Glock v. MooreGlock v. Moore
Petitioner Robert Glock appeals the district court’s denial of the writ of habeas corpus with respect to his sentence of death. Petitioner argues that he was denied constitutionally effective assistance of counsel, guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, during the penalty phase of his trial. The district court denied the writ and we now affirm in all respects.
I.
A.
Glock and his codefendant, Carl Puiatti, were charged in Florida with the first-degree murder, kidnapping, and robbery of Sharilyn Ritchie. The Florida Supreme Court described the evidence against Glock as follows:
[O]n August 16, 1983, the woman victim arrived at a Bradenton shopping mall. As she exited her automobile, Puiatti and Glock confronted her, forced her back inside the car, and drove away with her. They took $50 from her purse and coerced her into cashing a $100 check at her bank. They then took the victim to an orange grove outside Dade City[,] where they took the woman’s wedding ring and abandoned her at the roadside. After traveling a short distance, the appellants determined that the woman should be killed, and they returned in the car to her. When the car’s window came adjacent to the woman, Puiatti shot her twice. The appellants drove away, but, when they saw she was still standing, they drove by the victim again and Glock shot her. When the woman did not fall, the appellants made a third pass with the automobile, Glock shot her another time, and the woman collapsed.
Puiatti v. State, 495 So.2d 128, 129 (Fla. 1986), vacated in part, 481 U.S. 1027, 107 S.Ct. 1950, 95 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987).
The facts surrounding Glock’s arrest and trial have been developed extensively in Glock v. Singletary, 36 F.3d 1014, 1017-18 (11th Cir.1994), vacated, 51 F.3d 942 (11th Cir.1995) (en banc), and Glock v. Singletary, 65 F.3d 878, 880-81 (11th Cir. 1995) (en banc). Glock was found guilty of all three offenses. At the penalty phase1 Glock presented three witnesses, and he also testified himself. Willie May Glock, Glock’s stepmother with whom he lived since the age of fourteen, testified that Glock regretted participating in the murder of Sharilyn Ritchie; that he was more of a follower than a leader, and thus she doubted that his participation in the crime was voluntary; that she loved Glock; and that his early childhood was characterized by a lack of parental guidance.2 Dr. Gerald Mussenden, a clinical psychologist, tes
In his closing argument during the penalty phase, Glock’s attorney, Robert Trogolo, argued against the finding of any statutory aggravating circumstances.6 He also argued that there were several mitigating circumstances that weighed against the imposition of the death penalty. As for statutory mitigating circumstances, Trogolo argued that Glock had no significant history of prior criminal activity; the felony was committed while Glock was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance; Glock acted under the substantial domination of another person (his codefendant, Puiatti); Glock’s capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was substantially impaired; and that while Glock was chronologically twenty-two years of age, his emotional or psychological age was much younger, and thus the “age of the defendant” should be considered in his favor. See
As for nonstatutory mitigators, Trogolo argued that Glock’s history of childhood abuse should be weighed in his favor. He also contended that Glock was an excellent candidate for rehabilitation. To support this claim, Trogolo argued that during the early stages of the police investigation, Glock acknowledged his wrongdoing; Glock’s conduct while incarcerated had been exemplary; Glock had a history of nonviolence; Glock could adjust to law-abiding behavior; he had served honorably in the military; he was a person of good character, as testified to by his stepmother and his sister; his criminal conduct was the result of circumstances that were unlikely to recur; and Glock’s attitude was
By a vote of eleven to one, the jury recommended that Glock be put to death. Because the Florida capital sentencing scheme does not require it do so, see
B.
