Wilson v. State

1

JOSEPH WILSON v. STATE OF TENNESSEE

No. W2023-00192-CCA-R3-PC

Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, Jackson

February 26, 2024

Session January 3, 2024

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Madison County No. C-22-34 Kyle C Atkins, Judge

The Petitioner, Joseph Wilson, was convicted in 2001 by a Madison County Circuit Court jury of a number of offenses, including attempted second degree murder and three counts of aggravated rape, based on his having raped and cut the throat of a woman during his participation with accomplices in burglarizing her home. In February 2022, the Petitioner filed a petition pursuant to the Post-Conviction DNA Analysis Act of 2001 Tennessee Code Annotated section 40-30-301, et seq., for DNA analysis of the sexual assault kit, the knife used to cut the victim's throat, the clothing the victim was wearing at the time of the assault, and assorted other items recovered from the bathroom where the sexual assault occurred, asserting that "significant technological developments in forensic methodologies over the last fifteen years [have occurred] that may now make it possible to conclusively identify the true perpetrator[.]" Following a hearing, the post-conviction court denied the petition, finding that the Petitioner had not shown there was a reasonable probability that he would not have been prosecuted or convicted or that new DNA testing would resolve an issue that had not been previously resolved. On appeal, the Petitioner argues that the post-conviction court erred in finding that the Petitioner did not satisfy the requirements for DNA analysis pursuant to the Post-Conviction DNA Analysis Act. The State concedes that DNA analysis of the sexual assault kit and the knife is warranted but argues that it is not warranted for the other pieces of evidence. We agree with the State that DNA analysis is warranted for the sexual assault kit and unwarranted for the items collected from the bathroom and for the victim's clothing that was not collected as part of the sexual assault kit. However, we disagree that DNA analysis is warranted for the knife. Accordingly, we reverse the denial of the request for DNA analysis of the sexual assault kit but affirm the denial of the request for DNA analysis of the knife and additional items. Thus, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for entry of an order for DNA testing consistent with this opinion.

Tenn. R. App. P. 3; Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Circuit Court Affirmed in Part, Reversed in Part; Case Remanded

Tara Thompson, New York, New York, Exoneration Project, and Alexander Camp, Jackson, Tennessee (at hearing and on appeal); and Jessica K. Spencer, New York, New York, Innocence Project, and Paul Bruno, Nashville, Tennessee (on appeal), for the appellant, Joseph W. Wilson.

Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General and Reporter; Ronald L. Coleman, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Jody S. Pickens, District Attorney General; and Alfred L. Earls, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

JOHN W. CAMPBELL, SR., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which J. ROSS DYER and MATTHEW J. WILSON, JJ., joined.

OPINION

JOHN W. CAMPBELL, SR., JUDGE

FACTS

On June 2, 2001, the Petitioner was convicted of attempted second degree murder, three counts of aggravated rape, especially aggravated robbery, especially aggravated burglary conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary, theft, and vandalism based on his participation with accomplices Jason White, Rodney Smith, and Brandon Taylor in the November 27, 1999 burglary of a Madison County home, during which the Petitioner repeatedly raped the seventy-year-old widowed homeowner before cutting her throat with a knife. At the time of the offenses, the Petitioner was less than a month from his seventeenth birthday, but at the time of the 2001 trial, the Petitioner was eighteen, Taylor was nineteen, White was twenty, and Smith was twenty-two.^[1] The victim made a positive courtroom identification of the Petitioner as the man who orally and vaginally raped her before cutting her throat and leaving her for dead on the floor of the small bathroom where the rapes occurred.

Our direct appeal opinion provides the following summary of the victim's trial testimony:

During the early morning hours of Saturday, November 27, 1999, the seventy-year-old victim awoke when intruders entered her home. The victim identified the intruders as the [Petitioner] and Jason White. She stated the [Petitioner] instructed her to get out of bed. She said that when she complied, the [Petitioner] placed a knife to her throat and walked her down the hall into the den, where he asked her for money. She testified that after the intruders took six dollars from her purse, the [Petitioner] took her into a bathroom and sat her on the commode.

