Opinion ID: 440199
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Recantations of Wesley Johnson.

Text: 48 Finally, Smith contends that the district court should also receive evidence concerning the post-trial recantations of Wesley Johnson. A panel of this court recently addressed a similar claim in Drake v. Francis, 727 F.2d 990 (11th Cir.1984). This court vacated the opinion in Drake for en banc consideration, and we recently received briefs and heard oral argument on several issues raised in Drake. We see no need to hold this case pending the decision in Drake, however. We perceive that the panel in Drake accurately stated the law in this circuit concerning claims of newly discovered evidence in habeas corpus proceedings. 49 As long ago as 1958, the former Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals summarized the law in this area: Newly discovered evidence in the form of a confession by another does not render the conviction void and subject to collateral attack by habeas corpus because it goes to the merits of the conviction, not its legality. Shaver v. Ellis, 255 F.2d 509, 511 (5th Cir.1958), cert. denied, 355 U.S. 864, 78 S.Ct. 98, 2 L.Ed.2d 70 (1957). To be distinguished are situations in which the new evidence bears directly on the constitutionality of the conviction. For example, in Schneider v. Estelle, 552 F.2d 593 (5th Cir.1977), the petitioner claimed new evidence would show that the state had suborned perjury in obtaining a conviction against the petitioner. The court remanded for an evidentiary hearing, holding that the writ should issue if the petitioner proved the allegations of his complaint. Id. at 596; see also Smith v. Florida, 410 F.2d 1349 (5th Cir.1969). 50 In this case, we seriously doubt that Smith has alleged subornation of perjury by the state. To prove such a claim, Smith would have to show that the prosecutor or the police officers knew that the testimony of one of the Johnsons was false. Schneider, 552 F.2d at 595; Smith, 410 F.2d at 1350-51. Smith has made no proffer of any evidence supporting such a contention. Absent such evidence, this claim does not warrant habeas corpus relief.