Opinion ID: 408249
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Impeachment Efforts

Text: 28 The evidence at trial presented a question as to whether and to what extent Arie Mae Whitehead observed the murder of her mother. Adams testified that, as the couple argued in the victim's bedroom, Arie Mae looked on from the hallway immediately outside the bedroom. According to Adams, after the victim ordered him to get out, Arie Mae began gathering his clothes from her mother's closet. Adams further stated that at the time of the shooting Arie Mae was standing behind and off to the side of her mother. Arie Mae testified that she saw the shooting, but did not see her mother holding a hammer. In what seemed an effort to impeach the reliability of her observations, defense counsel attempted to emphasize her uncertainty through cross-examination. 6 29 Defense counsel also tried to impeach Arie Mae by utilizing her statements which appeared in a police report and in a copy of the preliminary hearing transcript. Counsel testified at the federal habeas corpus hearing that he wanted to underscore the alleged inconsistencies between these prior statements and her trial testimony to show that she was biased against Adams and, because of that prejudice, lied both at trial and earlier to the police. 7 Defense counsel's cross-examination of Arie Mae at trial and his testimony at the federal habeas corpus hearing indicate that in her statement to the police she may have said that she was in her bedroom when she heard the shot. 8 Contrary to Adams's assertions on appeal, at the preliminary hearing, Arie Mae testified that she was present at the scene and observed the shooting. 9 Arie Mae further testified at trial that she was standing between the kitchen and the front room at the time of the shooting and saw everything. 30 In what seemingly was an effort to lay a predicate for impeachment, defense counsel posed certain questions to Arie Mae at trial and marked her statement to police as a defense exhibit. He apparently forgot to offer the statement and failed to lay a proper foundation for its introduction into evidence. As part of his case, defense counsel also identified as an exhibit for the record a certified copy of the transcript of the preliminary hearing. The trial court ruled, however, that the transcript was inadmissible under all circumstances. 10 31 After conducting an evidentiary hearing, the district court refrained from predicating a finding of ineffective assistance on defense counsel's failure to impeach the credibility of Arie Mae Whitehead. The court implicitly concluded that Adams suffered no prejudice as a result of counsel's shortcomings. The court reasoned that Adams failed to carry his burden of proof by showing that the exhibit would in fact have impeached Arie Mae's trial testimony if admitted into evidence. 32 We agree for several reasons. First, the record remains uncertain as to the exact details of Arie Mae's statement to police. Adams failed to offer this document into evidence at trial and has made no effort to introduce the statement into the record on appeal. We thus are unable to determine whether this evidence would have effectively impeached the witness. 33 Second, an examination of the preliminary hearing transcript indicates that Arie Mae's testimony was consistent with her statements at trial. In fact, at one point during the federal habeas corpus hearing, defense counsel stated that the substance of Arie Mae's testimony at the preliminary hearing and at trial was the same. Counsel later mistakenly asserted that Arie Mae testified at the preliminary hearing that she was in the bedroom at the time of the killing, in contrast to her testimony at trial that she was an eyewitness. Because we find no inconsistencies between her assertions at trial and at the preliminary hearing, we believe the jury would not have viewed her testimony as inconsistent. 34 Finally, because Adams's testimony corroborated that of Arie Mae by stating that she was in a position to observe the facts which she related, any weight which the jury would have attributed to any prior inconsistent statement would have been negligible. Thus, we conclude that Adams has not demonstrated any prejudice resulting from defense counsel's impeachment efforts which would render his trial fundamentally unfair.