John Ferguson v. Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections

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[PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 12-15422
________________________
D.C. Docket No. 1:12-cv-23817-DTKH
JOHN FERGUSON,
Petitioner-Appellant,
versus
SECRETARY, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS,
Respondent-Appellee.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
________________________
(May 21, 2013)
Before CARNES, WILSON and PRYOR, Circuit Judges.
CARNES, Circuit Judge:
The Supreme Court has decided that a convicted murderer cannot be
executed unless he has a rational understanding of the fact that he is going to be
put to death and of the reason for his execution. Panetti v. Quarterman, 551 U.S.
930, 954–60, 127 S. Ct. 2842, 2859–62 (2007). In announcing that rule, however,
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the Court did not decide what rational understanding means in this context. It
acknowledged that “a concept like rational understanding is difficult to define” and
cautioned that “normal” or “rational” in this context does not mean what a
layperson understands those terms to mean. Id. at 959–60, 127 S.Ct. at 2862. The
Court did reject the standard the court of appeals had applied in the Panetti case
because that standard disregarded or did not give sufficient consideration to
evidence of “psychological dysfunction” and “delusional beliefs.” Id. at 960, 127
S.Ct. at 2862. But the Court emphasized that it deliberately was not being more
specific and cautioned that it was “not attempt[ing] to set down a rule governing all
competency determinations.” Id. at 960–61, 127 S.Ct. at 2862. “[W]e find it
difficult,” the Court confessed, “to amplify our conclusions or to make them more
precise.” Id. at 961, 127 S.Ct. at 2863.
The bottom line of the Panetti decision is that there is not yet a well-defined
bottom line in this area of the law. Instead of attempting to answer more
specifically the question of what is required for a rational understanding of death
by execution and the reason for it, the Supreme Court preferred to leave “a
question of this complexity” to be addressed in a fuller manner and on a better
record by the district court and the court of appeals in that case. Id. The decision
not to decide more is, unfortunately, the last word from the Supreme Court on the
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“question of this complexity,” one variation of which is presented by the facts in
our case.
The habeas petitioner in our case, John Ferguson, contends that under the
Panetti decision he is mentally incompetent to be executed. As the facts come to
us, Ferguson has a mental illness but he does understand that he is going to die by
execution, and he understands that it is going to happen because he committed
eight murders. Ferguson also believes, as tens of millions if not hundreds of
millions of other people do, that there is life after death. Countless people also
believe, as he does, that they are among God’s chosen people. But Ferguson’s
religious belief is more grandiose than that because he believes that he is the Prince
of God. The Florida courts rejected Ferguson’s Panetti claim, and we must decide
whether their decision to do so “was based on an unreasonable determination of the
facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding” or was
“contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established
Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.” 28 U.S.C.
§ 2254(d). The key words being “clearly established law.” Or the lack of it.
I. BACKGROUND
A. The Crimes
Part of the analysis of Ferguson’s mental competency to be executed
involves his understanding of the connection between his execution and the crimes
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for which he is going to be executed, which makes the nature of those crimes
relevant.
1. The Carol City Murders
On the night of July 27, 1977, Ferguson, posing as a Florida Power and
Light employee who needed to check some electrical outlets, persuaded Miss
Margaret Wooden to let him enter her home. Ferguson v. State, 417 So. 2d 639,
640, 643 (Fla. 1982). After pretending to check the outlets in several rooms,
Ferguson drew a gun on Wooden and bound and blindfolded her. Id. at 640. He
then let two of his criminal cohorts into the house so that they could search it for
drugs and valuables. Id. About two hours later the owner of the house and five of
his friends arrived. Id. Wielding guns, Ferguson and his accomplices bound and
blindfolded and searched the six men. Shortly thereafter, Wooden’s boyfriend,
Michael Miller, arrived. He, too, was bound and blindfolded and searched at
gunpoint. Id. While six of the robbery victims were forced to kneel in the living
room, Miller and Wooden were taken into her bedroom. Id. There they were put
with their knees on the floor and their upper bodies lying across the bed. Id. at
641.
Then the killing began. Ferguson and his partners in crime methodically
murdered five of the six men who were kneeling in the living room by shooting
each one in the back of the head while his hands were tied behind him. Id. One of
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the six men somehow survived the shot to the back of his head, living to tell about
the methodical murders of the other men in the living room. Id.
While Miller and Wooden were kneeling in the bedroom, Wooden heard the
gunshots in the living room. Id. She saw her boyfriend shot to death beside her.
Id. She saw a pillow coming toward her before she was shot in the head. Id. And
she heard Ferguson running out of the bedroom after the shootings. Id. Despite
her head wound, Wooden managed to make it to a neighbor’s house. Id. When the
police arrived at Wooden’s house, they found six dead victims, all of whom had
been shot in the back of the head while their hands were bound behind their backs,
and they found the two intended murder victims who had been shot in that same
manner but had somehow survived. Id.
2. The Hialeah Murders
Ferguson had two accomplices when he committed the six Carol City
murders, but less than six months later he committed two more murders all by
himself. Ferguson v. State, 417 So. 2d 631, 633 (Fla. 1982). On the evening of
January 8, 1978, Brian Glenfeld and Belinda Worley, both of whom were
seventeen years old, left a Youth for Christ meeting in Hialeah. Id. They were
supposed to meet some friends at a local ice cream parlor, but they never arrived.
Id. Apparently on the way to meeting their friends, the young couple pulled off the
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road. See id. at 636. What Ferguson did to the two teenagers when he chanced
upon them was recounted by the trial court judge:
The facts reveal that the two victims were seated in an automobile and
while seated therein a gunshot was fired through the window striking
Brian Glenfeld in the arm and chest area. A significant amount of
bleeding followed and this victim’s blood was found throughout many
areas of the front of the automobile as well as on the clothing of
Belinda Worley. Following the shooting, the female victim ran many
hundreds of feet from the car in an attempt to [elude] the defendant
and was finally overtaken in some rather dense overgrowth and trees.
She was subjected to many physical abuses by this defendant,
including but not limited to, sexual penetration of her vagina and
anus. The discovery of embedded dirt in her fingers, on her torso both
front and back and in many areas within her mouth and the findings of
hemorrhaging around her vagina and anal cavity would indicate that
she put up a significant struggle and suffered substantially during the
perpetration of these indignities upon her body. Expert testimony
indicates that she was a virgin at the time of the occur[r]ence of this
crime. The position of her body and the location of the wounds on her
head would indicate that she was in a kneeling position at the time she
was shot through the top of the head. She was left in a partially nude
condition in the area where the crime was committed to be thereafter
fed upon by insects and other predators. Physical evidence would
substantiate that following the attack upon Belinda Worley the
defendant went back to the car and shot Brian Glenfeld through the
head.
Id. Ferguson stole cash from Brian Glenfeld’s wallet. Id. at 633. Among the
items he took from Belinda Worley, or her body, were two rings, a gold bracelet,
and a pair of earrings. Id. When he ripped one of those earrings from Worley’s
ear, he tore her ear lobe. Id.
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To murder the two young victims Ferguson used a .357 magnum pistol that
had been stolen from a victim of the Carol City murders nearly six months earlier.
Id. He confessed to killing the “two kids.” Id.
B. The Trials, Appeals, and Collateral Attacks
Following separate trials, Ferguson was convicted of murdering the six
Carol City victims and the two Hialeah victims. See Ferguson v. Sec’y for Dep’t
of Corr., 580 F.3d 1183, 1190 (11th Cir. 2009). The Florida Supreme Court
affirmed all eight murder convictions on direct appeal, but remanded for
resentencing due to the trial court’s reliance on invalid aggravating factors and its
failure to properly consider certain mitigating factors. Ferguson v. State, 417 So.
2d 639 (Fla. 1982); Ferguson v. State, 417 So. 2d 631 (Fla. 1982). On remand, the
trial court reimposed the death penalty in each case and the Florida Supreme Court
affirmed in a consolidated appeal. Ferguson v. State, 474 So. 2d 208 (Fla. 1985).
Ferguson filed a motion under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850
seeking relief from his convictions and sentences, but that motion was denied and
the denial was affirmed on appeal. Ferguson v. State, 593 So. 2d 508 (Fla. 1992).
He filed a federal habeas petition attacking his convictions and sentences, but it too
was denied, and the denial was affirmed on appeal. Ferguson, 580 F.3d at 1222.
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C. Ferguson’s Mental Health History and the Pre-2000
State Court Mental Competency Hearings
Throughout the first half of the 1970s, Ferguson was consistently diagnosed
by mental health professionals with paranoid schizophrenia, which resulted in
commitments to a state psychiatric facility and a prescribed regimen of potent
antipsychotic medications. In 1976 he was deemed mentally competent and
discharged from a mental hospital.
In the three and a half decades since that discharge Ferguson’s attorneys
have exhaustively litigated his mental competency. Although experts have differed
in their opinions about his mental state during that time, every state and federal
court to decide the issue has decided that Ferguson is not mentally incompetent.
Earlier determinations of competency, whether addressed to a prisoner’s
responsibility for committing a crime or to his ability to stand trial, “do not
foreclose a prisoner from proving he is incompetent to be executed because of his
present mental condition.” Panetti, 551 U.S. at 934, 127 S.Ct. at 2848. Still, the
history of Ferguson’s mental condition, the opinions of experts regarding it, and
judicial decisions about it over the years are all relevant to a discussion of his
present mental condition.
In connection with his two 1978 murder trials, the state court held separate
hearings, one before each trial, to determine whether Ferguson was competent to
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stand trial. See Ferguson v. Singletary, 632 So. 2d 53, 58 (Fla. 1994). Four court-
appointed experts filed reports before the Carol City trial (the one with eight
shooting victims), unanimously concluding that Ferguson was mentally competent.
See id. Some of the four experts were even of the opinion that Ferguson was
malingering and not actually schizophrenic, but instead likely was sociopathic.
See Ferguson, 593 So. 2d at 510. Notably, two of those four court-appointed
experts, Drs. Charles Mutter and Albert Jaslow, receded from the diagnoses that
they had reached in the early to mid-1970s that Ferguson was actively psychotic.
Based on the four experts’ opinions, the trial court found Ferguson mentally
competent to stand trial. See Ferguson, 417 So. 2d at 645.
Following his convictions in the Carol City trial, Ferguson obtained several
mental health experts and entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity in the
Hialeah trial (the one with two murder victims). See Ferguson, 417 So. 2d at 637.
