Opinion ID: 668236
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Counsel at the Second Trial

Text: 7 Jefferson's conduct of the case must be reviewed in the context of the first trial and what Sheldon's first attorney did therewith. To begin, when Sheldon's first attorney elected to spare Xavier from testifying in favor of an argument that Sheldon was not at the site of the shooting, he left the second defense lawyer with severely circumscribed choices, if the lawyer knew all the facts. If Xavier testified in the second trial that he was the shooter, it would undercut the alibi defense since Xavier said one of the people with him was Kelvin, who was an alibi witness at the first trial. The other person with Xavier was Sheldon, who was home playing cards according to the alibi witnesses. The carry-over effect of the first attorney's refusal to call Xavier as a witness during the first trial prejudiced Sheldon at the second trial by making it difficult to pursue that defense. Further, Jefferson did not even interview Xavier in order to ascertain the content and veracity of Xavier's story or to determine whether Xavier would have been willing to testify during the second trial. Consequently, Jefferson did not know that Xavier's story would contradict the alibi defense. Even if Jefferson was fully aware of Xavier's confession, he should have spoken directly with Xavier in order to obtain potentially helpful details of the incident and to explore Xavier's willingness to testify. 8 Also, Jefferson should have asked Xavier to record a statement confessing to the murder, or at least discussing the incident, as Klein later did. 9 8 As respondent has suggested, Jefferson may have shied away from calling Xavier to testify during the second trial because he (Jefferson) was fearful that Xavier would have lied on the witness stand in order to help Sheldon. If so, after interviewing Xavier, Jefferson could have decided what he, as an attorney, then was required to do or not to do. That is particularly true in the face of Mrs. Sanders' seemingly simple and unequivocal statement to Jefferson that Xavier had told her that he, Xavier, not Sheldon, had fired the rifle. 9 The key question, if any, left open at the first trial was whether or not Sheldon was the shooter, not whether or not Sheldon was present. The alibi defense pursued by Jefferson, under those circumstances, was not very persuasive, and the defense that Xavier was the shooter obviously would have been more effective if Xavier himself so had testified. Thus, Jefferson's failure to interview Xavier prevented Jefferson from learning of all possible facts which would have been helpful to the defense in the second trial, both with regard to the identity of the shooter and in exposing the weakness of the alibi defense. In that context, we cannot credit Jefferson with making a sound tactical choice not to call Xavier as a witness in the second trial. Only the tug of conflicting interests of the various members of the Sanders family reasonably can explain that decision. Jefferson, in our view, was dominated by loyalties to Xavier and to the family. 10 During the state habeas evidentiary proceeding, Abramson, former counsel for Sheldon, offered testimony regarding statements allegedly made to her by Jefferson. Those statements were admitted by the referee over the hearsay objection of the government. 10 According to testimony offered into evidence during the state habeas evidentiary proceeding, Jefferson told Abramson, after she reminded Jefferson that he was not representing Xavier during the trial, that he didn't see any reason to get Xavier involved and felt he was representing the family. The short answer to that remark is that, regardless of any sense of obligation by Jefferson to Xavier and/or to the Sanders family, if that impulse impeded his vigorous, undiluted representation of Sheldon, Jefferson had no choice but to respect and perform his duty to Sheldon. 11 That is particularly true in this case, in which the record includes evidence making it quite probable that, in fact, Xavier committed the murder. While Xavier's testimony might have damaged Sheldon's other defenses by contradicting both Sheldon's inside shot defense and the testimony of one or more of Sheldon's alibi witnesses, such potential harm would appear far outweighed by the enormous need to present the testimony of a witness who specifically claimed responsibility for the murder. Under the circumstances of this case, we cannot avoid the conclusion that Jefferson's representation of Sheldon was adversely affected by the conflicts of interest which faced Jefferson, as well as by those facing Bledstein.