Following the imposition of sentence, Glock appealed his murder conviction and death sentence. The Florida Supreme Court found no error in the proceedings before the trial court and therefore affirmed.8 Puiatti, 495 So.2d 128. Glock then moved the trial court for postconviction relief pursuant to Rule 3.850 of the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure. In his Rule 3.850 petition Glock listed sixteen claims, including a claim that his attorney was ineffective at both the guilt and penalty phases of his trial.9 The trial court, without holding an evidentiary hearing, examined and rejected each of Glock’s claims, finding that some of his claims had been waived, some had been decided against him on direct appeal and thus were not cognizable in a Rule 3.850 proceeding, and the rest lacked merit.
The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s denial of Rule 3.850 relief. Glock v. Dugger, 537 So.2d 99 (Fla.1989).10
The Florida Supreme Court rejected Glock’s Cruz claim. Glock, 537 So.2d at 102. The court also found the ineffective assistance claim to be without merit because “[t]he ‘additional information’ Glock now seeks to submit is not new, but cumulative to that which was presented in the sentencing process. In addition to the reports provided to the experts, Glock’s stepmother and sister testified to the substance of his family background.” Id. After the court handed down its decision, the Governor signed Glock’s death warrant and his execution was scheduled for January 17, 1989.
On January 3, 1989, Glock, replicating the sixteen claims raised in his Rule 3.850 petition, filed the instant petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. The district court concluded that Glock’s claims, including his ineffective assistance claim, were meritless on their face and therefore denied the writ. Glock v. Dugger, 752 F.Supp. 1027, 1031 (M.D.Fla. 1990). The court did grant a certificate of probable cause, however, thereby permitting an appeal.
On appeal, Glock raised seven of the claims he asserted in the district court, including (1) the Cruz claim; (2) the ineffective assistance claim; and (3) that the trial court erred in refusing to provide the instruction necessary to guide the jury during the penalty phase in assessing the aggravating factors. With regard to the first of these claims, a panel of this court concluded that under Cruz, the trial court denied Glock his Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him by admitting the confession of his nontestifying codefendant, Puiatti. The panel nonetheless affirmed Glock’s murder conviction because the denial constituted harmless error. As to Glock’s sentence, the court found it unnecessary to consider Glock’s ineffective assistance claim because it granted relief from the sentence based upon another of Glock’s claims. The panel found that the trial court’s jury instructions regarding one aggravating factor (that “[t]he capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel”) were unconstitutionally vague, in violation of Glock’s Eight Amendment rights as interpreted in Espinosa v. Florida, 505 U.S. 1079, 112 S.Ct. 2926, 120 L.Ed.2d 854 (1992). Glock, 36 F.3d at 1025. The en banc court decided to review the case to consider whether the nonretroactivity principle of Teague v. Lane, 489 U.S. 288, 109 S.Ct. 1060, 103 L.Ed.2d 334 (1989), precluded relief under either Espinosa or Cruz. Concluding that Teague barred the retroactive application of Espinosa, and that Glock merited no relief on the Cruz claim in any event, the en banc court affirmed the district court’s denial of relief from the conviction and the denial of relief from the sentence based on the Espinosa claim. The court remanded the case to the panel for consideration of Glock’s other challenges to his sentence. Glock, 65 F.3d at 891.
On remand, the panel found meritless all of Glock’s claims, except his claim to ineffective assistance because of his counsel’s failure to discover through routine investigation mitigating evidence that could have been presented during the penalty phase
C.
On remand, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida referred the case to a magistrate judge for a hearing and report and recommendation. The magistrate held two days of evidentiary hearings during which time petitioner’s counsel examined ten witnesses in order to elicit evidence that petitioner claims his trial attorney, Trogolo, would have discovered at trial had Trogolo’s assistance been constitutionally effective. Four classes of evidence were adduced during the hearing:
First, petitioner introduced evidence of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his biological mother, Carol Harmon, that was more detailed than the evidence of abuse presented at trial. Tammy Simpson,12 Glock’s sister, testified that Carol Harmon beat both Glock and her almost daily with a belt or a board, sometimes until the children began to bleed; told the children that she wanted to get rid of them; did not allow the children to play with their peers; made the children wear ill-fitting clothing; would leave the children in the car alone after she had car accidents; and was frequently intoxicated to the point that the children found it necessary to clean her after she vomited. There was corroborating but less dramatic testimony of abuse from Wyman Harmon, Kimberly Gunter (Glock’s half-sister), and Carolyn Foster (Wyman Harmon’s sister).13 Geraldine Farless, one of Carol Harmon’s coworkers in 1963, testified that Carol Harmon attempted to give Glock to her when he was twenty-one months old. Additionally, petitioner presented much documentary evidence, from former schools and institutions in which he had resided, which constituted further evidence of childhood abuse.