The trial court held a pretrial competency hearing and considered conflicting
testimony from at least seven expert witnesses, three of whom had also filed
reports in connection with the earlier murder trial. See id. The experts were, by
and large, evenly split on the question of Ferguson’s competency to stand trial:
three found Ferguson incompetent while another three found him competent.
Although it is unclear from the record what the seventh expert concluded, it is clear
that the trial court again found that Ferguson was competent to stand trial. See id.
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The Florida Supreme Court affirmed, concluding that there was adequate medical
testimony to support the trial judge’s finding that Ferguson was mentally
competent to stand trial. Id. at 634.
When Ferguson filed his initial state post-conviction motion in 1987, he also
filed a motion to stay the proceedings based on his alleged incompetence to assist
counsel. See Ferguson v. State, 789 So. 2d 306, 308 (Fla. 2001). The trial court
appointed three experts to assess Ferguson’s mental health at the time, ordered
numerous neurological examinations, and held a three-day evidentiary hearing in
August 1998, at which a total of six expert witnesses testified on the issue of
mental competence. Id. at 313–14. While the experts offered conflicting
testimony about the genuineness and severity of Ferguson’s psychological
symptoms, the trial court found that the credible evidence demonstrated that
Ferguson did not suffer from a major mental disorder, found that he was
malingering, and found that he was mentally competent to understand the
proceedings and assist his counsel. See id. at 313–15. The Florida Supreme Court
upheld the trial court’s findings and determination on those issues, concluding that
they were adequately supported by the evidence presented at the hearing. Id. at
315.
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D. The First Federal Habeas Proceeding
In March of 1995 Ferguson filed his first federal habeas petition, which
raised numerous constitutional claims about various aspects of his trial, sentencing,
and state post-conviction proceedings, including a claim that his due process rights
had been violated because the state post-conviction proceedings were conducted
while he was mentally incompetent. See Ferguson, 580 F.3d at 1192–93, 1220.
He also filed a motion to stay the federal habeas proceedings on the ground that he
was mentally incompetent to proceed with it.
In December 2004, the district court held a five-day evidentiary hearing on
the motion to stay the habeas proceedings at which it heard conflicting testimony
from six expert witnesses about Ferguson’s mental state at that time. See id. at
1192, 1221–22. After considering the evidence, the district court denied the
motion to stay because it found that Ferguson was mentally competent to proceed
with the habeas proceeding. See id. On appeal, we summarized the district court’s
findings on the issue:
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
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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 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.
Ferguson, 580 F.3d at 1221–22. We found ample evidence to support all of
the district court’s findings on the competency issue. Id. at 1222. Assuming
that a petitioner had a right to have his federal habeas proceeding stayed
during a period of mental incompetency, we held that the district court had
not erred in denying Ferguson a stay. 1 Id.
We also affirmed the district court’s denial of all of Ferguson’s
constitutional claims, including his claim that the state post-conviction court
had violated his due process rights by adjudicating his claims while he was
mentally incompetent to proceed. As to that claim, we explained that:
“After carefully examining the record from the [state collateral court’s]
1
The Supreme Court later held that federal habeas petitioners have no right to stay the
adjudication of their petitions on grounds of mental incompetence. Ryan v. Gonzales, — U.S.
—, 133 S. Ct. 696, 700 (2013).
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competency hearing, we find that the evidence fairly supported the finding
that Ferguson was competent to proceed with his 3.850 claim.” Id. at 1221.
E. The 2012 State Commission Competency Proceedings
On September 5, 2012, the Governor of Florida signed a warrant for
Ferguson’s execution and prison officials scheduled the execution for October 16,
2012. Ferguson requested a hearing on his competency to be executed, and, as
required by Fla. Stat. § 922.07, the Governor temporarily stayed the execution and
appointed a commission of three psychiatrists. Drs. Wade Myers, Alan Waldman,
and Tonia Werner were to determine whether Ferguson “understands the nature
and effect of the death penalty and why it is to be imposed upon him.” The
Governor directed the commission to conduct its evaluation on October 1, 2012,
and submit a written report by the following day.
As instructed, the commissioners met on October 1, 2012, jointly
interviewed Ferguson for roughly 90 minutes, reviewed his mental health records
from 1978 to the present, and interviewed three correctional officers who had
regular contact with Ferguson over the years. The commissioners issued their
report later that same day, finding that Ferguson “understands the nature and effect
of the death penalty and why it was imposed on him,” and finding that he was not
then suffering from mental illness. In support of its findings, the commission
noted that Ferguson’s mental health records showed that, while he was once
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diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he had been free of signs and symptoms of
mental illness for a number of years, had not been treated with antipsychotic
medications since 2000, and since August 2001 had been classified as an S-1
inmate, which is a psychiatric grade given to state prisoners who have no
identifiable mental health problems impairing their functioning in the prison
setting.
The commission’s report further noted that, during the interview, Ferguson
was calm, cooperative, and responsive; he exhibited average intelligence; he
denied any cognitive disturbances; and he demonstrated linear and goal-directed
thought processes. While Ferguson told the commissioners that he had been
anointed the “Prince of God” and would arise following his death to be at the
“right hand of God,” the commissioners concluded that even if these were genuine
delusions, they did not affect Ferguson’s “factual and rational understanding of his
impending execution.” The report specifically mentioned that Ferguson
acknowledged that he was going to be executed because of the murders he had
committed and acknowledged that he would die as a result of the execution.
Finally, the report recounted that the three correctional officers, who had known
Ferguson for a period of time ranging from nine months to ten years, all described
him as polite and rational, and none of them had observed any abnormalities in his
thinking, communication, or behavior.
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After receiving the competency commission’s report, the Governor
determined that Ferguson had the mental capacity to understand both the nature of
the death penalty that was to be inflicted on him and the reasons it would be, and
on that basis the Governor lifted the stay of execution. On October 3, 2012,
Ferguson petitioned the state trial court to review the Governor’s competency
determination, contending that executing him would violate the Eighth
Amendment, as interpreted in Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399, 106 S. Ct. 2595
(1986), and Panetti, 511 U.S. 930, 127 S. Ct. 2842, because he lacked a rational
understanding of the reasons for, and the consequences of, the punishment.
Ferguson also argued that Florida’s existing standard for assessing competency to
be executed, codified in Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure 3.811(b) and
3.812(b), was inconsistent with the standard announced in Panetti.
F. The 2012 State Court Evidentiary Hearing
On October 8, 2012, the trial court issued a stay of execution. Thereafter,
the court held a two-day evidentiary hearing. During that hearing Ferguson
presented the testimony of two expert witnesses, Drs. George Woods and Richard
Rogers, as well as the testimony of one of his attorneys, Patricia Brannan, who had
been present during the competency commission’s evaluation of Ferguson. The
State, in turn, called three expert witnesses, Drs. Wade Myers, Tonia Werner, and
Enrique Suarez; five prison officials who had recent contact with Ferguson; and
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Jennifer Sagle, a mental health counselor who had worked on death row until July
2012.
1. Ferguson’s Witnesses
i. Dr. Woods
Dr. George Woods, a psychiatric expert who has testified throughout the
country on behalf of capital inmates, reviewed Ferguson’s mental health records,
interviewed him on three separate occasions from October 2011 to September
2012, and administered several neurological tests. He prepared a written report on
Ferguson’s behalf, which was admitted into evidence during the evidentiary
hearing. In his report, Dr. Woods recounted Ferguson’s documented history of
paranoid schizophrenia, including his belief that he is the Prince of God. The
report stated that Ferguson exhibited delusional beliefs and reported experiencing
visual, auditory, and olfactory hallucinations throughout the years. According to
Dr. Woods’ report, Ferguson said that his long-deceased father was still alive and
protecting him, that he is the Prince of God, that he will be resurrected at some
point after his execution “to sit at the right hand of God,” and that he is destined to
ascend to his rightful throne and ultimately “save the world.” Ferguson also told
Dr. Woods about visual and auditory hallucinations of seeing and communicating
with his dead father, as well as olfactory hallucinations of an inexplicable “sweet
smell.” Ferguson recounted earlier experiences of seeing snakes and vicious dogs
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coming out of the walls of his cell, although he acknowledged that his visual and
auditory hallucinations had diminished over the past decade.
Dr. Woods’ report concluded that, although Ferguson understands that he is
facing execution and that the State of Florida intends to execute him for the crimes
for which he was convicted, he lacks a rational understanding of the reason for the
execution and its consequences. The report said that Ferguson believes his
convictions and continued incarceration on death row are “not based upon the
law,” but are part of a plot by the State of Florida “to prevent him from ascending
to his rightful throne as the Prince of God,” as well as a “conspiracy of corrupt
policemen” to retaliate against him “for being acquitted in a prior case.” The
report said that Ferguson believes he will not die as a result of his execution due to
“his father’s powers” and his eventual resurrection.
In his hearing testimony, Dr. Woods reiterated his opinion that Ferguson is a
paranoid schizophrenic and lacks a rational understanding of the reason for his
execution and its consequences. He testified that Ferguson has grandiose delusions
that he is the Prince of God, that there is a Communist plot to take over the United
States, that he will play a divine role in driving away the Communist threat, and
that the State cannot kill him because he possesses “special powers.” Dr. Woods
also recounted Ferguson’s reports of visual hallucinations of seeing “shadow
people” since a very young age, auditory hallucinations of hearing the voice of his
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dead father, and olfactory hallucinations of a “sweet smell” that would persist even
after he cleaned his cell. In contrast to his written report, however, Dr. Woods
testified at the evidentiary hearing that Ferguson believes that, through his trial and
incarceration, the State of Florida has been preparing him for his “ascension” to his
rightful throne as the Prince of God, not preventing him from doing so. And, also
unlike his report, Dr. Woods did not testify that Ferguson believed that his
convictions, incarceration, and impending execution were the product of a
conspiracy among state officials or were the result of anything other than the
murders he had committed.
In his testimony, Dr. Woods conceded that Ferguson had not taken any
antipsychotic drugs since 2000, had not exhibited any unusual behaviors to prison
staff since that time, and since 2001 had maintained an S-1 classification (the
designation for prisoners with no identifiable mental health concerns that might
impair their functioning in prison). He also conceded that Ferguson had filed a
number of prison grievances over the years that were “fairly goal-directed toward
his daily life” and made no reference at all to believing that he is the Prince of
God. Dr. Woods described Ferguson as a “geriatric” or “late-life” schizophrenic
who, despite his psychosis, did not necessarily require medication and would not
necessarily exhibit any outward manifestations of his illness because the “positive
symptoms” of paranoid schizophrenia diminish with age. He stated that paranoid
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schizophrenics are the highest functioning types of schizophrenics and can perform
ordinary tasks in structured environments.
