Ferguson Ex Rel. Ferguson v. Secretary for the Department of Corrections

[PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT FILED
________________________ U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
AUG 26, 2009
No. 05-13595 THOMAS K. KAHN
________________________ CLERK

D. C. Docket No. 95-00573-CV-DTKH

JOHN ERROL FERGUSON, and
DOROTHY FERGUSON, individually
and as Next Friend on behalf of JOHN ERROL FERGUSON,

Petitioners-Appellants,

versus

SECRETARY FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS,
Walter A. McNeil,

Respondent-Appellee.

________________________

No. 05-13877
________________________

D. C. Docket No. 95-00573-CV-DTKH

JOHN ERROL FERGUSON, and
DOROTHY FERGUSON, individually
and as Next Friend on behalf of JOHN ERROL FERGUSON,
 Petitioners-Appellees,

versus

SECRETARY FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS,
Walter A. McNeil,

Respondent-Appellant.

________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
_________________________
(August 26, 2009)

Before BIRCH, WILSON and PRYOR, Circuit Judges.

BIRCH, Circuit Judge:

John Errol Ferguson (“Ferguson”), a Florida prisoner convicted of murder

and sentenced to death, filed a federal habeas corpus petition pursuant to 28

U.S.C. § 2254 in which he made at least eleven claims. He also moved to stay the

federal habeas proceedings based on his alleged incompetency, a motion denied by

the district court, which held an evidentiary hearing on the issue and found him

competent to proceed with the petition. The court subsequently denied Ferguson’s

petition in its entirety, but granted a certificate of appealability (“COA”) on all of

the issues raised therein. Ferguson has appealed the district court’s dismissal of

nine of his claims and also challenges that court’s denial of his motion to stay the

2
proceedings. The State of Florida filed a cross-appeal regarding the district

court’s decision to hold an evidentiary hearing on the issue of Ferguson’s

competency. After thoroughly reviewing the record and the parties’ briefs and

hearing oral argument, we AFFIRM the district court’s denial of Ferguson’s

petition and motion to stay.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

Ferguson received the death penalty in two Florida state cases in which he

was convicted of a total of eight counts of first-degree murder. Six of those counts

stemmed from his first trial, which dealt with events that took place in Carol City,

Florida in July 1977. The second trial, which involved the other two murder

counts, addressed crimes occurring in Hialeah, Florida in January 1978.

1. The Carol City Murders1

On the evening of 27 July 1977, Ferguson, posing as a Florida Power and

Light employee, received permission from Margaret Wooden to enter her home.

After checking several rooms, he drew a gun, tied and blindfolded her, and let into

1
The parties do not dispute the facts and procedural background of these two cases. Our
summary of the relevant facts is derived from the Florida Supreme Court’s opinions on direct
appeal. See Ferguson v. State, 417 So. 2d 639, 640–41 (Fla. 1982) (Ferguson I) (Carol City
murders); Ferguson v. State, 417 So. 2d 631, 633 (Fla. 1982) (Ferguson II) (Hialeah murders).

3
the house two men who joined him in looking for drugs and money. About two

hours later, six of Wooden’s friends, including the homeowner, Livingston

Stocker, came to the house and were searched, tied, and blindfolded by Ferguson

and his accomplices. Shortly thereafter, Wooden’s boyfriend, Michael Miller,

entered the house and also was bound and searched. Miller and Wooden

eventually were placed in the bedroom, and the six other bound friends were in the

living room.

At some point, a mask on one of Ferguson’s friends fell and revealed his

face. At the time, Wooden and Miller were kneeling on the floor with their upper

bodies sprawled across the bed. Wooden heard shots from the living room, saw a

pillow coming toward her head, and then was shot. She witnessed Miller being

fatally shot as well. Wooden did not see the shooter, though she did hear

Ferguson run out of the room. She managed to escape and ran to a neighbor’s

house to call the police. When the police arrived, they found six dead bodies, all

of whom had their hands tied behind their backs and had been shot in the back of

the head. Only two of the victims, Wooden and Johnnie Hall, survived. Hall

testified at Ferguson’s trial about the methodical execution of the other victims.

2. The Hialeah Murders

4
 On the evening of 8 January 1978, Brian Glenfeld and Belinda Worley, both

seventeen, left a Youth-for-Christ meeting in Hialeah, Florida. They were

supposed to meet friends at an ice cream parlor, but never arrived. The next

morning, two passersby discovered their bodies in a nearby wooded area.

Glenfeld had been killed by a bullet to the head and also had been shot in the chest

and arm. Worley was found several hundred yards away under a dense growth.

All of her clothes, except for her jeans, were next to her body, and she had been

shot in the back of the head. An autopsy revealed that she had been raped. At

trial, there was testimony that she had been wearing jewelry, but none was found

with the bodies. The cash from Glenfeld’s wallet, which was found in Worley’s

purse near her body, also had been removed.

On 5 April 1978, police arrested Ferguson at his apartment pursuant to a

warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in connection with the Carol City

murders. At the time of his arrest, police found in his possession a .357 magnum,

which was capable of firing .38 caliber bullets, the same kind used to kill Glenfeld

and Worley. The gun was registered to Stocker, one of the victims in the Carol

City murders. At some point after Ferguson’s arrest, he confessed to killing “the

two kids,” i.e., Glenfeld and Worley.

B. Procedural Background

5
 1. Trials and Direct Appeals

Ferguson was indicted in July 1977 for, inter alia, six counts of first-degree

murder in connection with the Carol City murders, and in January 1978 for, inter

alia, two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the Hialeah murders.

He was not incarcerated until his arrest for the Hialeah murders. Both cases went

to trial in the Circuit Court for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida and were

presided over by the same judge. Ferguson was tried alone for the Carol City

murders and convicted on all counts, except for one of the armed robbery counts.

After an advisory sentencing hearing, the jury recommended death. The judge

followed the jury’s recommendation and imposed six death sentences, along with

two consecutive sentences of thirty years of imprisonment for the attempted

murders of Hall and Woodson and three sentences of life imprisonment for

attempted robberies of three of the victims. At the Hialeah trial, Ferguson

mounted an unsuccessful insanity defense and was convicted on two counts of

first-degree murder. The jury recommended the death penalty, and the judge

imposed two death sentences.

In separate opinions on direct appeal, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed

all of the convictions in both cases but vacated and remanded the death sentences

due to sentencing errors. With respect to the Carol City case, the court found that

6
the trial judge had relied on improper aggravating factors. For the Hialeah trial,

the court found that the judge had not considered statutory mitigating factors. The

Florida Supreme Court noted in both cases that an additional jury sentence

advisory verdict would be unnecessary on remand.

A different judge heard the cases on remand because the original trial judge

had left the bench in the interim. Without holding an evidentiary hearing or

impaneling a jury to make recommendations, the presiding judge imposed eight

death sentences for the murders in the two cases. The Florida Supreme Court

affirmed those sentences in a consolidated appeal. See Ferguson v. State, 474 So.

2d 208 (Fla. 1985) (Ferguson III).

2. Florida Post-Conviction & Habeas Proceedings

In October 1987, Ferguson and his mother, Dorothy Ferguson, acting as

next friend, filed a timely motion for post-conviction relief, pursuant to Rule 3.850

of the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, which set forth six claims. For the

purposes of this appeal, the relevant claims were an ineffective assistance of

counsel (“IAC”) claim based on trial counsel’s failure to investigate and present

7
evidence with respect to statutory mitigating factors and a Hitchcock2 claim based

on the trial court’s jury instructions regarding mitigating factors. Shortly

thereafter, Ferguson moved to stay the proceedings on the grounds that he was

incompetent to participate in them or to assist counsel by answering questions.

The circuit court denied this motion in February 1989.

Ferguson’s counsel subsequently moved to disqualify the post-conviction

judge based on ex parte contacts between the judge and the prosecutors. The

circuit court denied this motion because it was untimely, was not in compliance

with Florida procedural requirements, and did not provide an adequate factual

foundation for the belief that the judge would be prejudiced against Ferguson.

Ferguson’s counsel then filed a petition for a writ of prohibition based on ex parte

contacts between the judge and the prosecutors. The Florida Supreme Court

denied this petition and the United States Supreme Court denied the subsequent

petition for a writ of certiorari on the issue. See Ferguson v. Snyder, 493 U.S.

945, 110 S. Ct. 354 (1989) (mem.) (Snyder I); Ferguson v. Snyder, 548 So. 2d 662

(Fla. 1989) (table) (Snyder II).

2
In Hitchcock v. Dugger, 481 U.S. 393, 398–99, 107 S. Ct. 1821, 1824 (1987), the
Supreme Court found unconstitutional instructions to the jury that indicated that the jury could
not consider non-statutory mitigating circumstances.

8
 In September 1989, Ferguson filed a supplement to his 3.850 petition, in

which he raised ten claims, including a claim regarding racially discriminatory

peremptory challenges and a Brady3 claim regarding improper prosecutorial

withholding of evidence. In response to a motion by the State, the circuit court

struck many of the claims in Ferguson’s original and supplemental petitions,

including his peremptory challenge claim.4 The circuit court held an evidentiary

hearing in May 1990 on the remaining claims and issued an order the following

month denying the remainder of Ferguson’s 3.850 motion. One month later,

Ferguson moved to supplement his 3.850 petition with an additional ground for

relief based on the State’s failure to correct false testimony presented at the

sentencing phase of the Carol City trial. The circuit court dismissed this motion as

untimely. On appeal, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court’s denial

of the 3.850 motion. See Ferguson v. State, 593 So. 2d 508, 513 (Fla. 1992)

(Ferguson IV).

3
Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S. Ct. 1194 (1963), “places an affirmative duty
upon the state to reveal any ‘material’ evidence in its possession that would tend to exculpate a
defendant.” Breedlove v. Moore, 279 F.3d 952, 961 (11th Cir. 2002) (Breedlove I) (quotation
marks and citation omitted). Under Brady, a state would violate due process if it did not disclose
materially exculpatory information in its possession, even if it acted in good faith. See id.
4
The court also struck a Hitchcock claim Ferguson made in his supplemental motion,
part of which addressed the issue of whether the resentencing court erred by not impaneling a
new jury.

9
 Ferguson also petitioned the Florida Supreme Court for a writ of habeas

corpus around the same time, which the court denied. See Ferguson v. Singletary,

632 So. 2d 53, 59 (Fla. 1993) (Ferguson V). In his petition, he raised four claims,

only one of which is relevant for this appeal — that he was resentenced without

impaneling a new jury or holding an evidentiary hearing. The Florida Supreme

Court found that Ferguson had failed to preserve this issue before the circuit court

and thus was procedurally barred from raising it in his petition.

3. Federal Habeas Proceedings

Ferguson, along with his mother as next friend, filed his first federal habeas

petition, the subject of this action, in the United States District Court for the

Northern District of Florida in March 1995. He concurrently moved to stay the

federal habeas proceedings due to his alleged incompetence, a motion which the

district court denied in March 1999. In July 1999, Ferguson filed a motion in the

Florida Circuit Court seeking to reinstate several of the claims he raised in his

3.850 motion. He based his motion on Carter v. State, 706 So. 2d 873 (Fla. 1997)

(per curiam), which required courts to hold competency hearings in post-

conviction proceedings when certain circumstances are present. Ferguson asserted

that this constituted a fundamental change in the law and, as a result, applied

retroactively. The circuit court denied his motion, and the Florida Supreme Court

10
affirmed. See Ferguson v. State, 789 So. 2d 306, 315 (Fla. 2001) (Ferguson VI).

The latter found that Carter applied retroactively but concluded that the circuit

court did not abuse its discretion in finding Ferguson competent to proceed with

his 3.850 petition.

In anticipation of filing the motion to reinstate his 3.850 claims, Ferguson

asked the federal district court in July 1999 to stay the proceedings so that he

could exhaust state remedies. The district court granted the stay in May 2000,

which it lifted in August 2001. As part of the latter order, the court permitted

Ferguson to filed an amended habeas petition to address changes in both the law

and his mental state. In August 2003, the district court again granted him leave to

file an amended petition to reflect changes in the law.5 Ferguson filed a second

amended petition a month later and also moved to stay the proceedings because of

his alleged incompetence.

In July 2004, the district court scheduled an evidentiary hearing to

determine whether Ferguson was competent to assist counsel in the habeas

proceedings. A five-day hearing was held in December 2004, at which six expert

witnesses testified regarding Ferguson’s mental state. On 19 May 2005, the

5
During the period between these last two orders, the district judge originally presiding
over this case died and was replaced by the judge who ultimately denied the petition.

11
district court issued an order finding Ferguson competent to proceed and denying

the motion to stay the proceedings. That same day, the court also issued an order

denying Ferguson’s second amended habeas petition. Ferguson appealed both of

these decisions, and the State cross-appealed the district court’s decision to grant

an evidentiary hearing. The district court granted Ferguson’s motion for a COA

“in its entirety” for the reasons articulated in Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322,

338, 123 S. Ct. 1029, 1040 (2003). R4-113.

II. DISCUSSION

On appeal, Ferguson asserts that the district court erred in denying nine

claims in his habeas petition relating to various aspects of his trial, resentencing,

and state post-conviction proceedings. He also maintains that the court, in finding

him competent to proceed with his federal habeas claim and denying his motion to

stay, violated his right not to proceed while incompetent. The State, in its cross-

appeal, argues that the district court improperly held an evidentiary hearing to

determine Ferguson’s competency. We address these issues in turn.

