Opinion ID: 2508322
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Richard Johnson's statements to police

Text: When the police interviewed Richard Johnson in May 1987, he said he saw defendant kill Thompson and Robinson, and he described in detail the manner of the killings. Later, in October 1991, Johnson told an investigator from the district attorney's office he knew nothing about the murders because he was not there. He said that he had lied to the police in May 1987. At trial, during a discussion in chambers regarding the admissibility of certain evidence not relevant here, this colloquy occurred: [THE PROSECUTOR]: [W]hen [Johnson] gave his statement to the police after a day and a half in custody, he got as far  he sanitized himself as much as he possibly could. He laid everything on [defendant], and, in his own words, he said basically he was just standing there. THE COURT: Which belies  [THE PROSECUTOR]: It belies common sense, belies the truth, it belies everything.  (Italics added.) Later, when cross-examining Sergeant Voznik, the prosecutor elicited the detailed description of the murders that Johnson had given to Voznik in May 1987. Defendant contends the prosecutor engaged in misconduct by eliciting this description, because he had previously expressed the view, in the discussion quoted above, that Johnson's statements were false, and because he knew that Johnson had later recanted his statements. Defendant failed to preserve this issue for appeal because he did not object to that testimony at trial. ( People v. Crew (2003) 31 Cal.4th 822, 839, 3 Cal.Rptr.3d 733, 74 P.3d 820.) In any event, there was no prosecutorial misconduct. A prosecutor's misconduct violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution when it infects the trial with such unfairness as to make the conviction a denial of due process. ( People v. Morales (2001) 25 Cal.4th 34, 44, 104 Cal.Rptr.2d 582, 18 P.3d 11; accord, Darden v. Wainwright (1986) 477 U.S. 168, 181, 106 S.Ct. 2464, 91 L.Ed.2d 144; Donnelly v. DeChristoforo (1974) 416 U.S. 637, 643, 94 S.Ct. 1868, 40 L.Ed.2d 431.) In other words, the misconduct must be of sufficient significance to result in the denial of the defendant's right to a fair trial. ( United States v. Agurs (1976) 427 U.S. 97, 108, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 49 L.Ed.2d 342.) A prosecutor's misconduct that does not render a criminal trial fundamentally unfair violates California law only if it `involves the use of deceptive or reprehensible methods to attempt to persuade either the court or the jury.' ( People v. Espinoza (1992) 3 Cal.4th 806, 820, 12 Cal. Rptr.2d 682, 838 P.2d 204; accord, People v. Farnam, supra, 28 Cal.4th at p. 167, 121 Cal.Rptr.2d 106, 47 P.3d 988.) Under well-established principles of due process, the prosecution cannot present evidence it knows is false and must correct any falsity of which it is aware in the evidence it presents.... ( People v. Seaton, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 647, 110 Cal.Rptr.2d 441, 28 P.3d 175.) But the prosecutor here did not know that Johnson's initial statement to the police was false; he merely suspected that was the case. When, as here, the prosecution has doubts as to the truth of a statement it intends to present at trial, it must disclose to the defense any material evidence suggesting that the statement in question is false. But, notwithstanding those doubts, the prosecutor may still present the statement to the jury, as we explained in People v. Gordon (1973) 10 Cal.3d 460, 110 Cal. Rptr. 906, 516 P.2d 298. In Gordon, the prosecutor told the jury in his opening statement that he believed his chief witness `would not be telling the truth' because she would be testifying that the defendant was the sole perpetrator of the murder charged in that case, whereas the prosecutor suspected that the witness was actually an accomplice. ( People v. Gordon, supra, 10 Cal.3d at p. 472, 110 Cal.Rptr. 906, 516 P.2d 298.) We rejected the defendant's claim that the prosecutor violated his right to a fair trial by knowingly presenting perjured testimony, explaining that the prosecutor did not know  ( Id. at p. 474, 110 Cal.Rptr. 906, 516 P.2d 298) the witness was lying and that the jury could decide for itself which of the conflicting versions of the incidents in question was true ( ibid.; see also People v. Riel, supra, 22 Cal.4th at pp. 1181-1182, 96 Cal.Rptr.2d 1, 998 P.2d 969 [quoting Gordon with approval] ). Here, the prosecutor's comment about Johnson's statement to the police  It belies common sense, belies the truth, it belies everything  appears to express the view that Johnson was lying when he claimed to be an innocent bystander, and that he actually assisted defendant in committing the murders. Thus, the prosecutor's doubts about the truth of Johnson's statement mirrored the doubts of the prosecutor in Gordon regarding the truthfulness of the latter's chief witness. But, as in Gordon, those doubts were based on the evidence presented at trial, not on facts of which the jury was unaware. (See generally People v. Seaton, supra, 26 Cal.4th at p. 648, 110 Cal.Rptr.2d 441, 28 P.3d 175 [So long as the prosecutor's doubts are based solely on the evidence presented at trial, the jury is capable of deciding which of the competing experts is the more convincing....].) Just as the prosecutor in Gordon was entitled to call his chief witness to testify, the prosecutor here was entitled to introduce Johnson's statement. The jury, which also heard from the defense that Johnson had later recanted his statement, could make its own decision as to Johnson's credibility. Defendant also contends the prosecutor had a duty under Mooney v. Holohan (1935) 294 U.S. 103, 112, 55 S.Ct. 340, 79 L.Ed. 791, and its progeny, to tell the jury that Johnson's account of the murders to Sergeant Voznik could not be believed because Johnson had repudiated it. It is true that deliberate deception of a court and jurors by the presentation of known false evidence is incompatible with `rudimentary demands of justice.' ( Giglio v. United States (1972) 405 U.S. 150, 153, 92 S.Ct. 763, 31 L.Ed.2d 104, citing Mooney v. Holohan, supra, 294 U.S. at p. 112, 55 S.Ct. 340.) But as explained in the previous paragraph, the prosecutor did not deceive the court or jury by presenting evidence of Johnson's statements to the police.