Second, petitioner introduced completely new evidence of abuse at the hands of his stepmother, Willie Mae Glock, from the time Glock was fourteen until he enlisted in the United States military at the age of eighteen.14 Evidence of abuse during this period was not presented during the penalty phase of Glock’s trial. Both Peggy Brooks and Brenda Skiba, Glock’s stepsisters,15 testified that Willie Mae Glock beat petitioner with her hands, a belt, and a
Third, petitioner presented additional evidence, not presented at trial, that he was dominated by his codefendant, Puiatti.17 Tammy Simpson testified that Puiatti “was a very aggressive person. He was like, you know, we’re going to have pizza tonight. And Bobby was like, ‘Okay.’ Bobby was very—Carl led the group. Carl was definitely the speaker of the gang, so to speak.” Additionally, Dr. James Larson, a licensed psychologist, testified that his examination of Glock revealed that petitioner was short in stature, and therefore easily intimidated by those in his peer group.
Finally, petitioner presented evidence of mental disorder that supplemented the evidence presented at trial. Dr. Larson testified that Glock has a poor self-concept, distances himself from others, has inadequate personal relationships, suffers from dependency, has self-defeating and schizoid traits, and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, indicating that “he’s had a history of traumatizing experiences.”18 And Dr. Gerald Mussenden, who testified at Glock’s trial, told the court that with all of the evidence that had been revealed about Glock’s childhood abuse, much of what was just speculation at trial, concerning Glock’s self-defeating and dependent traits, could have been substantiated as fact.
The magistrate judge issued a report detailing the factual findings of the court, and a recommendation that the writ be denied. The district court adopted the magistrate’s report and recommendation, overruled all of the petitioner’s objections
II.
Whether a criminal defendant has received the effective assistance of counsel is a mixed question of law and fact and is subject to de novo review. The underlying factual findings of the district court are presumptively correct unless clearly erroneous. Bush v. Singletary, 988 F.2d 1082, 1089 (11th Cir.1993).
III.
A.
Petitioner initially argues that the district court erred in omitting numerous facts relevant to whether Glock has established that his trial counsel’s deficient performance prejudiced the outcome of the penalty phase of his trial.19 The district found that the facts petitioner sought to add were primarily repetitive and cumulative to those presented in the more than eighty pages of facts set forth in the magistrate’s report and recommendation, which the district court adopted. After an exhaustive review of the magistrate’s report, and the almost 400 pages of testamentary evidence adduced during the evidentiary hearing on remand, we conclude that the district court’s findings of fact are not clearly erroneous.
B.
Having accepted the district court’s findings, we come now to the heart of petitioner’s claim: that he was denied constitutionally effective assistance of counsel during the penalty phase of his trial. The test for whether counsel provided the effective assistance of counsel guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments was articulated by the Supreme Court in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). Under Strickland, a person asserting a claim of ineffective assistance must satisfy a two-pronged test:
First, the defendant must show that counsel’s performance was deficient. This requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the “counsel” guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Second, the defendant must show that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. This requires showing that counsel’s errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable.
Id. at 687, 104 S.Ct. at 2064. To satisfy the prejudice prong of the analysis, “[t]he defendant must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.” Id. at 694, 104 S.Ct. at 2068.
