Opinion ID: 773090
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Prosecutorial Misconduct as Violations of Due Process

Text: 11 Dickerson first claims the Government knowingly presented perjured testimony, thereby violating his Fifth Amendment Due Process rights under Napue v. Illinois, 360 U.S. 264, 79 S.Ct. 1173, 3 L.Ed.2d 1217 (1959), Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 92 S.Ct. 763, 31 L.Ed.2d 104 (1972), and their progeny. 12 Dickerson cites two instances of false testimony presented by the Government's key witness, Williams, and notes the Government's failure to correct the perjury before the court. 1 First, when defense counsel questioned Williams as to the preparation he had received from the prosecution before testifying in the Dickerson trial, Williams denied being prepared. 2 Subsequently, during cross-examination of Agent Skrak, defense counsel questioned whether the Agent and prosecutors had met with Williams prior to trial to prepare him for his day in court. R12-123. Agent Skrak responded that such preparation had taken place, but on re-direct examination, he clarified that Williams' preparation did not include tell[ing] Mr. Williams what to say. R12-125. 13 Dickerson also points to Williams' testimony about his drug use as further evidence of perjured testimony uncorrected by the prosecution. When asked about his drug use, Williams testified as follows: that he stopped using cocaine in 1988, then started back using [it] in 1995 to 1996, R9-12 to 13, 47; that he had only used cocaine to stay awake, R9-165, 168 to 169; that he had never been treated for drug abuse, R9-182; and that he had tested positive only once for marijuana and cocaine since his arrest in this case, R9-47,50. At Williams' sentencing hearing, his counsel acknowledged that Williams had also tested positive for drug use only eight days before the opening of Dickerson's trial and that Williams had indeed entered a drug treatment program for thirty days. R17-6, 27 to 28 14 A successful Giglio challenge requires that the defendant establish that the prosecutor  'knowingly used perjured testimony, or failed to correct what he subsequently learned was false testimony,' and that the falsehood was material. Tompkins v. Moore, 193 F.3d 1327, 1339 (11th Cir.1999) (quoting United States v. Alzate, 47 F.3d 1103, 1110 (11th Cir.1995)), cert. denied, U.S. , 121 S.Ct. 149, 148 L.Ed.2d 99 (2000). The materiality element is satisfied if the false testimony  'could reasonably be taken to put the whole case in such a different light as to undermine confidence in the verdict.'  Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 290, 119 S.Ct. 1936, 1952, 144 L.Ed.2d 286 (1999) (quoting Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 435, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 1566, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995)). 3 15 Even were we to accept Dickerson's contention that Williams testified falsely as to his pre-trial preparation by the prosecution 4 and his prior drug use, neither violation, when viewed independently or in conjunction with each other, can be said to undermine confidence in the verdict. Any prejudice from Williams' arguably misleading affirmative response when asked if he had come into court cold to testify was dispelled during the cross-examination of Agent Skrak, who clearly stated that he and other Government agents had met with Williams prior to Williams' testimony. Cf. Hays v. Alabama, 85 F.3d 1492, 1499 (11th Cir.1996) (finding insufficient materiality where, inter alia, cross-examination elicited statements acknowledging inconsistency with testimony on direct examination), cert. denied, 520 U.S. 1123, 117 S.Ct. 1262, 137 L.Ed.2d 341 (1997). 16 At trial the Government did not correct Williams' testimony regarding his prior drug use; the falsehood became apparent only at Williams' sentencing hearing three months later. Thus, defense counsel was unable to highlight the falsity in impeaching Williams during cross-examination. Nevertheless, Williams did testify that he had tested positive once for drug use after his arrest. See R9-46-, 72-76, 105-108. Because Williams effectively admitted to ongoing drug use, an admission of an additional positive drug test subsequent to his arrest would not have tarnished his character or credibility further to any significant degree. Furthermore, the defense emphasized numerous possible inconsistencies in Williams' testimony during cross-examination. See R9-46 to 50, 72-76, 105-108. Thus, an additional instance of alleged perjury would have been of minimal