers that they had administered the Miranda warnings and that Easley refused to answer any questions about the Taylor murder. Long testified that he then told Easley that he understood that Easley had refused to answer any questions but they had inmate testimony that indicated that he and another individual were perpetrators of Taylor's murder and that if convicted of the crime, he could be subject to the death penalty. At that point, Long testified that Easley said to him, "all you honkey motherfuckers want is a nigger donkey to pin this case on, and I am your donkey, I am your killer." After making this statement, Easley was returned to his cell. Over Easley's motion to suppress, the statement to Long was admitted into evidence.

II. MOOT SENTENCING CLAIMS

On January 11, 2003, former Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted Easley's death sentence to natural life in prison without the possibility of parole. Since Easley's commutation, the Illinois Supreme Court has issued decisions on direct appeal and modified decisions on the denial of rehearing in other capital cases. In each case, the Illinois Supreme Court concluded that former Governor Ryan's commutation of the defendant's death sentence rendered moot any capital sentencing claims. See, e.g., People v. Ceja, 204 Ill.2d 332, 273 Ill.Dec. 796, 789 N.E.2d 1228 (2003)(commutation removes judicially imposed sentence replacing it with a lesser, executively imposed sentence); People v. Lucas, 203 Ill.2d 410, 272 Ill.Dec. 298, 787 N.E.2d 113 (2002)(same); People v. Miller, 203 Ill.2d 433, 272 Ill.Dec. 155, 786 N.E.2d 989 (2002)(same). The Seventh Circuit has similarly decided the issue. See, e.g., Wilson v. Mote, No. 03-1943, slip. op. at 1 (7th Cir. June 18, 2003)(commutation mooted prisoner's habeas claims based on his death sentence).

Although Easley amended his habeas petition since the commutation of his death sentence, he nevertheless includes seven claims challenging his death sentence in his last amended petition. Contrary to Easley's contentions that these claims are valid, this court concludes that any claims challenging his death sentence are now moot. These claims include: (1) ineffective assistance of counsel at the capital sentencing hearing; (2) ineffective assistance of appellate counsel for not raising on direct review all sentencing-related claims raised by post-conviction counsel; (3) prosecutorial misconduct at sentencing hearing; (4) improper first-stage eligibility instructions; (5) improper and highly prejudicial evidence admitted at sentencing hearing; (6) jury heard improper victim impact evidence; and (7) a "death row phenomenon" claim.¹

III. HABEAS STANDARDS

Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA"), a habeas petitioner is not entitled to a writ of habeas corpus unless the challenged state court decision is either "contrary to" or "an unreasonable application of" clearly established federal law as determined by the United States Supreme Court. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1); see also Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 404-05, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). A state court's...