In a capital case, this two-part test applies to claims of ineffective assistance during both the guilt and penalty phases of the trial because a
capital sentencing proceeding ... is sufficiently like a trial in its adversarial format and in the existence of standards for decision ... that counsel’s role in the proceeding is comparable to counsel’s
role at trial—to ensure that the adversarial testing process works to produce a just result under the standards governing decision.
Id. at 686-87, 104 S.Ct. at 2064 (citations omitted). Petitioner argues that he was denied constitutionally effective assistance during the penalty phase of his trial because his counsel failed to discover, through routine investigation, evidence of petitioner’s childhood abuse, mental disturbance, and domination by his codefendant. Glock contends that had the court been apprized of this mitigating evidence, he would have received a sentence of life imprisonment rather than death. He thus argues that “there is a reasonable probability that, absent the errors, the sentencer ... would have concluded that the balance of aggravating and mitigating circumstances did not warrant death.” Id. at 695, 104 S.Ct. at 2069. Because we find that petitioner has not satisfied the prejudice prong of the Strickland analysis, we do not address whether counsel’s performance was deficient.
Following, we first address the evidence adduced during the evidentiary hearing that we find to be primarily cumulative to the evidence that was presented during the penalty phase of petitioner’s trial. This includes the evidence of abuse that Glock suffered at the hands of his biological mother; evidence that Glock was laboring under the substantial domination of his codefendant, Puiatti, when he participated in the murder of Sharilyn Ritchie; and some of the evidence of Glock’s mental disturbance. Second, we address the entirely new category of evidence that Glock has presented. This includes evidence of abuse at the hands of his stepmother, Willie Mae Glock, and testimony from a psychologist who claims that when one examines the whole picture of petitioner’s lifetime of abuse at the hands of various family members, it becomes clear that Glock suffers from, among other things, post-traumatic stress disorder.
i.
The substance of much of the evidence that Glock produced during the evidentiary hearing was before the trial court at the penalty phase. The additional evidence of Glock’s supposed domination by his codefendant, Puiatti, is the least persuasive evidence of prejudice that petitioner offers. The record reveals that Glock’s stepmother, Willie Mae Glock, testified at trial that she doubted whether petitioner’s participation in the murder was voluntary, and that Dr. Mussenden told the jury that Glock was easily led by people who could make him feel comfortable. In light of the trial court’s specific finding that this evidence did not establish that Glock was under the substantial domination of Puiatti when he committed the crime, there is little reason to think that the evidence now proffered by the petitioner would have had a reasonable probability (or any probability) of swaying the court. The core of Glock’s “new” evidence consists of a statement by his sister that she once saw Puiatti suggest that they have pizza for dinner, and petitioner agreed. The testimony from Dr. Larson concerning Glock’s tendency to become intimidated by those in his peer group is nearly repetitive of testimony offered during the penalty phase from Dr. Mussenden. This evidence is simply insufficient to undermine our confidence in the outcome of Glock’s sentencing hearing.
Glock also offers anecdotal evidence from a variety of sources who corroborate his claim that he suffered from extensive physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his biological mother, Carol Harmon. Additionally, Glock presents evidence that as a result of his lifetime of abuse, he has a poor self-concept, distances himself from others, has inadequate personal relationships, suffers from dependency, and has self-defeating traits. Petitioner argues that had the court had this evidence before it at sentencing, the statutory mitigating circumstance that “the capital felony was committed while the defendant was under
It is true that we have sometimes found that trial counsel’s failure to present evidence of a defendant’s personal history or good character is enough to demonstrate prejudice to the defendant at the penalty phase. See Dobbs v. Turpin, 142 F.3d 1383, 1390 (11th Cir.1998); Jackson v. Herring, 42 F.3d 1350, 1368-69 (11th Cir. 1995); Harris v. Dugger, 874 F.2d 756, 763-64 (11th Cir.1989); Blake v. Kemp, 758 F.2d 523, 534 (11th Cir.1985). But in those cases, we found prejudice because of counsel’s almost complete failure to present any mitigating evidence of significance. See Dobbs, 142 F.3d at 1390 (no evidence of an unfortunate upbringing presented to the court); Jackson, 42 F.3d at 1363 (“Neither lawyer offered any evidence regarding Jackson’s personal history or background. Counsel were virtually silent during two subsequent sentencing hearings before the trial judge.... ”); Harris, 874 F.2d at 763 (trial counsel had a “total—and admitted—ignorance about the type of mitigation evidence available to them”); Blake, 758 F.2d at 533 (counsel “made no preparations whatsoever for the penalty phase” of defendant’s trial). Those cases are a far cry from the instant case, where much of the new evidence that Glock presents is merely repetitive and cumulative to that which was presented at trial.
