A phone message left for Gilson's attorney Robert Jackson wasn't returned.
All three men were armed and wore masks. ¶ 149 Applying the death penalty to this situation wherein Appellant, willfully, purposefully and knowingly allowed the victim to be abused to the extent that death resulted, when he was in a position to have prevented that abuse, certainly serves both the deterrent and retributive purposes of the death penalty. Appellant frequently threatened the lives of his victims as they lay hog-tied on the floor. But Cliff Winkler, a former Cleveland County Sheriff's Office investigator who worked the case, said he remains confident that Gilson was responsible for Shane's death. tit. at 117. "But what it finally came down to is that they beat him several times that day because he had wet on the floor the night before," Winkler said. He said they discussed just dumping him somewhere or bury him out in the middle of the boonies. But they decided neither of those options were right and even though he wasnt alive he would still be part of the family being on her property, .
The opinion uses Enmund/ Tison to conclude that Gilson's actions showed his participation in Shane Coffman's death was major and substantial, and that Gilson acted with reckless indifference to human life.
That strategic choice is not indicative of deficient performance as a defense of actual innocence was reasonable based upon information provided to counsel by Appellant's family and friends.
At least some jurors had reasonable doubt as to each underlying theory. Whatever possessions they had were left at Coffman's trailer.
18, App. A defendant must have some personal culpability, beyond knowing about and failing to stop another from committing a crime, before the State may impose the ultimate punishment. Isaac said Gilson made all the other children go to the bathroom and tell Shane what a bad boy he was. 689. Thereafter, [Gilson] began spending more and more time with Coffman and was given the authority to discipline the children. Funkhouser v. State, 763 P.2d 695 (Okla.Crim.App.1988).FN1 The kaleidoscopic nature of the varying degrees of mental culpability, People v. Green, 56 N.Y.2d 427, 452 N.Y.S.2d 389, 437 N.E.2d 1146, 1149 (1982), makes the line between active permission necessary for first-degree murder and a culpably negligent failure to act hard to draw. Hain v. State, 919 P.2d 1130, 1146 (Okl.Cr. FN12. Gilson I, 8 P.3d at 926-29 (internal paragraph numbers omitted).
at 2866.
Based upon this evidence, it was a reasonable decision based upon their professional judgment for defense counsel to focus on Bertha Coffman as the actual perpetrator and pursue a defense of actual innocence on [Gilson]' s part. Winkler said detectives received consent from the trailer's owner to search the residence. As addressed in Proposition I, the verdict in this case was a general verdict of guilt for first degree murder with the jury disagreeing as to the underlying factual basis. With respect to this claim, it is not entirely clear whether the OCCA intended to address the second prong of the Strickland test, but its opinion does contain the following language that is relevant to our second prong analysis: Hatch and co-defendant Ake forced their way into the victim's home, ransacked the home at gunpoint and repeatedly threatened to kill the family of four who occupied the house. "I'm an innocent man, but I get to go to heaven, and I'll see Shane tonight," Gilson, who was convicted in the 1995 killing of Shane Coffman, said in his final statement. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), as providing the clearly established federal law applicable to his claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel. ¶ 8 Finally, I believe the trial court abused its discretion in joining the two child abuse charges with the child abuse murder case. They stated he had run away from home during the early part of November and they had found him dead in the weeds near Coffman's trailer.
Four other children who lived with their mother, Bertha Jean Coffman, and Gilson in a mobile home in Cleveland County showed various signs of abuse, and two of the children were emaciated and had trouble walking, court records show. He was pronounced dead five minutes later, Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokesman Jerry Massie said. ¶ 1 Appellant Donald Lee Gilson was tried by jury for First Degree Murder (21 O.S.1991, § 701.7(C)), Case No. See also Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 120 S.Ct.
¶ 179 We now turn to the mitigating evidence.
The abuse inflicted upon Shane Coffman resulted in his death on August 17, 1995. Id., 466 U.S. at 688-89, 104 S.Ct. Several others watched on closed-circuit television.
at 1687. Investigators believe Shane died around Aug. 17, 1995.
The first series was done on March 15, 1993, and the second series was done on March 22, 1993. Mr. Johns also stated that on May 6, 1999, he personally picked up from Saint Anthony's Hospital copies of all of the C.A.T.
Why should they ask the question three times when one response was enough? He said that before Shane was put into the bathtub, Appellant beat him with a board. Appellant's argument has not persuaded us to change our mind.
Here, the evidence supports a finding that Appellant actually killed the victim. Evidence here supported those instructions, and the trial court should have given them.FN13
Admission of evidence that Gilson abused Isaac and Tia was tremendously prejudicial and could not have helped but affect the jury's decision on the murder charge. The first series was done on March 15, 1993, and the second series was done on March 22, 1993. Mr. Johns also stated that on May 6, 1999, he personally picked up from Saint Anthony's Hospital copies of all of the C.A.T.