In further support of his diagnosis, Dr. Woods opined that Ferguson suffers
from cavum septum pellucidum, a fissure between the two hemispheres of the
brain indicative of schizophrenia. Although Dr. Woods initially testified that the
fissure was “very deep,” he later retreated from that description, conceding on
cross-examination that the 2004 radiology report upon which he had relied actually
stated that Ferguson’s brain was intact except for a “very small” cavum septum
pellucidum. Dr. Woods also conceded that a 2001 article from the American
Journal of Psychiatry concluded that a small cavum septum pellucidum is a normal
anatomical variant that appears in virtually equal numbers of schizophrenic and
non-schizophrenic people.
ii. Dr. Rogers
Dr. Richard Rogers, an expert in forensic psychology and malingering, also
testified as an expert witness for Ferguson. He evaluated Ferguson on September
20 and 21, 2012, for the limited purpose of determining whether he was currently
malingering or feigning psychotic symptoms. In addition to interviewing
Ferguson, Dr. Rogers administered a battery of malingering tests. He
acknowledged that two of the test scores were elevated and did suggest that
Ferguson was malingering. However, based on the totality of the results of the
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administered tests, Dr. Rogers was of the opinion that Ferguson was not currently
malingering, even if he had done so in the past. On the core question of mental
competency, however, Dr. Rogers conceded that Ferguson did not exhibit any
obvious signs of cognitive impairment in his writings or verbal communications
and appeared to be of average intelligence.
2. The State’s Witnesses
At the evidentiary hearing, the State first presented the testimony of two of
the psychiatrists who had served on the Governor’s competency commission, Drs.
Myers and Werner.
i. Dr. Myers
Dr. Wade Myers, a board certified psychiatrist and professor of psychiatry at
Brown University, testified that he had evaluated and diagnosed thousands of
schizophrenic people during his professional career. Dr. Myers described how he
and his fellow commissioners had conducted their competency evaluation of
Ferguson. They began by reviewing two file boxes of medical, psychiatric, and
correctional records dating back to 1978. Each of the three commissioners had
taken a portion of the records, reviewed them for information about Ferguson’s
mental health, and then discussed with the other two commissioners the records
they found significant. Among other things, the records established that Ferguson
had been classified as an S-1 inmate since 2001, he had not taken any psychotropic
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medications since 2000, and his prison mental-health evaluations did not indicate
he had shown any symptoms of mental illness since at least 2001.
Dr. Myers testified that, after reviewing the medical records for 90 minutes,
the commission interviewed Ferguson for an additional 90 minutes in the presence
of attorneys from both sides. During the interview, Ferguson was polite, calm,
cooperative, and did not exhibit any signs of distress or of any thought disorder.
Ferguson informed the commissioners that he was not taking any psychiatric
medications, did not feel like he needed psychiatric treatment, and told them that
he did not suffer from any mental problems. When one of the commissioners, Dr.
Waldman, mentioned that Ferguson had been convicted of six homicides, Ferguson
corrected him and said that it was eight.
Dr. Myers further testified that Ferguson discussed his religious beliefs,
stating that he was a Christian, believed in God, read the Bible regularly, and liked
to visit the prison chaplain. Ferguson said that he hears the voice of God with his
“inner ears,” but only when he prays. Ferguson also informed the commissioners
that he was anointed the Prince of God many years ago, and that he would be
resurrected following his execution to sit “at the right hand of God.” According to
Dr. Myers, Ferguson only mentioned two current hallucinations: seeing dark
shadow people, which no longer bothered him, and experiencing an inexplicable
“sweet smell,” which he actually enjoyed. Ferguson told them that, in the distant
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past, he had witnessed vicious dogs coming out of his cell walls and “snakes
coming out of his leg,” though those particular hallucinations had stopped decades
ago.
Dr. Myers also testified that, following their interview of Ferguson, the
commissioners interviewed three correctional officers who had daily interactions
with Ferguson for time periods ranging from almost a year to nine years. Those
officers reported that Ferguson communicated normally, was coherent, and never
exhibited any bizarre behavior.
After reviewing some additional records and conferring with one another,
the three commissioners unanimously concluded that Ferguson had the mental
capacity to understand the nature and effect of the death penalty and the reason it
was being imposed on him. Dr. Myers explained that, although he and Dr.
Waldman brought a number of psychological tests to the evaluation, the
commission members found no reason to administer the tests given the lack of
evidence that Ferguson suffered from any significant mental illness. Dr. Myers
emphasized that Ferguson displayed lucid thinking and average intelligence
throughout the interview, that the correctional records showed that he was
functioning well in his day-to-day life, and that the correctional officers
interviewed by the commission had witnessed no bizarre behaviors by him. Dr.
Myers also testified that he believed that Ferguson was fabricating his reported
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delusions and, even if they were genuine, he would still not meet the diagnostic
criteria for schizophrenia because the delusions were not disrupting his daily life.
Dr. Myers testified that Ferguson had a “rational understanding of the nature of the
death penalty and the reason it is to be inflicted upon him.”
ii. Dr. Werner
Dr. Tonia Werner, a board certified psychiatrist and professor of forensic
psychiatry at the University of Florida, who had served as one of the competency
commissioners, also testified at the evidentiary hearing. She corroborated Dr.
Myers’ account of the commission’s evaluation process and agreed with his
opinion that Ferguson does possess a rational understanding of the fact of his
impending execution and of the reason for it. Dr. Werner confirmed that Ferguson
informed the commissioners that he had been anointed the Prince of God, would be
resurrected after his death to “sit at the right hand of God,” and would eventually
return to Earth. She testified, however, that Ferguson had indicated that he was
going to be executed and stated that he would be the first state inmate to receive
Florida’s new lethal-injection protocol. She recounted that Dr. Waldman had
specifically asked Ferguson whether he would physically die and be buried after
his execution, and Ferguson answered that he would.
Finally, Dr. Werner testified that she did not believe that Ferguson was
currently suffering from a major mental illness because his reported hallucinations,
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particularly those of seeing shadow people, were inconsistent with schizophrenia,
and there were no signs of dysfunction in his daily activities. She explained that,
even if Ferguson were suffering from mental illness, he did not demonstrate any
difficulties in his mental capacity or cognition that would suggest that he did not
fully understand the reasons for and the consequences of his impending execution.
iii. Dr. Suarez
Dr. Enrique Suarez, a neuropsychologist, also testified for the State at the
evidentiary hearing. He had examined Ferguson in 2004 during the federal habeas
proceedings and had concluded that Ferguson was not exhibiting any behavioral
symptoms of psychosis and was malingering. Dr. Suarez testified that he had
reviewed Ferguson’s records from the 2004 proceeding and from that time to the
present, had reviewed the reports of Ferguson’s expert witnesses, and had listened
to the testimony of all of the experts who had testified at the present hearing (he
was the last expert witness to testify before Dr. Woods was recalled as a rebuttal
witness). After considering all of those records and testimony, Dr. Suarez was still
of the opinion that Ferguson was not schizophrenic.
Dr. Suarez emphasized that it is highly unlikely for a schizophrenic not to
suffer a relapse after being unmedicated for more than a decade, and that
Ferguson’s various inmate requests and prison grievances showed “no bleed-
through” of his professed delusions and hallucinations. He specifically identified
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an inmate request form dated July 25, 2011, in which Ferguson requested 256
pages of legal materials for a pro se appeal that he was pursuing. According to Dr.
Suarez, the request was perfectly coherent, “[q]uite sophisticated,” and
demonstrated that “delusional contamination” did not hinder Ferguson from being
“able to work through the system that’s set up to get his needs met.”
iv. Prison Officials and Employees
The State also called as witnesses a number of prison officials who had
regular contact with Ferguson around the time his death warrant was signed on
September 5, 2012. They uniformly testified that Ferguson did not exhibit any
abnormal behaviors or make any unusual requests that suggested he was mentally
unstable. Officer Jay Taylor, who spoke to Ferguson on the day his death warrant
was signed, testified that Ferguson stated that he had not had a warrant signed on
him in 35 years.
Brad Whitehead, the assistant warden at Florida State Prison, testified that
he spoke to Ferguson about his wishes for a last meal, the disposition of his
remains, and who should be contacted. Ferguson provided Whitehead with the
names of his mother, his attorneys’ law firm, and his spiritual advisor, and he also
expressed concern about his mother’s wellbeing due to her medical conditions.
When asked what he wanted done with his remains after his execution, Ferguson
responded that he needed to consult with his attorneys about that. At no point did
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he indicate or imply that he was unconcerned about the disposition of his remains
because his status as the Prince of God would render that matter moot.
Jennifer Sagle, a mental health counselor who worked on death row from
December 2005 until July 2012, testified that during the time she worked there
Ferguson maintained an S-1 psychiatric classification, the lowest level recognized
by the Florida Department of Corrections. Sagle further testified that she never
received any complaints or referrals from other inmates or prison guards regarding
Ferguson’s mental health, and that she had not personally observed any unusual
behavior or symptoms of schizophrenia during her weekly rounds. Although Sagle
acknowledged that paranoid schizophrenics might not outwardly manifest
“positive symptoms” of their disease, such as hallucinations, she testified that they
would exhibit “negative symptoms” such as a flattened affect and lack of
motivation, which Ferguson had not shown.
3. Ferguson’s Rebuttal Witnesses
Ferguson called two witnesses in rebuttal. The first was Patricia Brannan,
one of his attorneys who had attended the evaluation by the mental competency
commission. She testified that Ferguson was calm, placid, focused, and
cooperative while the commissioners interviewed him, though he became agitated
a few times in response to particular questions. She indicated that, contrary to Dr.
Myers’ testimony, it was one of the commissioners who had corrected the
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misstatement that Ferguson had been convicted of six murders. She further stated
that, when asked about his impending execution, Ferguson responded “they’re
gonna kill me, like Jesus” and that “God told me lethal injection, and they have
some new stuff just for me.” Moreover, when asked by a commissioner about
what would happen after he was buried, Ferguson responded that he would ascend
to “sit at the right hand of God” and would eventually return to his “rightful place
in the world.”