ii.
This brings us to the evidence introduced at the evidentiary hearing that cannot reasonably be classified as cumulative. This includes the evidence of physical and emotional abuse that petitioner suffered at the hands of his stepmother, Willie Mae Glock, from age fourteen to eighteen, and Dr. Larson’s opinion that as a result of a lifetime of abuse and neglect, petitioner suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Glock again argues that had the trial court had this evidence before it, the statutory mitigating circumstance of extreme mental or emotional disturbance, and numerous nonstatutory mitigators would have been established; the argument then goes that given these additional factors, there is a reasonable probability that the court would have concluded that the balance of aggravating and mitigating circumstances did not warrant death.
In addressing petitioner’s argument, it is helpful to understand the rationale animating Florida’s scheme of statutory mitigating circumstances. In
Offense-specific mitigators focus on the circumstances surrounding the criminal event. This category points to the defendant’s lack of full responsibility for the crime, and embraces the notion that while the court does hold the defendant criminally responsible (and thus finds him “guilty”), the defendant has some excuse for his act that mitigates in favor of imposing a sentence of life rather than death. Five of the seven statutory mitigators share an offense-specific thrust. These are: “(b) [t]he capital felony was committed while the defendant was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance;” “(c) [t]he victim was a participant in the defendant’s conduct or consented to the act;” “(d) [t]he defendant was an accomplice in the capital felony committed by another person and his participation was relatively minor;” “(e) [t]he defendant acted under extreme duress or under the substantial domination of another person;” and “(f) [t]he capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was substantially impaired.”
When Glock’s attorney, Trogolo, assisted Glock during the penalty phase of the trial, his strategy was to present both kinds of evidence. The gist of his argument was that (1) Glock cannot be held fully responsible for his crime because his early childhood abuse caused some degree of mental disorder during his adult years, and because he was dominated by his codefendant; and (2) Glock was a good candidate for rehabilitation because his past behavior indicated that he was not a likely recidivist, and because he had a loving and supportive family who could assist him in adjusting to law-abiding behavior. A key component of petitioner’s rehabilitation argument was the presentation of Glock’s stepmother, Willie Mae Glock. She was the cornerstone of Glock’s loving and supportive family scenario, and thus she provided the critical testimony relevant to whether Glock had a family network who could help prevent his commission of crimes in the future.21
Petitioner argues that the jettisoning of the rehabilitation argument is of no moment, because with the additional evidence of abuse and mental disorder, the court would have found the statutory mitigating circumstance of “extreme mental or emotional disturbance,”
Of course, we do not find that trial counsel made a “tactical” or “strategic” decision not to present the abuse evidence, and evidence of his resulting post-traumatic stress disorder, in the sense that Trogolo actually considered and rejected such a strategy. There is no indication that Tro
IV.
For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the district court’s findings of fact are not clearly erroneous. We also hold that Robert Glock has not established that he was prejudiced by his attorney’s performance at the penalty phase of his trial. We therefore AFFIRM the district court’s denial of Glock’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus with respect to his sentence of death.
AFFIRMED.
