Opinion ID: 2508357
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The People unjustifiably used inconsistent and irreconcilable theories to obtain a death sentence against Sakarias

Text: Prosecutor Ipsen attributed first to Waidla alone and later to Sakarias alone, in their respective trials, a series of blows to the victim's head with the hatchet blade. These two theories are irreconcilable; that Waidla alone inflicted each of these wounds, as the prosecutor maintained at his trial, and that Sakarias alone also did so, as the prosecutor maintained at his trial, is not possible. One or the other theory (or both, if each man inflicted some but not all of the wounds) must be false. The acts attributed to both Waidla and Sakarias in turn were not necessary to establish their guilt of first degree murder (Pen.Code, § 189) or the truth of the charged robbery- and burglary-murder special circumstances ( id., § 190.2, subd. (a)(17)). But the prosecutor attributed the three hatchet-edge blows to each defendant in turn in order to establish an aggravating circumstance of the crime ( id., § 190.3) on the basis of which the jury was urged to sentence each defendant to death. At least where the punishment involved is death, due process is as offended by the People's inconsistent and irreconcilable attribution of culpability-increasing acts as by the inconsistent and irreconcilable attribution of crimes. (See Jacobs v. Scott, supra, 513 U.S. at p. 1070, 115 S.Ct. 711 [heightened need for reliability in capital cases underscores the gravity of prosecutorial inconsistency]; Prosecutorial Inconsistency, supra, 89 Cal. L.Rev. at pp. 1468-1470 [consistency as to both defendants' guilt of crime does not justify inconsistency as to culpability, where pertinent to capital sentence].) We cannot accept the dissent's apparent view (see conc. & dis. opn. of Baxter, J., post, 25 Cal.Rptr.3d at pp. 297-298, 106 P.3d at pp. 957-958) that the state may seek and obtain death sentences for two defendants using inconsistent or irreconcilable factual theories that it could not use to obtain convictions against the same two. Because Ipsen used different attributions of the chopping wounds to argue each petitioner should receive the death penalty, his factual theories were significantly inconsistent and irreconcilable. The present case is thus critically distinguishable from those in which the prosecutor's theories were held fundamentally consistent because any variation did not concern a fact used to convict the defendant or increase his or her punishment. (See Nguyen v. Lindsey (9th Cir.2000) 232 F.3d 1236, 1240-1241 [variation in prosecutorial argument as to which of two gangs fired the first shot in a gun battle that killed a bystander not significant where prosecutor at both trials pursued the same underlying theory that all participants in the gang battle were equally responsible for the death].) [3] Unlike those cases, here Ipsen's underlying theory of why petitioners each deserved the death penalty was not the same in the two cases; in Waidla's case, it included Waidla's supposed striking of all three blows with the hatchet blade, while in Sakarias's case it included Sakarias's striking the same three blows. [4] We turn to the question of justification. As observed earlier, in Farmer, supra, 47 Cal.3d at page 923, 254 Cal.Rptr. 508, 765 P.2d 940, we suggested inconsistent prosecutorial argument was not improper if made in good faith. We did not, however, explicate in Farmer the concepts of good and bad faith in the context of prosecutorial inconsistency. The Thompson plurality suggested a prosecutor's change in theories could be justified where new significant evidence comes to light between the trials. ( Thompson, supra, 120 F.3d at p. 1058.) We agree a significant change in the available evidence might, under some circumstances, warrant the use of an inconsistent prosecutorial theory in a subsequent trial. [5] Here, one difference in evidence between the two trials was the introduction at Waidla's trial, but not at Sakarias's, of Dr. Ribe's testimony that the abrasion on the victim's back was nonhemorrhagic and therefore appeared to have been inflicted after death. But Ipsen's deliberate strategic choice in Sakarias's trial not to examine Dr. Ribe regarding the abrasion on the victim's lower back, as he had done a few months earlier at Waidla's trial, plainly cannot establish Ipsen's good faith or otherwise justify the use of irreconcilable theories. To the contrary, such manipulation of the evidence for the purpose of pursuing inconsistent theories establishes the prosecutor's bad faith. Indeed, as a commentator has remarked, cases in which a prosecutor's use of inconsistent theories in successive trials reflects a deliberate change in the evidence presented are particularly clear violations: In extreme cases, the prosecutorial inconsistency signals intentional manipulation by the prosecution and is readily characterized as a violation of due process. ( Prosecutorial Inconsistency, supra, 89 Cal. L.Rev. at p. 1474; see, e.g., Smith, supra, 205 F.3d at p. 1051 [prosecution's manipulation of the evidence enabled it to use factually contradictory theories].) Ipsen's deliberate omission of evidence for the purpose of making possible his use of inconsistent and irreconcilable theories makes Sakarias's trial such an extreme case[ ]. ( Prosecutorial Inconsistency, supra, 89 Cal. L.Rev. at p. 1474; cf. ABA Model Code Prof. Responsibility, EC 7-13 [Further, a prosecutor should not intentionally avoid pursuit of evidence merely because he believes it will damage the prosecution's case or aid the accused].) [6] The referee found, on substantial evidence, that Ipsen omitted questioning about the back abrasion in order to avoid presenting evidence inconvenient to his new theory that Sakarias had inflicted all three chopping wounds to the victim's head. Such intentional manipulation of the evidence was instrumental to, and cannot justify, the prosecutor's use of irreconcilable theories. The inconsistent argument in Sakarias's trial was not made with the good faith to which we alluded in Farmer, supra, 47 Cal.3d at page 923, 254 Cal.Rptr. 508, 765 P.2d 940. The dissenting opinion finds no indication of bad faith in Ipsen's conduct because, where the information available to the prosecutor is of public record or has been disclosed to the defense, the People would not generally be required to introduce, in their own case, evidence helpful to the defense.  (Conc. & dis. opn. of Baxter, J., post, 25 Cal.Rptr.3d at p. 292, 106 P.3d at p. 953.) We agree no due process violation arises simply from a prosecutor's failure to introduce evidence favorable to the defense. But where, as here, a prosecutor who seeks convictions or death sentences against two individuals through inconsistent and irreconcilable factual theories deliberately omits in one trial evidence used in the other, so as to make possible the argument of the inconsistent theories, the prosecutor's manipulation of evidence does show that the inconsistent theories were not pursued in good faith. The People, therefore, deprived Sakarias of due process by unjustifiably using inconsistent and irreconcilable factual theories to obtain a death sentence against him. Whether that conduct was prejudicial must still be determined. (See part II.B.3, post. ) [7] Whether the prosecutor can be said to have manipulated the evidence at Waidla's trial is less clear. Sakarias's confession was not introduced at Waidla's trial because Ipsen assumed it would be ruled inadmissiblea realistic assumption. At oral argument, counsel for Waidla asserted that Ipsen had deliberately failed to introduce at Waidla's trial crime scene evidence, which he did introduce at Sakarias's later trial, regarding blood spatters in the bedroom. But this evidence did not, in light of the other physical evidence, strongly suggest the victim was killed in the bedroom, and the record does not establish whether Ipsen omitted it at Waidla's trial in order to avoid such an implication. We need not decide whether the prosecutor acted in bad faith at Waidla's trial, however, because, as we conclude below, the probably false aspects of the argument Ipsen made in seeking the death penalty against Waidla were not reasonably likely to have influenced the verdict. (See part II.B.4, post. )