A. Legal Standards Applicable to This Appeal

Because Ferguson filed his petition in 1995, one year prior to the effective

date of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”), we

apply pre-AEDPA law to his claim. See Lindh v. Murphy, 521 U.S. 320, 326–27,

12
336, 117 S. Ct. 2059, 2063, 2068 (1997). However, since he initiated this appeal

after the effective date of AEDPA, all questions of appellate procedure are

governed by post-AEDPA law. See Slack v. McDaniel, 529 U.S. 473, 481–82,

120 S. Ct. 1595, 1602–03 (2000).

“When reviewing the district court’s denial of a habeas petition, we review

questions of law and mixed questions of law and fact de novo, and findings of fact

for clear error.” Nyland v. Moore, 216 F.3d 1264, 1266 (11th Cir. 2000) (per

curiam). A state court’s findings of fact are entitled to a presumption of

correctness, unless one of the exceptions discussed in § 2254(d) would be

applicable.6 See Hardwick v. Crosby, 320 F.3d 1127, 1158 (11th Cir. 2003). We

also do not consider issues or arguments raised for the first time on appeal. See

Nyland, 216 F.3d at 1266.

We “may not consider claims that have been defaulted in state court

pursuant to an adequate and independent state procedural rule, unless the

6
No presumption of correctness is accorded where: (1) the merits of a factual dispute
were not resolved in a state court hearing; (2) the state court’s factfinding procedure was
inadequate to afford a full and fair hearing; (3) the material facts were not developed adequately
during the state court hearing; (4) the state court lacked jurisdiction over the subject matter or
applicant; (5) the state court failed to provide counsel to an indigent applicant; (6) the applicant
“did not receive a full, fair, and adequate hearing in the State court proceeding;” (7) “the
applicant was otherwise denied due process of law in the State court proceeding;” (8) the record
considered as a whole does not fairly support the factual determination. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)
(1995 ed.).

13
petitioner can show cause for the default and resulting prejudice, or a fundamental

miscarriage of justice.” Zeigler v. Crosby, 345 F.3d 1300, 1304 (11th Cir. 2003)

(per curiam) (quotation marks and citation omitted). A claim also would be

“procedurally defaulted if the petitioner fails to raise the claim in state court and it

is clear from state law that any future attempts at exhaustion would be futile.” Id.

(quotation marks and citation omitted). We defer to the state court’s findings

regarding procedural default. See id.

We review the decision to grant or deny an evidentiary hearing for abuse of

discretion. See Kelley v. Secretary for the Dep’t of Corr., 377 F.3d 1317, 1333

(11th Cir. 2004). For pre-AEDPA suits, we have held that a district court must

hold an evidentiary hearing if:

(1) the merits of the factual dispute were not resolved in
the state hearing; (2) the state factual determination is not
fairly supported by the record as a whole; (3) the fact-
finding procedure employed by the state court was not
adequate to afford a full and fair hearing; (4) there is a
substantial allegation of newly discovered evidence; (5) the
material facts were not adequately developed at the state-
court hearing; or (6) for any reason it appears that the state
trier of fact did not afford the habeas applicant a full and
fair fact hearing.

Id. at 1334 (quotation marks and citation omitted).

B. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel During Penalty Phase

14
 Ferguson asserts that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel

during the sentencing phase of both of his trials because his attorneys failed to

investigate and present mitigating evidence regarding his family background and

history of mental illness. He contends that his counsel failed to pursue all such

evidence that reasonably could have been obtained and thus did not conduct the

kind of reasonable investigation contemplated in Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510,

123 S. Ct. 2527 (2003), and Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S. Ct.

2052 (1984). He maintains that this failure was highly prejudicial because of the

compelling nature of the undiscovered mitigating evidence.

Ferguson cites a number of relevant facts of which his attorneys were not

aware: that he was raised in extreme poverty and had no running water or

electricity at times; that he had an alcoholic father who died when Ferguson was

thirteen years old, that he had to deal with his mother’s abusive boyfriends; and

that, at age twenty-one, he was shot four times and almost killed by a police

officer. He also asserts that he repeatedly was diagnosed as suffering from

paranoid schizophrenia, was placed in multiple mental hospitals during the late

1960s and early 1970s, was twice found not guilty by reason of insanity, and was

examined by multiple doctors in the years preceding the Carol City and Hialeah

murders, all of whom diagnosed him as schizophrenic, psychotic, or hallucinating.

15
 We analyze IAC claims under the two-prong test established in Strickland,

which requires us first to determine whether counsel’s performance “fell below an

objective standard of reasonableness” and then to decide whether this deficient

representation prejudiced the petitioner’s defense. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687,

104 S. Ct. at 2064. In assessing the first prong of the Strickland test, we apply a

“strong presumption that counsel’s performance was reasonable and that counsel

made all significant decisions in the exercise of reasonable professional

judgment.” Williams v. Allen, 542 F.3d 1326, 1337 (11th Cir. 2008) (quotation

marks and citation omitted). For an attorney’s performance to be unreasonable, it

must fall “outside the wide range of professionally competent assistance.”

Strickland, 466 U.S. at 690, 104 S. Ct. at 2066. We have noted that an attorney’s

duty to conduct a reasonable investigation includes looking at a defendant’s

background for possible mitigating evidence. See Williams, 542 F.3d at 1337.

Though “[t]his duty does not necessarily require counsel to investigate every

evidentiary lead,” an attorney’s “decision to limit an investigation must flow from

an informed judgment.” Id. (quotation marks and citation omitted). As a result,

when evaluating the reasonableness of an attorney’s investigation we “must

consider not only the quantum of evidence already known to counsel, but also

16
whether the known evidence would lead a reasonable attorney to investigate

further.” Wiggins, 539 U.S. at 527, 123 S. Ct. at 2538.

With respect to the prejudice prong of the Strickland test, we focus on

whether the petitioner has established “that there is a reasonable probability that,

but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result in the proceeding would have

been different.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S. Ct. at 2068. For a probability

to be “reasonable” it must be “sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome”

of the proceeding. Id. at 694, 104 S. Ct. at 2068. We must consider the totality of

the evidence to determine whether the petitioner was prejudiced by counsel’s

errors. See Williams, 542 F.3d at 1342.

1. The Carol City Trial

Ferguson maintains that the performance of his counsel in the Carol City

case, Fred Robbins, was deficient because Robbins conducted an inadequate

investigation into potential mitigating evidence regarding Ferguson’s mental

history and family background. According to Ferguson, Robbins’s mental health

investigation consisted solely of reading four reports, written in 1978, that

discussed Ferguson’s competence to stand trial. Those reports noted that

Ferguson had undergone psychiatric examinations during the early 1970s;

however, Robbins did not attempt to locate records from those examinations.

17
Additionally, Robbins did not examine Ferguson’s criminal records, which would

have shown that Ferguson twice had been found not guilty of various crimes for

reason of insanity. Ferguson contends that Robbins’s family history investigation

was equally unreasonable. Robbins spoke with Ferguson’s mother and sister but

never asked them about his upbringing, and Robbins’s conversation with

Ferguson’s sister addressed only Robbins’s potential retention as counsel.

Robbins also apparently made no attempt to locate public records about Ferguson

or to contact his siblings, even though they lived nearby.7

The Florida Supreme Court rejected this claim during the 3.850

proceedings. The court noted that, although Robbins had “not exhaust[ed] all

available sources of information . . ., this was not a case in which the attorney

conducted only minimal investigation.” Ferguson IV, 593 So. 2d at 510. It found

that Robbins was aware of Ferguson’s mental history and made the tactical

decision not to call as witnesses those doctors who had investigated Ferguson.

The court found this strategy to be reasonable since presenting such evidence

7
Ferguson also notes that Robbins called just one witness during the sentencing phase,
Ferguson’s mother, and asked her very few questions, most of which were unilluminating. The
transcript of her testimony, which covers less than three pages, confirms this description. She
provided very basic background information on Ferguson (i.e., his employment and interests at
the time of the Carol City murders), noted that he had always been a good son to her, and
confirmed that he had mental problems and had been in a mental hospital, but did not elaborate
on the latter two points.

18
could have opened the door to damaging rebuttal evidence from the State, i.e., that

Ferguson had sociopathic tendencies and was exaggerating his symptoms. It

therefore concluded that Ferguson had not satisfied his burden of showing either

deficient performance or prejudice under the Strickland test. See id. at 511–12.

The district court reached the same conclusion in the federal habeas

proceedings. It found that Robbins had conducted some investigation into

Ferguson’s history of mental illness and, based on that investigation, made “a

reasonable tactical decision . . . to avoid potentially greater prejudice from

damaging information that would have been introduced to the jury regarding

[Ferguson’s] malingering and anti-social personality disorder.” R4-108 at 32.

The court likewise found that the Robbins had conducted a “reasonable

investigation into [Ferguson’s] background” and made a “reasonable tactical

decision” in light of this investigation to focus on creating lingering doubt about

his guilt. Id. It also determined that, even if the investigation was unreasonable,

any failure in that regard would not undermine confidence in the outcome of the

proceedings given the overwhelming aggravating factors involved. The court

19
therefore concluded that Ferguson had not met the second prong of the Strickland

test.8

Even assuming arguendo that Robbins’s performance was deficient,

Ferguson has not shown prejudice resulting from that deficient performance. The

resentencing judge found five aggravating circumstances in this case: (1)

Ferguson previously had been convicted of “three felonies involving the use of, or

threat of, violence to some person9;” (2) the murders were committed while

Ferguson “was engaged in the commission of multiple robberies;” (3) the murders

were committed “for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest;” (4) the

murders were “especially heinous, atrocious and cruel;” and (5) the crimes

involved homicides “committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner

8
Although the district court’s findings indicate that Ferguson had not met the first prong
of the Strickland standard, the court never explicitly concluded that.
9
The felonies were a 1965 conviction for assault with intent to commit rape, a 1971
conviction for robbery, and a 1976 conviction for violent resistance to a police officer.

20
without any pretense of moral or legal justification.”10 App. MM, Vol. 3 at 1–6.11

By comparison, the only possible mitigating circumstance identified by any of the

courts assessing Ferguson’s case was that there was some evidence to indicate that

Ferguson might have been suffering severe mental disturbance at the time of

murders and that he had an impaired capacity to appreciate the criminality of his

conduct.12 All of these findings are entitled to a presumption of correctness, and

the parties identify no basis for questioning this presumption. See Hardwick, 320

F.3d at 1158.

10
The fifth factor was addressed for the first time on resentencing, though the Florida
Supreme Court found no error in the circuit court’s reliance on it. The court previously had
found the other four factors to be present during the direct appeal. The original trial court found
two other aggravating circumstances to be present — that Ferguson committed the crimes while
under a sentence of imprisonment and that, in committing the crimes, Ferguson knowingly
created a great risk of death to a number of people. However, the Florida Supreme Court negated
both of those findings on direct appeal.
11
The record in this case consists of the district court filings along with the various state
court filings, the majority of which were filed as exhibits to R2-53. The state court filings were
subdivided into various letter-designated appendices, ranging from A to NN. Appendices A to JJ
are the briefs, petitions, and opinions from those various proceedings. Appendices KK and LL
are the records from the direct appeal of the Carol City and Hialeah trials, respectively.
Appendix MM is the record from the resentencing, and Appendix NN the record from the state
post-conviction, or 3.850, proceedings. Within this opinion, references to documents in R2-53
will refer to the appendix and page number, i.e., “App. NN at 1000.” Because the pleadings and
transcripts in Appendices KK, LL, and MM are collected in separately paginated volumes,
references to documents in those appendices will also list the volume number, i.e., “App. MM,
Vol. 1 at 4.”
12
This finding was made by the circuit court on remand and referenced in the Florida
Supreme Court’s opinion on appeal from resentencing. The Florida Supreme Court never
adopted this finding, however, and, in fact questioned its veracity.

21
 In our view, the aggravating circumstances far outweigh any mitigating

factors, even taking into account the evidence that Robbins failed to uncover. The

facts of this case are extreme, including multiple execution-style killings after a

prolonged period in which the victims were bound and blindfolded. We agree

with the resentencing court that “[t]he entire action of [Ferguson] and his co-

conspirators reflects not only an absolute lack of concern for human life or dignity

but also a barbaric cruelty.” App. MM, Vol. 3 at 6. As a result, we do not believe

it is reasonably probable that the evidence Ferguson cites would lead a jury to

disregard such cruel circumstances and impose a different sentence. We thus find

that Ferguson has not established prejudice from this ineffective assistance and

therefore conclude that the district court correctly denied habeas relief with respect

to this part of Ferguson’s IAC claim.

