Opinion ID: 782567
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Preparation and Presentation of David Vogel

Text: 164 Vogel's testimony, which was intended to discredit jailhouse informant Freddie Williams's testimony, was completely undermined by the prosecutor on cross-examination. Vogel, who had himself acted as a jailhouse informant in several previous cases, denied ever giving police or prosecutors false information about another inmate. He then admitted talking to the police about Alcala, with whom he had also been in jail, but claimed that he did not remember what he told the police. The prosecutor then confronted him with an interview he had given to the police in 1979, in which Vogel stated that Alcala had confessed to him that he murdered Samsoe. Vogel ultimately testified that he had lied to the police about Alcala's confession to him, but that he was not lying in his testimony under oath, in part because he had converted to Christianity in the interim. 165 In addition to this evidence, the district court made several factual findings to support its conclusion that Alcala's trial counsel's performance was constitutionally deficient; none of these findings is clearly erroneous. First, trial counsel knew about Vogel's 1979 police interview prior to putting Vogel on the stand. Vogel was a former client of Alcala's trial counsel, and when the prosecutor sought to play a tape of the interview at trial, trial counsel volunteered, Your honor, I have a transcription of the tape.... If the court wishes we can Xerox this. It's my understanding this was prepared by ... the district attorney's office, back in 1979. 166 The district court also found that prior to testifying at trial, Vogel had given little thought to the fact that he had previously reported that Alcala had made incriminating statements. Vogel's own testimony, in which he stated that he could not remember telling police that Alcala had confessed to him, supports this finding. 167 Finally, the district court found that Alcala's trial counsel failed to forewarn Vogel that this topic would likely be covered during cross-examination and failed to ascertain for himself how Vogel would likely respond. Again, Vogel's own testimony is evidence of a lack of preparation. Furthermore, at the evidentiary hearing, trial counsel confirmed that his general practice was not to interview witnesses himself — let alone prepare them for specific topics of cross-examination — but merely to say a few words to them in the hallway immediately prior to calling them. 168 Given these facts, we must determine whether Alcala's trial counsel's conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Although an attorney's performance is generally entitled to a strong presumption of competence, see id., deference to the attorney's strategic decisions is diminished where the attorney has not done the preparation necessary to make informed decisions; in particular, the decision not to call a witness is entitled to less deference if the attorney has not interviewed the witness. See Lord, 184 F.3d at 1095 & n. 8. The same holds true for an attorney's decision to call a witness whom he has not interviewed or otherwise prepared. 169 Here, we fail to see, and California fails to explain, how the decision to call Vogel without preparing him for cross-examination could possibly `be considered sound trial strategy.' Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689, 104 S.Ct. 2052 (quoting Michel, 350 U.S. at 101, 76 S.Ct. 158). Any competent attorney would have made an effort to find out what Vogel would say when asked about his statements to the police incriminating Alcala. There is no suggestion that trial counsel had limited access to Vogel before the trial; indeed, Vogel was his former client. We need not determine whether, after proper preparation, the decision to call Vogel might have been a reasonable exercise of professional judgment. In the absence of such preparation, Alcala's trial counsel's performance was clearly deficient. 170 We agree that this deficiency prejudiced Alcala and should be included in the cumulative error analysis. If Alcala's trial counsel had adequately prepared Vogel to testify, two outcomes are likely: either Vogel would have been forthright in his testimony about his 1979 interview with the police, or trial counsel would have realized that the 1979 interview was a serious liability and elected not to call Vogel at all. Either way, we can assume that Vogel's initial evasive answers, which greatly damaged his credibility, were likely the result of defense counsel's incompetence. See, e.g., Johnson v. Baldwin, 114 F.3d 835, 840 (9th Cir.1997) (noting that if attorney had confronted witness with evidence that his testimony was false, the witness probably would have elected not to lie to the jury). 171 We have no trouble concluding that Alcala would have been better off if Vogel had either not testified at all or testified credibly. If Vogel had not testified, his statement to the police that Alcala had confessed to murdering Samsoe would not have been admitted. If he had testified candidly, he would have been more useful as an impeachment witness against Williams, lessening the impact of Williams's testimony that Alcala had confessed to him. Because a defendant's own confession is probably the most probative and damaging evidence that can be admitted against him, Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 296, 111 S.Ct. 1246, 113 L.Ed.2d 302 (1991) (internal quotation marks omitted), either of these outcomes would have been more favorable than the damaging testimony that Vogel actually gave. The district court properly included the prejudice from this deficiency in the cumulative error analysis. 172