Opinion ID: 2514739
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Failing to Make Appropriate Objections

Text: [¶ 34] Although we reviewed the record in this case observing the tenet that trial counsel is to be given the benefit of the doubt when considering whether a failure to object is actually a strategic decision not to object, we simply cannot accept counsel's performance as adequate under the above-stated test for effective assistance. The district court granted a change of venue for the clear purpose of allowing the appellant's case to be presented to a jury panel that was unaware of, or at least not prejudiced by, his prior convictions in the Forquer and B.C. murder cases. In voir dire, opening statement, cross examination, direct examination, and closing argument, however, defense counsel canceled whatever advantage had been gained by the venue change. In particular, defense counsel's failure to object to clearly objectionable testimony and evidence, patently prejudiced the appellant. Examples of those failures include the failure to object to testimony that the appellant had refused to take a polygraph test, the failure to object to testimony presenting the two officers' opinions that the appellant was guilty, the failure to object to testimony that the appellant was a victim of molestation as a child (possibly leading to the assumption that, as a result, he had become an offender), the failure to object to the prosecutor's lying technique during cross-examination, the failure to object to the court's response to the jury question as to use of the prior conviction evidence (as is further discussed hereinbelow), and perhaps the most egregious failure, the failure to object to the prosecutor hearsaying in the extremely damaging testimony from the Forquer and B.C. murder cases. [¶ 35] We have no confidence that the guilty verdicts in this case were based upon the admissible evidence, and we cannot countenance defense counsel's failure to object or decision not to object to the stream of highly prejudicial and objectionable testimony that was admitted. The underlying structure of defense counsel's apparent theory of the case makes no sense. His premise was that, because the earlier juries had not heard the appellant's testimony, the convictions in the earlier cases were unreliable. It supposedly followed that, upon hearing the truth from the appellant in the present case, this jury would acquit. What is wrong with that construct is that the appellant could have testified in this case without opening the door to all the damaging testimony from the earlier cases. A bit of it may have come in as impeachment via W.R.E. 609, but the vast majority of it was objectionable. Defense counsel filed, and lost, a pretrial hearsay motion directed at B.C.'s statements. For that, counsel cannot be faulted. But the adverse ruling on that pretrial motion did not preclude him from objecting to the deluge of improper testimony about the murder trials, or about his police interrogation. [¶ 36] It is true that this Court has almost invariably excused questionable decisions and actions of defense counsel on the ground that such may have been part of a sound trial strategy. See, e.g., Magallanes v. State, 2006 WY 119, ¶ 21, 142 P.3d 1147, 1153 (Wyo.2006) (failure to subject evidence to forensic testing); Sanchez v. State, 2002 WY 31, ¶ 16, 41 P.3d 531, 535 (Wyo.2002) (stipulation as to cause of victim's death); Cureton v. State, 950 P.2d 544, 547 (Wyo. 1997) (adequacy of pretrial investigation); Beintema v. State, 936 P.2d 1221, 1228 (Wyo. 1997) (no limiting instruction requested as to uncharged misconduct evidence); McCoy v. State, 886 P.2d 252, 257 (Wyo.1994) (decision not to call certain witnesses). On the other hand, we have reversed where the trial strategy did not rest upon a sound legal basis. Keats v. State, 2005 WY 81, ¶¶ 22-23, 115 P.3d 1110, 1119 (Wyo.2005) (trial strategy based upon defendant's diminished capacity, an unavailable defense); Deshazer v. State, 2003 WY 98, ¶ 31, 74 P.3d 1240, 1252-53 (Wyo.2003) (counsel admitted lack of basic knowledge essential to formulate trial strategy based upon defendant's lack of competency). [¶ 37] In the instant case, it is difficult even to identify what may have been defense counsel's trial strategy. Apparently, that strategy largely consisted of the hope that the jury would believe the appellant. Unfortunately, nearly everything defense counsel did, with the exception of winning the motion for a change of venue, appeared to be designed to thwart that end. Garnering trust for one's client rarely begins by allowing the jury to hear the detailed testimony from two murder trials in which that client was convicted. Neither is the client's veracity enhanced by allowing law enforcement officers to testify that they believe he is guilty. This is not trial strategy that any reasonable attorney would follow. As Mark Twain observed in evaluating the writings of James Fenimore Cooper, crass stupidities [should] not be played upon the reader as `the craft of the woodsman, the delicate art of the forest[.]' Mark Twain, Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses, The Portable Mark Twain 543 (Viking Press, 1968). Trial counsel's performance was ineffective.