2. The Hialeah Trial

Ferguson also contends that his counsel’s performance during the

sentencing phase of the Hialeah trial was deficient. He asserts that Bruce Phelps,

the attorney in charge of his penalty phase presentation, made no meaningful effort

to investigate Ferguson’s family history. In support of this argument, Ferguson

cites Phelps’s failure to discuss potential mitigating evidence with Ferguson’s

siblings and to recall Ferguson’s mother as a witness during sentencing after she

22
broke down on the witness stand before he could elicit any meaningful

testimony.13 Ferguson also maintains that Phelps was deficient in not presenting

evidence of Ferguson’s mental illness during sentencing. Ferguson concedes that

Phelps put forth mental health history evidence during the guilt phase of the trial

as part of an unsuccessful insanity defense. Nevertheless, Ferguson contends that

Phelps had a responsibility to recall the mental health experts so they could speak

directly to the statutory mitigating factors because of the inherent difference

between those factors and the requirements needed to make out an insanity

defense. Furthermore, Ferguson maintains that this deficiency prejudiced his case,

particularly since at least two jurors voted against the death penalty, even in the

absence of the missing evidence.

The Florida Supreme Court rejected Ferguson’s arguments during the 3.850

proceedings, finding both that Phelps’s performance had not been deficient and

that there was no resulting prejudice to Ferguson even assuming deficiency. The

court noted that, although Phelps failed to present any mitigating evidence

regarding Ferguson’s mental history during the penalty phase, it was reasonable to

assume that there would have been no net benefit to presenting more mental health

evidence since there already had been testimony about Ferguson’s mental health

13
Ferguson’s mother was the sole witness called by the defense during sentencing.

23
during the guilt phase. The court also noted that Phelps had spoken with family

members and found that his failure to recall Ferguson’s mother was “reasonable in

light of her emotional state.” Ferguson IV, 593 So. 2d at 511.

The district court in the federal habeas proceedings reached a similar

conclusion. It found that Ferguson’s counsel made a “tactical decision to focus on

mental health mitigators during sentencing[] and to appeal to the jury’s sense of

sympathy for [Ferguson’s] mental health condition.” R4-108 at 34. The court

deemed it reasonable, in light of this trial strategy, for Ferguson’s counsel not to

recall his mother or to reintroduce potentially duplicative mental health evidence

during the penalty phase of the trial. In addition, the court noted that there was no

reasonable probability that any juror would find that the unpresented mitigating

evidence outweighed the “overwhelming aggravating factors” present in the

case.14 Id. at 35.

As in the Carol City trial, even if we assume that Ferguson’s Hialeah trial

counsel was deficient during the penalty phase, it is not reasonably probable that

the jury would have imposed a different sentence had they considered the missing

mitigation evidence. On resentencing, the circuit court found six aggravating

14
As with the district court’s ruling on IAC in the Carol City case, it made no explicit
finding that Ferguson had not met the first Strickland prong, although the cited evidence would
indicate that it tacitly reached that conclusion.

24
factors: (1) Ferguson previously had been convicted of four felonies involving the

use or threat of violence15 ; (2) the murders occurred while Ferguson was “engaged

in the commission of rape and robbery;” (3) the murders were committed to avoid

a lawful arrest; (4) the murders were “committed for pecuniary gain;” (5) the

murders were “especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel;” and (6) Ferguson’s

crimes were committed “in a cold, calculated, and premediated manner without

any pretense of moral or legal justification.”16 App. MM, Vol. 3 at 13–16. The

only potential mitigating factor the court identified was that Ferguson might have

been suffering from extreme mental disturbance and been impaired in his ability to

appreciate the criminality of his conduct.

We find that the aggravating factors significantly outweighed any mitigating

evidence, including that which was not presented to the jury. The facts of the

Hialeah murders are just as cruel and shocking as those of the Carol City killings.

One of the victims, Worley, suffered extreme physical abuse, including being

apparently raped, prior to being shot in the head and left partially nude by the

15
These are the three felonies described supra n.10, along with the Carol City murders.
16
As in the Carol City case, the “cold, calculated, and premeditated” factor was addressed
for the first time on resentencing, though the Florida Supreme Court found no error in the circuit
court’s reliance on it. The original trial court also found a fifth aggravating factor, that Ferguson
committed the crimes while under a sentence of imprisonment; however, the Florida Supreme
Court overturned this finding since he was not confined in prison at the time and was not
supposed to be.

25
roadside. The other victim, Glenfeld, was shot twice, both before and after

Worley had been sexually assaulted, and murdered. Admittedly, at least two jurors

decided not to impose the death penalty even in the face of such circumstances.17

Nevertheless, the missing evidence likely would not have changed the outcome.

Notably, most of the evidence regarding Ferguson’s medical background already

had been presented during the guilt phase of the trial, so the jury considered that

evidence in sentencing him to death. The missing evidence thus primarily

involved Ferguson’s family history. Although it is possible that evidence of

Ferguson’s mental history might have caused some jurors to recommend a

sentence rather than death, we do not find that this was reasonably probable given

the wealth of aggravating circumstances. See Parker v. Secretary for the Dep’t of

Corr., 331 F.3d 764, 783 & n.16 (11th Cir. 2003) (noting that the proper standard

of review is “whether the jury’s failure to hear the mitigating evidence undermines

the confidence in its verdict, thus demonstrating a reasonable probability of a

different result” rather than whether the result “would have been different absent

the deficient performance”) (alterations, quotation marks, and citation omitted).

17
The actual number of jurors voting against the death penalty is unknown. At trial, the
court began polling the jurors to confirm that the majority of the jury had voted to sentence
Ferguson to death. Two of the jurors misunderstood and indicated that they personally had voted
against a sentence of death; however, the court corrected this erroneous assumption before other
jurors had an opportunity to signal their vote.

26
Accordingly, we find that Ferguson has not met the prejudice prong and conclude

that the district court correctly denied Ferguson habeas relief with respect to his

IAC claim regarding the penalty phase of the Hialeah trial.18

C. Hitchcock Error

Ferguson contends that the judge’s instructions to the jury at both the

Hialeah and Carol City trials limited the jury’s ability to consider non-statutory

mitigating factors, in violation of Hitchcock. He maintains that such limitation

thus denied him a fair sentencing in both cases. This claim requires us to

determine first whether a Hitchcock error occurred and then whether any such

error was harmless.

We have noted that, “[a]lthough whether a Hitchcock error occurred is a

legal question, it is almost entirely dependent upon the answer to a question of

fact: did the sentencing judge consider any and all nonstatutory mitigating

circumstance evidence that was presented to him?” Quince v. Crosby, 360 F.3d

1259, 1266 (11th Cir. 2004) (quotation marks and citation omitted). Accordingly,

we have deemed statements by the Florida Supreme Court “that the sentencing

18
Ferguson also requests an evidentiary hearing on the IAC issue because the record did
not support the state courts’ factual determinations regarding the strategic intent of counsel in
both cases. See Kelley, 377 F.3d at 1334. In this case, the record provides a sufficient basis for
the state courts’ findings and an evidentiary hearing would be unnecessary.

27
judge did not limit his consideration to only statutory mitigating circumstances” to

be findings of fact that, for pre-AEDPA cases, should be upheld if it “is fairly

supported by the record.” Id. at 1267. Ferguson asserts that this standard is

inapplicable here, because the issue is whether the jury, not the judge, limited its

consideration to statutory mitigating factors, a question for which there would be

no factual basis because the jury does not make written findings of fact. He

suggests that we instead are analyzing the propriety of jury instructions, which

would be a question of law subject to de novo review. See United States v. Drury,

396 F.3d 1303, 1313 (11th Cir. 2005).

We believe the correct approach is to treat Ferguson’s claim as raising a

mixed question of law and fact. The validity of the jury instructions under

Hitchcock would be a legal question. However, determining what the jury relied

on in sentencing Ferguson entails a factual inquiry looking solely at the text of the

instructions. Admittedly, since the jury does not have to make written findings,

we cannot say for certain whether jurors actually limited their consideration to

statutory mitigating factors. Nevertheless, we deem it appropriate to assume that,

in sentencing Ferguson, the jury followed the court’s instructions and that, as a

factual matter, the scope of its analysis would reflect how a reasonable person

would view the instructions. See United States v. Siegelman, 561 F.3d 1215, 1239

28
(11th Cir. 2009) (per curiam) (“The jury is presumed to follow the district court’s

instructions.”). We therefore evaluate de novo the issue of whether a Hitchcock

error occurred. See Nyland, 216 F.3d at 1266. In so doing, we must examine the

totality of the circumstances in which the instructions were given. See Card v.

Dugger, 911 F.2d 1494, 1522 (11th Cir. 1990).

Even if we find a Hitchcock error to have occurred here, we can still deny

Ferguson’s claims if we determine that the error was harmless. Whether an error

was harmless is a mixed question of law and fact that we review de novo. See

Smith v. Singletary, 61 F.3d 815, 817 (11th Cir. 1995) (per curiam). For

Hitchcock errors, we apply the harmlessness standard articulated in Brecht v.

Abrahamson, 507 U.S. 619, 113 S. Ct. 1710 (1993).19 See Sims v. Singletary, 155

F.3d 1297, 1315 (11th Cir. 1998). In so doing, we focus on “whether the error had

substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury’s verdict.” Id.

(quotation marks and citations omitted). For the error not to have been harmless,

there must be “more than a reasonable possibility that the error contributed to the

sentence.” Horsley v. State of Ala., 45 F.3d 1486, 1493 (11th Cir. 1995).

19
The district court appears to have evaluated harmless error under the standard
articulated in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S. Ct. 824 (1967), i.e., whether an error
was “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.” See Sims, 155 F.3d at 1315 (quotation marks and
citation omitted). However, in Brecht, the Court concluded that the Chapman standard did not
apply to habeas review, and instead substituted the “substantial and injurious effect” test. See id.
(quotation marks and citation omitted).

29
 1. The Carol City Trial

At the beginning of the sentencing phase of the Carol City trial, the judge

told the members of the jury that he later would instruct them as to the mitigation

factors that they “may consider.” App. KK, Vol. 4 at 1023. After closing

arguments, he stated that “[t]he mitigating circumstances you may consider, if

established by the evidence, are these” and then listed the statutory mitigating

factors. Id. at 1074–75. He then described the standard of proof for aggravating

factors and told the jurors that, although they were limited to considering only the

aggravating circumstances he had listed, there was “no such limitation upon the

mitigating factors” that could be considered. Id. at 1075.

Ferguson contends that he was denied a fair sentencing at the trial because

these instructions unconstitutionally precluded the jury from considering non-

statutory mitigating evidence in deciding whether to impose the death penalty, in

violation of Hitchcock. He asserts that any error from the court’s earlier

instructions was not cured by the judge’s later statement indicating that there was

no limitation on the mitigating factors. In addition, Ferguson notes that the

30
prosecutor made comments during closing arguments that could be interpreted as

supporting the notion that only statutory mitigating factors could be considered.20

Both the state courts and district court rejected this claim. In the 3.850

proceedings, the Florida Supreme Court found that there had been no Hitchcock

error because the trial judge’s later instruction “clearly” informed the jurors “that

they were not limited to consideration of the statutory mitigating circumstances.”

Ferguson IV, 593 So. 2d at 512. Because it made this finding, the court did not

address the issue of harmless error. On federal habeas review, the district court

determined that the Florida Supreme Court’s statements regarding whether the

sentencing judge limited consideration to statutory mitigating factors constituted

findings of fact. Since the record supported the Florida Supreme Court’s finding

that there had not been such a limitation in the Carol City trial, the court denied

Ferguson’s claim. Neither the Florida Supreme nor the federal district court

addressed the issue of harmless error.21

20
Prior to the judge’s instructions, the prosecutor told the jury that “the Court has
enumerated what mitigating factors should apply in this case . . ., and you are bound by this law,
and the judge will tell you so.” App. KK, Vol. 4 at 1060. The prosecutor then described the
statutory mitigating factors and stated, “Those are the circumstances that you have to consider,
and if those circumstances apply in this case, you must follow the law.” Id. at 1062.
21
The circuit court in the 3.850 proceedings found both that there had been no Hitchcock
error and that, even if there had been such an error, it was harmless because the non-statutory
mitigating evidence was insignificant in comparison to the overwhelming aggravating
circumstances.

31
 Ferguson maintains that the court’s instructions were contradictory and that

the court made no effort to indicate which instruction should control or to explain

the discrepancy in its statements. He cites Hall v. Kelso, 892 F.2d 1541, 1545

(11th Cir. 1990), for the principle that a later, correct instruction cannot cure an

earlier, contradictory instruction in the absence of a clarifying statement by the

court. It could be argued that the court’s instructions were more complementary

than contradictory, which would make Hall inapplicable here. Under this reading,

the court’s initial instruction merely would indicate that jurors could consider the

statutory factors described thereafter instead of limiting the jury’s inquiry to solely

those factors. The later instruction would inform the jurors that they could

consider any non-statutory mitigating factors as well, and thus would have added

to the more restrained scope of inquiry suggested by the earlier instruction.22 Any

infirmities in the initial instruction thus would have been cured by the court’s

subsequent statement.

22
In Sims, we found no Hitchcock error based on a similar rationale. In that case, the
judge told the jury, “The mitigating circumstances which you may consider if established by the
evidence among others are these,” and then listed the statutory mitigating factors. Sims, 155
F.3d at 1315 (quotation marks omitted). Focusing on the use of the phrase “among others,” we
found that this “instruction did not preclude the jury from considering all the mitigating evidence
presented by defense counsel but, instead, instructed them to consider all the evidence that was
presented.” Id. Unlike here, though, Sims involved a single instruction rather than two separate,
and potentially conflicting, instructions.

