Opinion ID: 3066183
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Was the Evidence Newly Discovered?

Text: The Court of Appeal ruled that Amado did not establish “the newly discovered nature of the evidence.” If his counsel had known of the impeachment material at or before the time of trial, the prosecutor cannot be said to have suppressed anything, and there was no Brady violation. See Banks, 540 U.S. at 691. However, the record does not support the Court of Appeal’s ruling, and it was inconsistent with the proceedings in the Superior Court. There, the prosecutor did not contest Amado’s argument that his attorney did not receive Hardy’s probation report until after trial, too late to use in cross examination. The Superior Court accepted Amado’s contention that the evidence was newly discovered, and ruled against him on other grounds. And the trial record indicates that Amado’s counsel was unaware of this impeachment evidence at the time Hardy was cross examined. Although the Superior Court ruled that the cross examination of Hardy was vigorous, the cross examination focused on Hardy’s vision. Had Amado’s counsel been aware of the probation report, he surely would have cross examined Hardy regarding his prior convictions, his felony-probationary status, and his connection with the Piru Bloods. The Court of Appeal explained its ruling by commenting that Lapan’s representation, that he had not learned of the impeachment material until after trial, was “argument,” and thus not evidence. But the Court of Appeal ignored that it had granted Amado’s motion to augment the record and that Lapan’s sworn declaration provided record testimony that he “did not learn until after trial that Warren Hardy was on felony probation as a result of a robbery conviction and that in the probation report from that offense, Hardy stated he was 28 AMADO V. GONZALEZ a ‘Piru Blood.’” There was no basis to conclude that Lapan had merely provided “argument,” to question Lapan’s veracity, or to overrule the Superior Court’s acceptance of the evidence as newly discovered. Under § 2254(d)’s unreasonable determination clause, “a federal court may not second-guess a state court’s fact-finding process unless, after review of the state-court record, it determines that the state court was not merely wrong, but actually unreasonable.” Taylor v. Maddox, 366 F.3d 992, 999 (9th Cir. 2004). “[I]t is not enough that we would reverse in similar circumstances if this were an appeal from a district court decision. Rather, we must be convinced that an appellate panel, applying the normal standards of appellate review, could not reasonably conclude that the finding is supported by the record.” Id. at 1000 (citations omitted). We hold that the decision of the Court of Appeal, that Amado had not established that the evidence was newly discovered, was an “unreasonable determination of the facts,” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2). There was nothing in the record that could support a finding that Lapan had the evidence that the prosecutor had suppressed when Lapan conducted his defense of Amado.