Opinion ID: 781039
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Chendo and Nnedi's Inconsistent Statements

Text: 86 Eze also argues that his counsel failed to sufficiently emphasize Chendo and Nnedi's changing story about the abuse and who participated in it. We agree that any inconsistencies in the girls' stories were absolutely critical to the defense. The case against the defendants was built predominantly on the girls' testimony. Therefore, it is hard to imagine anything more important for the defense than calling into question the veracity of the children's testimony about the abuse. Indeed, Eze's counsel emphasized in her opening statement that the girls' inconsistent stories would be a focus of Eze's defense: [Y]ou're going to hear inconsistencies, you're going to hear that my client was not mentioned until after, long after the incident. 87 Defense counsel faced the unenviable task of cross-examining two young girls who, according to the prosecution, were victims of heinous and brutal sexual abuse. Therefore, defense counsel needed to draw out inconsistencies in the girls' stories, yet take caution not to cross the line by questioning these sympathetic witnesses too severely in the presence of the jury. Eze's counsel highlighted several inconsistencies in the children's story, such as whether Okongwu was with Eze when Eze picked up the girls in June 1991, whether Okongwu would have intercourse with them on the mattress or on the floor, and whether Eze and Wosu came downstairs during the June 1991 incident. In addition, Eze's counsel elicited testimony from Chendo that she went over her testimony with McNair in preparation for trial. 88 Yet, while we understand the reluctance to appear aggressive toward the victims, one key inconsistency that would have severely undercut the children's credibility was inexplicably ignored by defense counsel. Henry's notes from her January 1992 interviews with the girls reported that Chendo and Nnedi both stated they wanted to see Uncle Lewis [sic] because they wanted to ask him if he knew about `what our father did to us.' This evidence seems of enormous value for Eze's defense because it significantly undermines the girls' trial testimony that Eze sexually abused them in November 1991. The statement reported in Henry's notes is much more valuable than the girls' initial silence regarding Eze's participation, which the jury could have disregarded after hearing Henry's testimony that sexually abused children experience suppression and gradual disclosure stages. Yet, for whatever reason, no effort was made by defense counsel to present this evidence. `[A]n attorney's failure to present available exculpatory evidence is ordinarily deficient, unless some cogent tactical or other consideration justified it.' Pavel, 261 F.3d at 220 (quoting Griffin v. Warden, 970 F.2d 1355, 1358 (4th Cir.1992)). In addition, it seems that the defense could have offered this evidence without the undesirable effect of aggressively questioning the girls on cross examination. 89 Eze also criticizes his counsel's attempts to impeach Chendo with her statements to the grand jury and to the police, claiming that his counsel failed miserably because of her lack of familiarity with basic foundational rules for impeaching witnesses. Eze therefore argues that the jury may have inferred the nonexistence of prior inconsistent statements which did exist, as well as the existence of consistent statements which did not exist. While the impeachment of Chendo did not go smoothly, the problems did not appear to arise from defense counsel's ineptitude, but rather from the difficulties inherent to impeaching a nine-year-old child. Nonetheless, Eze's counsel was able to bring forth several inconsistencies between Chendo's trial testimony and both her grand jury testimony and statements to the police. We thus do not find deficient the defense's impeachment of Chendo. 90