Notes
Upon being charged by the court, the jury, by majority vote, renders an advisory verdict of either death or life imprisonment. Notwithstanding the recommendation of the jury, however, the trial court in a subsequent sentencing proceeding independently weighs the aggravating and mitigating circumstances and renders the final determination as to life or death.
[h]e has never had anyone to take care of him. He has never had a mother or anybody to love him or care for him. He never had anyone to discipline or teach him right from wrong, and I tried as a mother just like I did my four children to. brush your teeth and take a bath before you go to school. Bobby couldn’t understand this. He was fourteen. He felt like he had a mind of his own—he had to take care of hisself [sic] ever since he was eight years old.
. . . .
Bobby has had to survive any way he could ever since he was eight years old. He had no mother or father. He’s had to survive the best way he knew how.
. . . .
Put yourself in Bobby’s place with no mother, no father, no one to turn to, no aunts, no uncles, no sisters, no brothers, nobody. How would you survive in the world alone?
I used my structured interview to get background information so I can better understand the individual I’m seeing. I use my intelligence [test] to determine what kind of intelligence I’m dealing with so I have a better understanding of what the tests are doing. I use achievement tests to determine the literacy level to tell us identification for adjustment at this time.... I use the Rorschach as a way of trying to determine if there’s some problems or the absence of problems. I use the Thematic Apperception Test to try and evaluate some socialization abilities. I use the draw-a-person to also have information regarding the individual’s perception of himself and his environment. I use the Metro Content Questionnaire to have a better understanding of how he feels about himself and how he sees himself and others, how he perceives his background, his history, his presence and his future. I use the Bi-Polo Psychological Inventory to evaluate the different areas of personality; also to try and determine if an individual has criminal tendencies and to what extent. Basically, when I’m done I have a good feeling for one’s over-all development and can make some statement regarding their rehabilitation potential.
the records would indicate that he was extremely disruptive, that his mother could not handle him. It appeared that there were many problems. I am a child specialist and evaluate children and understand dynamics of behavior. Any time you have a child who is three, four, five, six, seven, eight years of age and they’re pretty disruptive, it’s pretty certain that the problem lies with the parents. A child isn’t born bad, he’s shaped that way. If he’s criticized he’s going to be very negative about himself. If he’s constantly shamed, he’s going to feel very guilty. He needs to act those feelings out somehow.
Robert had been a negative problem. Obviously, he was feeling criticized, rejected and certainly he felt that he had failed as a child. I think the most injury came when he was placed in an [orphanage at the age of twelve]. The institution may have been clean, it may have been neat, it may have been warm, it may have given him all the niceties that one would need, but they didn’t give him parents. Any child would prefer to be with their parents, no matter how dismal the conditions. But to be placed in an institution, to be moved is the ultimate rejection, and failure for any child to experience. That certainly was a trauma that could not be undone unless the parents are willing to try and work it through.
He had been returned, within a year or so, and was sent to live with his father—a second rejection, a second failure, a second traumatic experience. He lived with the father—that didn’t work out very well, either, additional failure. Um, additional feelings of conflict and certainly additional feelings of lack of self-importance, feeling better about himself.
[the children’s] mother has always been an alcoholic, a committed alcoholic, although she does not admit it. We were physically and mentally abused as children until the age of approximately thirteen years old when I no longer saw Bobby because the Court took him out of the home, took him away from the home and put him in Epworth.
. . . .
We were beat constantly—almost daily for simple things. If we were ten minutes late coming home from school, we were beat. If there was dirty dishes in the house, we were beat. My mother would always call my brother names. She did not approve of who he was. She did not like him because of who his father was. She more mentally abused Bobby than she did physically.
. . . .
She called him a bastard and a son of a bitch every day. She would constantly say that he was not worth anything—he was just like his father, that he was stupid and ignorant and she could not believe that he was like he was. This was daily. I would hear this all the time.
