Gary Terry v. Bryan Stirling ( 2021 )

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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 20-3
GARY DUBOSE TERRY,
Petitioner − Appellant,
v.
BRYAN P. STIRLING, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections;
MICHAEL STEPHAN, Warden, Broad River Correctional Institution,
Respondents – Appellees.
------------------------------
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYERS,
Amicus Supporting Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Florence.
Richard Mark Gergel, District Judge. (4:12−cv−01798−RMG)
Argued: January 25, 2021 Decided: May 5, 2021
Before WILKINSON, KEENAN, and DIAZ, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished opinion. Judge Diaz wrote the opinion, in which Judge Wilkinson
and Judge Keenan joined.
ARGUED: Hannah Lyon Freedman, JUSTICE 360, Columbia, South Carolina, for
Appellant. William Edgar Salter, III, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF
SOUTH CAROLINA, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Elizabeth
Franklin-Best, ELIZABETH FRANKLIN-BEST, P.C., Columbia, South Carolina, for
Appellant. Alan Wilson, Attorney General, Donald J. Zelenka, Deputy Attorney General,
Melody J. Brown, Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Caroline Scrantom, Assistant
Attorney General, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF SOUTH CAROLINA,
Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees. David B. Smith, Vice-Chair, Amicus Curiae
Committee, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYERS,
Alexandria, Virginia; Marc Elias, Stephanie Command, Courtney Elgart, Washington,
D.C., Reina Almon-Griffin, PERKINS COIE LLP, Seattle, Washington; Allison Franz,
John H. Blume, CORNELL CAPITAL PUNISHMENT CLINIC, Ithaca, New York, for
Amicus Curiae.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
2
DIAZ, Circuit Judge:
Gary DuBose Terry brutally murdered Urai Jackson after disconnecting her
telephone, breaking into her home, and raping her. He was convicted and sentenced to
death by a South Carolina jury. He appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment
to the respondent state officials Bryan P. Stirling and Michael Stephan on his petition for
writ of habeas corpus, brought pursuant to

28 U.S.C. § 2254

.
Terry contends that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to
thoroughly investigate and present available mitigating evidence of abuse Terry suffered
as a child and by failing to adequately question the venire during jury selection. Terry also
argues that counsel in his state postconviction proceeding were likewise ineffective by
failing to raise or investigate these claims.
The district court denied Terry’s petition, holding that Terry failed to demonstrate
cause to excuse the procedural default of the claims. We agree with the district court.
We again accentuate the high procedural bar erected by Martinez v. Ryan,

566 U.S. 1

 (2012), which Terry fails to overcome because his claims are insubstantial. In so
concluding, we exercise our discretion to reconsider issues that we implicitly resolved in
Terry’s favor by granting his certificate of appealability. See Owens v. Stirling,

967 F.3d 396

, 403 (4th Cir. 2020). Accordingly, we affirm.
3
I.
A.
Terry’s convictions for murder, first degree burglary, first degree criminal sexual
conduct, and malicious injury to a telephone system trace back to May 1994. As recounted
by the Supreme Court of South Carolina:
The victim in this case, 47 year old Urai Jackson, was found beaten to death
in her Lexington County home on May 24, 1994. The window on the carport
door to her home had been broken out and the telephone wires had been
pulled from the phone box. [Jackson]’s mostly nude body was found in the
living room, and semen was found in her vagina. She had several blunt
trauma wounds to the head, and a number of defensive wound injuries. The
cause of death was blunt trauma with skull fracture and brain injury.
State v. Terry,

529 S.E.2d 274

, 275–76 (S.C. 2000).
Terry’s fingerprints were found on Jackson’s telephone box, and the semen in
Jackson’s vagina contained Terry’s DNA. Terry also admitted to police that he had sex
with Jackson in her home and hit her with a blunt object.
B.
A Lexington County grand jury indicted Terry for the crimes described above. The
state thereafter filed notice that it would seek the death penalty.
Terry was represented by Elizabeth Fullwood, the Lexington County Public
Defender, and I. McDuffie Stone, a lawyer in private practice, who also served as a part-
time prosecutor in another state judicial circuit and represented an entity that insures state
4
agencies and local governments. 1 They hired Vivian Massey, a mitigation specialist whom
Fullwood had used in previous cases, to gather background and social history information
from Terry.
During jury selection, Fullwood questioned a juror about her ability to impose either
a life or a death sentence, and attempted to question the juror about her views on psychiatry.
The court sustained the state’s objection to this line of questioning.
Fullwood then questioned the juror about mitigation more generally, but again faced
an objection when she began a question with “one reason to lessen the sentence under the
law in this state is the mentality—[.]” J.A. 318. Fullwood argued that the line of
questioning was appropriate under Morgan v. Illinois,