32
 Nevertheless there are good reasons for declining to adopt that reading. The

court’s initial instruction, on its own, clearly would have limited the jury’s

consideration to statutory factors and thus violated Hitchcock. See Jones v.

Dugger, 867 F.2d 1277, 1279 (11th Cir. 1989) (finding Hitchcock error with

respect to a virtually identical instruction). Additionally, though the court made a

later, non-limiting statement, this “proper instruction was not linked to the

erroneous one in such a way as to explicate it or to make clear that the proper

instruction was preeminent and controlling.” Hall, 892 F.2d at 1545.

Furthermore, the prosecutor’s statements strongly suggested that the jury’s

consideration was limited to the statutory factors and therefore “exacerbated the

impact of the court's erroneous instruction.” Jones, 867 F.2d at 1279 n.4. Bearing

all of this in mind, we assume that there was a Hitchcock error here and thus turn

to the issue of whether that error was harmless.

Ferguson contends that the Hitchcock error was not harmless due to the

strength of the mitigating evidence the jury did not consider as a result of the

error. In particular, he cites the evidence produced at trial that indicated that the

murders were not premeditated, that at least five of the six murders were

performed by one of his co-defendants, Marvin Francois, and that he tried to

comfort some of the victims. Ferguson contends that the jury reasonably could

33
have concluded from this evidence that he was an unwilling accomplice to

Francois’s actions and that he tried to stop the murders. Ferguson also mentions

that the jury witnessed his strange behavior at trial, including stripping off his

clothes in the courtroom, and that there was evidence at trial regarding his mental

problems and prior hospitalization. Additionally, Ferguson asserts that we should

consider the cumulative evidentiary effect of the various trial errors, i.e., the

mitigating evidence that Robbins failed to produce due to his ineffective

assistance as well as the non-statutory mitigating evidence actually produced.

As a preliminary note, we cannot consider as part of our harmless error

analysis any mitigating evidence that Robbins failed to produce. In performing

the harmless error analysis for a Hitchcock claim, we “must consider both the

mitigating evidence presented at sentencing as well as mitigating evidence that

could have been presented, but which the state trial court prevented the petitioner

from presenting.” Smith, 61 F.3d at 817 (quotation marks and citation omitted).

“In other words, [we] must consider all potential mitigating evidence that would

have been presented, but for the Hitchcock error.” Id. In this case, there is no

indication that the trial court inhibited Ferguson’s ability to present the missing

mitigating evidence, and Ferguson identifies no case law supporting the notion

34
that a harmless error analysis for a Hitchcock claim should examine such

evidence.23

We thus must determine whether the non-statutory evidence Ferguson

actually presented at trial, which he asserts the jury did not consider, would have

substantially influenced the outcome if the jury had taken it into account. In fact,

the jury may have considered some of this evidence. One of the statutory

mitigating circumstances included in the jury instructions was that Ferguson was

an accomplice to the offense and played a relatively minor role in its commission.

The jury could have viewed evidence regarding Ferguson’s alleged lack of

responsibility for the murders in the crime as falling under this category.24 If this

were the case, the only evidence that would have been unconsidered was that

respecting the lack of premeditation, which would not be enough to alter the

outcome in the face of the aggravating circumstances.

23
Although Ferguson cites three cases from our sister circuits in support of his
proposition, they all involve separate claims alleging cumulative error from the effect of multiple
harmless errors rather than as part of the analysis of a single harmless error issue. See Miller v.
Mullin, 354 F.3d 1288, 1301 (10th Cir. 2004) (per curiam); Alcala v. Woodford, 334 F.3d 862,
893–94 (9th Cir. 2003); Anderson v. Sternes, 243 F.3d 1049, 1055 (7th Cir. 2001).
24
A similar argument could be made with respect to the mental illness evidence and the
judge’s instructions regarding lack of ability to appreciate the effect of one’s actions and the
commission of the offense while under mental duress. However, the jury’s ability to consider
that evidence would be limited by the high standards required to meet either of those factors, i.e.,
extreme mental or emotional disturbance and substantial impairment. See Booker v. Dugger,
922 F.2d 633, 636 (11th Cir. 1991) (commenting on the difficulty in meeting these standards).

35
 Even if we assume that the jury did not take into account any of the

evidence Ferguson categorizes as non-statutory, there is good reason to believe

that the evidence, had it been considered, would not have altered the outcome of

the trial. Notably, we can find only one case, Smith, in which we found that a

Hitchcock error was not harmless under the Brecht standard.25 See Smith, 61 F.3d

at 819. The non-statutory evidence in Smith presents a much stronger case for

non-harmlessness than does that in Ferguson’s. In Smith, there were at least

fourteen different pieces of mitigating evidence that the jury did not consider

because of the Hitchcock error. See id. at 817–18. The non-statutory mitigating

evidence presented at the Carol City trial also was put forth in Smith, i.e., that the

defendant did not perform the actual murders, that he was influenced by the

dominant personality of an accomplice, and that he had mental difficulties — in

Smith, stemming from alcohol and substance abuse. See id. However, in Smith

there were a number of other mitigating factors that were not present in Ferguson’s

case. For instance, Smith was a minor at the time of the crime, was intoxicated

and under the influence of marijuana when the murders occurred, had a non-

25
Ferguson cites various cases in which we found Hitchcock errors were not harmless;
however, all of those cases were decided under more lenient harmless error standards, i.e.,
whether “the evidence excluded from the jury's sentencing deliberations by a limiting instruction
could have had any effect on the jury’s recommendation.” Booker, 922 F.2d at 635; see also
Delap v. Dugger, 890 F.2d 285, 306 (11th Cir. 1989) (finding Hitchcock error “not harmless
beyond a reasonable doubt”).

36
violent personality, and suffered from epilepsy. See id. Additionally, one of

Smith’s accomplices, who had been found guilty of the same number of felonies as

Smith, was given a life sentence rather than the death penalty. See id. at 817.

Bearing in mind this precedent, we do not believe that there is a reasonable

probability that the non-statutory evidence, had it been considered by the jury,

would have altered Ferguson’s sentence. Although Smith involved a similar array

of aggravating factors, the mitigating circumstances in that case presented a much

stronger argument against a death sentence than the mitigating evidence here.26

Additionally, as previously noted, the aggravating factors here are quite numerous

and compelling. Particularly since the jury may have considered much of this

mitigating evidence as part of various statutory factors, we do not believe that

there was “more than a reasonable possibility that the [Hitchcock] error

contributed to [Ferguson’s] sentence.” Horsley, 45 F.3d at 1493. Since the error

thus did not have a “substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the

jury’s verdict,” we conclude that it was harmless and that the district court

26
Smith involved six aggravating factors: (1) that the defendant had two prior felony
convictions; (2) “that he committed the murder “in the course of a kidnapping,” (3) “to avoid
arrest,” and (4) “for pecuniary gain;” “(5) that the murder was heinous, atrocious, and cruel; and
(6) that the murder was cold, calculated, and premeditated.” Smith, 61 F.3d at 816.

37
correctly denied Ferguson habeas relief for this claim. Sims, 155 F.3d at 1315

(quotation marks and citations omitted).

2. The Hialeah Trial

At the Hialeah trial, the judge’s first two instructions relating to mitigating

circumstances were essentially the same as those in the Carol City trial. Unlike in

the Carol City proceedings, though, he made no subsequent statement informing

the jurors that they were not limited in the mitigating factors they could consider.

The parties concede that these instructions constituted a Hitchcock error. We

therefore must decide whether this error was harmless under the Brecht standard.

The Florida Supreme Court rejected Ferguson’s Hitchcock claim during the

3.850 proceedings.27 It found that there had been a Hitchcock error in the Hialeah

trial but concluded that the error was harmless “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Ferguson IV, 593 So. 2d at 513. The court described the additional mitigating

evidence presented at the 3.850 hearing, which dealt Ferguson’s family history, as

“relatively insignificant.” Id. at 512. It then went on to note that the mitigating

27
The circuit court in those proceedings found that the Hitchcock error was harmless
beyond a reasonable doubt since the trial court had told the jury to consider all of the evidence.
The trial judge instructed the jury to “carefully weigh, sift and consider the evidence, and all of it,
realizing that human life is at stake.” App. LL, Vol. 6 at 1463–64.

38
evidence was “especially insignificant in light of the heinous nature of the killings

in this case and the overwhelming aggravating factors.”28 Id.

The district court agreed that the Hitchcock error “was harmless beyond a

reasonable doubt.” R4-108 at 37. In support of this conclusion, the court cited

both the egregiousness of the aggravating circumstances and the fact that the jury

already had discounted the non-statutory mental health evidence when it

considered and rejected Ferguson’s insanity defense. The court also agreed with

the Florida Supreme Court that the outcome would have been the same even if the

non-statutory mitigating evidence produced at the 3.850 hearing had been taken

into account.

Ferguson notes that there was a wealth of evidence produced at trial

regarding his psychological problems and that he exhibited bizarre behavior

during the course of the trial. He asserts that the jury did not consider this

evidence in imposing sentence because his counsel presented it only in terms of an

insanity defense and did not connect it to a statutory mitigating factor. As

previously noted, there is a reasonable argument that the jury did not take the

mental health evidence into account because of the language of the jury

28
It is unclear whether, in making this statement, the court was describing solely the
mitigating evidence from the 3.850 hearing or all of the mitigating evidence in the case.

39
instructions regarding mental duress and inability to appreciate the impact of one’s

actions. See n.24 supra. However, the judge’s instruction to consider and weigh

all of the evidence may mitigate the fact that counsel did not connect the evidence

to a statutory mitigating factor.

Even if we accept Ferguson’s contention that the jury did not consider the

evidence, we do not believe that the Hitchcock error would have changed the

outcome. The evidence Ferguson cites here is essentially the same as that which

he referenced with respect to the prejudice prong of his ineffective assistance

claim. In fact, it may even be less since Ferguson has not identified a basis for us

to take into account evidence that was not produced at trial. See Smith, 61 F.3d at

817. Since that evidence was insufficient to meet Strickland’s requirement that

there be a “reasonable probability” of affecting the outcome, it likewise would not

be enough to show the “substantial and injurious effect or influence” on the

verdict required under Brecht. Sims, 155 F.3d at 1315 (quotation marks and

citations omitted). Furthermore, as in the Carol City case, it is highly improbable

that enough jurors would find that the multiple egregious aggravating factors were

outweighed by this unconsidered mitigation evidence. We therefore conclude that

the Hitchcock error in the Hialeah trial was harmless and that the district court

properly denied Ferguson habeas relief with respect to this claim.

40
D. Brady Claim

Ferguson contends that the prosecution in both trials violated his due

process rights, as described in Brady, by failing to disclose evidence that three of

its witnesses, detectives Robert Derringer, Charles Zatrepalek, and Michael

MacDonald (“the detectives”), were under investigation for drug trafficking,

conspiracy, theft, and civil rights violations.29 Ferguson asserts that all of the

requirements to establish a Brady claim are present here and that the district court

erred in failing to grant him habeas relief or, in the alternative, to hold an

evidentiary hearing on the issue.30 He contends that the State possessed evidence

of the detectives’ ongoing criminal conduct at the time of the trials because it had

constructive, if not actual, knowledge of their illegal activities and the knowledge

of the detectives could be imputed to the prosecution. He also maintains that this

evidence was material because there were similarities between the charges against

Ferguson and the activities in which the detectives were involved, i.e., stealing

money from drug dealers and threatening to kill people. According to Ferguson,

29
This conduct ultimately led to a 40-count indictment and multiple convictions for
various individuals, including Derringer. See United States v. Alonso, 740 F.2d 862, 865 (11th
Cir. 1984).
30
Although the 3.850 evidentiary hearing ostensibly addressed the Brady issue among
others, Ferguson contended that he could not offer a “full Brady presentation” at that time
because his motion for discovery on that topic had been denied and the prosecution files to which
he had access did not contain the necessary information about the arrests. App. NN at 2883.

41
the prosecution’s failure to provide this evidence undermines confidence in the

verdicts because of the critical role the detectives played at trial.

The state courts rejected Ferguson’s Brady claim argument during the 3.850

proceedings. The circuit court made three principal findings: (1) that evidence

concerning the detectives’ involvement in the illegal activities was not material

under the standard articulated in United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 105 S. Ct.

3375 (1985); (2) that the State did not possess the evidence because it had no

actual knowledge of the illegal activities and such knowledge could not be

imputed to it; and (3) that it was not reasonably probable that the evidence, if

admissible, would have changed the outcome of the proceedings. The Florida

Supreme Court found the Brady claim to be without merit and dismissed it

summarily.

The district court determined that Ferguson had failed to state a Brady

claim. The court found that each of the circuit court’s three findings could serve

as an independent basis for denying Ferguson’s claim. The court agreed that the

evidence would have been inadmissible under Florida law and thus was not

material for the purposes of assessing the claim. It found that the State did not

have possession of the impeachment evidence for the purposes of a Brady

violation since it had no actual knowledge of the evidence and the prosecution’s

42
duty to inquire into such evidence would have been trumped by the detectives’

Fifth Amendment rights The court also found that the results of the proceedings

would not have changed if the impeachment evidence had been presented.

For a petitioner to prevail on a Brady claim, he “must establish (1) the

government possessed evidence favorable to him; (2) the defendant did not

possess the evidence and could not have obtained it with reasonable diligence; (3)

the government suppressed the favorable evidence; and (4) the evidence was

material.” Lamarca v. Secretary, Dep’t of Corr., 568 F.3d 929, 941 (11th Cir.

