Opinion ID: 853673
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: delayed charging the death penalty.

Text: Williams certainly knew at trial and on direct appeal of any alleged delay in the State's decision to pursue the death penalty. That question is thus not available in this collateral proceeding. See Benefiel v. State, 716 N.E.2d 906, 911 (Ind. 1999). Williams' other claims assert that the State withheld evidence from or misled him. We therefore examine these claims on the merits. In reviewing a claim of prosecutorial misconduct, we first must determine, with reference to case law and the [Rules of Professional Conduct], whether the prosecutor's actions rose to the level of misconduct. The next consideration is whether the misconduct, under all the circumstances, placed the defendant in a position of grave peril to which he should not have been subjected. McChristion v. State, 511 N.E.2d 297, 302 (Ind.1987). The gravity of the peril is determined by its probable persuasive effect on the jury. Williams v. State, 715 N.E.2d 843, 847 (Ind.1999). A. Williams' Sister's Drug Use. Williams claims that the State presented misleading evidence about his sister's sobriety at the time he confessed to her and about her hospitalization for depression following that confession. With regard to Jeanette Williams' sobriety, Williams argues that, while Jeanette testified at trial that she was not using drugs the day Williams confessed, (T.R. at 852, 862, 872-73), her medical records indicate that she was binging on crack cocaine daily around the time of the confession, (P-C.R. at 3304-24). Williams further claims that the State withheld those medical records detailing his sister's crack cocaine addiction. The State counters that there is no evidence to indicate that the State had access to the records. Moreover, the State contends that Jeanette would have released the records to either the prosecution or the defense, had either side sought them. (R. at 3071.) It appears uncontested that the State knew Jeanette was admitted to the Tara Treatment Center shortly after the crime occurred. (Appellant's Br. at 60; see also Appellee's Br. at 41.) Williams does not assert, however, that the State discovered the records from the Center. (See Appellant's Br. at 60.) As Williams has not shown that the State knew of the records, he has proven no prosecutorial misconduct on the basis that the State withheld them. See Osborne v. State, 426 N.E.2d 20, 25 (Ind.1981) (There is not sufficient evidence that [the document] was, in fact, in the prosecutor's possession.); Turnbow v. State, 637 N.E.2d 1329, 1333 (Ind.Ct.App.1994) ([T]he defendant must show ... that the prosecutor's actions constituted misconduct by reference to the norms of professional conduct....). Moreover, while Jeanette reported daily binging on crack cocaine at the time Williams confessed, (P-C.R. at 3308, 3310, 3323), she also reported periods of abstinence for as long as two days, (P-C.R. at 3323). She testified at trial that she did not use drugs on the day Williams confessed. (T.R. at 879.) The prosecutor did not present misleading evidence regarding Jeanette's use of drugs. Finally, the State did not present misleading evidence about Jeanette's depression. Williams argues that the prosecutor encouraged Jeanette to testify that she was in a hospital for treatment of depression that resulted solely from having to testify against her brother. (Appellant's Br. at 56.) He claims that the truth of the matter is that Jeanette had a long history of depression due to a multitude of factors. (Id.) In fact, the prosecutor twice asked Jeanette if she was in a psychiatric hospital for treatment of depression that resulted in part from testifying against her brother. (T.R. at 850, 878.) She answered yes to both questions. (Id.) Again, Williams has proven no misconduct on this basis. B. Victims' Criminal Records and Character. Williams argues that the prosecutor never disclosed Robert Hollins' criminal history nor the information that Michael Richardson sought sexual relations with teenage boys. (Appellant's Br. at 62.) Generally, evidence of a person's character is inadmissible to prove action in conformity therewith on a particular occasion. Brooks v. State, 683 N.E.2d 574 (Ind.1997). An accused is permitted, however, to introduce evidence of a victim's character trait pertinent to the crime. Id. (citing Ind. Evidence Rule 404(a)(2)). Michael Richardson's sexual proclivities are hardly relevant to the crime at issue in this caserobbery of electronic equipment and murder of the witnesses. Moreover, Williams himself recognized the inappropriateness of such evidence: Victim character evidence should not be considered in determining guilt, innocence or appropriate punishment.... (Appellant's Br. at 57-58.) Regardless of whether it was misconduct to keep such information from the defendant, Williams was not subjected to grave peril, because the evidence was inadmissible. Williams' claim that the State committed misconduct by presenting evidence of Richardson's good character is similarly without merit, as the evidence did not subject Williams to grave peril. The State's brief description of Richardson seems unlikely to have affected the jury's determination of his guilt. The same holds true for Robert Hollins' criminal history. The State did not commit misconduct by failing to inform Williams that robbery charges were pending against Hollins at the time of his death. (P-C.R. at 3423, 3426-29.) While evidence of Hollins' involvement in the aggressive act of robbery may have been relevant had Williams claimed self-defense, Brooks, 683 N.E.2d at 576, the facts show that Williams was motivated by the desire to rob and to kill the witnesses, not by the need to protect himself. Williams has proven no reversible error on this claim. C. Witness' Criminal History. Williams claims the State failed to provide him with a full criminal history of co-conspirator Mark Harris, who testified that Williams shot the victims. He argues that the history would have provided a ground on which Williams could have impeached Harris at trial. Any misconduct in failing to furnish the