Opinion ID: 1591177
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: King-Frazier Money DealResidual Doubt Mitigating Evidence

Text: At the guilt phase of the original trial, the only witness who directly implicated the defendant in this crime was prison inmate Raven Snake Frazier who testified that the defendant had admitted to raping and killing the victim. See Hartman, 703 S.W.2d at 112-113. Subsequently, the defendant claimed that the State had hidden from the defense the fact that it had paid another inmate, Kenny King, money for Frazier's testimony. This issue was raised as a violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), in the defendant's post-conviction relief petition, and it was ultimately rejected by this Court. See Hartman, 896 S.W.2d at 101-102. At the re-sentencing hearing, the State did not re-introduce Frazier's testimony about the defendant's confession or present any testimony by King. However, to establish the mitigating circumstance of residual doubt, the defendant sought to introduce proof regarding the payments to King and the benefits Frazier received for his testimony. The trial court refused to allow the defense to offer this proof, finding that evidence regarding the prosecution's deal with King and Frazier was not proper residual doubt proof. However, the defendant was allowed to make an offer of proof. The offer of proof established that subsequent to the original trial, defense counsel discovered that certain prosecuting attorneys had conferred with defendant's cellmate Kenny King and agreed to pay King $1000, both to tape-record the defendant making statements about the charges that he was facing and to provide a witness to authenticate the recording. King had indicated that he would not testify under any circumstances, so prosecutors realized that the authenticating witness would be someone other than King, but they were not aware of the witness's identity. Because the tape-recorder malfunctioned, King was unable to record the defendant's statements; however, he provided the name of an authenticating witnessRaven Snake Frazier. Prosecutors did not discuss paying Frazier for his testimony because they admitted that supplying such a witness was just part of the other [$1000] deal. Frazier advised the prosecutors that he had heard the defendant make incriminating statements and agreed to testify. The $1,000 was deposited into King's prison account, with some of the money paid from the personal funds of certain prosecutors. One of the prosecutors had contacted the TBI before paying the money and was informed the money would be repaid by that agency. When asked if he had felt bound to pay Kenny King the $1000 even though he had provided no recording and only the testimony of Frazier, the former district attorney general replied: Oh yeahI feltI had that obligation. The former district attorney general also admitted that he had agreed to write a letter on behalf of Frazier to the Board of Pardons and Paroles indicating Frazier's cooperation with the State in the defendant's case. None of this information was disclosed to Hartman's defense attorney prior to trial. The trial court concluded that the proffered evidence was impeachment evidence relating to Frazier's testimony at the original trial. The court further noted that Frazier did not testify at the re-sentencing hearing and that this testimony would be relevant for the sole purpose of impeaching the first jury's verdict of guilt. The trial court disallowed its introduction, finding that the evidence did not relate to punishment. The Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the defendant's claim that the trial court had erred in refusing to admit this proof, concluding that evidence at a re-sentencing hearing which would be admitted for the sole purpose of attacking the credibility of a witness's testimony at the original trial is not proper residual doubt testimony since it is not testimony that relates to the defendant's character or record or to the circumstances of the offense. While stating that it was arguably unfair that neither jury heard this evidence, the Court of Criminal Appeals said that this was not the issue and that this issue was thoroughly litigated in the defendant's post-conviction proceeding. Before this Court Hartman asserts that, because the evidence of the deal with Kenny King and Raven Frazier would have been admissible at the original trial on the issue of guilt, it is relevant to the existence of residual doubt and the issue of punishment and therefore should have been admitted at the re-sentencing hearing. He also notes that Tenn.Code Ann. § 39-2404(c) (Supp.1980)[now § 39-13-204(c)] provides that the trial court at a capital sentencing hearing may admit any evidence that the court deems relevant to punishment and that such evidence extends beyond the nature and circumstances of the crime and the defendant's character. [9] He also says that this Court's opinion in State v. Teague, 897 S.W.2d 248, 256 (Tenn.1995), fully supports his argument that any evidence admissible at the prior trial should be admissible at re-sentencing. Hartman urges that such evidence was crucial in this case given the prosecutor's repeated argument that the jury was required to give the finding of guilt full faith and credit. Under these circumstances, Hartman argues that the trial court's refusal to admit this proof effectively denied him any opportunity to demonstrate that the verdict is not beyond all doubt, and that, in fact, doubt exists about the prior jury's finding of guilt. The State responds that any evidence that money was paid to Kenny King is not residual doubt evidence because it is not relevant to the circumstances of the crime or the aggravating or mitigating circumstances but only to prosecution efforts to investigate the crime. The State also says that the fact that the prosecutor consistently asked the jury to give full faith and credit to the prior verdict does not allow the defendant to impeach the original verdict because, under Teague , the validity of the conviction is not an issue at a re-sentencing hearing. Finally, the State says that the money evidence was properly excluded because the re-sentencing jury did not hear Frazier's testimony about Hartman's confession. Accordingly, the State asserts that a defendant cannot rebut something that is not presented. A capital sentencing jury may not be precluded from considering, as a mitigating factor, any aspect of a defendant's character or record and any other circumstances of the offense that the defendant proffers as a basis for a sentence less than death. See Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 604, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978). The United States Supreme Court has held that there is no constitutional right to have residual doubt considered as a mitigating factor in a capital sentencing hearing. See Franklin v. Lynaugh, 487 U.S. 164, 174, 108 S.Ct. 2320, 2327, 101 L.Ed.2d 155 (1988). However, just six years ago this Court, in a unanimous decision, held that Tennessee law requires that a defendant be allowed to present evidence at a re-sentencing hearing to establish residual doubt as a nonstatutory mitigating circumstance. See State v. Teague, 897 S.W.2d 248, 256 (1995) ( Teague IV ). In so holding we stated: The defendant's legal argument, that in this case he is entitled to present any exculpatory