Dr. Woods was the other rebuttal witness. He testified that the relapse rate
for geriatric (or late-life) schizophrenics is only about four percent even among
those not taking antipsychotic medication. He also stated that the fact that
Ferguson had not exhibited any symptoms to prison officials and employees after
being off medication for more than a decade was not inconsistent with his
diagnosis of late-life schizophrenia. He stuck to his diagnosis of Ferguson and the
opinion that he was not mentally competent to be executed.
4. The 2012 State Trial Court Decision on Ferguson’s Competency
After the evidentiary hearing on the competency issue, the state trial court
issued an order finding that Ferguson had failed to meet his burden of proving that
he was mentally incompetent to be executed. State v. Ferguson, No. 04-2012-CA-
507, op. at 1, 17 (Fla. Cir. Ct. Oct. 12, 2012). The court, partially crediting the
testimony of Dr. Woods and Dr. Rogers “as it relates to Ferguson’s documented
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history of paranoid schizophrenia,” found that Ferguson suffers from paranoid
schizophrenia, that there was not “sufficient evidence [he was] malingering during
the interview with the Commission,” and that he harbors a genuine delusional
belief that he is the Prince of God. Id. at 17. However, the court specifically found
“the testimony and opinions of Dr. Myers and Dr. Werner to be credible as to the
limited question of Ferguson’s competency to be executed” and found their
testimony on those issues to be supported by both the record and the testimony of
the prison officials and employees. Id. at 17–18.
The court concluded that, although Ferguson suffers from paranoid
schizophrenia, “there is no evidence that he does not understand what is taking
place and why it is taking place” or that his “mental illness interferes, in any way,
with his ‘rational understanding’ of the fact of his pending execution and the
reason for it.” Id. at 18. In support of its conclusion, the court emphasized that
“Ferguson is aware that the State is executing him for the murders he committed
and that he will physically die as a result of the execution,” and that “[t]here is no
evidence that in his current mental state Ferguson believes himself unable to die or
that he is being executed for any reason other than the murders he was convicted of
in 1978.” Id. The court also remarked that, “[i]n some sense, Ferguson appears to
have fit his grandiose [Prince-of-God] delusion into a traditional religious
worldview” and that his “belief as to his role in the world and what may happen to
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him in the afterlife is [not] so significantly different from beliefs other Christians
may hold so as to consider it a sign of insanity.” Id.
The state trial court rejected Ferguson’s contention that Panetti displaced or
added anything to the existing state standard for assessing mental competency to
be executed, which asks whether a prisoner “lacks the mental capacity to
understand the fact of the impending execution and the reason for it.” Id. at 4. The
court noted that, in Provenzano v. State, 760 So. 2d 137 (Fla. 2000), which was
decided before Panetti, the Florida Supreme Court had “considered the difficulties
of persons who have mental illnesses and delusions” and held that they could still
be found mentally competent to be executed if they possessed “a factual and
rational understanding” of their execution and the reasons for it. Id. at 4–5.
5. The 2012 Florida Supreme Court Decision on Ferguson’s Competency
Ferguson appealed that decision to the Florida Supreme Court, contending
that the state trial court had failed to apply the mental competency standard
announced in Panetti and that the Florida Supreme Court’s Provenzano decision
was no longer good law. He contended in the alternative that, even if the trial
court had applied the correct legal standard, its finding that he was mentally
competent to be executed was not supported by the record, particularly given the
subsidiary findings that he is a paranoid schizophrenic who believes that he is the
Prince of God. Ferguson also claimed that he had not been afforded a full and fair
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evidentiary hearing before the state trial court, in contravention of his due process
rights.
The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s decision. It found that
there was “competent, substantial evidence” to support the trial court’s finding that
Ferguson’s mental illness and Prince-of-God delusion did not interfere with his
“rational understanding” of the fact of his pending execution and the reason for it,
and that the record supported the finding that he “understands what is taking place
and why.” Ferguson v. State, No. SC12-2115, op. at 4, 7 (Fla. Oct. 17, 2012). The
Court did not adopt the state trial court’s view that Ferguson’s delusions were a
grandiose manifestation of otherwise normal Christian beliefs. It stated that
“[w]hether Ferguson’s convictions are representative of mainstream Christian
principles or delusions that derive from his mental illness does not affect our
inquiry.” Id. at 4. Either way, he understood that he was going to be executed and
why. The Florida Supreme Court also rejected Ferguson’s contention that Panetti
imposed a stricter standard for mental competency to be executed than the one it
had adopted in its Provenzano decision. Id. at 6–8. In doing so, the Court
acknowledged Panetti’s statement that a “prisoner’s awareness of the State’s
rationale for an execution is not the same as a rational understanding of it,” but
explained that Panetti was a “narrowly tailored decision” and that Provenzano
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itself had required that a prisoner “understand the connection between his crime
and the punishment he is to receive for it.” Id. at 7–8.
G. This Federal Habeas Proceeding
On October 19, 2012, Ferguson filed a federal habeas petition under 28
U.S.C. § 2254, along with an emergency motion for a stay of execution until there
was a ruling on the merits of that petition. His petition claimed that he is mentally
incompetent to be executed under the Eighth Amendment, as interpreted in Ford
and Panetti, because he lacks a rational understanding of the consequences of, and
reasons for, his impending execution. Ferguson contended that the decisions of the
state courts were contrary to clearly established federal law because they relied on
the factual-awareness standard rejected by Panetti and were otherwise based on an
unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented.
On October 20, 2012, the district court granted a temporary stay of
execution to permit a “fair hearing” on Ferguson’s habeas claim. Two days later
we granted the State’s emergency motion to vacate that stay of execution,
concluding that the district court had applied the wrong legal standard for granting
a stay and that Ferguson had failed to demonstrate that he had a substantial
likelihood of success on the merits of his claim. We specifically determined that
Ferguson did not show that the Florida Supreme Court either unreasonably applied
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clearly established federal law or made an unreasonable determination of the facts
when it found him competent to be executed.
Thereafter, and less than an hour before Ferguson’s scheduled execution on
October 23, 2012, the district court issued a summary order denying the habeas
petition, but granting Ferguson a certificate of appealability (COA) on the
following issues:
A. Whether the decision of the Florida Supreme Court involved an
unreasonable application of the Un[ited] States Supreme Court’s decision[s]
in Ford and Panetti.
B. Whether the Florida Supreme Court’s affirmance of the state trial court
was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the
evidence presented in the state court proceeding, viz, that (a) the petitioner
has a documented history of paranoid schizophrenia[,] (b) he is not
malingering, and (c) he has a fixed grandiose delusion that he is the “Prince
of God.”
We granted a temporary stay of execution under Eleventh Circuit Rule 22-
4(a)(7). The State moved to vacate the stay of execution and dismiss Ferguson’s
appeal on the ground that the district court had improperly granted a COA,
particularly in light of our earlier determination that Ferguson did not have a
substantial likelihood of success on the merits of his competency claim. We
denied the State’s motion to vacate the stay of execution.
II. DISCUSSION
“We review de novo the denial of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus.”
Jamerson v. Sec’y for Dep’t of Corr., 410 F.3d 682, 687 (11th Cir. 2005). The
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Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) precludes federal
courts from granting habeas relief on a claim already adjudicated on the merits in
state court unless the state court’s decision (1) “was contrary to, or involved an
unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the
Supreme Court,” or (2) “was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts
in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. §
2254(d). A state court decision is “contrary to” clearly established federal law if it
applies a rule that contradicts the governing law set forth by the United States
Supreme Court, or arrives at a result that differs from Supreme Court precedent
when faced with materially indistinguishable facts. Bell v. Cone, 535 U.S. 685,
694, 122 S. Ct. 1843, 1850 (2002). A state court decision involves an
“unreasonable application” of clearly established federal law if “the state court
correctly identifies the governing legal principle” from the relevant Supreme Court
decisions “but unreasonably applies it to the facts of the particular case.” Id. The
key question is whether the state court’s application of Supreme Court precedent is
“objectively unreasonable,” not simply whether a federal court “concludes in its
independent judgment that the . . . state-court decision applied clearly established
federal law erroneously or incorrectly.” Renico v. Lett, — U.S. —, 130 S. Ct.
1855, 1862 (2010) (quotation marks omitted).
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As the Supreme Court has explained, there is a critical difference between
the question of whether to reverse for a claimed constitutional error on direct
appeal and the question of whether to grant habeas relief after the state courts have
rejected the claim of constitutional error. “Under AEDPA . . . it is a necessary
premise that the two questions are different.” Harrington v. Richter, — U.S. —,
131 S. Ct. 770, 785 (2011); see also Renico, 130 S. Ct. at 1862 (“This distinction
creates ‘a substantially higher threshold’ for obtaining relief than de novo
review.”). The distinction between those two questions is critical to the proper
functioning of the federal writ of habeas corpus in the post-AEDPA age. See
Harrington, 131 S. Ct. at 780 (explaining that habeas “resources are diminished and
misspent . . . and confidence in the writ and the law it vindicates undermined, if
there is judicial disregard for the sound and established principles that inform its
proper issuance”).
The Supreme Court has not hesitated to reverse grants of habeas relief
ordered by courts of appeals that ignore the distinction between direct appeal type
de novo review and the more restrictive, highly deferential review mandated by 28
U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). See, e.g., Felkner v. Jackson, — U.S. —, 131 S. Ct. 1305,
1307 (2011) (reversing a decision ordering habeas relief, which apparently had
applied the standard of review applicable on direct appeal instead of AEDPA’s
“highly deferential standard for evaluating state-court rulings”); Premo v. Moore,
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— U.S. —, 131 S. Ct. 733, 740 (2011) (reversing a decision ordering relief and
cautioning that “[f]ederal habeas courts must guard against the danger of equating
unreasonableness under Strickland with unreasonableness under § 2254(d)”);
Harrington, 131 S. Ct. at 786 (reversing a decision ordering habeas relief based on a
de novo review standard, and commenting that “[i]t bears repeating that even a
strong case for relief does not mean the state court’s contrary conclusion was
unreasonable”); Smith v. Spisak, 558 U.S. 139, 149, 130 S. Ct. 676, 684 (2010)
(reversing a decision ordering habeas relief because “[w]hatever the legal merits of
the rule or the underlying verdict forms in this case were we to consider them on
direct appeal, the jury instructions at Spisak’s trial were not contrary to ‘clearly
established Federal law’”).