504 U.S. 719

 (1992), 2 but the court
again sustained the state’s objection. It did, however, agree to read the relevant statutory
mitigating circumstances from S.C. CODE ANN. § 16-3-20(C)(b) 3 to the jurors and ask
1
Terry argued before the district court that Stone was operating under an actual
conflict of interest because he served as a prosecutor and had government clients. Terry
doesn’t raise this argument on appeal, however, and has thus abandoned it. See United
States v. Al-Hamdi,

356 F.3d 564

, 571 n.8 (4th Cir. 2004) (“[C]ontentions not raised in the
argument section of the opening brief are abandoned.”).
2
Under Morgan, a capital defendant has the constitutional right to conduct
sufficiently probing voir dire to discover, and exclude from the jury, prospective jurors
who “would unwaveringly impose death after a finding of guilt.”

504 U.S. at 733

.
3
These circumstances were that (1) “[t]he murder was committed while the
defendant was under the influence of mental or emotional disturbance”; (2) “[t]he capacity
of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to
the requirements of law was substantially impaired”; and (3) “[t]he age or mentality of the
defendant at the time of the crime.”
5
whether they could consider that evidence. The court also read the relevant statutory
aggravating circumstances from § 16-3-20(C)(a). 4
When questioning juror Norwood Brown, who submitted a post-trial affidavit in this
case, Stone asked:
[I]f you are in a position of sitting on a jury and you get in the position of
finding somebody guilty of murder and another—like a rape or a burglary—
and then you get into a sentencing phase, can you be fair to both the State
and the defense and consider those aggravating and mitigating circumstances
that the judge talked about earlier with you?
J.A. 496.
Brown answered, “Yes, sir.” Id. Stone then asked, “So you could consider life and
you could consider death, either way, even after you found somebody guilty?” Id. Brown
again answered yes. Stone asked nearly identical questions of, and elicited nearly identical
responses from, Robin Ritchie, the other juror who submitted a post-trial affidavit.
Following a two-day presentation of evidence, and after less than two hours of
deliberations, the jury found Terry guilty of the offenses charged in the indictment.
C.
1.
Terry’s sentencing proceeding began the next day. The state’s presentation included
evidence of Terry’s extensive criminal history and violent character.
4
These circumstances were that “[t]he murder was committed while in the
commission of the following crimes or acts: (a) criminal sexual conduct in any degree; . . .
[and] (d) burglary in any degree.” § 16-3-20(C)(a).
6
In 1985, Terry stole several items from a business called Imports Plus, including
approximately eighteen items “such as sanders, things that would be utilized in a body
shop, . . . to repair damage . . . on a vehicle.” J.A. 361. That same year, Terry stabbed a
woman in the throat, resulting “in a conviction for assault and battery of a high and
aggravated nature.” Id. According to the victim’s statement, after stabbing her, Terry “just
slowly walked to the door like he hadn’t done anything. He was just so calm.” J.A. 1135.
In 1988, Terry was convicted of resisting arrest, possessing a stolen vehicle, and
other offenses. Terry committed additional infractions while in custody for these crimes,
including disorderly conduct and bribery.
The state called several character witnesses. Jeffrey Douglas Ford testified that he
had known Terry since 1988 and had helped Terry steal cars. While working with Terry
to provide security at a bar, Ford saw Terry hit patrons with pool cues and rocks while
breaking up fights. Ford also saw Terry hit a patron with a beer mug after the patron spilled
beer on Terry’s jacket.
Tyrone Kelly testified that Terry intentionally hit his car, causing significant
damage and nearly hitting him, following a dispute over money that Terry believed Kelly
owed him. Kelly further testified that Terry and another man wanted the money to buy
“something to smoke.” J.A. 363.
While in jail awaiting trial on Jackson’s murder, Terry smashed the wall of his cell
with a fire extinguisher. The state also presented a letter found in Terry’s cell stating that
Terry had conspired with Johnny Brewer, an inmate housed with Terry, to confess to a
7
murder for which Brewer was under arrest, whereupon Brewer would be released and then
help Terry escape.
Angela Fedorchak testified about a violent incident involving Dianne Gibson,
Fedorchak’s friend and Terry’s girlfriend. 5 When Terry arrived at the house where
Fedorchak and Gibson were staying, Fedorchak told him that Gibson wasn’t there.
Undeterred, Terry forced his way into the house. Terry hit Fedorchak with a screen door
hard enough to slam her into a wall and cause internal bleeding for which Fedorchak
required medical treatment. Terry then forced Gibson to leave with him.
