Opinion ID: 2977396
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Libby Woods’s testimony

Text: As noted above, the state court did not analyze the exclusion of Woods’s testimony under federal law. Thus, the state cannot defend the decision as a reasonable application of federal law. Nevertheless, the decision might still be contrary to federal law if “the state court arrives at a conclusion opposite to that reached by [the Supreme] Court on a question of law . . . . [or] if the state court confronts facts that are materially indistinguishable from a relevant Supreme Court precedent and arrives at a result opposite to” that of the Supreme Court. Williams, 529 U.S. 362 at 405-06. The state trial court, as with the trial court in Chambers, excluded Woods’s testimony as inadmissible hearsay. Both parties agreed that the statement was actually hearsay and if it were to come in, it would have to be admitted under one of the hearsay exceptions. The trial judge asked West’s attorney if he was offering the statement to Nos. 05-5132/6219 West v. Bell Page 23 prove the truth of the matter asserted. West’s attorney did not address that question, but stated that he “would offer those statements against penal interest for the jury’s deliberations as to whether or not my client is guilty of this particular murder.” The Tennessee Supreme Court, in reviewing the trial court’s decision to exclude Woods’s testimony, emphasized the cumulative nature of the evidence – that is, because the state had conceded that Martin was also a participant in the murders, Woods’s testimony that Martin intended to kill Sheila Romines did not refute the State’s theory nor did it exculpate West. Furthermore, the testimony shed no light on West’s theory that he was either under duress or was being dominated and forced by Martin to commit the murders. Though the state court did not consider Chambers, had it done so, there would have been more than adequate ground to distinguish Woods’s testimony from the type of testimony at issue in Chambers. Thus, the Tennessee Supreme Court’s decision in regard to Woods’s testimony was not contrary to Chambers.