The point, which the Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized, is that
AEDPA imposes a “highly deferential standard for evaluating state-court rulings”
and “demands that state-court decisions be given the benefit of the doubt.” Renico,
130 S. Ct. at 1862 (quotation marks omitted). “A state court’s application of
clearly established federal law or its determination of the facts is unreasonable only
if no ‘fairminded jurist’ could agree with the state court’s determination or
conclusion.” Holsey v. Warden, Ga. Diagnostic Prison, 694 F.3d 1230, 1257 (11th
Cir. 2012) (quoting Harrington, 131 S. Ct. at 786). To warrant federal habeas relief
under the deferential standards prescribed by § 2254(d), a petitioner must show
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that the state court’s ruling was “so lacking in justification that there was an error
well understood and comprehended in existing law beyond any possibility for
fairminded disagreement.” Harrington, 131 S. Ct. at 786–77.
A.
Ferguson first argues that the Florida Supreme Court’s decision involved an
unreasonable application of clearly established federal law because, in adhering to
the competency standard laid down in Provenzano, the court purportedly relied on
the bare factual-awareness standard that the United States Supreme Court rejected
in Panetti, instead of the applicable “rational understanding” inquiry. 2 Ferguson
contends that in light of Panetti the competency standard announced by the Florida
Supreme Court in Provenzano, which adopted the test articulated by Justice Powell
in his concurring opinion in Ford, is constitutionally deficient because it merely
asks whether a prisoner is aware of the punishment that will be imposed and the
reason for imposing it.
Our analysis of Ferguson’s contention begins with a look at how the
substantive standard for competency to be executed has evolved in both Florida
and the United States Supreme Court. Before the Supreme Court ever recognized
2
Technically speaking, Ferguson’s contention that the Florida Supreme Court failed to
apply the competency standard set forth in Panetti would, if believed, render the court’s decision
“contrary to” clearly established federal law, not merely an “unreasonable application” of
Supreme Court precedent. See Bell, 535 U.S. at 694, 122 S.Ct. at 1850. Nonetheless, because
the distinction does not impact our analysis or conclusions, we will address the issue in the terms
set forth in the district court’s COA and employed by Ferguson on appeal.
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a constitutional bar on executing the mentally incompetent, Florida had a statutory
bar on putting to death an inmate who lacked the “mental capacity to understand
the nature of the death penalty and the reasons why it was imposed upon him.”
Fla. Stat. Ann. § 922.07(2) (1985). Later, in Ford, the Supreme Court held for the
first time that the “Eighth Amendment prohibits a State from carrying out a
sentence of death upon a prisoner who is insane,” 477 U.S. at 409–10, 106 S.Ct. at
2602, and it outlined procedural safeguards to enforce that constitutional
prohibition, see id. at 411–17, 106 S.Ct. at 2602–06. Justice Marshall’s majority
opinion in Ford did not, however, specify in any detail the substantive standard to
be applied in assessing whether a prisoner is competent to be executed. It did note
that “we may seriously question the retributive value of executing a person who
has no comprehension of why he has been singled out and stripped of his
fundamental right to life,” id. at 409, 106 S.Ct. at 2601, which seemed to imply a
simple comprehension standard.
In his concurring opinion, however, Justice Powell articulated a more
specific standard for competency, explaining that the “Eighth Amendment forbids
the execution only of those who are unaware of the punishment they are about to
suffer and why they are to suffer it” and that it is constitutionally sufficient if
“those who are executed know the fact of their impending execution and the reason
for it.” Id. at 422, 106 S.Ct. at 2608 (Powell, J., concurring). Justice Powell
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explained that “the retributive goal of the criminal law is satisfied” if a prisoner
“perceives the connection between his crime and his punishment,” and that a
prisoner can “prepare himself for his passing” only if he is “aware that his death is
approaching.” Id. Justice Powell expressly found that Florida’s statutory
definition of competency to be executed was constitutionally adequate. Id. at 423,
106 S.Ct. at 2608.
While the Ford decision left Florida’s competency standard standing, it did
find fault with the procedures that were then in effect for determining whether that
standard was met. Id. at 412–17, 106 S.Ct. at 2603–05. Thereafter, Florida
adopted new procedures for assessing a prisoner’s competency to be executed,
which were codified in Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure 3.811 and 3.812. See
In re Emergency Amendment to Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure (Rule 3.811,
Competency to be Executed), 497 So. 2d 643 (Fla. 1986); Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.811;
Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.812. Rule 3.811 also set forth a substantive competency
standard, which was virtually identical to Florida’s statutory definition, and which
provided that “[a] person under sentence of death is insane for purposes of
execution if the person lacks the mental capacity to understand the fact of the
impending execution and the reason for it.” Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.811(b).
After the Ford decision, the Florida Supreme Court had occasion to
elaborate on the meaning of the State’s competency to be executed standard in two
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decisions involving the impending execution of Thomas Provenzano. In the first
of those decisions, Provenzano v. State, 750 So. 2d 597, 602 (Fla. 1999)
(Provenzano I), the Court rejected a claim that the standard articulated in Rule
3.811 was unconstitutional because it did not require a “rational appreciation of the
connection between the crime and the punishment.” The Court explained that the
competency standard did, in fact, include a “rationality element” that required a
prisoner to possess a “rational appreciation of the connection between his crime
and the punishment he is to receive.” Id. at 602–03. It then remanded the case for
further proceedings to assess Provenzano’s competency to be executed under that
rational appreciation standard. Id. at 601–03.
When the case returned to it the following year, the Florida Supreme Court
affirmed the trial court’s determination that Provenzano, despite harboring a
delusional belief that he was Jesus Christ, was competent to be executed because
he had “a factual and rational understanding” that he had been sentenced to death
for murdering a woman and that he would die when he was executed. Provenzano
v. State, 760 So. 2d 137, 140 (Fla. 2000) (Provenzano II). The Court explained
that “Florida ha[d] adopted the Eighth Amendment standard announced by Justice
Powell in Ford,” and that Provenzano met this standard because he possessed “the
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mental capacity to understand the fact of his pending execution and the reason for
it.”3 Id.
Seven years after the Florida Supreme Court issued its decision in
Provenzano II, and just over two decades after Ford, the United States Supreme
Court revisited the substantive standard for competency in Panetti. Panetti, a
Texas prisoner sentenced to death for murdering his in-laws, claimed that his
schizo-affective disorder and accompanying delusions, which “recast [his]
execution as part of spiritual warfare” between “the forces of [] darkness” and “the
forces of light,” rendered him mentally incompetent to be executed. Panetti, 551
U.S. at 935–36, 954–56, 127 S. Ct. at 2848, 2859–60 (quotation marks omitted).
Although he was aware that the State of Texas claimed that it intended to execute
him because of the murders he had committed, Panetti was convinced that the
stated reason was a “sham” and that the real reason the State sought his execution
was “to stop him from preaching.” Id. at 954–55, 127 S.Ct. at 2859 (quotation
marks omitted). The Fifth Circuit affirmed the denial of federal habeas relief
because Panetti was aware that he would be executed and “aware that the reason
the State [had] given for the execution” was the murders he had committed. Id. at
3
The Florida Supreme Court issued several other decisions in Provenzano’s challenge to
his impending execution, but those decisions did not specifically address the competency
standard for execution. See Provenzano v. State, 751 So. 2d 37 (Fla. 1999) (remanding for an
evidentiary hearing on Provenzano’s claim of incompetency); Provenzano v. Moore, 744 So. 2d
413 (Fla. 1999) (rejecting Provenzano’s challenge to Florida’s method of execution).
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956, 127 S. Ct. at 2860. Under its interpretation of the competency standard
articulated by Justice Powell in Ford, the Fifth Circuit concluded that Panetti’s
delusions were largely irrelevant to the competency inquiry because it did not
matter if Panetti’s mental illness prevented him from having a rational
understanding of the State’s reason for his execution. Id.
The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the Fifth Circuit’s approach to
assessing competency was “too restrictive” and was inconsistent with Ford insofar
as it treated “a prisoner’s delusional belief system as irrelevant if the prisoner
knows that the State has identified his crimes as the reason for his execution.” Id.
at 956–59, 127 S.Ct. at 2860–61. The Court explained that, whether Ford’s
competency inquiry is cast in terms of “comprehension” or “awareness” of the
reasons for a prisoner’s execution, Ford did not support “a strict test for
competency that treats delusional beliefs as irrelevant once the prisoner is aware
the State has identified the link between his crime and the punishment to be
inflicted.” Id. at 959–60, 127 S.Ct. at 2861–62. The Court concluded that “[a]
prisoner’s awareness of the State’s rationale for an execution is not the same as a
rational understanding of it,” and that “Ford does not foreclose inquiry into the
latter.” Id. at 959, 127 S.Ct. at 2862.
While the Supreme Court in Panetti rejected an approach foreclosing an
inquiry into the rationality of a petitioner’s understanding, it expressly declined to
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“set down a rule governing all competency determinations” and it acknowledged
that “a concept like rational understanding is difficult to define.” Id. at 959–61,
127 S.Ct. at 2862. The Court stressed that “[t]he mental state requisite for
competence to suffer capital punishment neither presumes nor requires a person
who would be considered ‘normal,’ or even ‘rational,’ in a layperson’s
understanding of those terms.” Id. at 959, 127 S.Ct. at 2862. Because of the
limited record and the absence of definitive findings in that case concerning “the
nature and severity of [Panetti’s] alleged mental problems,” the Supreme Court
was hesitant to “amplify [its] conclusions or to make them more precise” and
declined to apply them to that case itself. Id. at 961–62, 127 S.Ct. at 2863.
Instead, the Court remanded the case to the district court to analyze and resolve in
the first instance the issue of Panetti’s competency to be executed. Id. at 962, 127
S.Ct. at 2863.