(a) The capital felony was committed by a person under sentence of imprisonment or placed on community control.
(b) The defendant was previously convicted of another capital felony or of a felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person.
(c) The defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to many persons.
(d) The capital felony was committed while the defendant was engaged, or was an accomplice, in the commission of, or an attempt to commit, or flight after committing or attempting to commit, any robbery, sexual battery, aggravated child abuse, arson, burglary, kidnapping, or aircraft piracy or the unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb.
(e) The capital felony was committed for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest or effecting an escape from custody.
(f) The capital felony was committed for pecuniary gain.
(g) The capital felony was committed to disrupt or hinder the lawful exercise of any governmental function or the enforcement of laws.
(h) The capital felony was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.
(i) The capital felony was a homicide and was committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification.
(j) The victim of the capital felony was a law enforcement officer engaged in the performance of his official duties.
(k) The victim of the capital felony was an elected or appointed public official engaged in the performance of his official duties if the motive for the capital felony was related, in whole or in part, to the victim’s official capacity.
(l) The victim of the capital felony was a person less than 12 years of age.
(1) the trial court refused to sever his sentencing proceeding from his codefendant’s, thereby depriving him of individualized sentencing; (2) the trial court failed to find three nonstatutory mitigating circumstances; (3) the trial court’s charge to the jury shifted to petitioner the burden of proof on the appropriateness of the death sentence; [and] (4) the trial court’s charge to the jury “diluted” the jury’s sense of responsibility for the sentence petitioner would receive.
Glock v. Singletary, 84 F.3d 385 (11th Cir. 1996) (footnote omitted).
Q: Well, that would have kind of undercut your scenario or your theory that you wanted to present to the jury, would it not, that there was a loving family relationship between Mr. Glock, Senior, and Willie Mae and Tammy Yonce toward the defendant?
A: I think that would have undercut the jury viewing it that way.
. . . .
I guess at the time that—at the time of the trial, I was trying to portray that as a, for lack of a better word, a loving home environment; and secondly, that in general, [the sexual molestation evidence is] the type of evidence that I would say could cut both ways. In other words, I didn’t want them focusing on Mr. Glock, Senior’s, activities or wondering what Bobby’s involvement was in that.
[a]n individual who is not trusting of others, who doesn’t readily get interpersonal needs met or other needs met from others, a person who has a lot of emotional inner turmoil, a lot of anxiety, bouts of depression, underlying—there’s a lot of underlying anger particularly toward women. And, of course, the reason there is fairly obvious: The two major caretakers in life were relationships—were relationships that were very conflicted.
The pattern is of a person who is of at least average intelligence but whose education understanding is somewhat like Swiss cheese; that is, there are a lot of holes in it.
[i]n my opinion, he does not have a post-traumatic stress disorder. I don’t think there’s any doubt that during his early life he was experiencing stress certainly by virtue of the abuse that he had been the victim of.
However, post-traumatic stress disorder as defined by the present literature, the symptoms associated with it were essentially not to be seen in the general nature of [Glock’s] personality. There are always some features but not enough to meet the minimum requirements to be identified as a post-traumatic stress disorder.
Firstly, you have to have a severely traumatic event that represents some sort of danger to your life. Well, we could say this is what happened to him when he was a youngster, so that may be a given.
However, the additional symptoms that accrue at a later time would include difficulties concentrating, withdrawal from society, avoidance of contacts with others, startle response, flashbacks, difficulty eating, difficulty sleeping, difficulty developing attachments to others.
There is generally an avoidance of anything that would be characteristic of the original types of stress situations or the trauma that the person experienced. They would avoid anything that would—that might bring about something of that nature. For example, any abuse of someone else, deception, injury to someone else and so on, they would very clearly attempt to avoid that.
Reading about or knowing about violence as might be presented on television, radio, newspapers and so on, they would certainly want to avoid that.
I didn’t see anything of that nature in the body of the documents I reviewed.