Gibson also testified for the state. She experienced Terry’s “hot temper” during
their relationship and said that Terry would throw things if she didn’t do what he wanted.
J.A. 366. After one fight, Terry left Gibson at a friend’s house and, when she arrived home,
she discovered that Terry had “busted her answering machine, torn up pictures and thrown
things about her room.” Id. (cleaned up). After another disagreement, Terry “threw
[Gibson’s] kitten up against the wall and threw the T.V. off the shelf.” Id. Gibson testified,
“[Terry] never physically abused me other than a few times just grabbing [her] by the arm,
but . . . he controlled [her] emotionally and mentally.” Id.
According to Gibson, Terry never held a legitimate job, stole boat and car trailers,
and took money from each of her paychecks to buy crack. Gibson also recalled Terry
telling her about a time when he beat a man “half to death” because he swore at Terry when
Terry had told him to be quiet. Id.
5
Terry was married at the time.
8
Gibson read the following excerpts from letters Terry sent her from prison:
Shit. I would not know how to change. I am me. Like I said, there is nobody
like me and nobody will mess with me because they know I will hurt
them. . . . I’m going to be just like I was before, maybe a little meaner than
I was, but that’s all. . . . I need to start calming down. I am getting too old
for all this shit. I always loved to fight. I did it so good. It felt so good to
hurt people that was bigger than me, but that’s all behind me.
J.A. 367.
Gibson testified that Terry persuaded her to shoot him in the leg so that he could
avoid going to court for back child support. She described how Terry had damaged her
cars, once throwing a child’s toy at, and kicking in the door of, her truck, when she tried to
leave him. Terry burned one of Gibson’s cars by “pouring lighter fluid in the dash and
setting it on fire.” J.A. 368 (cleaned up). Gibson recalled several incidents when she tried
to leave Terry, and he threatened to burn her home or otherwise harm her family.
Gibson also testified about the incident Fedorchak had described. Earlier that
evening, Gibson met up with Terry, who had been drinking. He gave her flowers and a
bracelet. Gibson stated, “The conversation started off fine. I told him that I did not love
him anymore, that I did not want to be with him. Then he got mad. He tried to punch out
my passenger’s side window of my truck.” Id.
Gibson tried to leave, but Terry opened the hood of her truck and disabled the
engine. Terry then promised to repair the engine if Gibson rode in his car with him. She
did, and during the ride, Terry told her that he intended to force Gibson to watch him kill
himself. Gibson jumped out of the car, but Terry picked her up and then took her back to
9
her truck and fixed the engine. Gibson left and eventually met up with Fedorchak before
returning to her house.
Gibson then went into her bedroom, locked the door, and turned off the lights. She
heard the altercation between Terry and Fedorchak, after which Terry broke into Gibson’s
room, grabbed her by the arm, and told her to leave with him. Gibson did, but drove very
slowly, and when she saw blue lights behind her truck, she stopped and jumped out.
Gibson learned about Urai Jackson’s murder the same day that Jackson’s body was
found. Three or four days later, Terry told her that a friend had gone to the crime scene
and had told him that the phone box had been tampered with and that the glass on the
carport was broken from the inside.
Tamatha Griffin, Terry’s ex-wife, testified that Terry was physically abusive during
their marriage and never provided well for the child they had together. Griffin filed for
divorce on the basis of physical cruelty. She recounted the following:
Gary told me that he had stabbed a prostitute in the neck and he had to leave.
So he left and went to Florida. But prior to this, he would grab a hold of my
arm. He wanted to take my car one night and I didn’t want him to take it.
So I had the keys in my hand and he was twisting my arm and finally he got
the keys and he said that he was going to take the car and I said, well, you
are not going to take the car without me in it. We were going down a dirt
road and he opened my door and tried to push me out of the car.
He’s broken the windshield out of my stepfather’s van. My stepfather took
me to his mother’s house and I got my car that was there and while I was
trying to leave, he busted the windshield out of my car and the glass hit my
face and cut my face.
J.A. 369–70. Griffin also testified that Terry raped her during their marriage.
10
2.
The state introduced statements that Terry made to the police regarding Jackson’s
murder. Terry first told police that he had never been alone with Jackson inside her home.
But he later claimed that he and Jackson had consensual sex inside her home, and he then
fought with Jackson when he tried to leave against her wishes.