By way of guidance, the Supreme Court noted that “[g]ross delusions
stemming from a severe mental disorder may put an awareness of a link between a
crime and its punishment in a context so far removed from reality that the
punishment can serve no proper purpose.” Id. at 960, 127 S.Ct. at 2862. The
Court also observed that “[e]xpert evidence may clarify the extent to which severe
delusions may render a subject’s perception of reality so distorted that he should be
deemed incompetent.” Id. at 962, 127 S.Ct. at 2863. On remand, the district court
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found that Panetti suffered from “severe mental illness” and “paranoid delusions of
some type,” but that he was nonetheless competent to be executed because he
possessed a rational understanding of his impending death and the “causal
connection between [his crimes] and his death sentence.” Panetti v. Quarterman,
2008 WL 2338498, at *36–37 (W.D. Tex. Mar. 26, 2008).
In the present case, the Florida Supreme Court did not apply the bare and
narrow factual-awareness standard that the United States Supreme Court rejected
in Panetti. Instead, in reviewing the state trial court’s ruling against Ferguson, the
Florida Supreme Court framed the question as whether there was substantial
evidence to support the trial court’s determination that Ferguson’s paranoid
schizophrenia and Prince-of-God delusion did not interfere “with his ‘rational
understanding’ of the fact of his pending execution and the reason for it.”
Ferguson, No. SC12-2115, op. at 4. Citing its decision in Provenzano II and
Justice Powell’s concurring opinion in Ford, the court variously articulated the
competency standard as whether an inmate lacks “the capacity to understand the
nature of the death penalty and why it was imposed,” whether he is “aware of the
punishment [he is] about to receive and the reason [he is] to receive it,” and
whether he “understand[s] the connection between his crime and the punishment
he is to receive for it.” Id. at 4, 8. The Florida Supreme Court concluded that,
despite Ferguson’s documented history of paranoid schizophrenia and genuine
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delusional belief that he is the Prince of God, the record nonetheless shows that he
“understands what is taking place and why.” Id. at 7. In particular, the Court
noted that Ferguson is “aware that he has never before had a death warrant signed
on his behalf and that he would be the first person to receive Florida’s current
protocol of medications for lethal injection,” and it found sufficient evidence to
support the trial court’s findings that Ferguson is “aware that the State is executing
him for the murders he committed and that he will physically die as a result of the
execution.” Id. at 7–8.
The competency standard articulated and applied by the Florida Supreme
Court is not inconsistent with clearly established federal law, as set forth in Ford
and Panetti. The court correctly found that Panetti did not materially alter the
competency standard that it had announced in Provenzano II, which itself adopted
the formulation endorsed by Justice Powell in Ford. Contrary to Ferguson’s
contention, the Supreme Court’s decision in Panetti did not abrogate or otherwise
reject the awareness standard articulated by Justice Powell, nor did it impose a
new, more rigorous standard for assessing competency to be executed. Instead, the
Supreme Court in Panetti generally accepted the proposition that Ford had laid
down “the substantive federal baseline for competency,” and it clarified that the
requisite “awareness” or “comprehension” required by Ford was tantamount to a
“rational understanding” of the connection between a prisoner’s crimes and his
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execution. Panetti, 551 U.S. at 935, 958–59, 127 S. Ct. at 2848, 2861–62. What
the Supreme Court rejected in Panetti was an overly narrow interpretation of Ford
that deems a prisoner’s mental illness and delusional beliefs irrelevant to whether
he can understand the fact of his pending execution and the reason for it. Id. at
959–61, 127 S.Ct. at 2861–62 (rejecting “a strict test for competency that treats
delusional beliefs as irrelevant”). The Court explained that the understanding
required by Ford is a rational understanding, even though it declined to define
“rational” in this context. See id. at 959–62, 2862–63.
Unlike the Fifth Circuit approach rejected in Panetti, the Florida Supreme
Court neither suggested that Ferguson is competent to be executed merely because
he can identify the State’s articulated rationale for his punishment, nor did it deem
his paranoid schizophrenia and delusional belief that he is the Prince of God to be
irrelevant to the issue of competency. 4 See Ferguson, No. SC12-2115, op. at 4–8.
To the contrary, the Florida Supreme Court concluded that, despite Ferguson’s
4
Read out of context, the Florida Supreme Court’s statement that “[w]hether Ferguson’s
convictions are representative of mainstream Christian principles or delusions that derive from
his mental illness does not affect our inquiry” might be interpreted as indicating that the court
refused to consider Ferguson’s delusions or their source. See Ferguson, No. SC12-2115, op. at
4. It is evident from the context, however, that the quoted statement was instead a decision not
to adopt the state trial court’s characterization of Ferguson’s delusions as a manifestation of
traditional Christian beliefs, albeit on a grandiose scale. As the remainder of the Florida
Supreme Court’s opinion makes clear, it did consider Ferguson’s paranoid schizophrenia and
Prince-of-God delusion as they relate to the issue of rational understanding, and it concluded that
he nevertheless has a rational understanding that the reason he is going to be executed is the
murders he committed and that when executed he will die. Just as Panetti’s “severe mental
illness” and “paranoid delusions” did not, in the final analysis, render him incompetent to be
executed, see Panetti, 2008 WL 2338498, at *36–37, the Florida Supreme Court found that
Ferguson’s delusions did not render him incompetent to be executed either.
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mental illness and delusional belief, he nonetheless “understands” the connection
between his impending execution and the murders he had committed and
understands that he will die when executed. Id. at 7–8.
Although the Florida Supreme Court’s decisions in Provenzano I and
Provenzano II predated Panetti, they make clear that Florida’s awareness standard
for judging competency to be executed includes an inquiry into rationality and
amounts to an awareness-plus-rational-understanding test. See Provenzano I, 750
So. 2d at 602–03 (rejecting the argument that the Florida standard “does not allow
for the rational appreciation of the connection between the crime and the
punishment” and holding that Provenzano should be afforded “the opportunity to
cross-examine [the State’s expert witness concerning] Provenzano’s rational
appreciation of the connection between his crime and the punishment he is to
receive”) (emphasis added); Provenzano II, 760 So. 2d at 140 (citing with approval
and affirming the trial court’s findings that “Provenzano has a factual and rational
understanding of . . . ‘the fact that in accordance with the jury’s recommendation,
he was sentenced to death for the murder of Bailiff Arnie Wilkerson, and that he
will die once he is executed’”) (emphasis added).
That the Florida Supreme Court’s opinion in this case used the terms
“awareness” and “understanding” interchangeably, and often used both terms
without the modifier “rational,” does not mean that it failed to heed the holding of
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Panetti or rendered a decision inconsistent with that precedent (or with its own
Provenzano precedent). We have stressed that, under § 2254(d), “we review the
state court’s ‘decision’ and not necessarily its rationale,” and that “overemphasis
on the language of a state court’s rationale would lead to a ‘grading papers’
approach that is outmoded in the post-AEDPA era.” Parker v. Sec’y for Dep’t of
Corr., 331 F.3d 764, 785 (11th Cir. 2003) (quotation marks omitted). Absent a
“conspicuous misapplication of Supreme Court precedent . . ., we will not presume
that a state court misapplied federal law” or failed to properly comprehend
Supreme Court precedent. Id. at 785–86 (quotation marks and alterations omitted).
The Supreme Court has held that some use of imprecise language does not
render a state court decision inconsistent with clearly established federal law. It
does not, the Court has explained, because “readiness to attribute error” is
incompatible with both “the presumption that state courts know and follow the
law” and with AEDPA’s “demand[] that state-court decisions be given the benefit
of the doubt.” Woodford v. Visciotti, 537 U.S. 19, 23–24, 123 S. Ct. 357, 359–60
(2002). It bears noting that, on at least one occasion, the Supreme Court in Panetti
equated the requisite “rational understanding” with a certain type or degree of
“awareness.” See 551 U.S. at 960, 127 S. Ct. at 2862 (referring to “[g]ross
delusions stemming from a severe mental disorder [that] may put an awareness of a
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link between a crime and its punishment in a context so far removed from reality”)
(emphasis added). Imprecision in language is not confined to state court opinions.
The AEDPA principles of deference have special force here given the
Supreme Court’s recognition in Panetti that the Court itself did not know exactly
what a “rational” understanding requires. The Court admitted that “a concept like
rational understanding is difficult to define,” id. at 959, 127 S. Ct. at 2862, and it
proceeded to prove that by not even attempting a definition. The Court did say that
“normal” or “rational” in this context does not mean what a layperson understands
those terms to mean, id. at 959–60, 127 S. Ct. at 2862, but that only underscores the
absence of a definition. And so does the Court’s concession that “we find it
difficult to amplify our conclusions or to make them more precise.” Id. at 961, 127
S.Ct. at 2863; see also id. at 960–61, 127 S. Ct. at 2862–63 (emphasizing that it was
not being more specific); id. at 978, 127 S.Ct. at 2873 (Thomas, J., dissenting)
(characterizing the majority opinion’s rational understanding standard as a “half-
baked holding that leaves the details of the insanity standard for the District Court
to work out”).
Given the deference that AEDPA mandates, the “contrary to” issue is
whether the standard that the Florida Supreme Court applied in determining
Ferguson’s competency to be executed was “contrary to . . . clearly established
Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court” in Panetti. See 28 U.S.C. §
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2254(d)(1). Because the Supreme Court refrained from clearly establishing in
Panetti any definition of rational understanding, state courts can hardly be faulted
for not clearly defining it themselves. The Supreme Court did, however, hold that
whatever “rational” means in the context of competency to be executed, a court
may not “treat[] delusional beliefs as irrelevant once the prisoner is aware the State
has identified the link between his crime and the punishment to be inflicted.”
Panetti, 551 U.S. at 959–61, 127 S. Ct. at 2861–62. That, and pretty much that
alone, is what Panetti held and clearly establishes.
The standard of rational understanding that the Florida Supreme Court
applied was not contrary to that holding of Panetti. It did not treat Ferguson’s
paranoid schizophrenia and his belief that he is the Prince of God as irrelevant to
whether he has a rational understanding of why he is going to be executed and of
the fact that when executed he will die. Instead, the Florida Supreme Court
affirmed the trial court’s finding that notwithstanding his mental condition and
singular religious belief about his life after death, Ferguson has the requisite
rational understanding and is competent to be executed. See pp. 29–30, supra.
The state court decision about the applicable standard did not involve a
“conspicuous misapplication of Supreme Court precedent,” Parker, 331 F.3d at
785, or an “error well understood and comprehended in existing law beyond any
possibility for fairminded disagreement,” Harrington, 131 S. Ct. at 786–87. For
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these reasons, we conclude that the rational understanding standard applied by the
Florida Supreme Court to assess Ferguson’s competency to be executed is not
inconsistent with clearly established federal law.
B.
