Opinion ID: 202184
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Introduce Testimony of Phyllis Danieli

Text: 52 Knight argues that his counsel acted ineffectively by failing to call Phyllis Danieli as a witness to testify that she had seen the victim alive the day before his body was discovered — while Knight was on a bus to Florida. Danieli had a distinct memory of seeing the victim alive because he invited her to stop by his apartment that evening, and the next day, when she learned of his death, she realized that if she had accepted his invitation, she too might have been murdered. However, Danieli, herself a drug user, was unable to recall the exact date she had seen the victim. 53 The SJC ruled that Knight's trial counsel's decision was strategic because Danieli's testimony was both cumulative of six other witnesses who said they had seen the victim before his body was discovered and also subject to severe impeachment because she had been arrested previously, had bought and used drugs immediately after having coffee with the victim, and could not remember the date when she last saw the victim other than it was June. Knight, 773 N.E.2d at 402. Knight argues that while the other witnesses were subject to attacks on cross-examination because they had seen the victim daily for years and could not distinguish one day from the next, Danieli had not seen the victim for many years and had particular reason to remember the occasion because she realized she might have been present at what became the murder scene. Knight dismisses her potential credibility problems on the grounds that her failure to remember the precise date (six months after the fact) was immaterial and that the credibility of drug users was an issue throughout the case since the government's primary witness, Kelley, was herself a drug user. 54 As noted, however, counsel's performance is strongly presumed to fall within the range of reasonable professional judgment. Counsel was able to see and assess the likely demeanor and appearance of potential witnesses. Since Knight had called six alibi witnesses, and since Danieli was open to significant impeachment, it was appropriate for the SJC, and then the district court, to conclude that the trial counsel's decision was a tactical one rather than the result of ineffective assistance. The SJC's decision was an appropriate application of Strickland's insistence on the `wide latitude counsel must have in making tactical decisions.' Horton v. Allen, 370 F.3d 75, 86-87 (1st Cir.2004), cert. denied, 543 U.S. 1093, 125 S.Ct. 971, 160 L.Ed.2d 905 (2005) (SJC reasonably applied Strickland when it determined that counsel was not ineffective for failing to call several witnesses; upholding denial of habeas petition). 55