The argument got pretty heated. I went to go out of the room and she grabbed
me by the hair. I turned around and swung to get her off of me. I think I hit
her and she went down to her knees.
I, again, tried to walk out of the room. I got almost to the end of the hallway.
She grabbed me from behind again. I then lost my temper. I swung back at
her again. I then got something into my hand. It was just there in the hall.
She could have brought it with her. I started hitting her with it. I lost my
temper and I hit her several times. I have a bad temper.
I then remembered leaving out of the same back door. I could have dusted
[sic] a pane of glass on the door when I busted the door open.
I don’t remember pulling the phone lines. I don’t remember what I did with
the object that I used to hit Ms. Jackson. I can’t remember what it was. I
remember that I could hold it in one hand and it wasn’t as big as a baseball
bat.
J.A. 370–71.
The state also played a video of the crime scene and presented a blood spatter expert,
who testified that “Jackson was laying on the ground or could have been no higher than
nine inches off of the ground when she received her head wounds.” 6 J.A. 371. The state
6
We think the expert meant that Jackson’s head, rather than her entire body, could
have been no more than nine inches above the ground.
11
then called Dr. John B. Carter, the forensic pathologist who testified during the guilt phase,
to more fully describe Jackson’s injuries.
Carter testified that Jackson had a swollen right thumb, which “could have happened
warding off a blow or it could have come from having the hand on the floor one side up or
the other side up and then being stomped on or being struck sharply with a hard object.”
J.A. 372 (cleaned up). Jackson had other injuries to her arms consistent with defensive
wounds, as well as extensive injuries to her right shoulder consistent with the use of two
weapons. According to Carter, all of Jackson’s injuries were consistent with “some type
of a prolonged struggle and probably not a one blow to the ground type of episode.” Id.
(cleaned up).
As to Jackson’s head wounds, Carter explained that there were “at least four
different tracks that we can see, although, there may have been more blows superimposed
on the original and the force was such that the skull just behind the right ear was crushed
and depressed in multiple places.” J.A. 373. Jackson’s skull “was crushed and smashed
inward somewhat like punching against an eggshell.” Id. Jackson, said Dr. Carter, was
found with her legs spread apart, with semen matched to Terry in her vaginal canal. He
explained that “the position of the victim’s body is very characteristic of positions the
victims are found in that have been engaged in sexual activity or assault at the time of
death. The legs are spread apart and death occurs and they stay that way.” Id.
3.
In mitigation, Terry presented evidence of his upbringing and of damage to his
brain. Terry’s mother, Patricia, testified that, when Terry was about four years old, his
12
father, Bill Terry, was injured in an accident and could no longer work. Though Bill
received workers’ compensation, it wasn’t enough to support the family. Patricia thus
worked outside the home, first at a sewing room and then at a textile mill.
The accident not only made finances tight, but also changed Bill’s personality,
making him more irritable and unable to tolerate the noise of children playing. According
to Patricia, Bill would leave the room when the children were playing. But she said nothing
about him becoming angry at the children, let alone abusing them.
Patricia explained that Terry, the youngest of five, was a “loner” as a child and was
content to play by himself. J.A. 686. Terry didn’t participate in any traditional childhood
activities, such as scouting or little league, because he “didn’t have an attention span to sit
. . . for longer periods.” J.A. 687. In the second or third grade, Terry was tested and
determined to have a learning disability and be “borderline retarded.” Id. He was placed
in special education classes, but his parents didn’t tutor him or otherwise help him
academically.
Patricia testified that, starting around age 13, Terry “and his brothers fought a
lot. . . . And even though he’s the smallest of them, he would still hang in there.” J.A. 688.
Terry also “had a lot of run-ins with his dad.” Id. However, Patricia claimed that none of
the fights required intervention by law enforcement. 7
7
A defense expert later testified that Terry’s parents had his brothers arrested for
abusing him.
13
One night, when Terry was 13, he blocked the door of his bedroom with a dresser,
wrapped himself “cocoon style” in a blanket, and inhaled the fumes from a can of glue
remover and a tube of “airplane glue.” J.A. 689–90. Patricia and Bill forced their way into
Terry’s bedroom and found him unconscious. Terry’s parents were able to revive him by
taking him outside, but he was disoriented when he regained consciousness. Aside from
