A federal appellate court has ruled that evidence of an individual being a Satanist may be presented during trial when it is relevant to future dangerousness. The defendant had claimed that any consideration of his religious beliefs violated his religious freedom.
Irving Alvin Davis was sentenced to death in 2002 after raping and murdering a minor in El Paso.
Background
In 2001, Davis was invited to a party that his friend was hosting. At the time, Davis was 19 years old and had not graduated from high school. Also at the party was 15-year-old Melissa Medina and her friends.
Davis reportedly approached Medina while dancing and began grinding on her. She moved away.
The group left the house to walk Medina home in the dark, but she asserted she could make it the rest of the way once reaching an elementary school yard. Davis ran after her, telling the group he would walk her to her house. Those living adjacent to the school reported hearing “low growls followed by thumping noises and moaning.”
Davis met back up with the group later that night with scratches all over his face, which he attributed to an altercation with his mother.
The next morning, Medina was found dead and unclothed in the school parking lot with clear signs of rape, strangulation, and blunt force trauma. Her fingertips had been cut off to prevent the discovery of DNA evidence, and her wrists showed signs of attempted severance.
In 2002, Davis was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. The Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA)—Texas’ highest criminal court—granted a retrial.
At resentencing, the State introduced evidence of Davis’s affiliation with Satanism, alongside personal writings and drawings from his jail cell, asserting that he presented a future danger. The State also called an expert on Satanism, who testified that various satanic texts advocated for destroying or sacrificing humans, which meant causing their death.
Davis’ defense argued that his “belief in Satan was symbolic and that Satanism advocated for non-violence.”
The court subsequently sentenced him to death again.
Davis claimed that his First Amendment rights were violated when the State introduced evidence of his affiliation with Satanism—citing the establishment and free exercise clauses, as well as freedom of association.
This claim was denied on direct appeal by the CCA. The federal district court denied relief, but the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a certificate of appealability.
The Ruling
Last week, the Fifth Circuit upheld Davis’ conviction, ruling that his First Amendment rights were not violated by the inclusion of evidence of his Satanism. Judge Jerry Smith wrote the opinion.
The court agreed with the CCA that the State produced plausible evidence of Davis presenting a potential future danger. The specific Satanist literature that Davis owned reportedly endorsed violence.
“His writings show a frequent preoccupation and antipathy toward humanity in general, including several instances in which he wishes to enact some level of physical violence on others,” wrote Judge Smith. “The discussion of Satanism is also invariably comingled with other content, and among his writings are handwritten reproductions of the Satanic Rules, which include the noted issue of ‘destroying someone.’”
Some of his drawings reportedly displayed “violent and sexually explicit content, such as a drawing of a crying woman who is bound, gagged, and nearly naked and a drawing of [a] woman with a slashed throat.”
However, the court did not rule that a defendant’s association with the religion of Satanism is always appropriate to consider. To the contrary, it may allow defendants a justification for otherwise troubling behavior.
Smith wrote that Davis’ drawings and writings “exhibited a preoccupation with rape, violence (particularly towards women), and death. Because those materials were admissible on their own, the bare fact of Davis’s association with Satanism … would likely be beneficial, not prejudicial, to Davis, providing him an opportunity to explain the metaphorical nature of his writings.”
Nonetheless, the fact that such materials were associated with Davis’ Satanism was not enough to have those materials thrown out as evidence, according to the Fifth Circuit.
If you or anyone you know has information regarding court cases, please contact our tip line: scorecardtips@protonmail.com.
