Williams, Michael Wayne v. Taylor, Warden (VA) (04/18/2000)

By: Sharna Marcus, Medill News Service

Questions presented

Whether 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(2), which prohibits a federal habeas court from holding an evidentiary hearing only ""if the applicant has failed to develop the factual basis of a claim in state court proceedings,"" governs Williams' claim where throughout the state proceedings, the state suppressed the relevant facts, denied his discovery requests, denied all investigative and expert resources to investigate, develop, and discover claims, and denied an evidentiary hearing.

Brief

During his trial for the murders of Morris and Mary Elizabeth Keller, Michael Wayne Williams sat in the same courtroom as juror Bonnie Stinnett; Deputy Sherriff Claude Meinhard, a witness for the prosecution; and prosecutor Robert Woodson.

What Williams, now 31, didn't know was that Meinhard was Stinnett's ex-wife. Prosecutor Woodson knew the witness' relationship to the juror because he represented Stinnett in her divorce. Stinnett decided Williams' fate, despite failing to divulge the relationship in the jury questionnaire that asked if Stinnett knew any of the witnesses.

The jury convicted Williams of murder, burglary, rape, arson, two counts of robbery and two counts of abduction, and sentenced him to die.

On direct appeal, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld Williams' conviction and death sentence. Subsequently, Williams exhausted his state habeas remedies and sought habeas relief in federal court.

In preparation for Williams' federal habeas petition, his attorneys discovered for the first time the marital relationship between juror and witness. They also discovered a psychiatric evaluation of Williams' accomplice in which he indicated he ""had little specific recollection of the events surrounding"" the Keller murders and an alleged plea bargain by the accomplice in which he agreed to testify against Williams.

Initially, the federal district court granted Williams an evidentiary hearing because of the omissions, but reversed itself after the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals entered a stay and instructed the district court to reconsider, taking into account the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) of 1996. The district court then dismissed Williams' petition citing the AEDPA statute and finding that requiring that Williams failed to show ""actual innocence.""

The trial testimony against Williams had included evidence that after breaking into the Kellers' home, Williams and his accomplice ordered the couple to take off all their clothes, raped Mrs. Keller, shot the couple in a wooded area near the home, and went back to rob the house.

Williams appealed to the 4th Circuit, arguing the AEDPA statute only applies to someone who ""has failed to develop the factual basis of a claim in state court."" Williams said he couldn't have made a claim in state court because in a separate, previous appeal, the Virgina Supreme Court ""denied his requests for discovery, a hearing, and expert and investigative assistance.""

A unanimous 4th Circuit affirmed, finding that Williams' attorneys failed to prove diligence during the state habeas case in that the that the divorce records dating back to 1979 could have been discovered.

As to the other claims, the appeals court denied Williams an evidentiary hearing because he could not meet the burden under the AEDPA that ""but for the constitutional error, no reasonable fact-finder would have found him guilty of the underlying offence.""

On Oct. 28, 1999, as Williams was to be executed at Sussex I prison in Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed the execution, granted certiorari, allowed him to proceed in forma pauperis, and limited review to the question presented above.

According to accounts in the Richmond Times Dispatch, Williams had already eaten his last meal, when he found out his execution was stayed. He has been on death row since Feb. 23, 1994.

Williams is also serving four life sentences after being convicted on one count of capital murder and three counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of four men in Prince Edward County, Va., in December 1992.

On April 18, 2000, a unanimous Court sided with Williams, allowing him to get a hearing in federal court to develop evidence on his claims of prosecutorial misconduct and juror bias.

Writing for the Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy concluded that although the the federal Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act generally bars an evidentiary hearing in federal court for inmates who failed to develop the factual basis of a claim in state court proceedings, the law still allows a hearing for defendants who fail to discover information despite diligent efforts.

In Williams' case, the Court found that there was no evidence which would have put a reasonable attorney on notice of the juror's omission of material information, and that counsel had no reason to believe the juror had been married to the state's witness or been represented by the prosecutor.