Opinion ID: 1781175
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to Impeach

Text: Phillips complains of trial counsel's failure to impeach two witnesses. The mere failure to impeach a witness, however, does not entitle a movant to postconviction relief. State v. Dunn, 889 S.W.2d 65, 76 (Mo.App.1994). Rather, movant has the burden of showing that the impeachment would have provided her with a defense or would have changed the outcome of the trial, and she must also overcome the presumption that counsel's decision not to impeach was a matter of trial strategy. Id. The first claim is that counsel should have impeached Jean Walker's testimony that she saw a car similar to Phillips' car in the area where Plaster's body was found shortly before the body was discovered. This testimony, Phillips explains, should have been countered with Walker's prior statement that she saw two people in the car. This prior statement, we observe, is not necessarily inconsistent, but even if it was, counsel was not unreasonable to decline to use it. Co-counsel testified at the evidentiary hearing that he did not want to present the jury with the possibility that two people were acting together in Plaster's murder, because the jury might conclude that Phillips was one of those people. In this instance, Phillips has not overcome the presumption that counsel's decision not to impeach with this statement was reasonable trial strategy. Next Phillips claims that counsel should have impeached Ethel Griep's trial testimony that she met Phillips in Branson on October 6, 1990, at close to 5:00 p.m. with Griep's prior inconsistent statement to the police that she met Phillips between 4:00 and 4:30 p.m. The prior inconsistent statement was important to Phillips' case because it placed her in Branson closer to 4:00 p.m., which was the time, according to other evidence, that the body was discarded miles away. Despite Phillips' allegations, counsel did in fact question Griep about her prior statement, and she responded that she did not remember its contents, but that her memory would have been clearer when she made the prior statement. The point is denied.