Opinion ID: 438824
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the mitigating evidence issue

Text: 14 Petitioner further alleges that he was denied the opportunity to present important mitigating evidence as a result of the district attorney's refusal to cooperate in taking the deposition of Father William James, a Montgomery priest who had been the head of a foster home where petitioner once lived. The facts surrounding this contention appear to be as follows. At the beginning of the trial, defense counsel notified the court that he desired to call Father James to supply mitigating testimony, but suspected that he might be unavailable as a witness except on a date when the prosecution would still be presenting its case in chief. The trial judge indicated that he had some concerns about disrupting the orderly flow of the evidence and also wanted to ensure that the state had an adequate opportunity to cross-examine Father James. He then announced, Let's do it like that, if the state's not through, I will send the jury to the room and put him up and let him say what he wants to say and let him be cross examined and then at the proper time, I will let you introduce that record. 15 Several days later, as the court prepared to adjourn for the day, defense counsel announced that he wished to perfect the record on Father James. He then informed the court: 16 Father James came to Monroe County last night and was here this morning and at lunchtime I asked the district attorney about taking this man's deposition and the district attorney retorted and responded and said that Father James could wait around like any other witnesses and he didn't care if he had to wait until next Wednesday and that he wasn't going to agree to any deposition now and Father James had to go back to his other appointment and is not available anymore .... 17 The record therefore clearly reveals that defense counsel failed to approach the court about excusing the jury so that Father James could testify while he was still available to do so. The trial judge's earlier remarks did not indicate that it was necessary for petitioner to secure the state's consent before proceeding to depose Father James, but simply that the judge wished to ensure the state an adequate opportunity for cross-examination. Petitioner was therefore deprived of Father James' mitigating testimony not as a result of the actions of the district attorney or any rulings by the court, but because defense counsel failed to comply with the reasonable instructions issued by the trial judge earlier in the proceedings. 18 This case is therefore distinguishable from the precedents cited by petitioner. In cases such as Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 604-05, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 2964-65, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978) (plurality opinion), Goodwin v. Balkcom, 684 F.2d 794, 798-803 (11th Cir.1982), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 1798, 76 L.Ed.2d 364 (1983), Spivey v. Zant, 661 F.2d 464, 469-72 (5th Cir. Unit B 1981), cert. denied, 458 U.S. 1111, 102 S.Ct. 3495, 73 L.Ed.2d 1374 (1982), and Chenault v. Stynchcombe, 581 F.2d 444, 447-48 (5th Cir.1978), the issue was whether the trial court had employed jury instructions that either precluded the consideration of some types of mitigating evidence or were insufficiently clear as to the proper role of mitigating circumstances in the jury's deliberations. In United States v. Goodwin, 625 F.2d 693, 702-03 (5th Cir.1980), United States v. Hammond, 598 F.2d 1008, 1012-15 (5th Cir.), modified, 605 F.2d 862 (5th Cir.1979), and United States v. Henricksen, 564 F.2d 197, 198 (5th Cir.1977), the defendants claimed that government agents had improperly pressured potential defense witnesses to discourage their testimony at trial. Petitioner's claim is clearly not comparable to those presented by either of these two lines of cases, and we therefore conclude that his argument on this ground is without merit.