2009) (quotation marks and citation omitted). Evidence would be “material” if it

is reasonably probable that a different outcome would have resulted if the

government had disclosed the evidence. See id. A “reasonable probability” is “a

probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.” Id. (quotation

marks and citation omitted). Because we find that the evidence was not material

for the purposes of Brady, we need not address the other prongs.

The Florida Supreme Court has held that, as a general matter, if a state

witness “were presently or recently under actual or threatened criminal charges or

investigation leading to such criminal charges,” a defendant has the right to bring

out the circumstances behind those charges on cross-examination. Reed v. State,

875 So. 2d 415, 431 (Fla. 2004) (per curiam) (quotation marks and citation

43
omitted). However, when that “state witness is merely under investigation,” the

defendant would not have this right when the investigation is either too remote in

time from or not related or relevant to the case at issue. Id. In Breedlove I, we

noted that “evidence of unrelated illegal activity by a police officer testifying for

the state would likely not have been admissible under Florida’s law of evidence,

and thus immaterial for Brady purposes.” Breedlove I, 279 F.3d at 964 (citing

Delap, 890 F.2d at 298).

Since the detectives had not been charged at the time of Ferguson’s trials,

evidence of their illegal activities would have been admissible only if the

investigations were related to the cases against Ferguson and were not too remote

in time from his trials.31 We thus must determine whether Ferguson has shown

that there was sufficient relation between those investigations and his own case.

According to Ferguson, such a connection existed because the detectives were

charged with crimes that bore a resemblance to his own. In particular, he cites the

fact that the detectives’ crimes involved ripping off drug dealers32 in the same

31
Though neither party raises it as an issue, it should be noted that there is no
retroactivity problem in applying these Florida precedents since there was case law at the time of
the trials supporting essentially this standard. See Fulton v. State, 335 So. 2d 280, 283–84 (Fla.
1976).
32
This was a stated purpose of the home invasion that precipitated the Carol City
murders.

44
location and during the same time frame as the Carol City crimes, and that these

crimes involved stealing money from a private home and threats to kill people, if

not actual killings. See Breedlove I, 279 F.3d at 956. He asserts that these

similarities make it distinctly plausible that the detectives had a motivation to

resolve Ferguson’s case quickly and possibly to throw suspicion on him for their

own crimes.

We addressed essentially the same argument in Breedlove I, which involved

a Brady claim based on the alleged suppression of evidence regarding illegal

activities by many of the same detectives who testified at Ferguson’s trials. See

Breedlove I, 279 F.3d at 959–64. In that case, we found it was not objectively

unreasonable for the Florida Supreme Court to determine that evidence of the

detectives’ crimes was unrelated, and thus not material, to the case against the

petitioner, who had been convicted of felony murder connected with a burglary of

a house in Miami. See id. at 954–55, 963. Because Breedlove I involved a post-

AEDPA inquiry into objective unreasonableness, rather than the de novo review

applicable here, our holding in that case would not be binding here. See id. at 963.

Even though Breedlove I is not controlling, Ferguson has failed to provide a

rationale for us to reach a different conclusion with respect to materiality. The

purported connections between Ferguson’s offenses and the detectives’ crimes are

45
too attenuated to meet the materiality test. The criminal scheme in which the

detectives took part included a range of drug-related felonies not seen in the Carol

City murders, i.e., racketeering, possession of various drugs with the intent to

distribute, money counterfeiting, and tax evasion. See Alonso, 740 F.2d at 865

n.1. Additionally, the conspirators used a falsified police warrant to gain entry to

the home, a modus operandi distinct from and likely unavailable to Ferguson and

his compatriots during the Carol City murders. See id. at 866. The detectives also

may not have been aware of the investigations at the time of Ferguson’s trials and

thus would not have had a reason to implicate Ferguson for their crimes. See

Breedlove v. State, 580 So. 2d 605, 607 (Fla. 1991) (Breedlove II) (per curiam).

If, as Ferguson asserts, the detectives were motivated by a desire to implicate

others for their crimes, he has not identified “particular facts” to indicate why the

detectives would have had a reason to present false testimony in his specific case.

Reed, 875 So. 2d at 431. Since Florida courts would have treated such evidence

as inadmissible, it is immaterial for Brady purposes. We therefore find that

Ferguson has not stated a valid Brady claim and that the district court thus

properly denied Ferguson habeas relief for this claim.33

33
We also note our agreement with the district court’s finding that the evidence did not
affect the proceedings because there was ample independent evidence to support his conviction
in both cases.

46
E. Failure to Correct False Testimony

Ferguson also asserts that his due process rights were violated by the

prosecution’s eliciting and failing to correct false testimony from Edward

Hartmann, a police officer at the Carol City trial. Hartmann testified that Ferguson

was convicted of assault with intent to commit murder based on a 1969 shooting

incident with Hartmann. In fact, Hartmann shot Ferguson four times, and

Ferguson was acquitted of the assault charges, though he was found guilty of

robbery in connection with the same incident. Ferguson contends that the

prosecutor was aware of this discrepancy and violated his due process rights by

failing to correct it. See Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 92 S. Ct. 763

(1972). He also maintains that his trial and post-conviction counsel were unaware

of the error and that his own incompetence prevented him from informing them of

it.

Ferguson first made this claim in a supplement to his 3.850 motion, which

he filed after the circuit court already had denied his motion in full. The circuit

court denied his motion to supplement, finding that the motion was untimely

because it was “predicated on facts which could have been raised at an earlier

time.” App. NN at 1399. The Florida Supreme Court summarily denied

Ferguson’s appeal on this issue.

47
 The district court found this claim to be procedurally barred under Vining v.

State, 827 So. 2d 201, 212 (Fla. 2002) (per curiam), in which the Florida Supreme

Court held that such claims cannot be raised for the first time in a 3.850 motion

unless they involved an error that was unknown to the defendant and his counsel

at the time of trial and could not be uncovered through due diligence. The district

court determined that Robbins was aware of the facts of the shooting incident at

the time but did not object to the testimony and that Ferguson’s alleged

incompetence could not provide a basis for relief since the circuit court found him

competent to stand trial. The court also noted that, even assuming the claim was

not procedurally barred, the false testimony amounted to harmless error.

To make out a valid Giglio claim, a petitioner “must establish that (1) the

prosecutor knowingly used perjured testimony or failed to correct what he

subsequently learned was false testimony; and (2) such use was material — i.e.,

that there is any reasonable likelihood that the false testimony could have affected

the judgment.” Davis v. Terry, 465 F.3d 1249, 1253 (11th Cir. 2006) (per curiam)

(quotation marks, alterations, and citation omitted).

48
 Under the then-applicable version of Rule 3.850, a defendant had to file a

motion within two years of the date his conviction became final.34 See Fla. R.

Crim. P. 3.850(b) (1990). However, there was an explicit exception to this time

bar if the defendant alleged that the facts upon which he based his claim were

unknown to him or his attorney “and could not have been ascertained by the

exercise of due diligence.” Id. 3.850(b)(1). Furthermore, under that rule, a circuit

court was not obligated to consider supplemental pleadings to a 3.850 motion if it

had already ruled on the merits of that motion. See id. 3.850(f); State v. Green,

944 So. 2d 208, 218 (Fla. 2006). The failure to file within the time frame

discussed in Rule 3.850 would procedurally bar a petitioner from bringing a

federal habeas claim on that issue. See Whiddon v. Dugger, 894 F.2d 1266,

1267–68 (11th Cir. 1990).

As a preliminary matter, there may have been no Giglio violation here

because the prosecutor arguably corrected the false testimony by entering into

evidence Ferguson’s correct conviction record, which included a reference to the

not guilty verdict; however, no party called attention to the discrepancy. In any

34
The current version of Rule 3.850 sets the time limits at two years for non-capital cases
and one year for capital cases. See Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.850(b) (2009); In Re Rule of Crim.
Procedure 3.851, 626 So. 2d 198, 199–200 (Fla. 1993) (per curiam) (discussing changes to Rule
3.850).

49
event, assuming there was a violation, Ferguson’s claim would be procedurally

barred. The motion to supplement was filed twelve years after the completion of

trial and a month after the court denied Ferguson’s 3.850 motion. Ferguson’s

counsel contends that neither they nor any of his prior counsel had knowledge of

the incorrectness of Hartmann’s testimony until July 1990 when they discovered

documents indicating a contrary set of events. Even if we accept these facts, and

there are reasons to doubt them,35 Ferguson has not explained why his attorneys

could not have obtained evidence of the discrepancy at an earlier date. In light of

the extreme time gap between trial and the filing of the motion to supplement,

along with the fact that evidence of the factual discrepancy was in the trial record,

we find that Ferguson has not shown that he meets the due diligence requirement

for the exception to Rule 3.850’s time bar. We therefore conclude that Ferguson’s

Giglio claim is procedurally barred.36

35
Robbins’s cross-examination of Hartmann included multiple questions regarding in
which parts of the body Ferguson had been shot, which indicates that he may have been aware of
the basic circumstances of the incident prior to the conviction record being entered as evidence.
Robbins also could have received knowledge of the events from Ferguson, who had been deemed
competent to stand trial and can be assumed to have known his own criminal history, particularly
after having his memory refreshed by Hartmann’s testimony.
36
We note that, even assuming that the claim was not procedurally barred, it would
constitute harmless error, since the error would affect only one of the aggravating factors,
Ferguson’s past violent felony convictions, and there would still be two violent felony
convictions to trigger that factor.

50
F. Jury Separation Claim

Ferguson contends that he was denied the effective assistance of appellate

counsel because his counsel failed to raise on appeal the issue of the separation of

the Hialeah jury during its deliberations. He first raised this argument during the

state habeas proceedings, and it was rejected by the Florida Supreme Court. The

court noted that such a claim would not be cognizable unless there had been a

contemporaneous objection by trial counsel, assuming the judge gave the jury

adequate cautionary instructions. It found that Ferguson’s trial counsel failed to

make such an objection and that the trial judge had instructed the jury not to

discuss the case. In combination with the judge’s other cautionary instructions

during the trial, these facts rendered Ferguson’s claim meritless. The district court

agreed with the Florida Supreme Court’s rationale and concluded that the failure

to raise the argument would not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel.

Since Ferguson’s state appellate counsel could be ineffective for not raising

the jury separation claim only if that issue had been preserved for appeal, we must

determine whether the issue was waived. See Rose v. Dugger, 508 So. 2d 321,

323 (Fla. 1987) (finding appellate counsel not deficient when jury separation issue

was not preserved for appellate review). Under Florida law, “in a capital case,

after the jury’s deliberations have begun, the jury must be sequestered until it

51
reaches a verdict or is discharged after being ultimately unable to do so.”

Livingston v. State, 458 So. 2d 235, 239 (Fla. 1984); see also Fla. R. Crim. P.

3.370(c). It is per se reversible error to permit a jury to separate over an objection

by defense counsel. See Pope v. State, 569 So. 2d 1241, 1243 (Fla. 1990) (per

curiam). Because “this per se rule is merely prophylactic in nature,” counsel must

make a contemporaneous objection at trial to the separation when the court gives

cautionary instructions to the jury. Id. at 1244. As a result, if defense counsel

either makes no contemporaneous objection to separation or affirmatively

consents to it, the error is deemed waived if “adequate cautionary instructions

were given and there is no other showing that the defendant’s right to a fair trial

was compromised.” Id. In this case, it is undisputed that defense counsel made no

contemporaneous objection to the jury separation, and Ferguson does not argue

that his right to a fair trial was compromised. Accordingly, the error would be

waived if we find that the judge gave adequate cautionary instructions to the jury.

Throughout the course of the Hialeah trial, the judge gave the jury repeated

cautionary instructions about not discussing the case with anyone and not

consulting outside sources.37 Immediately prior to the jury’s beginning their

37
He typically gave the jury such instructions before the court recessed for lunch or for
the day, though there were occasions in which he did not give those instructions before a break.

52
deliberations, the judge instructed them as follows: “You may now retire to the

jury room. My earlier discussions with you about not talking about this case you

can forget about and you can talk about it all you want.” App. LL, Vol. 6 at 1419.

The jury deliberated for a few hours and then made a request to go home for the

evening, which the trial judge granted. Before they left, he gave them the

following instructions:

There are some special admonitions that, of course, I think
are appropriate.

The case ought to stay here. Forget about it. Relax for the
evening. . . .

[In the morning] I would like everybody in here ready to go
by nine and I would like you to report here rather than
upstairs. . . .

Come directly into the courtroom. . . . Go directly into the
jury room and do not discuss the case until I am with you
and tell you to do so.

Id. at 1425–26.

We find the judge’s cautionary instructions to be adequate, especially in

light of his earlier repeated admonitions. There is scant Florida case law

discussing what would constitute an adequate cautionary instruction. The most

analogous case is Engle v. State, 438 So. 2d 803 (Fla. 1983) (per curiam), which

involved the failure to instruct the jury, immediately before it separated for

53
deliberations, that it was not to visit the scene of the crime. The judge in that case

gave the jury such an instruction only at the beginning of the trial, which was three

days before the jury separation. See id. at 809. The Florida Supreme Court found

there to have been no reversible error due to the separation since the jury would

have been “capable of remembering and heeding the judge’s admonition not to

visit the scene of the alleged crime without the necessity of repeating the same

every time that the jury separates.” Id.

