Opinion ID: 2286083
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: First 23-110 motion

Text: In his first 23-110 motion, Thomas claimed that his trial counsel was ineffective because he failed to obtain and present a toxicology report on the percentage of alcohol in the complainant's blood and to present a toxicologist who would explain to the jury how such a level of blood alcohol would be likely to affect the complainant's ability to perceive accurately and to recall those perceptions. The majority disposes of the claim of ineffectiveness on the ground that there was no Strickland prejudice because of the purported strength of the complainant's identification of Thomas as his attacker. Unlike the majority, I do not think that the government's case, nor the identification, was particularly strong. The only issue in contention before the jury was whether Thomas was the person who struck the complainant, Roberts, with a pipe for no apparent reason. The only evidence to that effect was provided by Roberts, who identified Thomas from a photo array and then picked him from a line-up several weeks after the incident. Roberts did not know Thomas personally, nor his name, but testified that he remembered his face from seeing him all up and down Georgia Avenue. There was serious doubt, however, about Roberts' ability to accurately perceive, and later identify, Thomas. First, Roberts testified that, at the time of the incident, he was operating on 1 ½ to 2 hours' sleep after a night of drinking twenty-four beers. In addition to being inebriated when he was attacked, an equally serious doubt about Roberts's credibility was raised by the fact that, right after the attack, he had identified by name a co-worker as involved in his attack  a fact that the majority fails to mention. This statement was made to the police officer who visited Roberts at the Washington Hospital Center where he was being treated for the injuries from the attack. Roberts then changed his mind and identified Thomas several weeks later as his assailant. [1] The weakness of Roberts's identification, when coupled with the randomness of the attack, and no apparent motive on the part of Thomas to attack Roberts, whom Thomas did not know, hardly makes for an overwhelming government case. This weakness must be viewed in the context of Thomas's argument that, had his trial counsel attacked Roberts's credibility by presenting to the jury expert testimony on how impaired his perceptual abilities would have been from his heavy drinking, he would not have testified in order to present an alibi. As a result of taking the stand, Thomas was impeached with prior convictions including possession of an unregistered firearm, possession of unregistered ammunition, and carrying a pistol without a license (CPWL). [2] I would therefore not dispose of the first 23-110 motion on a lack of Strickland prejudice grounded on the strength of the government's case. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984) (defining prejudice as reasonable probability, that, but for counsel's unreasonable performance, outcome of trial would be different, or confidence in verdict is lacking). [3] Instead, I would affirm the trial court's denial of the first 23-110 motion because, as the trial court determined, the allegedly deficient performance of counsel, the failure to introduce a toxicology report and to call a toxicology expert, was not so unreasonable as to fall below the range of acceptable performance by counsel in a case where Roberts had testified to drinking a case of beer and having almost no sleep the night before. As jurors are presumed to know the effects of such heavy drinking, see Harris v. District of Columbia, 601 A.2d 21 (D.C.1991), counsel reasonably could decide that they were able to evaluate the accuracy of a drunk Roberts's identification of Thomas without expert assistance.