Opinion ID: 198913
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the missing crime scene photographs

Text: 45 Roberto Gonzalez Moreno, a Mexican police officer, took thirty-seven photographs of the crime scene, some of which were apparently used during Hughes's murder trial in Mexico. Only nine of these photographs, however, made their way to the United States Attorney's Office for use in the trial. One of these nine photographs depicted one of the two cartridge casings recovered from the crime scene. Hughes insists that this photograph was exculpatory because the cartridge casing depicted in the photograph differed in color from the actual cartridge casing that the government introduced in evidence. Among the missing photographs was one that depicted the second cartridge casing recovered at the crime scene. Extrapolating from the putatively exculpatory value of the picture of the first cartridge casing, Hughes contends that this missing photograph would likely have proven exculpatory as well. Thus, Hughes argued to the court at trial that the government's failure to produce the photograph of the second cartridge casing required the court to exclude both of the actual cartridge casings from evidence. 7 46 The district court rejected this argument, concluding that the government was under no obligation to produce the missing photographs because they were not within the government's control. Moreover, despite Hughes's insistence that the photograph of the first cartridge casing was exculpatory, the court found the color of the casing in that photograph... to be the same as the casing the government intends to offer, and concluded, I fail to see anything exculpatory about it. 47 In affirming the district court's ruling, we need not inquire into the potential exculpatory value of the missing photographs. Because the government was never in control of the photographs, it is not responsible for any failure to produce them. See United States v. Friedman, 593 F.2d 109, 119-20 (9th Cir. 1979) (evidence that was in Chile was not within the control of the government for the purposes of Brady or Rule 16); United States v. Flores, 540 F.2d 432, 437-38 (9th Cir. 1976). It is axiomatic that the government must provide the criminal defendant with access to material exculpatory evidence within its control, see Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87 (1963); see also Fed. R. Crim. P. 16(a)(1)(C), 8 and the government may not in bad faith fail to preserve potentially exculpatory evidence, see Arizona v. Youngblood, 488 U.S. 51, 58 (1988). However, the government has no duty to produce evidence outside of its control, see United States v. Sepulveda, 15 F.3d 1161, 1179 (1st Cir. 1993), and it is not responsible for the preservation of evidence that was never in its control in the first place, see United States v. Lewis, 40 F.3d 1325, 1340 (1st Cir. 1994); United States v. Femia, 9 F.3d 990, 993 (1st Cir. 1993). 48 Although the government obviously did not have physical possession or custody of the missing photographs, Hughes contends that its inadequate efforts to secure the missing photographs from Mexico belied its ability to control them. This argument is unavailing. As the district court aptly explained, Mexico is a sovereign nation, and it's clear that the United States Government has no authority to require the Mexican Government to produce any evidence that may be in its possession or under its control. It has to rely on the Mexican government to comply with reasonable and appropriate requests.The government's persistent, but fruitless, efforts to obtain the missing photographs demonstrate its lack of control over them. In December 1997, the United States Justice Department requested in writing that the Mexican government produce all sketches and photographs of the crime scene; in early 1998, FBI Special Agent Jimmy Garcia asked Mexican officials several times to turn over all evidence in the case, only to be told that such evidence could not be relinquished because it was still under review; eight days before trial, Agent Garcia asked an official in the Mexico Attorney General's office to contact several Queretaro justice officials to help obtain the missing photographs, only to be told that all of the evidence had already been turned over to the U.S. government; one week before trial Agent Garcia asked each of the Mexican officials who were to testify as government witnesses about the photographs in hopes of locating them; and during trial, the FBI's Legate Office in Mexico made yet another request of the Mexican government to search for the missing photographs. Like the district court, we wonder what else the United States Government could have reasonably done under the circumstances. 49