Opinion
Court of Appeals No. A-8863.
November 16, 2005.
Appeal from the Superior Court, First Judicial District, Juneau, Patricia M. Collins, Judge. Trial Court No. 1JU-02-1087 CR.
David M. Seid, Assistant Public Defender, Juneau, and Barbara K. Brink, Public Defender, Anchorage, for the Appellant.
W.H. Hawley, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals, Anchorage, and David W. Márquez, Attorney General, Juneau, for the Appellee.
Before: Coats, Chief Judge, and Mannheimer and Stewart, Judges.
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND JUDGMENT
Thirty years ago, Phillip Edward Jackson III, was convicted of arson in the second degree for setting fire to the Haines Elementary School. He was sentenced to, and served, a 5-year term. Recently, William Hagen confessed to Jackson and the Haines Chief of Police that he, not Jackson, had started the Haines Elementary School fire.
Jackson filed an application for post-conviction relief, claiming that Hagen's statements constituted newly discovered evidence which established by clear and convincing evidence that Jackson was innocent of the crime for which he had been convicted. Following an evidentiary hearing, Superior Court Judge Patricia A. Collins concluded that Hagen's testimony did not provide clear and convincing evidence of Jackson's innocence. She therefore denied the application. Jackson appeals from that decision. We uphold Judge Collins's decision.
Factual and procedural background
On July 12, 1973, two fires were started within the Haines Elementary School. The night before these fires and early on the morning of the fires, Phillip Jackson was drinking at the Alaska Bar in Haines. Apparently very intoxicated, Jackson fell asleep on the bar and was subsequently carried to a bench outside of the Alaska Bar. At that point, a witness observed Jackson fully clothed.
After the arson, Jackson's boots, socks, pants, and underwear were discovered in the boy's shower room of the Haines Elementary School, where a shower was running. Jackson's wallet and comb were discovered in the home economics room. An investigation showed that the arsonist entered the school by prying open a window in the home economics room with a screwdriver-like object. Two fires were set in the school — one on boxes located in the gymnasium and one in the boy's restroom in the old wing of the school. Jackson consistently asserted that he had no memory of the evening after being removed from the Alaska Bar.
On September 12, 1973, a grand jury indicted Jackson on a charge of second-degree arson. A jury found Jackson guilty of second-degree arson on November 7, 1973. On December 20, 1973, Superior Court Judge Victor D. Carlson sentenced Jackson to 5 years in prison.
Thirty years later, on September 13, 2002, William Hagen voluntarily approached Gregory Goodman, Chief of the Haines Police. Hagen told Goodman that he started the 1973 fire in the Haines Elementary School. Hagen said that after fighting with Jackson at the Alaska Bar, he found Jackson passed out in a field and removed Jackson's pants. Hagen explained that he then entered the school, took a shower, and left Jackson's pants and wallet in the shower room. He then went into the gymnasium, lit a cigarette, and set the drapes in the gymnasium on fire. Hagen stated that he was admitting the crime because he was in Alcoholics Anonymous and the eighth step of the twelve-step program required him to make amends for his past behavior.
In reliance on Hagen's confession, Jackson filed a petition for post-conviction relief on December 12, 2002. Superior Court Judge Patricia A. Collins then held an evidentiary hearing on the application. Chief Goodman, Jackson, and William Hagen testified. Judge Collins determined that Hagen's testimony did not establish clear and convincing evidence of Jackson's innocence and denied Jackson's petition for post-conviction relief.
Why we uphold Judge Collins's decision
The Alaska statutes provide that a person who has been convicted of a crime can obtain post-conviction relief based on newly discovered evidence if that evidence was: (1) unknown within the "two years after entry of judgment of conviction if the claim relates to a conviction;" (2) "not cumulative to evidence present at trial;" (3) "not impeachment evidence;" and (4) "establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the applicant is innocent." The only issue in this case is whether the evidence that Jackson produced established his innocence. The State does not contest that Jackson established the other factors that an applicant must show to obtain relief based upon newly discovered evidence.
AS 12.72.020(b)(2).
Following the evidentiary hearing, Judge Collins issued a written decision explaining why Hagen's statements, in which he admitted committing the arson, did not establish clear and convincing evidence of Jackson's innocence. First, Judge Collins discussed Hagen's aberrant behavior on the witness stand. She concluded that Hagen likely suffered from mental illness. She explained that Hagen conducted himself in an "agitated, easily distracted, and alternately angry, almost playful or paranoid manner." She pointed out that Hagen demonstrated in his testimony an alternately apparent obsession with his mother and upbringing.
Judge Collins also emphasized that Hagen's admissions were inconsistent with the physical evidence of the arson. She pointed out that Hagen discussed at length discovering that Jackson did not have on underwear. But investigators found underwear with Jackson's other clothing at the school. Judge Collins pointed out that Hagen testified that he had showered in the boy's shower room, set the drapes in the empty gymnasium on fire, and did not explore any other areas of the school. However, Judge Collins noted that one of the fire inspectors, Gordon Brunton, testified at the evidentiary hearing that the fire had two origins. One fire had been set in a boy's bathroom in a different part of the school (where Hagen testified he had not gone). The other fire had been set in the gymnasium, but in a different part than where Hagen testified he set the fire. Judge Collins also pointed out that Hagen testified that he had entered the school through an open window. But evidence showed that the arsonist had entered the school by prying open a window. Judge Collins concluded that "Mr. Hagen's rendition of events was not even on par with what a trial spectator would have known about the fire, let alone the sole arsonist."
We are to accept the trial court's factual findings unless we conclude that they are clearly erroneous. The witnesses testified in front of Judge Collins and we defer to her superior opportunity to judge the credibility of the witnesses. We conclude that Judge Collins did not err in finding that Jackson did not establish his innocence by clear and convincing evidence. Accordingly, Judge Collins did not err in denying Jackson's application for post-conviction relief.
Tucker v. State, 892 P.2d 832, 834 (Alaska App. 1995).
The judgment of the superior court is AFFIRMED.