Opinion ID: 613237
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Alternate-Suspects Evidence

Text: Jalowiec contends that the prosecution withheld significant, credible evidence regarding alternate suspectssuspects who actually had a motive to kill Lally. Jalowiec identifies several trial witnesses, including all three Smiths, Terry Hopkins, and Vernard Berry, who, unlike him, were involved in the drug world. Jalowiec also refers to an undisclosed transcript of a November 29, 1995 interview with a Melissa Arroyo, who told officers that Danny Smith had told her that he, Danny, had killed Lally. Finally, Jalowiec refers to several potential suspects named in various police reports as being close to Danny Smith or having involvement with Lally. These bases for Jalowiec's Brady claim were not asserted in his amended habeas petition, but only in his traverse. It is apparently for this reason that the district court properly declined to address these asserted grounds for relief. See Tyler v. Mitchell, 416 F.3d 500, 504 (6th Cir.2005) (holding that district court did not err in declining to address claim first raised in traverse rather than in habeas petition). Even if we were to find these grounds properly presented, they would be unavailing. Jalowiec's identification of trial witnesses as alternate suspects is based largely on their trial testimony and is not undisclosed Brady evidence at all. Further, the mere fact that these witnesses were allegedly involved in the drug world is insufficient to render them suspects in Lally's murder. According to Melissa Arroyo's statement, Danny Smith told her that he killed somebody in the fall season; that they beat the crap out of him and then um, they tied his feet to the bumper and they drove him up and down the street, and then they ran him over. Danny did not tell her who the person was and she had no idea whether Danny was referring to Lally. Although this statement might be deemed Brady material, Jalowiec has not shown how it could have been used, in view of the other trial evidence, to call the integrity of the verdict into question. The remaining alternate-suspects evidence Jalowiec cites is so vague or peripheral to the facts of the Lally murder that it can hardly be deemed exculpatory, much less material.
Jalowiec contends that the prosecution revealed only after trial that Detective Leiby had arranged for the placement of snitches, including Danny Smith, in his pre-trial cell in a vain attempt to procure admissions. He contends that he made no incriminating statements and that he should have been able to use this information at trial to discredit the prosecution. This theory of relief was not asserted in Jalowiec's petition either, but only in his traverse. It was not addressed by the district court and is not properly before us. See Tyler, 416 F.3d at 504. The claim is patently meritless in any event because Jalowiec has offered no rationale whereby his asserted silence or failure to make an incriminating statement could be deemed exculpatory evidence that the prosecution was obliged to disclose under Brady.