Opinion ID: 677366
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Orebia Depositions

Text: 6 To support his constitutional arguments relating to the lineup and hypnosis procedure, Armstrong relies primarily on two depositions Orebia had provided to Armstrong's counsel prior to trial. Those depositions contradict Orebia's other testimony in this case, as she maintained in the depositions that the man she had seen leaving Kamps' building was not Armstrong and that the police had used highly suggestive tactics during hypnosis and at the lineup to convince her to say otherwise. Because the events surrounding those depositions are important to whether we should permit Armstrong to rely on them here, we describe those events in some detail. 7 After Orebia had identified Armstrong at the July 3, 1980 lineup, she testified at a preliminary hearing in the case on September 2, 1980. She again identified Armstrong at that hearing as the man she had seen on the night of Kamps' murder. Five days later, however, on September 7, Orebia wrote a letter to the prosecutor in which she indicated that the case had upset her greatly, that she had been unable to sleep at night, and that she had sought help at a mental health facility. Orebia also questioned in the letter why she had even bothered to speak up and then stated: I have tried my best to assist in this case, but my own personal safety and well being at this time [are] my number one concern. (March 19, 1981 Tr. at 256-57.) 8 The September 7 letter did not indicate that Orebia was attempting to terminate her involvement in the case, but a month later, she was arrested, apparently for disorderly conduct, and while in jail on that charge, she was approached by Armstrong. 2 It is unclear what, if anything, Armstrong may have said to Orebia, but after her release, Orebia contacted Armstrong's counsel and indicated that her earlier identification had been in error. Armstrong's counsel preserved Orebia's recantation at a November 5, 1980 deposition, during which Orebia attested that while she had been in jail, she had noticed that Armstrong was taller than the man she had seen (Nov. 5 Orebia Dep. at 4, 7-8), and that the police had threatened her with a perjury charge if she blew this case. (Id. at 10, 24.) Orebia claimed that since she had first identified Armstrong, the police had been going out of their way not to pick her up for prostitution or related offenses, and that the police had offered to buy her a telephone and to find her a nicer apartment. (Id. at 22-24.) She indicated unequivocally that Armstrong was not the man she had seen entering and exiting Kamps' building on the night of the murder. (Id. at 4, 17.) She also stated that the police had attempted to influence her recollection under hypnosis by planting pictures of Armstrong and his automobile in the room. (Id. at 12-14.) As to the lineup, Orebia explained that the police had told her prior to the lineup that the man who committed the murder was in custody and that he would be in the lineup. (Id. at 5, 8.) She also indicated that most of the men participating in the lineup were police officers who were wearing the same wig, which they seemed to be passing to one another before crossing the street. (Id. at 6.) 9 Orebia was subsequently arrested again, this time for carrying a concealed weapon (an Exacto knife). She again saw Armstrong while detained in jail, and he allegedly told Orebia not to talk to the detectives. The police also repeatedly asked Orebia if she had spoken to any of Armstrong's attorneys, and she denied having done so. It frightened her that the police were picking her up, charging her, and then dropping the charges or letting her out on her own recognizance when she did not ask to be released. Orebia believed the officers were hassling her by being too lenient. In a subsequent statement made to Armstrong's counsel on November 10, Orebia indicated that she wanted to leave town for awhile because she was so upset but that she would return to testify on Armstrong's behalf at trial. 10 On November 21, 1980, Armstrong moved to suppress the Orebia identification on the ground that the lineup had been unduly suggestive, that she had been hypnotized prior to the lineup, and that the police had made improper threats and promises to Orebia prior to the lineup. The state trial court conducted a lengthy hearing on Armstrong's motions and heard testimony from a number of witnesses, including Orebia. At that hearing, Orebia reverted to her original testimony implicating Armstrong. She explained that she had lied to Armstrong's counsel and in the depositions because she had wanted to destroy her own credibility so she would not be required to testify at Armstrong's trial. She indicated that she was not intimidated by the police, nor was she afraid that she would be charged with perjury or other offenses if she changed her testimony. On the basis of this and other testimony, the trial court denied Armstrong's motions to suppress and permitted Orebia's identification testimony at trial. Armstrong's counsel used the depositions to impeach Orebia at trial, but the jury apparently believed her explanation for lying and also believed that she had reverted back to the truth at trial. 11 In considering Armstrong's challenge to the identification testimony on direct appeal, the Wisconsin Supreme Court did not address Orebia's depositions or how her testimony had changed in the course of the pretrial proceedings. The State explains this omission by pointing out that Armstrong never relied on the depositions in his direct appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, although he did generally charge that the identification procedure was unduly suggestive. Armstrong concedes that he never referenced the depositions in his briefs to the supreme court, but he contends that because the depositions were part of the record on appeal and because he had questioned the propriety of the identification itself, he should not be precluded from again relying on the depositions here to establish a constitutional infirmity in the identification procedure. The State responds that any claim premised on Orebia's deposition testimony was not fairly presented to the Wisconsin Supreme Court and that the claim therefore was either not exhausted or was procedurally defaulted. 12 Before considering a habeas corpus petition on its merits, a federal court must determine  'whether the petitioner exhausted all available state remedies and whether the petitioner raised all [of] his claims during the course of the state proceedings.'  