The logic in Engle applies equally here. The Hialeah trial judge repeatedly

advised the jurors not to discuss the case when they left the courtroom, and we

find it reasonable to infer that the jury kept these warnings in mind at the end of

the trial. Ferguson argues that these admonitions were undermined by the

instruction immediately prior to the commencement of deliberations for the jury to

“forget about” the earlier warnings. However, any such subversion would have

been cured by the judge’s instruction immediately prior to separation that the

jurors should not discuss the case until he was with them and told them they could

do so. Since the instructions likely were adequate and Ferguson’s counsel did not

object to the separation, we find that this issue was waived. As a result,

Ferguson’s appellate counsel would not be ineffective for failing to raise the issue

54
on appeal. We therefore conclude that the district court correctly denied Ferguson

habeas relief with respect to this claim.

G. Resentencing by a New Judge

Ferguson also asserts that his federal due process rights were violated

because he was resentenced to death by a new judge without the benefit of an

evidentiary hearing. As previously noted, the trial judge who presided over both

the Carol City and Hialeah trials retired during the pendency of Ferguson’s appeal.

After the Florida Supreme Court vacated and remanded Ferguson’s death

sentences, a successor judge resentenced him to death. On direct appeal from the

resentencing, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed these sentences after

determining that the successor judge had not abused his discretion in denying

Ferguson’s request for an evidentiary hearing before resentencing. The court

noted that the successor judge had found Ferguson’s offer of proof insufficient to

merit reopening the case to hold such a hearing.

In the state habeas proceedings, Ferguson asserted that his resentencing

violated the requirement, set forth in Corbett v. State, 602 So. 2d 1240 (Fla. 1992)

(per curiam), that a substitute judge who did not hear the evidence presented as

part of the penalty phase of a trial “must conduct a new sentencing proceeding

before a jury to assure that both the judge and jury hear the same evidence that

55
will be determinative of whether a defendant lives or dies.” Corbett, 602 So. 2d at

1244. The Florida Supreme Court concluded that, although the holding in Corbett

applied to resentencings, it did not apply retroactively since it was not a

fundamental constitutional change in the law. The court also found that Ferguson

had not preserved the issue and that, as a result, his claim was procedurally barred.

This procedural bar applied because, although Ferguson had requested an

evidentiary hearing at the resentencing, he had not raised the issue of whether the

judge could properly evaluate the record without such a hearing.

In the federal habeas proceedings, Ferguson argued that resentencing him

without an evidentiary hearing violated notions of due process and fundamental

fairness.38 He asserted that Corbett and successor cases applied to his case

because they reflected fundamental federal and state constitutional principles, the

Florida Supreme Court’s findings on the issue notwithstanding. Additionally, he

maintained that his claim was not procedurally barred because Florida law has no

contemporaneous objection requirement and any objection would have been futile

in light of the Florida Supreme Court’s instructions for the remand. The district

38
Ferguson made an additional argument that the resentencing was contrary to Ring v.
Arizona, 536 U.S. 584, 609, 122 S. Ct. 2428, 2443 (2002), in which the Supreme Court held that
a jury, rather than a judge, must make all findings of fact necessary for eligibility for the death
penalty. The district court rejected this argument, noting that we have construed Ring not to have
retroactive application. See Sibley v. Culliver, 377 F.3d 1196, 1208 (11th Cir. 2004). Ferguson
abandoned this argument on appeal.

56
court rejected these arguments. It found that Ferguson’s Corbett claims did not

state a basis for granting habeas relief and that they solely implicated violations of

state law for which federal habeas relief would be unavailable.

As a preliminary note, it is doubtful that there is a federal constitutional

principle requiring the sentencing judge to have heard the evidence before

imposing sentence. We have never addressed this specific question, nor has any

other federal court, as best as we can tell, and the cases Ferguson cites all address

different concerns. See, e.g., United States v. Cofield, 272 F.3d 1303, 1306 (11th

Cir. 2001) (per curiam) (articulating general rule that a district court must rehear

witness testimony before rejecting magistrate judge’s credibility findings but need

not do so if it is accepting the findings). In fact, the only instances in which a

court has imposed a similar requirement are Corbett and its progeny, which are

premised on state law.39 Additionally, the principle suggested by Ferguson may be

at odds with a past cases in which we found that a substitute judge who read the

trial record and transcripts was sufficiently familiar with a case to sentence a

defendant. See United States v. Dowd, 451 F.3d 1244, 1256 (11th Cir. 2006); see

also United States v. Casas, 425 F.3d 23, 56 (1st Cir. 2005) (noting that “a

39
Ferguson cites portions of the petitioner’s brief in Corbett referencing federal
constitutional bases for the asserted right; however, the Florida Supreme Court premised its
decision entirely on state statutory and case law. See generally Corbett, 602 So. 2d 1240.

57
replacement judge is ordinarily capable of assessing the credibility of the

witnesses and the evidence at trial by a thorough review of the record”) (quotation

marks and citation omitted). Given that “[a] sentencing judge enjoys broad

discretion to determine whether he can perform sentencing duties in a case he did

not try,” there does not seem to be a federal constitutional principle at issue here.

United States v. McGuinness, 769 F.2d 695, 696 (11th Cir. 1985) (per curiam).

As a result, Ferguson’s claim likely involves solely state law issues that could not

serve as the basis for a federal habeas claim. See Hendrix v. Secretary, Fla. Dep’t

of Corr., 527 F.3d 1149, 1153 (11th Cir. 2008) (per curiam) (noting that “a

violation of state law is not a ground for federal habeas relief”).

However, assuming arguendo that Ferguson’s claim involves a federal

constitutional principle, it still may be subject to a procedural bar. “A state court’s

rejection of a petitioner’s constitutional claim on state procedural grounds will

generally preclude any subsequent federal habeas review of that claim.” Payne v.

Allen, 539 F.3d 1297, 1312–13 (11th Cir. 2008) (quotation marks and citation

omitted). For such a bar to apply, the state court’s decision must rest on “an

independent and adequate state ground.” Judd v. Haley, 250 F.3d 1308, 1313

(11th Cir. 2001) (quotation marks and citation omitted). We apply a three-part test

to determine whether a state procedural rule is adequate and independent. See id.

58
First, the last state court to render judgment on the issue “must clearly and

expressly state that it is relying on state procedural rules to resolve the federal

claim without reaching the merits of that claim.” Id. Second, “the state court’s

decision must rest solidly on state law grounds, and may not be intertwined with

an interpretation of federal law.” Id. (quotation marks and citation omitted).

Third, the procedural rule has to be “adequate,” meaning that it is not “applied in

an arbitrary or unprecedented fashion.” Id.

The Florida Supreme Court found Ferguson’s due process claim to be

procedurally barred because he failed to raise an objection on these grounds in the

district court and thus had not preserved the issue for appellate review.40 Florida

law requires a defendant to make a “contemporaneous, specific objection . . . at the

time of the alleged error” to preserve an issue for appellate review. Overton v.

State, 976 So. 2d 536, 547 (Fla. 2007) (per curiam). In this case, the Florida

Supreme Court clearly and expressly invoked that state law principle in deeming

the claim procedurally barred, and there is no indication that it relied on anything

40
The court noted that, although Ferguson’s counsel requested an evidentiary hearing at
resentencing, “he failed to raise the grounds now raised — that Judge Klein could not properly
evaluate the aggravation and mitigation on the basis of a cold record.” Ferguson V, 632 So. 2d at
56. This claim had been “raised on direct appeal from resentencing, but since it was not raised
below it was procedurally barred at that time.” Id. Because Ferguson’s state habeas petition
referenced principles of both state and federal due process, this procedural bar would apply to his
federal due process claim.

59
besides state law in applying the procedural bar.41 Additionally, though the court

discussed the merits of Ferguson’s Corbett claim, we can still apply the state

procedural bar since it couched its discussion of the procedural bar in the

alternative. See Alderman v. Zant, 22 F.3d 1541, 1549 (11th Cir. 1994). Since the

first two prongs of the adequate and independent state grounds test were met, the

only remaining question is whether the Florida Supreme Court applied the

contemporaneous objection rule in “an arbitrary and unprecedented fashion.”

Judd, 250 F.3d at 1313.

Under the contemporaneous objection rule, an issue is properly preserved if

the trial court knows that an objection was made, clearly understands the nature of

the objection, and denies that request. See Thomas v. State, 419 So. 2d 634, 636

(Fla. 1982). Though “magic words are not needed to make a proper objection,”

counsel must articulate his concern with sufficient specificity “to inform the trial

judge of the alleged error.” Williams v. State, 414 So. 2d 509, 512 (Fla. 1982). In

sum, “an objection must be specific enough to apprise the trial judge of the

putative error and to preserve the issue for intelligent review on appeal.” Id. at

511 (quotation marks and citation omitted).

41
Although the Florida Supreme Court, in discussing the procedural bar, did not cite any
statutory or case law to this effect, its statements reflect this general principle.

60
 Ferguson maintains that he met the contemporaneous objection requirement

because his counsel requested an evidentiary hearing before the successor judge,

which was sufficient to put the judge on notice of his due process objection to the

resentencing. He notes that the Florida Supreme Court does not require counsel

“to pursue a completely useless course when the judge has announced in advance

that it will be fruitless.” Thomas, 419 So. 2d at 635 (quotation marks and citation

omitted). He asserts that the Florida Supreme Court’s instruction that “[a]n

additional sentence advisory verdict by a jury” would not be required on remand

constitutes just such an announcement. Ferguson I, 417 So. 2d at 646. As a result,

any objection his counsel could have made beyond requesting an evidentiary

hearing would have been pointless.

There is little basis in the record from which the trial court could have

concluded that Ferguson’s counsel was making a due process objection to being

resentenced by a successor judge without a hearing. Rather, all of the objections

raised addressed the failure to hold an evidentiary hearing to permit the

introduction of further mitigating evidence. Additionally, Ferguson’s counsel

failed to object when, before resentencing Ferguson, the court specifically asked

whether there was any legal reason why it should not resentence him. Even

though Florida law provides some leeway with respect to the form and substance

61
of the objection, a request for an evidentiary hearing is insufficiently specific to

apprise the trial court that a due process objection was being made. See Williams,

414 So. 2d at 511–12. In light of this failure, Ferguson has not triggered the

futility exception, even taking into account the Florida Supreme Court’s statement

about the limited scope of remand and the fact that Ferguson’s appellate counsel

raised the issue on appeal from the resentencing.

Ferguson cites various cases in which the Florida Supreme Court has

indicated that the failure to object does not automatically preclude review;

however, upon closer examination, they do not evince an arbitrary or irregular

application of the contemporaneous objection rule. Most of his references are to

cases in which the Florida Supreme Court addressed alleged Hitchcock violations

even though the defense counsel did not make that objection at trial. See, e.g.,

Mikenas v. Dugger, 519 So. 2d 601, 602 (Fla. 1988) (per curiam); Thompson v.

Dugger, 515 So. 2d 173, 175 (Fla. 1987) (per curiam). In those instances, the

court found it appropriate to consider the issue because “Hitchcock represented a

sufficient change in the law to defeat the application of procedural default.”

Mikenas, 519 So. 2d at 602; see also Thompson, 515 So. 2d at 175. Additionally,

in Smalley v. State, 546 So. 2d 720 (Fla. 1989) (per curiam), abrogation on other

grounds recognized by Beltran-Lopez v. State, 626 So. 2d 163, 164 (Fla. 1993)

62
(per curiam), the defense counsel failed to object to a “heinous, atrocious, or

cruel” jury instruction, but the court decided to hear the merits of the argument

because a recent Supreme Court case had raised the issue of whether such an

instruction was unconstitutionally vague under the Eighth and Fourteenth

Amendments. See Smalley, 546 So. 2d at 722.

The only case that may support Ferguson’s argument is Elledge v. State, 346

So. 2d 998, 1002 (Fla. 1977), in which the court noted that counsel’s failure to

object to testimony “should not be conclusive of the special scope of review by

this Court in death cases.” There appear to be no other state cases citing that

principle, although we cited it in two decisions, and it may not be applicable

outside of the context of admissibility of testimony. See Mann v. Dugger, 817

F.2d 1471, 1475 (11th Cir. 1987), reh’g granted and opinion vacated on other

grounds by Mann v. Dugger, 828 F.2d 1498 (11th Cir. 1987) (per curiam); Henry

v. Wainwright, 686 F.2d 311, 314 (5th Cir. Unit B 1982), vacated on other

grounds by Wainwright v. Henry, 463 U.S. 1223, 103 S. Ct. 3566 (1983) (mem.).

In any event, one instance of not applying the contemporaneous objection rule

does not indicate that the Florida Supreme Court has not adhered strictly to the

rule. As a result, there is no indication that the procedural bar was not an adequate

state ground.

