Opinion ID: 2273504
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: summary of the trial court's decision and the majority opinion

Text: The petitioner raised several claims in his petition for a new trial, including the claim that he is entitled to a new trial on the basis of the newly discovered Bryant evidence and certain revelations about Garr, including Garr's apparent hostility toward the petitioner and the petitioner's family. [12] I first summarize the trial court's and the majority's treatment of the Bryant evidence. At the hearing on the petition for a new trial, the trial court was informed that Bryant had invoked his privilege against self-incrimination at a deposition that had been noticed by the petitioner for the purpose of exploring Bryant's knowledge of certain information that he previously had provided, during a video-recorded interview, directly implicating Hasbrouck and Tinsley in the victim's murder. The petitioner also presented the court with that video-recorded interview, claiming that, because Bryant was unavailable as a witness, the statements contained therein, although hearsay, would be admissible at a new trial because they were against Bryant's penal interest and bore sufficient indicia of reliability. [13] The petitioner also claimed that Bryant's statements were admissible under the residual exception to the hearsay rule. The trial court agreed with the petitioner's first claim that the statements were admissible under the hearsay exception for trustworthy declarations against penal interest, and, therefore, the court did not address the petitioner's alternative ground of admissibility. The trial court also concluded, however, that Bryant's statements were not credible. That conclusion was based primarily on the court's predicate finding that Bryant's statements were supported by no more than minimal corroboration, and on certain evidence adduced at the hearing, including testimony establishing that Bryant did not come forward with the information for more than twenty-five years and that [n]o one ha[d] any recall of ever seeing Bryant and his companions in Belle Haven on the night of the murder. Having concluded that Bryant's statements were not credible, the trial court did not consider those statements in the context of the evidence adduced at the petitioner's original trial. In its review of the trial court's decision, the majority declines to decide whether the trial court properly determined that the Bryant evidence would be admissible at a new trial as trustworthy third party statements against penal interest. The majority explains that there is no need to do so because, in its view, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that Bryant's account of the relevant events, although sufficiently trustworthy to be admissible, is not credible. [14] In light of its determination that the trial court reasonably concluded that the Bryant evidence simply is not sufficiently believable to have a bearing on the jury's assessment of the state's case, the majority also does not engage in an evaluation of the strength of that case. The petitioner also claimed that Garr's relationship with Levitt, the author of a book about the case that was published after the petitioner's criminal trial, and certain revelations about the publication and content of that book, constitute newly discovered evidence that warrants a new trial. In support of his claim, the petitioner relied in part on the fact that, at the discovery stage of his criminal case, he had sought the disclosure of evidence that any agent of the state had a pecuniary or other interest in the development and/or outcome of [the] case, including, but not limited to, any contract, agreement, or ongoing negotiations, which relate to the preparation of any book.... Although it is undisputed that the trial court's ruling regarding the petitioner's discovery request in his criminal case applied to Garr, the state never provided the petitioner with any information in response to that request. Despite undisputed evidence of a previously undisclosed private pact between Garr and Levitt that the two would tell [their] story when the case was over  a story that, when ultimately told, reveals how passionately they believed that the petitioner, aided in a cover-up by other members of his family, was responsible for the victim's death, how aggressively they pursued the case against the petitioner, and how intensely Garr disliked him and his family  the trial court in the present case concluded that the agreement was neither newly discovered nor evidence that would have swayed the jury as to lead it to acquit. Finally, the trial court also rejected the petitioner's claim that a new trial was required because of the state's failure to disclose Garr's one-half financial interest in the net revenues from Levitt's book. The majority assumes without deciding that the evidence of Garr and Levitt's relationship was newly discovered but concludes that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the petitioner was not entitled to a new trial because the petitioner failed to prove that the evidence probably would result in an acquittal upon retrial. III