Ferguson maintains that even if the Florida Supreme Court did apply the
Panetti competency standard, we should nonetheless hold that it unreasonably
applied that standard, either as a matter of law or as an ultimate finding of fact, by
finding that he has a rational understanding of his impending execution and the
reasons for it. Although Ferguson alternatively invokes § 2254(d)(1) and (d)(2),
his underlying argument is the same with respect to both AEDPA provisions. 5 We
will therefore treat the issue as a single inquiry for purposes of this appeal.
Ferguson specifically contends that the state courts could not reasonably
conclude that he is competent to be executed given their underlying factual
findings that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, is not currently malingering,
and harbors a genuine belief that he is the Prince of God. Ferguson asserts that his
5
Ferguson takes the position that, whether the Florida Supreme Court’s decision is
viewed under § 2254(d)(1) or (d)(2), the analysis in this case is virtually the same: whether “the
underlying facts as found by the State courts” preclude a determination that he has a rational
understanding of his execution. While § 2254(d)(2) specifically asks whether a state court’s
decision “was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence
presented,” Ferguson would recast the inquiry to be whether the ultimate determination of
competency constitutes an unreasonable determination of fact in light of the “subsidiary findings
of fact [the state] courts made.” While we do not agree that the inquiries called for under §
2254(d)(1) and (d)(2) are identical, we accept Ferguson’s invitation, solely for purposes of this
appeal, to regard them as two different methods of analyzing the same underlying question.
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Prince-of-God belief, which the state trial court credited as genuine, encompasses
beliefs that he cannot be executed due to his “special powers,” that his convictions
and incarceration are really the result of both a conspiracy of corrupt policemen
and the State’s attempt to prevent his ascension, and that he is destined to ascend to
the right hand of God and eventually return to Earth to wage war against
Communism. Ferguson argues that the state trial court’s conclusion that there is
“no evidence that . . . [he] believes himself unable to die or that he is being
executed for any reason other than the murders he was convicted of in 1978” fails
to account for that court’s own finding that Dr. Woods credibly testified about the
extent and gravity of Ferguson’s delusions. He contends that the state courts’
underlying findings about his mental illness and delusional beliefs inevitably lead
to only one conclusion: that he does not have a rational understanding of his
impending execution and the reasons for it. 6
6
Ferguson also maintains that the Florida Supreme Court unreasonably applied the
procedural requirements laid down in Ford and Panetti when it concluded that he was afforded a
fair hearing to determine his competency. Ferguson, however, did not fairly present this
argument to the district court in his habeas petition. See Smith v. Sec’y, Dep’t of Corr., 572 F.3d
1327, 1352 (11th Cir. 2009) (noting that an argument that is not fairly presented to the district
court will not be considered on appeal); Hill v. Jones, 81 F.3d 1015, 1020 (11th Cir. 1996)
(same). In his 30-page counseled habeas petition, Ferguson included only two conclusory
sentences asserting that he “never received [a] fair hearing” due to “incalculable due process
abuses,” and that the record before the district court was “severely limited by the due process
abuses visited upon [him] by persons eager to rush to impose the ‘ultimate penalty without the
full measure of the deliberative process.’” In addition to the conclusory nature of these
contentions, Ferguson’s attorneys did not expressly designate the issue as a distinct claim for
relief, nor did they specifically argue that the Florida Supreme Court unreasonably applied the
procedural requirements of Ford and Panetti.
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Ferguson’s contentions and arguments rest, in large part, on a misconception
about the state trial court’s underlying factual findings. A close reading of the trial
court’s opinion reveals that it did not credit all of Dr. Woods’ statements about
Ferguson’s delusions. For example, the trial court did not credit Dr. Woods’
statements or opinion that Ferguson believes he cannot die because he possesses
“special powers” or that his convictions, incarceration, and impending execution
are the result of a conspiratorial plot to prevent (or prepare, depending on whether
one examines Dr. Woods’ report or hearing testimony) Ferguson’s post-death
ascension to his rightful throne as the Prince of God. The only part of Dr. Woods’
testimony that the state trial court credited was, as the court described it, the part
about “Ferguson’s documented history of paranoid schizophrenia.” Ferguson, No.
04-2012-CA-507, op. at 17. In all other respects, it credited the testimony and
opinions of Drs. Myers and Werner on the question of “Ferguson’s competency to
be executed.” Id. And their testimony was that Ferguson has a rational
understanding of his impending execution, of the fact that he will be put to death,
and of the reasons for his execution.
In any event, Ferguson’s competency hearing did satisfy the minimum due process
requirements identified in Ford and Panetti because he was given an “opportunity to submit
evidence and argument from [his] counsel, including expert psychiatric evidence that may [have]
differ[ed] from the State’s own psychiatric examination.” See Panetti, 551 U.S. at 949–50, 127
S.Ct. at 2856 (quotation marks omitted). Thus, even if a due process claim had been fairly
presented, it would fail on the merits.
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Moreover, the state trial court’s finding that Ferguson was not malingering
was limited to his not “malingering during the interview with the Commission.”
Id. at 17 (emphasis added). The court did not find that Ferguson was not
malingering, or that he was telling the truth, about the alleged beliefs that he did
not tell the commission about and mentioned only to Dr. Woods. Ferguson did not
tell the commission anything indicating that he did not think he could die or that he
possesses “special powers,” or that his planned execution is the result of a
conspiracy among state officials instead of the penalty for the murders he
committed. Ferguson mentioned those alleged beliefs only to defense expert Dr.
Woods. And Dr. Woods did not testify at the evidentiary hearing held by the state
trial court about any purported belief of Ferguson that his convictions and
punishment are based on any alleged conspiracy.
Viewed in this light, there is no contradiction between the state trial court’s
findings that Ferguson believes he is the Prince of God and that he was not
malingering during his appearance before the commission, and its finding that
there was “no evidence that in his current mental state Ferguson believes himself
unable to die or that he is being executed for any reason other than the murders he
was convicted of in 1978.” Id. at 18 (emphasis added). There was of course some
evidence, derived from Dr. Woods’ report and his trial court hearing testimony,
that Ferguson believes that he will not die as an immediate result of his execution
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and that he is being punished for reasons other than the murders he had committed.
However, the trial court was not required to find that evidence credible when it was
contradicted by the testimony of the State’s expert witnesses.
AEDPA’s command that we give state courts “the benefit of the doubt” and
refrain from readily “attribut[ing] error” means, at the least, that we should avoid
finding internal inconsistencies and contradictions in the decisions of state courts
where they do not necessarily exist. See Woodford, 537 U.S. at 23–24, 123 S.Ct.
at 359–60. While the state trial court’s choice of words (“no evidence”) could
have been more precise and technically correct (“no credible evidence”), giving its
opinion the benefit of the doubt, as we are required to do by AEDPA, it is clear to
us that the trial court meant that it found no credible evidence that Ferguson
genuinely believes that he will not die as a result of his execution or that his
execution is unrelated to the crimes for which he was convicted. 7 The court
credited the testimony of Drs. Myers and Werner that Ferguson rationally
understands that he is going to die and why.
The question then, as Ferguson presents it, is whether “some fairminded
jurists could agree” with the state courts’ ultimate conclusion that he is competent
to be executed given the underlying factual findings that he suffers from paranoid
schizophrenia, was not malingering during the commission’s evaluation, and
7
There is nothing to suggest that the state trial court simply ignored facets of Dr. Woods’
testimony, instead of deeming them not credible. Ferguson, No. 04-2012-CA-507, op. at 6.
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genuinely believes that he is the Prince of God. See Holsey, 694 F.3d at 1257.
The answer is yes –– fair-minded jurists could agree with that conclusion. During
the commission’s evaluation, Ferguson informed the State’s psychiatric experts
that he had been anointed the Prince of God, that he would be resurrected at some
point after his execution to sit at “the right hand of God,” and that he would
eventually return to Earth. Nevertheless, the State’s experts, whose testimony the
state trial court credited on the question of Ferguson’s competency, noted that
Ferguson acknowledged that he was going to be executed because of the eight
murders he committed, acknowledged that he would be the first inmate to receive
Florida’s new lethal-injection protocol, and acknowledged that he would
physically die as an immediate result of being executed. Based on those facts, as
well as the absence of any outward signs that Ferguson was suffering from
cognitive disturbance or impairment, Drs. Myers and Werner were of the opinion
that Ferguson’s delusions, even if genuine, did not prevent him from having a
rational understanding of the nature of the death penalty and a rational
understanding of the reasons that it was going to be imposed on him.
While Ferguson’s expert, Dr. Woods, offered a contrary opinion, it was not
objectively unreasonable for the state trial court to credit the expert opinions of
Drs. Myers and Werner, particularly in light of the undisputed evidence that
Ferguson has, for over a decade, adequately functioned in his day-to-day life
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without the need for antipsychotic medications and without exhibiting any outward
manifestations of mental illness or instability to prison officials. Moreover, two of
the prison officers who appeared at the competency hearing testified that Ferguson,
after pointing out that he had not had a warrant signed on his behalf in 35 years,
discussed with them the disposition of his remains, without any indication that he
believed that he would not physically perish. The combined testimony of all of the
State’s witnesses supports the conclusion that the nature and severity of Ferguson’s
mental illness do not render his “perception of reality so distorted” that he cannot
adequately appreciate the connection between his crimes and impending execution.
See Panetti, 551 U.S. at 960, 962, 127 S. Ct. at 2862–63. At the very least, a fair-
minded jurist could so find, as the state trial court judge and the Florida Supreme
Court did find.
This is not the first time that a court has found someone suffering from
schizophrenia is mentally competent for one purpose or another. See Wright v.
Sec’y for Dep’t of Corr., 278 F.3d 1245, 1259 (11th Cir. 2002) (holding that, even
under the stricter competency-to-stand-trial standard, “[t]he fact that [the
petitioner] suffers from chronic schizophrenia the effects of which have come and
gone over the years is not enough to create a real, substantial, and legitimate
doubt” about his competency); Lawrence v. Sec’y, Fla. Dep’t of Corr., 700 F.3d
464, 482 (11th Cir. 2012) (affirming the district court’s finding that a diagnosis of
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schizophrenia is not enough to show that a defendant was incompetent to enter a
guilty plea or stand trial). After all, the Supreme Court in Panetti stated that the
requisite mental state for competency “neither presumes nor requires a person who
would be considered ‘normal,’ or even ‘rational,’ in a layperson’s understanding of
those terms.” Panetti, 551 U.S. at 959, 127 S. Ct. at 2862.
