Opinion ID: 2132850
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The State's Reliance on Inconsistent Theories of Guilt in the Separate Trials of Defendant and Wendelsdorf.

Text: Defendant argues that it is a denial of due process of law for a prosecutor, in order to convict two defendants at separate trials, to offer inconsistent theories and facts regarding the same crime. In support of that contention, she relies on the decisions of two federal courts, i.e., Smith v. Groose, 205 F.3d 1045 (8th Cir. 2000), and Thompson v. Calderon, 120 F.3d 1045 (9th Cir.1997). In Smith the prosecutor used different, and inconsistent, testimony and pretrial statements of the same witness at separate trials of two defendants. In so doing, the prosecutor both adopted and rejected each of the versions given by this witness regarding the crime. The court concluded that the prosecutor's conduct was tantamount to a denial of due process. Smith, 205 F.3d at 1048-49. In the Thompson case, a majority of the court held that due-process rights of the defendant had been violated when the prosecutor used different witnesses at different trials to materially change the prosecution's theory of who was responsible. Thompson, 120 F.3d at 1055-57. We are convinced that these two decisions only stand for the proposition that a selective use of evidence by the prosecution in order to establish inconsistent factual contentions in separate criminal prosecutions for the same crime may be so egregious and lacking in good faith as to constitute a denial of due process. We view those situations as a narrow exception to the right of the prosecution to rely on alternative theories in criminal prosecutions albeit that they may be inconsistent. See State v. Marti, 290 N.W.2d 570, 577 (Iowa 1980) (not improper for state to pursue conflicting alternative theories as to who fired the weapon in murder prosecution resulting in finding of manslaughter). This right is particularly obvious in cases in which the evidence is not clear concerning which of two persons is the active perpetrator of the crime and which of them is an aider and abettor of the active perpetrator. Id. There is, after all, a safeguard against abuse as a result of the prosecution's burden to prove any theory it asserts by evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. We are convinced that defendant has failed to establish denial of due process based on the State's theory of prosecution in the Wendelsdorf trial and defendant's trial. The theories of prosecution on the murder charges against the respective defendants are not a consideration in deciding this issue because both defendants were acquitted of that charge. Similarly, the sexual-abuse charge against Wendelsdorf is not a consideration because defendant was not charged with sexual abuse of Shelby. To the extent that the State may have contended at defendant's trial that she was guilty of child endangerment as a result of not preventing Wendelsdorf from sexually abusing Shelby, that contention was not inconsistent with any theory of prosecution advanced by the State in Wendelsdorf's prosecution. With respect to the allegations of child endangerment made against defendant, they are not inconsistent with any theory of prosecution pursued against Wendelsdorf. He was not charged with child endangerment. To the extent that evidence was offered at his trial that he had physically abused Shelby, there was no effort to link that evidence to the specific skeletal injuries that were the basis for the district court's findings of child endangerment on defendant's part.