Michael Eugene Sample v. State of Tennessee
W2016-02479-CCA-R3-ECN
| Tenn. Crim. App. | Aug 11, 2017Background
- Michael Eugene Sample was convicted in 1982 of two counts of felony murder and sentenced to death; his direct appeal and numerous post-conviction petitions over ~20 years were unsuccessful.
- In 2016 he filed claims under Tenn. R. Crim. P. 36.1 and sought writs of error coram nobis and audita querela, asserting he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution.
- Rule 36.1 allows correction of an unexpired illegal sentence when a sentence is unauthorized or contravenes statute.
- Tennessee's statutory prohibition on executing defendants with intellectual disability (codified in 1990) was enacted after Sample’s death sentence was imposed (by 1985).
- The coram nobis court denied relief on all claims; the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed for the reasons below.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whether Rule 36.1 entitles Sample to relief because he is intellectually disabled | Sample: his death sentence is illegal under Rule 36.1 because Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-203(b) bars executing intellectually disabled offenders | State: sentence was authorized when imposed and did not contravene any statute then; § 39-13-203 was enacted after sentencing | Denied — Rule 36.1 relief not available because sentence was lawful when imposed and not illegal under Rule 36.1 |
| Whether a writ of audita querela is available to challenge the sentence | Sample: seeks audita querela to avoid execution due to intellectual disability | State: audita querela is obsolete and replaced by statutory remedies | Denied — audita querela is obsolete in Tennessee and not available |
| Whether coram nobis relief is available for the intellectual-disability claim | Sample: seeks coram nobis relief despite acknowledging limitations | State: coram nobis does not provide relief for intellectual-disability claims as constrained by precedent | Denied — coram nobis unavailable for this intellectual-disability claim |
Key Cases Cited
- State v. Brown, 479 S.W.3d 200 (Tenn. 2015) (discussing Rule 36.1 and illegal-sentence concept)
- Payne v. State, 493 S.W.3d 478 (Tenn. 2016) (coram nobis cannot supply relief for intellectual-disability claims challenging death sentence)
- Marsh v. Haywood, 25 Tenn. 210 (Tenn. 1845) (holding audita querela obsolete in Tennessee practice)
- United States v. Fonseca-Martinez, 36 F.3d 62 (9th Cir. 1994) (defining writ of audita querela as relief for defenses arising after judgment)