Opinion ID: 874885
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Shaibani's testimony

Text: At trial, Shaibani testified that he had been a clinical professor of physics affiliated with Temple University for about seven years. He also testified that he had published 50 or so articles and that those had been peer reviewed. After trial, Stevens made a motion for a new trial based on the falsity of these statements. On appeal, he asserts that because Shaibani's testimony was used to show Stevens's claim that Casey fell down the stairs was impossible and used to rebut Stevens's expert witness' testimony, the newly discovered evidence that Shaibani committed perjury requires a new trial in the interest of justice. In deciding Stevens's motion, the district court concluded that Shaibani's testimony about being affiliated with Temple University for seven years was not accurate and was untrue. The district court concluded, nonetheless, that this was not material, as it had nothing to do with his qualifications to testify, and also was not newly discovered evidence. It noted that Stevens's defense had received a copy of Shaibani's resume over a year before he testified and the error in Shaibani's testimony was readily apparent from the resume. The district court also concluded that Stevens failed to establish that Shaibani's statements relating to the number of peer reviewed articles he published were false, as peer review applies to both articles published in journals and papers presented at conferences. On appeal, Stevens claims that the district court found that Shaibani did not lie about his credentials. This assertion, however, misconstrues the record. The district court stated that Shaibani had testified falsely and inaccurately about his affiliation with Temple University. The court concluded, nonetheless, that this was not newly discovered evidence and was not material. This conclusion was not an abuse of discretion. On November 18, 1998, the State disclosed Shaibani's resume, which shows he became a Clinical Associate Professor of Physics at Temple in 1995. The record supports the district court's conclusion that a simple glance at Shaibani's resume during the trial would have revealed that he could not have been affiliated with Temple for both the seven years he stated at trial and the three years he stated on his resume. Therefore, we affirm the district court's conclusion that this discrepancy was not newly discovered evidence. Stevens also argues that the district erred when it accepted Shaibani's assertion that papers he presented also went through a peer review process to conclude that there was no evidence Shaibani had perjured himself. On appeal, Stevens writes: As to Shaibani's claims of being published, the district court essentially accepted Shaibani's statement that some of the organizations that allowed him to make a presentation engage in some sort of peer review process and found that he did not lie. At trial, Shaibani testified that he had published 50 or so articles. Then, when questioned whether his articles had been peer reviewed, Shaibani answered that they had. Later, in response to Stevens's motion for a new trial, the State submitted an affidavit by Shaibani, who testified: The peer-review process applies not only to journals by also to conferences held by medical and scientific organizations. It is the understanding of your affiant that all but two of such organizations found among the 56 papers by your affiant employ peer review in one form or another. The peer-review process for the acceptance of a paper for presentation at some conferences is known to be more stringent than that for inclusion of a paper in some journals. The principles of peer review were enacted in more than half of the 56 papers by your affiant. The district court did not abuse its discretion by determining that Stevens had failed to prove Shaibani lied as to the 50 or so peer reviewed articles. Its conclusion is supported by Shaibani's affidavit. That there were contradictory affidavits in the record does not show that the district court erred when it determined that Shaibani had not perjured himself. Therefore, we affirm the district court's order denying Stevens's motion for a new trial as to this issue.