The victim stated the intruders tied her hands behind her back with a towel. She said the [Petitioner] placed his penis in her mouth and threatened to cut her throat if she did not perform fellatio. The victim testified that when she did not perform to the [Petitioner's] satisfaction, he then threw her to the floor, removed her clothing, and inserted his penis into her vagina. Her vagina was torn and required stitches.

According to the victim, the [Petitioner] then pulled her off the floor and struck her head against a wall. The victim stated the [Petitioner] "rant[ed] and rav[ed]," and called her a "whore" and a "bitch." She testified the [Petitioner] again placed his penis back into her mouth, threatened to cut her throat if she did not perform fellatio, and kicked her. The victim testified she asked the [Petitioner] why he was doing this, and he replied, "Because you didn't have much money."

The victim stated that during the rapes, White kept telling the [Petitioner], "We need to go." She said that when White had a question about the rifles in her gun cabinet, the [Petitioner] went out of the bathroom and gave instructions on which guns to take. She said the intruders asked her for her car keys, and she told them they were by the back door.

She testified that before the intruders left, the [Petitioner] cut her throat and said, "Now, bitch, I guess you'll call the police." She stated she felt blood gushing but lay still and pretended to be dead. After the intruders left, the victim fled to her daughter's nearby home, where her daughter and son-in-law obtained emergency assistance for her. The victim was transported to the hospital, where doctors performed surgery to repair the huge, gaping laceration to her throat and the laceration in her vagina. Miraculously, the victim survived.

State v. Wilson, No. W2001-03007-CCA-R3-CD, 2003 WL 261939, at *1 (Tenn. Crim. App. Feb. 3, 2003), perm. app. denied (Tenn. May 27, 2003).

The victim testified that the Petitioner at one point ordered White to guard the bathroom door while the Petitioner left the bathroom. Id. at *2. She said that White never touched her and never entered the bathroom. Id.

Each of the Petitioner's three accomplices testified against the Petitioner at trial. Id. at *2-4. Our review of the trial transcript reveals that each acknowledged having received a plea bargain in exchange for his trial testimony, with Jason White pleading guilty to a number of offenses in the instant case and to an offense in an unrelated case in exchange for the prosecutor's recommendation that he receive an effective sentence of twenty-one years in the Tennessee Department of Correction with no probation. According to each accomplice's trial testimony, Taylor's role was to drive his vehicle up and down the road while the Petitioner, White, and Smith burglarized the home, but Taylor instead left after dropping the three others off. Id.

During his trial testimony, Jason White described how the Petitioner led the victim to a small bathroom off a hallway and how White followed the Petitioner's instructions by guarding the victim while the Petitioner retrieved what appeared to be a white scarf, which the Petitioner used to tie the victim. Id. at *2. White testified that he never entered the bathroom. Id. He also described hearing the angry Petitioner hit and kick the victim while cursing her, his having refused the Petitioner's suggestion that he join the Petitioner in raping the victim, seeing the victim lying on the bathroom floor with her throat cut, and the Petitioner's having told him as they were leaving the home that the victim would be unable to call for help because the Petitioner had cut the victim's telephone lines. Id. at *2-3. White testified that after he, the Petitioner, and Rodney Smith left the victim's home in the victim's white Cadillac, they met back up with Brandon Taylor and then burglarized another home, with the Petitioner gaining entry by using his knife to cut a window screen in the home. Id. at *3. White acknowledged that he also had a knife during the offenses, but he denied that he used it on the victim. Id.

Our review of the trial transcript reveals that White testified that after the group committed the second burglary, they picked up the Petitioner's brother, Jason Wilson, and drove to a Super 8 motel, where White went alone to the motel room of Chris Kennon and April, whose last name at that time was Thompson. White stated that he gave April some of the jewelry he had taken from the victim's home. He said that when the couple asked where he had obtained the Cadillac, he told them that they had just broken into someone's home, that he believed the lady was dead, and that they had stolen her vehicle.

Rodney Smith testified at trial that he entered the victim's home with the Petitioner and White, and that he broke into the victim's gun cabinet but immediately left with some rifles when he heard the...