evidence of which [the State] was aware relating to the defendant's role in or noninvolvement in the killing of [the victim] is supported by the facts of this case as well as the statute and the Tennessee and federal decisions discussed above. Those cases dealt with evidence that had been presented to the jury in the prior trial or evidence that was consistent with the defendant's plea in the prior trial. In none of the cases in which the evidence was held to be admissible in the re-sentencing hearing did the defendant take a position regarding the circumstances of the crime inconsistent in legal principle with that taken at the prior trial. As stated previously, the exact nature of the evidence which the State refused to disclose does not appear in the record. However, the order entered by the trial court applies to any exculpatory evidence . . . relating to the defendant's role in or noninvolvement in the killing of [the victim]. Under the terms of that order, the defendant would be entitled to present evidence regarding the circumstances of the crime, even if one of those circumstances was that the defendant was not a participant. Any evidence within that definition would be consistent with the position taken by the defendant throughout these proceedings. He has consistently maintained that he is not guilty of first degree murder, the offense charged. He insisted on direct appeal in Teague I that the evidence was not sufficient to support the verdict and that the State withheld evidence of a deal with Skinner for his incriminating testimony. On appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals in Teague III, the defendant asserted his innocence of the offense charged and claimed that his conviction was procured by fraud and misrepresentation. To the extent that the nature of evidence held by the State appears in this record, such evidence conforms to the indictment, the defendant's plea and the rules of evidence and, therefore, it would have been admissible at the sentencing hearings in the original trial. Both the statute and prior case law dictate that the defendant has the right to present at the sentencing hearing, whether by the jury which heard the guilt phase or by a jury on re-sentencing, evidence relating to the circumstances of the crime or the aggravating or mitigating circumstances, including evidence which may mitigate his culpability. Evidence otherwise admissible under the pleadings and applicable rules of evidence, is not rendered inadmissible because it may show that the defendant did not kill the victim, so long as it is probative on the issue of the defendant's punishment. Teague IV, 897 S.W.2d at 256 (emphasis added) (internal citations and footnotes omitted). Applying the rule announced in Teague IV , we conclude that the trial court erred in refusing to admit the defendant's proffered evidence of residual doubt. Like Teague, the defendant in this case has consistently maintained his innocence and claimed that he is not guilty of first degree murder. He has insisted both on direct appeal and in a post-conviction action that the State withheld relevant impeachment evidence about a deal it had struck to obtain the incriminating testimony of Frazier. Therefore, as in Teague IV , the evidence Hartman sought to introduce unquestionably conforms to the indictment, the defendant's plea and the rules of evidence, and therefore, it would have been admissible at the original trial. See Teague IV, 897 S.W.2d at 256. Based upon some of the language in Teague IV , [10] the trial court understandably attempted to draw a distinction between evidence that does nothing more than impeach the verdict of the original jury and evidence that directly mitigates culpability by showing that the defendant was not involved in the crime. However, given the constitutional directive that capital sentencing juries not be precluded from considering mitigating circumstances, we decline to adopt an unworkable rule that would require trial courts to engage in intellectual hairsplitting with respect to what is and is not admissible mitigating evidence. By definition, residual doubt is established by proof that casts doubt on the defendant's guilt. It is not limited to proof that mitigates the defendant's culpability for the crime. While we agree with the trial court and the Court of Criminal Appeals that not all impeachment proof will be relevant to show residual doubt, it does not logically follow that impeachment proof will never be relevant to establish residual doubt about the defendant's guilt. Where, as here, the proffered residual doubt proof is impeachment of the testimony of the only witness who offered direct rather than circumstantial proof of the defendant's involvement in the crime, such proof clearly is relevant and admissible to establish residual doubt as a mitigating circumstance. Although we did not explicitly address the admissibility of such evidence in Teague IV , we certainly implied that it was relevant and admissible when we referred to the alleged withheld evidence of a `deal' with Skinner for his incriminating testimony when discussing the evidence that Teague maintained established his innocence. See Teague IV, 897 S.W.2d at 256. In holding that the trial court erred, we reject the State's assertion that the proffered evidence was not admissible because Frazier did not testify at the re-sentencing hearing and therefore the defendant cannot rebut something that is not presented. The simple and obvious answer is that the defendant was not offering the evidence in rebuttal. Instead, the defendant was offering the evidence to establish a mitigating circumstanceresidual doubt. Since Frazier testified before the jury that determined the defendant's guilt, evidence that impeached his testimony was relevant and admissible to establish residual doubt about the defendant's guilt. We also reject the State's argument that this issue was litigated in Hartman's prior post-conviction action that eventually was considered by this Court. While the same course of events was considered in the post-conviction action to determine whether the defendant's rights under either Massiah v. United States, 377 U.S. 201, 84 S.Ct. 1199, 12 L.Ed.2d 246 (1964) or Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963) were violated, the discussion of those issues has no bearing upon whether this proof is relevant and admissible to establish residual doubt as a mitigating circumstance. The residual doubt question at issue in this appeal was presented for the first time only after this Court reversed the defendant's sentence of death and remanded for a re-sentencing hearing. In fact, as a general rule, only in re-sentencing hearings will trial courts be faced with determining what evidence is relevant and admissible to establish residual doubt as a mitigating circumstance because, when the same jury determines guilt and innocence such evidence will have been properly admitted at the guilt phase of the trial. While trial courts have the discretion to control the introduction of such proof to avoid undue delay, or the needless presentation of cumulative evidence, [11] doubts about the admissibility of reliable proof relevant to show residual doubt should be resolved in favor of admissibility. The trial court erred by refusing to allow the defendant to offer impeachment evidence to establish residual doubt at this re-sentencing hearing.