Opinion ID: 768244
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Kranz's Testimony

Text: 10 Kranz testified at Dye's trial that he had been offered no deals or promises by state or federal officials at any time. Dye points out that both an assistant county attorney and an assistant United States attorney wrote letters in July of 1981 describing Kranz's cooperation in the murder investigation. Dye contends that these letters, which were not disclosed to Dye until after his conviction, are evidence of inducement for Kranz to testify against him and that even if they were unrelated to Kranz's trial testimony, they still constitute evidence that Kranz had had a deal with the government, and thus raise an inference that Kranz likely had another agreement for his testimony. 11 We find no clear error in the district court's finding that Kranz did not have a deal and that Dye did not successfully rebut the presumption of the correctness of the state court's determination. The letters written on Kranz's behalf stressed his voluntary cooperation in helping to solve the murder and only mention the probability that he would testify at Dye's trial. Kranz had pled guilty to federal charges before the pizzeria murder occurred and was sentenced approximately a week after Dye's arrest, months before the letters were written. That Kranz moved for a reduction in his federal sentence a month before Dye's trial and may have used the letters as support does not clearly and convincingly belie the proposition that the government had no arrangements with Kranz, either during the investigation or during Dye's trial. The state court that heard Dye's third petition noted that such sentence reduction motions are routinely filed and that the sentence Kranz ultimately received was entirely within the discretion of the federal judge. Kranz may certainly have hoped that his cooperation with authorities in solving the crime would help him, but the letters do not present clear, convincing evidence of an inducement. Accordingly, we cannot say that the district court clearly erred in finding that no deals had been made.