defense with Harris' criminal record did not subject Williams to grave peril, as the evidence would have been inadmissible for impeachment purposes. Indiana Evidence Rule 609(a) provides: evidence that the witness has been convicted of a crime or an attempt of a crime shall be admitted but only if the crime committed or attempted is (1) murder, treason, rape, robbery, kidnapping, burglary, arson, criminal confinement or perjury; or (2) a crime involving dishonesty or false statement. Harris has been convicted of criminal trespass and criminal mischief as class A misdemeanors, crimes not contemplated as admissible under Rule 609(a). As the evidence was inadmissible, it could have no effect on the jury's decision-making process. D. The Jail-House Informant. Williams asserts that the State withheld information in its files regarding a jail-house informant who telephoned Detective Branson and told him that he overheard two men, neither of them Williams, discussing planning and killing one of the victims. (Appellant's Br. at 61-62.) Williams argues that the information could have been used to undermine the State's theory that Williams planned the crime. (Appellant's Br. at 62.) An inmate who cannot remember who spoke about committing the crime might fairly be recognized as having nothing pertinent to add. The informant's affidavit is remarkably ambiguous. [5] The State presented overwhelming evidence that Williams not only participated in the robbery, but that he shot the victims himself. Neither was his penalty based on the aggravating circumstance that he alone planned the crimes. ( See T.R. at 1961-62.) In light of the overwhelming evidence of Williams' involvement in the crimes and the fact that neither his guilt nor his penalty rested on the notion that he was the ring leader, we think that the impact on the jury of the jail-house information would have been slight. Williams was not subjected to grave peril. E. The Reward Money. Williams claims that the State failed to disclose that Detective Branson secured Crime Stopper's reward money for two informants: Earl Wilson, who produced one of the weapons involved, and Runny Gill, the boyfriend of Williams' sister, who convinced Williams' sister to testify at trial. He argues that [e]vidence of Runny Gill's reward would have cast considerable doubt upon Jeanette Williams' motives for testifying and whether or not she was testifying truthfully. This evidence would also have affected the jury's determination of Earl Wilson's credibility and produced reasonable doubt as to Williams' guilt. (Appellant's Br. at 64.) We recently addressed a remarkably similar issue in Harrison v. State, 707 N.E.2d 767 (Ind.1999), pet. for cert. filed. In Harrison, an informant called the arson hotline to give information about a fire. The informant applied for reward money and after trial the detective called the head of the arson hotline to emphasize the importance of the informant's information and subsequent testimony. Id. at 789. Harrison argued that, had the jury known about the reward request, the informant's credibility would have been damaged, thereby undermining either the trial court's confidence in the verdict, or the jury's verdict or its recommendation of the death penalty. Id. We said that, to support a claim of prosecutorial misconduct on the basis of withheld evidence, the allegedly withheld evidence must be material to the defense. Id. Evidence is material only if there is a reasonable probability that the result of the proceeding would have been different, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense. Id. (citing United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 682, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985)). A defendant must show that the evidence could have reasonably put the whole case in such a different light as to undermine confidence in the verdict. Id. (citing Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 435, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995)). We held in Harrison that, Neither the application for a reward ... nor the recommendation by the detective is sufficiently probative to satisfy the materiality standard of Bagley. Id. Likewise, failure to disclose the informants' rewards in this case did not constitute prosecutorial misconduct sufficient to undermine the integrity of the entire trial. F. Pretrial Statements by Witness and Williams. Williams finally claims that the State failed to turn over to the defense statements made by Lanita Charleston and by Williams himself. He provides no explanation, through his brief or via affidavits, of how these statements constituted misconduct or placed him in grave peril. At most, he claims, Disclosure of this information would ... have raised opportunities for the defense to attack the thoroughness and good faith of the evidence. (Appellant's Br. at 65.) [6] As for Williams' statement, Lanita Charleston says that she overheard one side of a telephone call between Williams and a detective. (P-C.R. at 2382-83.) There is no indication that this informal phone conversation was so weighty as to constitute a formal statement necessitating disclosure to defense counsel. [7] Williams has not shown prosecutorial misconduct on this basis. Similarly, Williams has provided no evidence that Lanita Charleston's allegedly missing statement existed or, if it existed, that it placed him in grave peril. His citation to the record in support of his claim identifies a colloquy between the prosecutor, defense counsel and the judge in which the existence of the statement and its inclusion in the State's discovery response are contested. (P-C.R. at 1587-88; Appellant's Br. at 64.) If Williams elicited an affidavit from Lanita Charleston about the phone conversation between Williams and a detective, (P-C.R. at 2382), he certainly could have procured an affidavit detailing the contents of the allegedly missing statement. Without such contents and a cogent argument as to their probable persuasive effect on the jury, we conclude that Williams has failed to prove that the omission of the statement in the State's discovery response subjected him to grave peril.