having Patricia’s brother-in-law, who was a doctor, visit Terry at their house the following
day, Terry’s parents didn’t seek any medical or mental health treatment for him.
When Terry was about 14, he got into a fight with one of his brothers, during which
he threw a brickbat through the window of a van that his brother was restoring. Terry’s
father tried to break up the fight, but when Terry “came at him,” Bill swung a board at
Terry with enough force to break Terry’s collarbone. J.A. 692.
Patricia also testified to symptoms of apparent internal injuries and brain damage in
Terry following a fall from a tree while working for a tree-trimming company in Florida,
where he fled after committing the 1985 stabbing. Terry repeatedly coughed up blood
while in jail for the stabbing and following his return home, though doctors were unable to
determine the cause of the bleeding. Patricia also stated that:
I’ve seen him stagger before. I’ve seen him go do something and just
completely forget what he was doing. And he’s—it’s like I said, he just
staggers. I’ve never seen him completely black out, but I have seen him
forget what he was doing or just completely stop and turn around. And
they’ve given him all kinds of medicine. They’ve even taken him to the
hospital and put medicine in his veins for migraine headaches and . . . they
stop for a while and then they come right back.
J.A. 702.
14
Bill Terry described an incident when Terry, age 10 or 12 at the time, intervened
when neighborhood children “started cursing . . . and throwing rocks” at Bill. J.A. 731.
Bill said that Terry helped around the house and was a “good kid.” J.A. 732. Bill did not,
however, testify to other mitigating circumstances in Terry’s life beyond affirming his
wife’s testimony that his ability to provide for the family and to tolerate the noise of
children playing diminished after his accident.
Lou Ann Smith Terry, Terry’s wife and the mother of four of his children, told the
jury that Terry had a loving relationship with his children and that, despite his actions, she
continued to love him. She also pled with the jury for Terry’s life.
On cross, the state confronted Ms. Terry with statements she had made during a
psychosocial assessment of Terry as part of his admission to a hospital for drug treatment.
Among these were assertions that Terry “lies compulsively,” “seems to have no
boundaries,” is “very manipulative,” has a “violent temper,” “liked having his own way”
or was “spoiled,” “is very immature and dependent,” “does not see himself as an addict or
an alcoholic,” and “shows no concern for the rights or needs of . . . his wife or others.” J.A.
749–50. Ms. Terry did not deny making the statements, but could recall only some of
them.
Counsel also presented four expert witnesses: Jan Vogelsang, an expert in social
work; Dr. Robert Deysach, an expert in clinical neuropsychology; Dr. David Bachman, an
expert in behavioral neurology; and Dr. Donna Schwartz-Watts, an expert in forensic
psychiatry.
15
Vogelsang explained the relationship between Terry’s upbringing and brain
damage. Terry “was born to parents whose own lives and circumstances of their lives had
made it very difficult for them to parent effectively and for that reason, they had great
difficulty providing any more than very basic needs for their children. Especially[] after
his father’s accident.” J.A. 769–70.
According to Vogelsang, Terry “did have some special developmental needs as well
and there were no resources available for those and no family members close by who could
. . . or who did step in and take over to help this family.” J.A. 770. Vogelsang told the jury
that one side of Terry’s family has a history of alcohol abuse, and there is a pattern
throughout the family of “some rather unusual medical problems” and “learning and
emotional problems.” Id. Vogelsang also said:
[Terry] has a documented history of learning disabilities and certainly a
history with . . . [in]attentiveness[,] impulsivity, poor judgment, explosive
outbursts and other behavioral indications that later have turned out to be
attributable to a medical condition that causes changes in his behavior.
. . . . His ability to control these outbursts, to restrain his behavior, to forecast
consequences, to learn from experience are greatly impaired. . . .
. . . [But], with medical intervention, it is entirely possible that he will be able
to restrain himself, control his behavior and adapt to prison life.
J.A. 770–71.
Vogelsang interviewed Terry four times and also spoke with Terry’s wife, mother,
father, two sisters, two brothers, sister-in-law, former girlfriend, ex-wife, two sons,
daughter, two aunts, uncle, great aunt, and great uncle. Vogelsang characterized Terry’s
parents as “the poster children for bad luck” and stated, “I think they did care. They just
16
simply either did not know what to do or did not have the energy to do it.” J.A. 785–86.