significance in the jury's assessment of Williams' credibility, and certainly not enough to raise the reasonable possibility of a different verdict. See Hays, 85 F.3d at 1498. Therefore, because we find that the uncorrected, allegedly perjurious statements do not undermine confidence in the verdict, Strickler, 527 U.S. at 290, 119 S.Ct. at 1952 (quoting Kyles, 514 U.S. at 435, 115 S.Ct. at 1566), we reject Dickerson's Giglio challenge. Cf. Strickler, 527 U.S. at 289-92, 119 S.Ct. at 1952-53 (finding insufficient materiality even where [w]ithout a doubt, [witness'] testimony was prejudicial in the sense that it made petitioner's conviction more likely than if she had not testified, and discrediting [witness'] testimony might have changed the outcome of the trial). 17
18 Dickerson's second Due Process claim rests on a comparison of the theories employed by the prosecution when charging Dickerson in the trial below and his co-conspirators in the previous trials in Georgia and South Carolina. The Government's cases in Georgia and South Carolina rested on Nelson's participation in multiple cocaine distribution conspiracies covering distinct geographic regions of the United States, including Florida. See Nelson I. The Government in this case indicted Nelson and Dickerson, among others, for their involvement in one overarching conspiracy to distribute cocaine from South Florida throughout the eastern seaboard and midwest states of the United States, including Georgia and South Carolina. R1-30-2. Essentially, Dickerson claims that the fundamental inconsistency between the theory of the case underlying the South Carolina prosecution and the theory used to prosecute him here constitutes prosecutorial misconduct and gives rise to a violation of his Due Process rights. 19 Dickerson claims his prosecution falls within the line of cases raising concerns about the Due Process implications of separate prosecutions for the same crime under contradictory theories or inconsistent factual premises. See, e.g., Jacobs v. Scott, 513 U.S. 1067, 115 S.Ct. 711, 130 L.Ed.2d 618 (1995) (Stevens, J., dissenting from denial of cert.); Thompson v. Calderon, 120 F.3d 1045, 1055 (9th Cir.1997) (Fletcher, J., writing for en banc plurality), rev'd on other grounds, 523 U.S. 538, 118 S.Ct. 1489, 140 L.Ed.2d 728 (1998); Drake v. Kemp, 762 F.2d 1449, 1470 (11th Cir.1985) (Clark, J., concurring), cert. denied, 478 U.S. 1020, 106 S.Ct. 3333, 92 L.Ed.2d 738 (1986). 5 The facts of this case, however, do not support such a claim. 6 20 Dickerson has failed to establish the type of inconsistency here that was present in the cases cited. The prosecution in Jacobs, Thompson, and Drake did assert a new theory or factual premise inconsistent with that presented in a previous trial for the same crime against another defendant. In those cases, however, the inconsistency in the subsequent presentation was essential in order to prosecute the individual in question. In other words, the Government in those subsequent cases could not have prosecuted the remaining individual for the same crime had the Government maintained the theory or facts argued in the earlier trial. 7 Even if, as Dickerson alleges, the Government argued a theory in the underlying prosecution that was inconsistent with that presented in the trials of Dickerson's co-conspirators, the change in the prosecution's argument was not undertaken in order to allow the Government to prosecute Dickerson. Dickerson would have been susceptible to prosecution as a conspirator whether the Government alleged the existence of multiple conspiracies, as in the trials of Dickerson's co-conspirators, or one overarching conspiracy, as in Dickerson's trial. Cf. United States v. Paul, 217 F.3d 989, 998 (8th Cir.2000). (rejecting Due Process claim based on inconsistent prosecutorial arguments because defendant could have been convicted under either theory), reh'g en banc denied. 21 Underlying Thompson and Drake-and implicit in Justice Stevens' dissent in Jacobs-is the concern that the Government would attempt to prosecute and convict multiple defendants for the same crime in the hopes that one of them is the true perpetrator of the crime. The state cannot divide and conquer in this manner. Such actions reduce criminal trials to mere gamesmanship and rob them of their supposed search for truth. Thompson, 120 F.3d at 1059 (quoting Drake, 762 F.2d at 1479). No such concerns of mere gamesmanship are implicated here, however, where any alleged inconsistency in the Government's conspiracy theory had no impact on the likelihood of Dickerson being convicted.