Opinion ID: 4059118
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Motion Court’s Analysis

Text: The court found that Rodgers’ proffered testimony did not qualify as “new evidence” within the meaning of the IPA because, even though Rodgers purportedly “made himself known to multiple individuals . . . on the scene at the time of the murder,” appellant failed to establish “what prevented him from obtaining Mr. Rodgers’ testimony sooner.” The court further found that the inconsistency between Rodgers’ physical description of the shooter and Brown’s physical description of the shooter called into doubt the reliability of Rodgers’ testimony and his “ability to perceive the events that night.” As to Uzzle’s testimony, the court concluded that it, too, was not “new evidence.” The court emphasized that appellant was aware by the time Uzzle 19 testified at trial, if not before, that “she had information about this offense[,]” i.e., “first-hand knowledge of the circumstances related to the murder of Mr. Washington.” Yet, the court observed, despite appellant’s “close personal and family ties” with Uzzle, “there is no indication that [he] did anything to discover at that time the purported exculpatory evidence that [Uzzle] now proffers.” The court found that “it would have taken minimal effort for [appellant] to contact Ms. Uzzle and obtain th[e] favorable testimony she now purports to offer[,]” but that the record gave no indication that either appellant or his counsel “ever attempted to contact her or obtain her testimony.” The court also found that Uzzle’s affidavit and IPA hearing testimony constituted — “at best” — “[i]mpeachment evidence [that] alone is insufficient to establish a claim for relief under the IPA.” In addition, citing inconsistencies between Uzzle’s trial and IPA hearing testimony, the court found that her hearing testimony was “not sufficiently credible to show that ‘it is more likely than not that [appellant] is actually innocent[.]’”20 20 The court noted that Uzzle’s first mention of the altercation between Washington and Half on the night of the shooting came in her affidavit and IPA hearing testimony, a “critically significant fact[]” that she could not have simply overlooked had it been true. The court also observed that, in her grand jury and trial testimony, Uzzle denied ever seeing Half with a gun, but claimed the opposite in her affidavit and hearing testimony. 20 The court was satisfied that Brown’s testimony sufficed as new evidence, finding “nothing to suggest that the exercise of due diligence would have identified Mr. Brown any sooner.” However, the court found that appellant had not shown that Uzzle’s and Rodgers’ testimony, “along with that of Mr. Brown[,] is more than mere impeachment evidence[.]” In addition, the court focused on the “inconsistent and contradicted accounts” set out in Brown’s affidavit and his hearing testimony, matters that the judge said “seriously undermine [Brown’s] credibility” and that led the judge to conclude that the affidavit and testimony “do not show ‘actual innocence.’” The court first took note of the contradiction between Brown’s and Rodgers’ physical descriptions of the shooter. See supra note 8. The court then catalogued the internal inconsistencies between Brown’s affidavit and hearing testimony. The court noted that Brown’s affidavit states that the shooting occurred “sometime between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.[,]” but testified at the hearing that the shooting occurred at night. The court also characterized Brown’s affidavit as stating that he “wanted to stop at the [c]arryout,” a (purported) statement that conflicted with Brown’s hearing testimony that he “didn’t intend to stop” at the carryout, but instead, “was intending to keep moving.” The court next cited Brown’s affidavit statement that he saw Half shoot at a group of males exiting the carryout, which 21 the judge contrasted with Brown’s hearing testimony about shots fired at “three males and one girl” coming out of the carryout.21 The court also noted that Brown stated in his affidavit that he saw Half walk over to Washington after the initial shots and fire multiple rounds into his body, but (as described by the judge) testified at the hearing that “after the initial shots, . . . everyone, including [Half], fled the scene.”22 Finally, the court cited Brown’s affidavit statement that “[l]ater in my life I met Joel Caston[,]” a statement the court contrasted to Brown’s hearing testimony that (as the court put it) he “had never met [appellant].” The court found that Brown’s inconsistent and contradicted accounts “fail[ed] to turn the heavy weight of evidence produced at trial in favor of [appellant’s] innocence.” The court found that appellant’s hearing testimony was “significantly inconsistent with that of his proffered witnesses and grossly undermine[d] the 21 At trial, Thompson testified that when Washington, Gene and Mark exited the carryout, there were two other people whom he did not know near the front door of the carryout. 22 Actually, Brown testified that after the man who had been shot fell to the ground, Brown “ducked behind the car” and did not “see anything further that Half did while the person was on the ground”; and that “[e]verybody just like start running and the people was trying to help . . . the man but once I seen Half on my way I ran the opposite way.” Brown’s testimony does suggest both that everybody ran and that some people stayed to help the fallen man; the testimony possibly meant that the gunshots caused everyone to run for cover briefly but that some people then came to assist the victim. 22 credibility of their affidavits and hearing testimony.” 23 The court stated in addition that appellant’s “self-serving” testimony “does not sway the [c]ourt towards finding [appellant] or any of his ‘newly found witnesses’ credible.”24