Notwithstanding Terry’s father breaking Terry’s collarbone with a board and his brothers
being arrested at his parents’ behest for abusing him, Vogelsang explained:
[I do not mean to] imply that family violence was the same in this family as
it is in a lot of families because that’s not what I found here. There is some
violence. I would not say it’s the kind of pervasive violence you find in a lot
of homes where battering takes place. But certainly, at an early age, I think
[Terry] was already probably giving signs and cues that something was
terribly wrong.
J.A. 784.
According to Vogelsang, Terry’s parents failed to seek help for him after they
discovered him inhaling glue and that, when Terry was eight, he observed an older brother
inhale gasoline fumes, also with no parental intervention. Though Vogelsang didn’t say
that Terry suffered significant abuse, she did testify that Terry’s older brothers and his
sister had all lost custody of their children because they either abused or neglected them.
Vogelsang opined, “Because we have given so much attention to physical and sexual
abuse, . . . we have not given enough attention to the impact of neglect on children and that
. . . is one of the keys for children ending up in the criminal justice system.” J.A. 783–84
(emphasis added).
Next up in mitigation was Dr. Deysach, who testified that, based on various tests of
Terry’s cognition and behavior, Terry had an abnormality in the right frontal lobe of his
brain and that Terry’s behavioral abnormalities were consistent with his findings of damage
to this area of the brain. Deysach’s findings were also consistent with a diagnosis Terry
had received in 1994 of organic explosive disorder, a condition which interfered with
17
Terry’s ability to regulate his behavior, particularly when he was under emotional strain.
Deysach concluded that Terry had a “neuropsychological deficit.” J.A. 825.
Dr. Bachman showed the jury scans of Terry’s brain which indicated an area of
reduced activity in his right frontal lobe. Bachman then explained:
When somebody has an abnormality [sic] function in that part of the brain,
there are two sets of problems that you see. On the one hand, they have
difficulties on certain types of testing such as [those administered by] Dr.
Deysach . . . .
The other thing that we know is that people who demonstrate those sorts of
abnormalities . . . also frequently have other kinds of behavioral problems as
well. And those behavioral problems include such things as irritability,
impulsivity, aggressive behavior, explosive aggressive behavior, poor
planning in terms of thinking about the [repercussions] of behavior[,] and
these are very typical of patients who have had lesions such as head injury or
other such abnormalities of that part of the brain.
So the fact that he has the . . . abnormality in the neurospect scan, the fact
that he has the abnormality on the neuro-psyc[h] testing, it’s very, very strong
evidence that you would also expect to find these other behavioral problems.
J.A. 843. Bachman affirmed that his findings were consistent with Terry’s earlier diagnosis
of organic explosive disorder and explained that patients with this type of brain injury
“don’t necessarily come in conflict with the law, but they sure have come in conflict with
their family.” J.A. 844.
Dr. Schwartz-Watts diagnosed Terry with an “organic mental disorder” not
otherwise specified. J.A. 867. She told the jury:
[I]t’s a major mental disorder and it’s organic in nature, meaning that it
comes from the brain, brain damage or dysfunction in the brain compared to
chemical imbalances or personality disturbances and it affects his thinking,
his feelings and his behavior.
....
18
The way it affects his thinking, people with this type of brain damage, as
demonstrated by Dr. Deysach and Dr. Bachman, and also consistent with my
clinical findings, they can at times become suspicious and paranoid.
....
And then in terms of behavior, they can be quite aggressive, explosive. They
can have sexual indiscretions. They can be very impulsive, very, very
impulsive people.
J.A. 867–68. Schwartz-Watts also stated that the aggravating circumstances the state
presented were consistent with her findings.
In their closing arguments, Terry’s lawyers emphasized the impact of Terry’s brain
damage on his violent behavior. Fullwood and Stone both stated that Terry’s parents were
not at fault for his behavior. Fullwood argued that Terry’s parents “tried hard,” pointed to
“their pain and their shame,” and said that there was “no reason to hurt them more” by
executing Terry. J.A. 897.
After deliberating for a little over an hour, the jury recommended that Terry be
sentenced to death. The court imposed that sentence, as well as consecutive sentences of
life imprisonment for first degree burglary, thirty years for first degree criminal sexual
conduct, and ten years for malicious injury to a telephone system.
D.
Terry appealed and the Supreme Court of South Carolina affirmed. State v. Terry,

