Opinion ID: 1090851
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Internal Affairs Interviews

Text: ¶ 48. Russell alleges that the Internal Affairs interviews of fourteen inmates who were in Unit 24-B that day, at least seven of whom had excellent views of what the State alleged occurred, were not turned over to the defense. Russell then gives a list of these inmates and states that several had a particularly good view. Russell also cites the affidavits of his two defense counsel who stated that, when they turned their file over to Russell's current counsel, current counsel informed them that he did not have any investigation statements from eighteen inmates, and then lists their names. Russell alleges that [v]arious of the witnesses whose Internal Affairs memos are missing confirm that they gave exculpatory statements to Internal Affairs. These include John Adams, Wendell Duncan, Charles Jenkins, Jessie Johnson, Dennis Short, Reginald Sutton, Jeffery Vance, and Perry Williams. ¶ 49. (1) Reginald Sutton, an inmate. Sutton's affidavit gives some information about the GDs, and states that Officer Cotton dealt with the gangs as far as supplying money orders, food and cigarettes. Smith, the floorwalker who was assisting Officer Cotton at the time of the stabbing, was Officer Cotton's middleman in these dealings. Officer Cotton used the GDs as enforcers to help collect on debts from inmates. ¶ 50. (2) Dennis Short, an inmate. Short's statement contains general information about gangs, about the GDs specifically, and then states that Russell was never in a gang. ¶ 51. (3) Charles Jenkins, an inmate. Jenkins's affidavit states that gangs were plentiful and the gangs did not like Russell because he would not join and would interfere with their attacks on other inmates. I saw the fight between Willie and Cotton from my cell. Cotton started throwing trays at Willie when he was going around the unit passing out trays for dinner. Willie was fighting back. Russell was beaten by guards after the stabbing, and the guards also locked down the inmates and tore their cells up. ¶ 52. (4) Grady Harris, an inmate. Harris provides details of dealing in money orders with the help of Officer Cotton. He was threatened by MDOC personnel before he testified at the 1990 sentencing hearing and told defense counsel about all of this and they did not do anything. ¶ 53. (5) Wendell Duncan, an inmate. Duncan speaks of his numerous illegal dealings with drugs and money orders in concert with Officer Cotton. ¶ 54. (6) Jeffrey Vance, an inmate. Vance states that the guards rifled through the cells, stripped inmates and beat them immediately after the stabbing. ¶ 55. Before trial in 1990 it was clear from the record that defense counsel was having difficulty getting all the inmate statements in question and had to repeatedly ask for them. It is difficult at this point to determine exactly what defense counsel finally received in 1990. It appears that certain inmate interviews, whether fourteen or eighteen in number, were never received by defense counsel in discovery. ¶ 56. We assume that the inmate statements or affidavits specifically cited here by Russell are the best he has at this point. As stated, only two, those of Reginald Sutton and Charles Jenkins, even qualify as affidavits. Sutton's affidavit talks about Officer Cotton's connection to the gangs and their illegal activities. Defense counsel attempted to introduce similar information into evidence at trial in 1990 but was not allowed to do so because no connection was made between Officer Cotton, the gangs, and a threat to Russell's safety. Jenkins gives his version of Officer Cotton's stabbing, saying that Officer Cotton started throwing trays at Russell, which means that Russell was out of his cell at the time of the confrontation, which comports with the State's version of the stabbing. Jenkins also mentions physical intimidation used against Russell and the other inmates after the stabbing. Russell already had mentioned that he was beaten by MDOC officers immediately after the stabbing in his statement to MHP Officer Rogers, which was suppressed before trial. Grady Harris gives a version of the stabbing, saying that Officer Cotton was yelling at Russell, baiting him, and started hitting him with food trays. Once again, if true, this means that Russell was improperly out of his cell. The State also cites Harris's testimony in the sentencing phase at the 1990 trial, where Harris testified that when I saw what happened, blood was already on his shirt. I didn't see the actual stabbing, but he did see Russell with a knife.