Opinion ID: 1201769
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: application of the federal harmless error standard compels reversal of the judgment

Text: The determination of prejudice begins with an examination of the defense presented at trial, which was that defendant had consensual sexual relations with Amelia P. but did not murder her, and that his brother Gregory was the killer. The success of this defense depended in large measure on providing the jury with sufficient reasons to credit defendant's explanation and to doubt the contrary version presented through Gregory's previous statements inculpating defendant. By erroneously excluding evidence that Gregory had confessed to the killing, the trial court's ruling eviscerated this defense. The prosecution's case was far from compelling. The murder victim's young son, Kevin, could not identify defendant, nor did he recognize the survival knife or the cut-off jeans found in the Cudjo camper. Defendant's fingerprints were not found at the victim's home, and no bloodstains were detected on any of defendant's clothing, on any articles seized from the Cudjo camper, or on the shoes seized from defendant's mother's automobile. No articles taken from the victim's residence were found in defendant's possession, nor did any witness testify to such possession. The police inferred from their interviews with Kevin and from the shoe tracks that the murder was the work of one man. Because much of the evidence pointed as strongly to Gregory as to defendant, law enforcement suspicion initially focused equally on defendant and Gregory. Both Gregory and defendant were present in the camper to which the shoe tracks led, and both Gregory and defendant owned shoes that could have made the tracks. The cut-off jeans and the knife found in the camper were equally accessible to defendant and to Gregory. Some of the evidence pointed more strongly to Gregory as the intruder that Kevin described. Kevin testified that the intruder, who wore a sleeveless top, did not have tattoos on his arms or any facial hair such as a mustache or beard. Defendant had tattoos on both arms, and he testified without contradiction that he had obtained them before the murder. Defendant also had facial hair on the day of the murder. Gregory, on the other hand, had neither tattoos nor facial hair. Although the semen found on the murdered woman could not have come from Gregory, the murderer need not have been the person who was the source of the semen. The victim's body bore no signs of traumatic sexual assault, Kevin's testimony did not mention a sexual assault, and the physical evidence was consistent with defendant's account of consensual sexual relations with the victim. Gregory's previous statements to sheriff's investigators, which closely tracked Kevin's description of the intruder's conduct and provided details about the interior of the murder victim's home, were perhaps the strongest evidence of defendant's guilt presented by the prosecution, yet this evidence too was equally if not more consistent with Gregory's guilt. Because Gregory did not testify at trial, the jury was never given an opportunity to judge his credibility by observing his demeanor under oath. Because the trial court excluded Culver's testimony, defendant's testimony was essentially uncorroborated. Evidence that Gregory had confessed to the murder would have filled a major gap in the defense case, and would have greatly increased the likelihood of the jury's entertaining a reasonable doubt of defendant's guilt. Under the circumstances, it is not possible to conclude that the guilty verdict in defendant's trial was surely unattributable to the error. ( Sullivan v. Louisiana, supra, 508 U.S. ___, ___ [124 L.Ed.2d 182, 189, 113 S.Ct. 2078, 2081].)
Exclusion of the testimony of defense witness John Culver was error of constitutional dimension that may not be excused as harmless. I would reverse the judgment.