529 S.E.2d 274

 (S.C. 2000), cert. denied sub nom. Terry v. South Carolina,

531 U.S. 882

(2000). Terry thereafter sought postconviction relief in state court. Terry’s counsel raised
multiple grounds for relief concerning trial counsel’s performance, none of which are at
issue here. Following an evidentiary hearing, the state trial court denied Terry’s application
19
for postconviction relief and dismissed it with prejudice. The state Supreme Court
affirmed. Terry v. State,

714 S.E.2d 326

 (S.C. 2011), cert. denied sub nom. Terry v. South
Carolina,

565 U.S. 1206

(2012).
E.
Terry next pursued habeas relief in federal court. 8 His federal habeas petition raised
five grounds for relief, two of which he pursues on appeal:
III. Petitioner’s rights to the effective assistance of counsel and to a fair and
impartial jury as guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the
United States Constitution was [sic] violated by trial counsel’s failure to
conduct adequate and appropriate voir dire or to adequately establish a record
and appropriately object in order to preserve the issue for appellate review.
....
IV. Petitioner’s right to the effective assistance of counsel as guaranteed by
the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution was
violated by trial counsel’s failure to develop evidence supporting a defense
of guilty but mentally ill and failing to adequately investigate and present
mitigation evidence during the trial and sentencing when trial counsel failed
to present substantial and highly mitigating evidence of Gary Terry’s
childhood abuse.
J.A. 31, 35. Both grounds were procedurally defaulted, because Terry’s counsel in the
state postconviction proceeding didn’t raise them.
Terry attached to his petition several affidavits (including from two of the experts
who testified at trial) and other documentary evidence of childhood abuse that, he argues,
trial counsel were deficient in failing to uncover and present as mitigating evidence. Terry
8
Terry also sought to exhaust his state remedies in a contemporaneously filed
application for postconviction relief in state court. But the state court dismissed Terry’s
application as time-barred and improperly successive.
20
also attached affidavits from two jurors who say that they didn’t consider a life sentence
and that the jury didn’t discuss giving Terry a life sentence during deliberations. Finally,
Terry presented affidavits from his trial and state postconviction counsel to show that
counsel had no strategic reason for failing to investigate or present evidence of abuse.
Terry’s submission to the district court painted a picture of a childhood marred by
his father’s abuse. Some of the evidence appears in the notes of the experts retained by
trial counsel. Massey’s notes from a pretrial interview of Terry record the following
description of Terry’s childhood:
Discipline: Gary stated, “My daddy beat the shit out of me with a belt.” He
explained that his daddy has health problems (burned, busted back,
migraines) and he has a temper. He (daddy) whipped hard enough for the
whelps [sic] to bleed. He (daddy) slapped him (Gary) on his face, on the side
of his head or whatever he could reach when he got mad. His daddy would
cuss him when he got blamed for doing something. He said, “My brother
Johnny would do stuff and blame it on me and I would catch hell for it.” All
of the children got whipped like that.
Gary remembered one time when he was in high school (16–17 years old)
and was talking on the telephone at home. His daddy came by and said
something . . . the cussing started and Gary tried to run away. His daddy hit
him across the back with something and broke his shoulder blade. Gary
remembers being taken to either Richland or Baptist Hospital.
Gary said his mother was usually home when all this was going on but she
tried to stay out of the way. One time she got in between them and got hit.
His mother didn’t discipline him—she left it up to his daddy.
J.A. 55.
Vogelsang’s handwritten notes from the interviews she conducted also refer to
abuse. Terry’s sister-in-law, Patty Terry, reported that “Patricia step[ped] in to stop Bill
beating boys and would get it” and also that “Bill saw kids as workhorses . . . not allowed
21
to play.” J.A. 58, 345. Vogelsang’s notes following her interview with Terry’s brother,
Billy Terry, reflect: “Daddy tore everyone up including him if Mom had to be awakened”;
“Strap—hung behind door”; “couldn’t go to school—didn’t want teacher to see marks.”
J.A. 345. From her interview with Faye Servoss, Terry’s sister, Vogelsang noted: “Fa [sic]
wld tie kids to tree in front yard & have beat each other”; “Dad beat before accidents”;
“Daddy made them fight each other”; and “Billy worked kids to death . . . like dogs.” J.A.
70, 75, 345–46.
In Vogelsang’s post-trial affidavit, she states, “[I]t is apparent that Gary and his
siblings suffered significant abuse at home. It would have been typical of me to make this
known to the attorneys and to stress the impact of trauma on development.” 9 J.A. 78.
Vogelsang does not, however, have any memory of this case, which, she assumes, was
because Terry’s trial team was not “active and cohesive.”