63
 Because the contemporaneous objection rule is an adequate and independent

state ground, we are barred from reviewing Ferguson’s successor judge claim

unless he can show cause and prejudice to excuse the procedural bar or that “a

fundamental miscarriage of justice” would result. Zeigler, 345 F.3d at 1304

(quotation marks and citation omitted). Ferguson asserts that he has shown cause

because it would have been fruitless to raise such an objection in light of the

Florida Supreme Court’s instructions on remand. However, “the futility of

presenting an objection to the state courts cannot alone constitute cause for a

failure to object at trial.” Engle v. Isaac, 456 U.S. 107, 130, 102 S. Ct. 1558, 1573

(1982). Since Ferguson has cited no other rationale for his failure to object, we

find that he has not shown cause for the procedural default. Furthermore, although

Ferguson does not argue that applying the bar would constitute a “fundamental

miscarriage of justice,” we note that his situation would not fall under that

description, which is reserved for “extraordinary” circumstances, such as “where a

constitutional violation has resulted in the conviction of someone who is actually

innocent.” Henderson v. Campbell, 353 F.3d 880, 892 (11th Cir. 2003). We

therefore are procedurally barred from hearing Ferguson’s due process claim. As

a result, we conclude that the district court correctly denied Ferguson’s habeas

petition with respect to this claim.

64
H. Race-Based Peremptory Challenges

Ferguson contends that the prosecutor at both of his trials made race-based

peremptory challenges. He asserts that these challenges were unconstitutional

under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S. Ct. 1712 (1986), and urges us to

find that Batson applies retroactively in capital cases. He also maintains that his

Batson claim would not be procedurally defaulted because his counsel at both

trials were ineffective in not objecting to the race-based strikes. In the alternative,

he argues that he is entitled to an evidentiary hearing to present evidence that

would show the existence of systematic exclusion practices in violation of Swain

v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S. Ct. 824 (1965).

Ferguson first raised the issue of racially-based peremptory challenges

during the 3.850 proceedings, arguing that the State violated his right to a fair and

impartial jury and equal protection rights by exercising such challenges, that his

counsel was ineffective for failing to object to those challenges, and that Batson

should apply to his claim. The circuit court denied this claim in two separate

orders. It first struck the portion of the claim alleging a Batson violation because

it found that violations of Batson, and a corresponding state case, State v. Neil,

457 So. 2d 481 (Fla. 1984), were not fundamental error nor applied retroactively

and therefore could not be raised for the first time in a motion for post-conviction

65
relief. In a later order, the court found that Ferguson failed to show either that the

jury was all white or that, even if it was, the State used its peremptory challenges

to excuse black jurors solely because of their race. The court also determined that,

even if the State had such race-based motives, Ferguson had not shown that his

counsel was deficient or ineffective in failing to object nor that he had been

prejudiced by such a failure. The Florida Supreme Court summarily denied this

claim, finding it to be without merit.

The district court rejected all of Ferguson’s arguments with respect to the

alleged race-based peremptory challenges. It found that Ferguson’s Batson claim

failed because Ferguson could not show that blacks had been systematically

excluded from his jury.42 It also determined that, assuming that such challenges

had occurred, there was no evidence that Ferguson was prejudiced by them. The

court noted, in particular, that the State allowed white jurors to be empaneled even

though they expressed objections to the death penalty but struck black jurors who

had no such qualms.

Batson is not retroactively applicable to defendants whose convictions and

direct appeals became final before the Supreme Court issued Batson. See Baldwin

42
The court made no findings about Batson’s potential retroactivity nor about whether his
counsel was ineffective for not objecting to the challenges, although it may have implicitly
rejected the latter claim.

66
v. Johnson, 152 F.3d 1304, 1315 n.10 (11th Cir. 1998); Jackson v. Herring, 42

F.3d 1350, 1356 (11th Cir. 1992). Ferguson contends that we should apply a

different standard here because the Supreme Court has never explicitly stated that

Batson does not apply retroactively in capital proceedings. However, there appear

to be no cases in which courts have permitted such a retroactive application. In

fact, in the case Ferguson references for the notion that the Supreme Court has not

ruled on the issue, Williams v. Chrans, 945 F.2d 926 (7th Cir. 1991), the Seventh

Circuit found that Batson did not establish a new rule under Teague v. Lane, 489

U.S. 288, 109 S. Ct. 1060 (1989), and thus would not apply retroactively in capital

decisions. See Williams, 945 F.2d at 946.

Since Batson does not apply to Ferguson’s peremptory challenge argument,

we review the issue under the standards established in Swain. See Baldwin, 152

F.3d at 1315 n.10. To state a claim under Swain, a habeas petitioner must show

more than that the prosecutor deliberately used peremptory strikes to remove

African-Americans from the jury; rather, he has to “demonstrate that the

prosecutor, over time, systematically excluded blacks from serving on petit juries.”

Id. at 1315. Prosecutors are presumed to have utilized their strikes in a fair and

impartial manner. See Jackson, 42 F.3d at 1356. A petitioner can overcome this

presumption by presenting evidence that would “manifestly show an intent on the

67
part of the prosecutor to disenfranchise blacks from traverse juries in criminal

trials,” including statistical evidence or testimony from those who have witnessed

the pattern of systematic exclusion. Id.

As a preliminary note, the actual racial composition of the jury at both trials

is unclear. Since none of the attorneys at either trial could remember the racial

makeup of the jury, the principal evidence comes from testimony at the 3.850

evidentiary hearing of a law student, Chad Roberts, who compared the names of

members of the jury pool to voter registration records to determine the race of

those in the pool. Roberts stated that, based on his research, all twelve of the

jurors and both alternates in the Carol City trial were white, that four of the

twenty-nine other members of the jury pool were definitely black, and that three of

those four were peremptorily challenged by the State even though they had no

objection to the death penalty. He also determined that the twelve jurors and two

alternates in the Hialeah trial were white, that six of the thirty-six other jury pool

members were definitely black, and that five of those six were peremptorily

challenged by the State.43 Four of those five struck pool members had no

43
There was one other peremptorily-challenged member of the jury pool who Roberts
thought was likely black, though he could make no definitive finding.

68
objection to the imposition of the death penalty, although eight of the impaneled

jury members stated that they had such objections.

Assuming that the juries were as Roberts testified, Ferguson has not

provided any evidence of systematic exclusion by the prosecutor in both cases,

Robert Kaye. At the 3.850 proceedings, Ferguson called John McGuirk, who

practiced as a criminal defense attorney in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

McGuirk testified that he believed state attorneys at the time were “very conscious

of the race of the juror” depending on the type of case and that he experienced

some situations in which a prosecutor appeared to be making peremptory

challenges based on race. App. NN at 2910–11. He also stated that he made such

objections at the time, that he could think of no reason why a defense attorney

would not make such an objection if the State appeared to be using race-based

peremptory challenges, and that he believed excluding blacks from the jury could

affect the outcome of the trial. However, McGuirk also testified that he did not

believe that the prosecutor in Ferguson’s trials systematically excluded black

jurors and noted that state attorneys had the same interest in the race of the jurors

as any trial lawyer would have had. Additionally, when Kaye testified at the 3.850

hearing, he denied having struck jurors because of their race and stated that he

would not have done so for fear of having the verdict attacked on the basis of the

69
racial makeup of the jury.44 All of this evidence, taken together, is insufficient to

show or even strongly suggest that Kaye systematically struck jurors based on

their race. Ferguson thus has not established that a Swain violation occurred.

Furthermore, since there was no Swain or Batson violation, Ferguson’s trial

counsel could not be ineffective for failing to object to the challenges.

We likewise find that Ferguson is not entitled to an evidentiary hearing on

the issue. Ferguson asserts that we should grant such a hearing because he has

provided strong evidence of discriminatory practices even though the circuit court

in the 3.850 proceedings denied his request for discovery on the issue. However,

this situation does not trigger the district court’s duty to hold an evidentiary

hearing. See Kelley, 377 F.3d at 1334. The district court therefore had the

discretion to grant or deny the request, and there appears to be no basis for finding

that it abused this discretion. See id. at 1333. Though the state court denied his

request for discovery, it did so after it had already struck the Batson portion of his

claim. Furthermore, there was a subsequent evidentiary hearing during those

proceedings, at which Ferguson presented evidence on a range of topics, including

the peremptory challenges. Ferguson thus has had ample opportunity to present

44
At the 3.850 hearing, Kaye could not recall why he peremptorily struck particular
members of the jury panel in the Hialeah case when questioned about it.

70
evidence on the issue. We therefore conclude that the district court correctly

denied Ferguson’s habeas claim with respect to this issue and that it did not abuse

its discretion in denying an evidentiary hearing.

I. Ex Parte Contacts During Post-Conviction Proceedings

Ferguson asserts that he did not receive full and fair state post-conviction

proceedings because of ex parte contacts between the prosecutor and the post-

conviction judge. He requests that we either hold a new federal court hearing in

which no deference would be given to the state courts’ findings of fact or, in the

alternative, that we permit an evidentiary hearing to investigate the nature and

extent of these ex parte contacts.

In January 1988, Ferguson’s counsel learned from a state attorney that there

had been ex parte communications between state counsel and Judge Friedman, the

judge initially assigned to Ferguson’s 3.850 motion, allegedly regarding the

rescheduling of Ferguson’s psychiatric evaluations. At a 19 May 1988 hearing

before Judge Snyder, to whom the case had been reassigned from Judge Friedman,

Ferguson’s counsel complained about these communications. Judge Snyder stated

that he would be open to ex parte communications if they would help expedite the

scheduling of the examinations and that he would inform Ferguson’s counsel

71
about any such communications immediately after they occurred.45 Shortly

thereafter, there was an ex parte contact between the State and Judge Snyder,

allegedly about scheduling issues, about which Ferguson’s counsel was informed

promptly. On a 26 May 1988 conference call between the parties and Judge

Snyder, Ferguson’s counsel indicated that he believed that such contacts were

improper and violated Ferguson’s due process and Sixth Amendment rights.

On 23 February 1989, Judge Snyder denied Ferguson’s motion to stay the

3.850 proceedings due to Ferguson’s purported incompetency. On 22 March

1989, Ferguson’s counsel filed a motion requesting that Judge Snyder disqualify

himself from the proceedings because the ex parte contacts made the judge unable

to be impartial or maintain the appearance of impartiality. The circuit court denied

this motion, which it found to be legally insufficient for three reasons: (1) it did

not comply with the technical requirements of Florida Statute 38.10 and Florida

45
In particular, Judge Snyder stated to the state attorney,

I am not worried about Mr. Prettyman [Ferguson’s counsel] saying
you [the state attorney] can’t talk to me. You want something done
that I have ordered you to do and you want my help in doing it, just
call me, okay? He [Mr. Prettyman] doesn’t like it, that’s okay. I
never worry about ex parte because I don’t ex parte anybody. If there
is anything that ever has to be done, Mr. Prettyman, you’ll be notified
immediately. But, I am not going to let that stand in the way to have
an entire hearing and bring a lawyer in from Washington and we still
haven’t accomplished anything.

App. NN at 1030–31.

72
Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.230; (2) it was untimely and intended solely to delay

the implementation of an adverse ruling; and (3) it did not set forth a sufficient

factual basis for a well-founded belief that the court would be prejudiced against

Ferguson. Ferguson’s counsel subsequently sought a writ of prohibition with the

Florida Supreme Court, which the court summarily denied.46 He then filed a

petition for a writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court, which the

Court denied.

The district court denied Ferguson’s claim that the ex parte communications

deprived him of a full and fair hearing. The court treated this issue as an argument

that the factual findings of the circuit court in the 3.850 proceedings were not

entitled to a presumption of correctness. It noted that the circuit court had asserted

that the ex parte communications solely addressed scheduling issues, and found

that there was no evidence in the record either to contradict this assertion or to

suggest that the circuit court’s factual findings had been affected by the ex parte

communications. As a result, the district court concluded that the circuit court’s

factual findings were entitled to a presumption of correctness.

46
The district court’s opinion in the federal habeas proceedings mentions an ex parte
phone call Judge Snyder made to Ferguson’s counsel at some point in time subsequent to the
Florida Supreme Court’s denial of the writ. The parties do not reference this in the briefs, and,
since it did not involve communications with opposing counsel, it likely would not have caused
Ferguson any prejudice.

73
 Although the district court did not address the issue explicitly, this claim

may be subject to a procedural bar. The circuit court’s denial of the motion to

recuse was based on at least one state procedural ground, the untimely filing of the

motion, in addition to the more substantive ground of failing to show a factual

basis for fear of prejudice due to the contacts.47 For the purposes of a possible

procedural bar, this reasoning would be controlling since the Florida Supreme

Court summarily denied the petition, and we treat such summary denials as

implicitly accepting both the judgment and the rationale of the trial court. See

Harmon v. Barton, 894 F.2d 1268, 1273 (11th Cir. 1990) (noting that “the clear

inference to be drawn from the appellate court’s per curiam affirmance of the trial

court’s decision explicitly based on procedural default is that the court accepted

not only the judgment but the reasoning of the trial court”). In this case, the

circuit court’s rationale is couched in the alternative, so we can and should apply

the timeliness procedural bar if it was correctly applied. See Alderman, 22 F.3d at

1549.

47
The other basis for denying the claim, the failure to file affidavits with the motion, as
required under Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.230, also is arguably procedural and thus could bar Ferguson’s
claim. The State does not discuss this rationale, however, and Ferguson likely has shown cause
for the default — that he did not have first-hand knowledge of the contents of the ex parte
contacts and thus could not provide affidavits — as well as resulting prejudice, i.e., that his claim
was barred as a result of this failure. Furthermore, as discussed infra, Rule 1.432 of the Florida
Rules of Civil Procedure likely applies here instead and it has no affidavit requirement.