Verdin v. O'Leary, 972 F.2d 1467, 1472 (7th Cir.1992) (quoting Henderson v. Thieret, 859 F.2d 492, 496 (7th Cir.1988), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1009, 109 S.Ct. 1648, 104 L.Ed.2d 163 (1989)); see also Jones v. Washington, 15 F.3d 671, 674 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 2753, 129 L.Ed.2d 870 (1994). Whether the issue is exhaustion or waiver/procedural default, we look to whether the petitioner fairly presented his federal constitutional claim to the state courts. Jones, 15 F.3d at 675; Verdin, 972 F.2d at 1472-73; United States ex rel. Sullivan v. Fairman, 731 F.2d 450, 453 n. 4 (7th Cir.1984). Before the claim will be considered to have been fairly presented, both the operative facts and the 'controlling legal principles' must be submitted to the state court. Verdin, 972 F.2d at 1474 (quoting Picard v. Connor, 404 U.S. 270, 277, 92 S.Ct. 509, 513, 30 L.Ed.2d 438 (1971)). 13 There is no question here that Armstrong both exhausted and otherwise preserved his constitutional challenges to the identification procedure and to the State's use of hypnosis. The question is instead whether Armstrong waived his ability to rely on the Orebia depositions to support those constitutional challenges by failing to rely on the depositions before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. We think he did not. The Orebia deposition statements were at issue in the suppression hearing before the trial court, and that court ultimately denied Armstrong's motions to suppress after considering Orebia's deposition statements and her explanation for those statements at the suppression hearing. Moreover, the deposition statements were used by Armstrong's counsel to impeach Orebia's testimony at trial. (See, e.g., March 19, 1981 Tr. at 237-54.) Although Armstrong did not refer to the depositions in his briefs to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, he again asserted that Orebia's identification was unreliable, both because the lineup procedure was unduly suggestive and because Orebia had been hypnotized prior to the lineup. We think it inconceivable that the Wisconsin Supreme Court was unaware of Orebia's deposition statements in considering those issues, as the depositions were part of the record on appeal and were extensively referenced in the suppression hearing and trial transcripts. As we explained in Whipple v. Duckworth, 957 F.2d 418, 421 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 218, 121 L.Ed.2d 157 (1992), a criminal defendant is not required to restate every factual detail to the state Supreme Court in order to rely on that evidence on collateral review. Cf. Jones, 15 F.3d at 675 (petitioner's reliance on firearms worksheet in habeas action proper although worksheet never presented to the state courts). Armstrong's failure to reference those depositions in his briefs to the Wisconsin Supreme Court thus will not preclude his reliance on them here. 14 Yet the State alternatively argues that we must disregard the depositions in any event because the Wisconsin courts implicitly found Orebia's deposition statements not credible. We agree with the State's assessment. At the suppression hearing, Orebia admitted that she had made the statements attributed to her in the depositions, but she explained that her deposition testimony had been untruthful because she had been seeking to destroy her credibility so as to avoid further involvement in the case. (See, e.g., Dec. 1, 1980 Tr. at 34-35, 38-39.) In addition to again identifying Armstrong, Orebia also contradicted at the suppression hearing the statements she had made to Armstrong's counsel at the depositions. For instance, she indicated that the police had not told her prior to the lineup that they had the man in custody who had committed the murder; the officers had instead indicated only that they had a suspect in jail. (Id. at 14.) Orebia also stated that the police had made no promises or threats in relation to her testimony, nor had they accorded her any special treatment. (Id. at 44, 46, 49.) 15 After hearing Orebia's testimony and the testimony of a number of other witnesses relating to the lineup and the hypnosis session, the trial court denied Armstrong's motions to suppress, finding that neither procedure was impermissibly suggestive. See Armstrong, 329 N.W.2d at 391. The trial court's rulings necessarily indicated that the court believed Orebia's suppression hearing testimony that she had lied in the depositions in order to damage her credibility. Had the court believed Orebia's deposition statements, it would have been hard-pressed to deny the motions and to permit Orebia to identify Armstrong at trial. 16 In this habeas corpus proceeding, we must presume that the factual findings of the state court are correct if the findings are made after a hearing on the merits and are fairly supported by the record. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2254(d); Gomez v. Ahitow, 29 F.3d 1128, 1134 (7th Cir.1994); Holland v. McGinnis, 963 F.2d 1044, 1048 (7th Cir.1992), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1053, 122 L.Ed.2d 360 (1993). That presumption applies not only to the state court's express factual findings, but also to the implicit resolution of a factual dispute that can be fairly inferred from the state court record. Andersen v. Thieret, 903 F.2d 526, 529-30 (7th Cir.1990) (citing LaVallee v. Delle Rose, 410 U.S. 690, 694-95, 93 S.Ct. 1203, 1205-06, 35 L.Ed.2d 637 (1973); Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 314-15, 83 S.Ct. 745, 757-58, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963)). Thus, where one version of the operative events would necessarily have led the state trial court to suppress an out-of-court identification on the ground that the lineup was unduly suggestive, the fact that the court reached a contrary conclusion permits us to infer that that version was rejected. Andersen, 903 F.2d at 530; cf. Marshall v. Lonberger, 459 U.S. 422, 433, 103 S.Ct. 843, 850, 74 L.Ed.2d 646 (1983); Holland, 963 F.2d at 1049. Here, we may infer from the denial of the suppression motions that the trial court found Orebia's deposition statements to be untruthful, as Orebia herself testified at the suppression hearing. That inference is supported by Armstrong's failure to rely on the depositions before the Wisconsin Supreme Court and by the lack of any mention of those statements in the supreme court's opinion. 3 We presume that the state court's assessment of Orebia's credibility was correct. See Maggio v. Fulford, 462 U.S. 111, 113, 103 S.Ct. 2261, 2262, 76 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983) (Section 2254 does not permit federal habeas courts to substitute their own judgment of witness credibility for that of the state courts); Marshall, 459 U.S. at 434, 103 S.Ct. at 850 (same); Richardson v. Duckworth, 834 F.2d 1366, 1372 (7th Cir.1987). Thus, like the state courts, we disregard Orebia's statements in the two depositions in considering Armstrong's constitutional challenges.