Id.

 Vogelsang explained that
the lack of testimony concerning Terry’s abuse must have been attributable to “the lack of
a true team effort, lack of funding, or trial counsel specifically instructing [her] not to talk
about the abuse, or a combination of all three.” J.A. 79. But she dismissed lack of funding
as a possible reason, because her professional ethics code would have required her to work
9
Because Vogelsang’s post-trial affidavit contradicts her trial testimony concerning
the severity of the childhood abuse Terry suffered and the greater importance of neglect to
Terry’s development, it doesn’t establish a genuine issue of material fact at summary
judgment. See Erwin v. United States,

591 F.3d 313

, 325 n.7 (4th Cir. 2010) (“[I]t is well
established that a genuine issue of fact is not created where the only issue of fact is to
determine which of the two conflicting versions of [an affiant’s] testimony is correct.”
(cleaned up)). See also Rohrbough v. Wyeth Lab'ys, Inc.,

916 F.2d 970

, 976 (4th Cir. 1990)
(holding that an expert’s affidavit which contradicted his deposition testimony did not
create an issue of fact at summary judgment).
22
on the case, once retained, even if she had not been paid. Vogelsang also doesn’t remember
state postconviction counsel speaking to her about the case.
In her affidavit, Patricia Terry states that Bill, Terry’s father, “whipped the children
with a belt almost daily.” J.A. 82. Terry’s father prohibited the children from playing
outside, sometimes making them work until 10:00 at night. Patricia also provided an
account of Bill breaking Terry’s collarbone inconsistent with her account at Terry’s
sentencing proceeding (while indicating that she did not witness the actual incident):
Bill used to have the children “fight it out” among themselves. One day,
when Gary was between 12–14 years old, he and Johnny were fighting in the
garage area. Bill was there, too, but did not stop the fight. Johnny is much
bigger and stronger than Gary. Gary picked up a brick and threw it at Johnny.
The brick broke the windshield of Bill’s car and then Bill hurt Gary. He
broke his collarbone, and I think he did so by hitting him with a board that
was in the garage. I was at work when this happened.
J.A. 83.
Patricia claimed that Bill would throw out the children’s dinner if they were served
before he was or if he didn’t like what she cooked for dinner. Bill often threatened to “blow
[her] brains out” in front of the children. J.A. 85. Patricia further explained, “I did not
testify about the information included in this affidavit. I simply answered the questions
asked of me and no one asked about these things while I was on the witness stand.”

Gary Terry v. Bryan Stirling ( 2021 )

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