Opinion ID: 461235
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Government Interference with a Defense Witness

Text: 54 The second instance of prosecutorial misconduct raised by the defendants involves the alleged intimidation of a defense witness by the government attorney. Albert Neal Aycock was called at the instance of defendant Rhodes. He was a farmer and had a business interest in a company that sold farm equipment. He knew defendants Rhodes and Nixon through his business dealings with them. Aycock testified that at a chance meeting with defendant Nixon, Nixon had asked him if he knew of anyone that could haul some farm equipment he had just bought. Aycock referred Nixon to defendant Rhodes, who lived near where the purported farm equipment was located, and made arrangements for Nixon to meet with Rhodes. 55 It developed at trial that the government had subpoenaed Aycock in an attempt to have him testify against defendants Rhodes and Nixon. 20 The court conducted a hearing outside the presence of the jury on the government's purported intimidation of Aycock. Counsel for defendants Gilbreth and Snoddy attempted to persuade the court that the government's treatment of Aycock was relevant to and probative of the issues of entrapment and government overreaching. The district court ruled to the contrary and refused to let Aycock's testimony regarding his treatment at the hands of the government to go before the jury. 21 We do not see how the government's purported intimidation of Aycock, a witness called by a defendant who was acquitted, could prejudice the trial of defendants Gilbreth and Snoddy. Defendant Nixon, who stood more to gain by a showing of intimidation of a witness by the government did not even address this issue in his appellate brief. 56 Defendants Gilbreth and Snoddy urge that in United States v. Hammond, 598 F.2d 1008 (5th Cir.1979) this circuit adopted a per se rule of reversal for substantial government interference with a defense witness's free and unhampered choice to testify. Id. at 1012-13. We have reviewed the record regarding the treatment of Aycock by the U.S. Attorney's Office and do not find that it constituted a substantial interference with his willingness to testify for the defense. 22 We note, too, that Aycock testified that his treatment by the government had not altered his substantive testimony as a witness for the defense. 23 Consequently, none of the defendants can complain that he was deprived of his Due Process or Sixth Amendment right to present witnesses to establish a defense. Hammond, 598 F.2d at 1012 n. 3.