It is also significant that the Supreme Court did not actually rule that Panetti
himself was incompetent to be executed as a result of his schizo-affective disorder
and accompanying delusions. Instead, it remanded the case to the district court to
make a decision about that in the first instance.8 Panetti, 551 U.S. at 956–62, 127
S.Ct. at 2860–63. As we have mentioned, on remand the district court concluded
that Panetti was competent to be executed despite his “severe mental illness” and
“paranoid delusions” because he nevertheless possessed a “rational understanding
of the causal connection between [his crimes] and his death sentence.” Panetti,
2008 WL 2338498, at *36–37.
Both the reasoning and outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision in Panetti
leave ample room for fair-minded jurists to conclude, as the state courts did here,
that Ferguson is mentally competent to be executed despite his mental illness and
8
Even if we were to assume that the facts of this case are materially indistinguishable
from those in Panetti, that would not render the Florida Supreme Court’s decision inconsistent
with clearly established federal law because Panetti did not reach a contrary result –– the
Supreme Court did not conclude that Panetti was incompetent to be executed. See Bell, 535 U.S.
at 694, 122 S.Ct. at 1850 (explaining that a state court decision is inconsistent with clearly
established federal law if it arrives at a different or contrary result in the face of materially
indistinguishable facts).
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the presence of a delusional belief. See Renico, 130 S. Ct. at 1864 (explaining that,
under AEDPA, “the more general the rule at issue—and thus the greater the
potential for reasoned disagreement among fair-minded judges—the more leeway
state courts have in reaching outcomes in case-by-case determinations) (quotation
marks and alteration omitted); see also Hill v. Humphrey, 662 F.3d 1335, 1348
(11th Cir. 2011) (en banc) (concluding that the Supreme Court’s decision to leave
it to the states to develop specific standards for determining whether an inmate is
“mentally retarded” for purposes of the Eighth Amendment “makes it wholly
inappropriate for this court, by judicial fiat, to tell the States how to conduct an
inquiry into a defendant’s mental retardation”) (quotation marks omitted).
C.
We offer some closing thoughts about what has been consistently referred to
throughout this litigation, and in this opinion, as Ferguson’s delusion that he is the
Prince of God and that after he dies he will be resurrected in that capacity. The
state trial court was right about this being a “grandiose” belief. And it is not a
commonplace belief or one that most people would consider normal in the
colloquial sense. As we have pointed out several times, however, the Supreme
Court stressed in Panetti that rational for purposes of competency to be executed
does not mean “‘normal,’ or even ‘rational,’ in a layperson’s understanding of
those terms.” Panetti, 551 U.S. at 959–61, 127 S. Ct. at 2862. That most people
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would characterize Ferguson’s Prince-of-God belief, in the vernacular, as “crazy”
does not mean that someone who holds that belief is not competent to be executed.
It does not mean that, because competence to be executed is a specific inquiry into
whether the petitioner has a rational understanding –– in the specialized Panetti
sense –– of two things. One is that he is going to be executed because of the
murders he committed. Ferguson’s Prince-of-God delusion is not necessarily
inconsistent with a rational belief that he is going to be executed because of the
murders he committed.
The second part of the Panetti standard requires a rational understanding by
Ferguson that he will die when he is executed. Ferguson’s Prince-of-God delusion,
as the state courts found it to exist (as distinguished from Dr. Woods’ belief about
it), does not rule out Ferguson having a rational understanding that he will die
when he is executed. That much is shown by the fact that the state courts found
that Ferguson, despite that delusion, knows that the execution will result in his
death.
One could argue, as Ferguson’s attorneys do, that his belief that he will be
resurrected as the Prince of God negates a rational understanding that he will be
killed and thereby establishes that he is not mentally competent to be executed.
That cannot be correct. Panetti cannot mean that a belief in resurrection or other
forms of life after death is inconsistent with the rational understanding of death that
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is required for mental competence to be executed. If it did mean that, most
Americans would be mentally incompetent to be executed.
While Ferguson’s thoughts about what happens after death may seem
extreme to many people, nearly every major world religion — from Christianity to
Zoroastrianism — envisions some kind of continuation of life after death, often
including resurrection. Ferguson’s belief in his ultimate corporeal resurrection
may differ in degree, but it does not necessarily differ in kind, from the beliefs of
millions of Americans. According to a 2006 survey conducted by the AARP about
views of the afterlife held by Americans over the age of fifty, 23% of respondents
stated that they believed in reincarnation while an additional 50% believed in
another form of life after death. Jean Koppen & Gretchen Anderson, AARP,
Thoughts on the Afterlife Among U.S. Adults 50+ 4 (June 2007), available at
assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/general/afterlife.pdf (last visited April 26, 2013). A more
recent study of national surveys similarly shows that 75% of American adults
believe in some form of life after death. Andrew Singleton, Beyond Heaven?
Young People and the Afterlife, 27 J. Contemp. Religion 453, 453 (2012). Are the
courts to say that three-fourths of Americans are delusional and mentally
incompetent?
Passages in the Old Testament speak of God resurrecting bones, see Ezekial
37:13–14, while resurrection and eternal life are fundamental tenets of the New
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Testament, see, e.g., 1 Corinthians 15:12; John 6:40; John 3:16. Hundreds of
millions of people worldwide share those beliefs. Zoroastrian tradition teaches
that, after a great struggle between God and the power of evil, there will be a
general resurrection of humanity, and the resurrected will pass through molten
metal to be purged of sin. Farnaz Ma’sumian, Life After Death: A Study of the
Afterlife in World Religions 24 (Oneworld Publications 1995). The Qur’an
teaches that eternal paradise awaits believers who do righteous deeds and eternal
punishment awaits those who do evil deeds. Qur’an 2:81–82. Observers of Shinto
believe that after death every person becomes a kami, a supernatural being who
continues to have a part in the life of the community, nation, and family. “Saints”
in Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition, available at
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/516666/saint (last visited April 26,
2013).
Tibetan Buddhists believe that the first Dalai Lama is reborn through each
successive one. “Dalai Lama,” in Encyclopedia of World Religions 275, 275
(Wendy Doniger et al. eds., Merriam-Webster 1999). Hindu sacred texts include
the story of a mortal who overcame the fear of death and became a god himself.
Christopher Moreman, Beyond the Threshold: Afterlife Beliefs and Experiences in
World Religions 249 (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2008). Ancient Egyptians
believed that after death their pharaohs would become stars in the sky. Id. And
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the list goes on and on. Which of the myriad beliefs about what happens on the
other side of death are irrational, delusional, or symptoms of mental illness?
A conclusion that a particular belief about the afterlife and one’s role in it is
extreme enough to be irrational, delusional, and indicative of incompetence to be
executed is only a few steps away from the same conclusion about any person who
believes in resurrection, in heaven or hell, or in any variation of life after death.
Courts should be reluctant to treat as a symptom of mental illness anyone’s belief
about what will happen to him after he dies. It is beyond the ken of courts to
measure the rationality of religious beliefs –– what will happen to us after we pass
through the dark curtain of death is the ultimate non-justiciable question.
Because the state courts’ determination that Ferguson possesses a rational
understanding of his execution and the reason for it is not “so lacking in
justification that there was an error well understood and comprehended in existing
law beyond any possibility for fairminded disagreement,” AEDPA precludes us
from disturbing their judgment. See Harrington, 131 S. Ct. at 786–87.
III. CONCLUSION
AEDPA “reflects the view that habeas corpus is a guard against extreme
malfunctions in the state criminal justice systems, not a substitute for ordinary
error correction through appeal.” Id. at 786 (quotation marks omitted) (emphasis
added). There was no extreme malfunction in his case. The Florida Supreme
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Court properly applied Panetti’s “rational understanding” standard, considered
conflicting expert testimony about the nature and severity of Ferguson’s mental
illness, and made a determination about his competency to be executed that is by
no means beyond any possibility for fair-minded disagreement. AEDPA requires
that federal habeas relief be denied and that we affirm that denial.
AFFIRMED.
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WILSON, Circuit Judge, concurring in the result:
I write separately to address the Florida Supreme Court’s statement that
Panetti v. Quarterman, 551 U.S. 930, 127 S. Ct. 2842 (2007), “does not alter [its]
decision in Provenzano [v. State, 760 So. 2d 137 (Fla. 2000)].” Ferguson v. State,
Fla. 2012, __ So. 2d. __, (No. SC12-2115, Oct. 17, 2012).
Repeating the standard from Provenzano, the Florida Supreme Court in
Ferguson declared that “the Eighth Amendment requires only that defendants be
aware of the punishment they are about to receive and the reason they are to
receive it.” Id. (citing Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399, 422 (1986) (Powell, J.,
concurring)); see Provenzano, 760 So. 2d at 140. That statement of the law is
patently incorrect in the wake of Panetti, which explicitly held that “[a] prisoner’s
awareness of the State’s rationale for an execution is not the same as a rational
understanding of it.” 551 U.S. at 959, 127 S. Ct. at 2862 (emphasis added).
While I acknowledge that the Florida Supreme Court was on the right track
when it stated that “Ferguson [must] understand the connection between his crime
and the punishment he is to receive for it,” Ferguson v. State, Fla. 2012, __ So. 2d.
__, (No. SC12-2115, Oct. 17, 2012) (emphasis added), its assertion that
Provenzano remains unchanged by Panetti suggests that a naked awareness
standard is sufficient. That is not so—once again, I emphasize that Panetti
requires more than just a prisoner’s ability to regurgitate the State’s announced
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reason for his punishment or to recite the facts attendant to his execution. Panetti
requires “a rational understanding of the reason for [that] execution.” 551 U.S. at
958, 127 S. Ct. at 2861. Therefore, insofar as the Florida Supreme Court continues
to believe that “the Eighth Amendment requires only that defendants be aware of
the punishment they are about to receive and the reason they are to receive it,”
Ferguson v. State, Fla. 2012, __ So. 2d. __, (No. SC12-2115, Oct. 17, 2012), it is
not correct; Panetti requires more.
Having stated my concerns, and despite the Florida Supreme Court’s
acknowledgement that Ferguson is not malingering and that he suffers from mental
illness, I agree that we must defer to the Florida Supreme Court’s finding that
“[t]here is no evidence that in his current mental state Ferguson believes himself
unable to die or that he is being executed for any reason other than the murders he
was convicted of in 1978.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). I am therefore
obliged to concur in the result.
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