74
 We thus must determine whether the procedural bar constitutes an adequate

and independent state ground. See id. In this case, Ferguson’s counsel brought

the original motion to recuse pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.230

and Florida Statute § 38.10. Since Florida courts treat 3.850 proceedings as civil

actions, Ferguson probably should have cited Rule 1.432 of the Florida Rules of

Civil Procedure, which governs disqualification of judges in civil cases, rather

than Rule 3.230.48 See State v. White, 470 So. 2d 1377, 1378 (Fla. 1985)

(describing 3.850 motions as civil actions). In any event, the relevant timeliness

standards for all three of these provisions were essentially the same at the time the

motion was filed, so this does not affect our analysis.49 Neither Rule 3.230 nor

Florida Statute 38.10 discussed timeliness for a post-conviction disqualification

motion. The only time bar mentioned in the versions of those provisions then in

effect was Rule 3.230’s requirement that the motion be filed “no less than 10 days

before the time the case is called for trial unless good cause is shown for failure to

48
The State raised this issue in its opposition to the motion; however, the circuit court did
not address it and instead analyzed the issue under Rule 3.230. The Florida Supreme Court has
referenced Rule 3.230 in one case involving a motion to disqualify a post-conviction judge;
however, it did so in passing and without any discussion of whether it should be applied. See
Suarez v. Dugger, 527 So. 2d 190, 192 (Fla. 1988) (per curiam).
49
Both Rule 1.432 and Rule 3.230 have now been replaced by Rule 2.330 of the Florida
Rules of Judicial Administration, which requires motions to disqualify to be filed “within a
reasonable time not to exceed 10 days after discovery of the facts constituting the grounds for the
motion.” Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.330 (2009).

75
so file within such time.”50 Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.230(c) (1989 ed.); see Fla. Stat.

§ 38.10. The applicable version of Rule 1.432, on the other hand, required the

movant to file the motion “within a reasonable time after discovery of the facts

constituting grounds for disqualification.” Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.432(c) (1989 ed.). In

addition to this statutory guidance, Florida courts have deemed a motion for

recusal to be untimely if the moving party waits to file the motion until after it has

suffered an adverse ruling, unless the party can show good cause for the delay.

See Fischer v. Knuck, 497 So. 2d 240, 243 (Fla. 1986).

The first two prongs of the adequate and independent state grounds test

have been met here. The last state court to render judgment on the issue clearly

and expressly invoked state procedural grounds to resolve the claim. See Judd,

250 F.3d at 1313. Additionally, that court’s decision rested solidly on state law

grounds, without any federal issues coming into play. See id. The only relevant

question therefore is whether the procedural bar was “applied in an arbitrary or

unprecedented fashion.” Id.

50
The Florida Supreme Court, after the repeal of Rule 3.230, commented in passing that
the rule “required that a motion to disqualify be made within ten days after discovery of the facts
forming the basis for the motion.” Schwab v. State, 814 So. 2d 402, 407 n.6 (Fla. 2002) (per
curiam). However, we can find no cases supporting that interpretation while the rule was still in
effect.

76
 In this case, Ferguson’s counsel was aware of the ex parte contacts as early

as January 1988 yet failed to file the motion seeking disqualification until more

than a year later. Furthermore, in that motion he admitted that he decided to file

the motion only after suffering an adverse ruling on the motion to stay.

Accordingly, the motion would be untimely under Florida law unless Ferguson

can show good cause for the delay in filing. See Fischer, 497 So. 2d at 243.

Ferguson asserts that this delay was acceptable because his counsel detected Judge

Snyder’s potential bias only when that ruling came out. However, this contention

is belied by the fact that his counsel had objected on multiple prior occasions to

the ex parte contacts but did not file a motion in those instances. In light of this

background, the decision to wait until after the adverse ruling appears to be the

kind of delaying tactic that Florida courts have frowned upon.51 See id. at 242

(noting that a recusal motion was “designed to frustrate the process by which

petitioner suffered an adverse ruling”); see also Marcotte v. Gloeckner, 679 So. 2d

1225, 1226 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1996) (per curiam) (deeming timely a recusal

motion filed after an adverse ruling where the underlying facts were discovered

only after that ruling). Given this precedent, there is no indication that the circuit

51
As the circuit court noted, this delaying intent also is evidenced by the fact that
Ferguson’s counsel sought to have all prior orders by the circuit court vacated in addition to
having the judge recuse himself.

77
court arbitrarily applied the procedural bar. See Judd, 250 F.3d at 1313. Since

Ferguson has not alleged cause or prejudice for the procedural default (other than

the contention that the procedural rule was not regularly followed) nor does there

appear to be any fundamental miscarriage of justice, we cannot hear the claim.

See Zeigler, 345 F.3d at 1304. The district court thus correctly denied Ferguson’s

habeas claim with respect to this issue.52

J. Issues Relating to Ferguson’s Competency

The parties raise three issues with respect to Ferguson’s competency and

right to be competent during the various habeas and post-conviction proceedings.

Ferguson appeals the district court’s determination that he was competent to

proceed with his federal habeas claim as well as its dismissal of his federal habeas

claim asserting a due process violation for holding the 3.850 proceedings despite

52
Additionally, even if the claim had not been procedurally defaulted, it would fail.
Because Ferguson has not alleged any actual bias, he has not established a federal violation, and
we cannot review his purely state law claim. See Hendrix, 527 F.3d at 1153–54. Furthermore,
as a matter of legal ethics, “it is well-established that an ex parte communication which does not
concern the merits of the case is permissible.” Drobny v. Commissioner, 113 F.3d 670, 680 (7th
Cir. 1997).

78
his alleged incompetency.53 The State cross-appeals the district court’s decision to

hold an evidentiary hearing on the question of competency.

1. Competency to Proceed with 3.850 Post-Conviction Claim

Ferguson contends that he is entitled to a de novo evidentiary hearing

because the 3.850 proceedings were held while he was incompetent. He asserts

that the district court erred in finding both that he had no federal constitutional

right to be competent during those proceedings and that the 3.850 court’s

competency determination was supported by the record.

The circuit court held three days of evidentiary hearings in August and

October 1988 on the question of competency. The court subsequently issued an

order finding Ferguson competent and denying his motion to stay the proceedings

because of his incompetency. The Florida Supreme Court initially issued a

summary denial of Ferguson’s appeal related to this decision. See Ferguson IV,

593 So. 2d at 513. The court had the opportunity to reexamine this evidence in

greater depth in a subsequent, post-Carter appeal. After determining that Carter

applied retroactively, the court looked at whether the evidence supported the

53
Ferguson’s statement of issues mentions only the district court’s violating his right not
to proceed while incompetent, which seems to refer to that court’s decision finding him
competent to proceed with the federal habeas claim. However, the body of his initial brief
discusses due process violations with respect to his competency during the 3.850 proceedings.

79
circuit court’s competency findings. It recounted the evidence presented at the

hearing, essentially agreeing with the circuit court’s descriptions, acknowledged

that the evidence regarding Ferguson’s competency was conflicting, and found

that there was adequate support for the circuit court to reject the opinions of those

doctors finding Ferguson incompetent. As a result, the court concluded that the

circuit court had not abused its discretion in denying the motion to stay.

Even if Ferguson had a federal due process right to be competent during the

3.850 proceedings,54 these competency findings are entitled to a presumption of

correctness, which we may ignore “only if the petitioner shows by clear and

convincing evidence that the state court's determination was not fairly supported

by the record.” Turner v. Crosby, 339 F.3d 1247, 1273 (11th Cir. 2003) (quotation

marks and citation omitted); see Hauser ex rel. Crawford v. Moore, 223 F.3d 1316,

1323 (11th Cir. 2000) (per curiam). “This deference requires that [we] more than

54
There is reason to doubt that such a right exists. In Carter, the Florida Supreme Court
found that there was a right to be competent during 3.850 proceedings. See Carter, 706 So. 2d at
875. The court did not base its decision on an express constitutional ground; however, in
Ferguson VI it noted that Carter reflected “considerations of due process, considerations which
have previously guided this Court's hand in the postconviction arena” and cited cases in which it
had referenced Fifth Amendment due process concerns. See Ferguson VI, 789 So. 2d at 311.
That statement notwithstanding, the right to competency appears to stem principally from the
right to collateral counsel under Florida law. See Carter, 706 So. 2d at 875 (noting that “the right
to collateral counsel, as well as the postconviction proceedings themselves, would be practically
meaningless” if the petitioner was not competent to assist counsel). As the district court noted,
federal courts generally have rejected attempts to make a federal due process claim based on
ineffective assistance of state post-conviction counsel. See, e.g., Ogan v. Cockrell, 297 F.3d 349,
357 (5th Cir. 2002).

80
simply disagree with the state court before rejecting its factual determinations.

Instead, [we] must conclude that the state court’s findings lacked even fair support

in the record.” Turner, 339 F.3d at 1273 (quotation marks and citation omitted).

After carefully examining the record from the competency hearing, we find that

the evidence fairly supported the finding that Ferguson was competent to proceed

with his 3.850 claim. Accordingly, we conclude that the district court properly

denied both Ferguson’s request for an evidentiary hearing and his habeas claim

with respect to this issue.

2. Competency to Proceed with Federal Habeas Claim

Ferguson asserts that the district court’s determination that he was

competent to proceed with his federal habeas claim was clearly erroneous because

the evidence established that his paranoid schizophrenia prevented him from

providing full assistance to his counsel during the federal habeas proceedings.

Since we have not reviewed a habeas competency finding before, we have not had

occasion to address the relevant standards of review. We generally review a

district court’s determinations that a defendant is competent to stand trial for clear

error, and the parties agree that the same standard of review should apply here.

See United States v. Hogan, 986 F.2d 1364, 1372 (11th Cir. 1993) (using “clearly

erroneous standard” to evaluate finding that petitioner was competent to stand

81
trial). The applicable competency standard is whether the petitioner has both

“sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of

rational understanding” and “a rational as well as factual understanding of the

proceedings against him.” Moore v. Campbell, 344 F.3d 1313, 1321 (11th Cir.

2003) (per curiam) (quotation marks and citation omitted).

After holding a competency hearing, the district court found that there was

credible evidence to show that Ferguson at one time suffered from a mental

disorder that had symptoms associated with paranoid schizophrenia and that, since

1994, his mental health has improved so as to make him “no longer a disruptive

member of his prison environment.” R4-107 at 15. It also found that his disorder

was in remission and that he was malingering or exaggerating his symptoms. See

id. The court further found that Ferguson had the “mental competency, clarity of

thought, directness of speech, and motivation to advance his interests and

objectives when faced with a variety of adverse circumstances.” Id. at 15, 17. The

court made a number of other factual findings including that the totality of his test

results supported the conclusion that he was “consciously reporting symptoms of

mental illness that he [was] not presently experiencing” and that his unwillingness

to cooperate with his counsel was based on a desire to avoid punishment. Id. at

17, 20. Based on all of this, the court concluded that Ferguson “ha[d] sufficient

82
present ability to consult with counsel with a reasonable degree of rational

understanding — and ha[d] a rational as well as factual understanding of the

proceedings against him.” Id. at 21–23.

After thoroughly reviewing the transcripts and evidence presented at the

evidentiary hearing, we find that there was ample evidence to support the district

court’s findings. Accordingly, assuming arguendo that there is a federal right to

be competent during federal habeas proceedings,55 we conclude the district court

did not clearly err in deeming Ferguson competent to proceed with his federal

habeas petition and did not abuse its discretion in denying his motion to stay. See

American Mfrs. Mut. Ins. Co. v. Edward D. Stone, Jr. & Assoc., 743 F.2d 1519,

1525 (11th Cir. 1984) (noting that a “motion to stay is directed to the district

court’s sound discretion”). In light of this conclusion, we need not address the

State’s cross-appeal regarding whether the district court improperly granted an

evidentiary hearing on the issue.

55
The Ninth Circuit has found that there is a statutory right to be competent; however, the
other circuits to have discussed the issue have assumed, without deciding, that such a right exists
and resolved the competency issue on other grounds. See Rohan ex rel. Gates v. Woodford, 334
F.3d 803, 807–17 (9th Cir. 2003); see also Paul v. United States, 534 F.3d 832, 845–48 (8th Cir.
2008); Holmes v. Buss, 506 F.3d 576, 578–79 (7th Cir. 2007).

83
 III. CONCLUSION

Ferguson filed this appeal seeking federal habeas relief with respect to nine

different claims in his habeas petition. He also appeals the district court’s order

denying his motion to stay the proceedings based on his alleged incompetency.

The State cross-appeals the district court’s decision to hold an evidentiary hearing

on the issue of Ferguson’s competency. We hold that Ferguson was not entitled to

habeas relief on any of his claims. Furthermore, insomuch as the district court did

not clearly err in finding Ferguson competent to proceed with his habeas petition

and did not abuse its discretion in denying his motion to stay the federal habeas

proceedings, we need not consider the rationale for the State’s cross-appeal.

Accordingly, we AFFIRM the district court’s denial of Ferguson’s habeas petition

and his motion to stay the habeas proceedings.

AFFIRMED.

84