Opinion ID: 197851
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Our Assessment Absent the Mosso Statement

Text: 51 In Levasseur v. Pepe, 70 F.3d 187, 193 (1st Cir.1995), we identified three factors that are relevant to determining if the jury was substantially swayed by offending evidence: (1) the extent to which the error permeated the proceeding, (2) the centrality of the issue affected by the error to the case as actually tried and (3) the relative strength of the properly admitted evidence of guilt. In this case, there is no question that the issues to which the Mosso statement is most relevant--petitioner's mental states and degree of atrocity--are central. We shall discuss the first factor, prevalence, when we consider the impact of the statement in the next section. In this section, we deal with perhaps the major test of harmlessness--the relative strengths of the cases for the prosecution and the defense absent the offending evidence. 52 We first sort out the extent of agreement or disagreement in, and the nature of, the non-party eyewitness testimony so that we can assess its general force and weight. We then evaluate the medical evidence. Finally, we consider the potency of the petitioner's case. 53 Although the evidence shows that each of the eyewitnesses had consumed some alcohol on the night in question, there is little basis for challenging the sobriety of two them--Peloquin and Ducharme, neither of whom had had much to drink. Cassidy was feeling good, but his claim of being aware is consistent with the span of time over which he had consumed his drinks. Only Amaral admitted to being drunk, with some justification based on his record of consumption. As for opportunity to observe, Peloquin, significantly, was on the scene from the beginning to almost the end, and both Amaral and Ducharme were present for critical parts of the fight. Cassidy was on the scene for the final act. 54 Most of the evidence, and all of it concerning the core evidence of kicking, was remarkably consistent and corroborative. Although not evidence contributed by the eyewitnesses, petitioner's own statement that he was wearing black combat boots at the time establishes this notable fact. The consensus narrative began with the inception of the fight between Tamburro and Mosso, their wrestling, and falling to the ground. 55 Peloquin saw Mosso elbowing Tamburro in his eye five or six times. Amaral and Ducharme saw him punching Tamburro in the groin three times. We know from the medical testimony that the testes were injured. In either event, Tamburro at this juncture was supine and helpless. Then came petitioner's entry into the affray, kicking Tamburro. Peloquin is the only non-party witness to a specific first kick, but petitioner in his statement confirmed this fact, differing only in that he said it was a side kick in the ribs, not a side kick to the bridge of the nose. 56 Then came the period of joint kicking by both petitioner and Mosso, one on either side of Tamburro, the smallest of the three. The quantitative estimates do not dramatically vary: Peloquin refers to petitioner as still kicking around the face although he could not give a number of times either man kicked; Amaral said both men kicked Tamburro in the head twice, much in the manner of kicking a football at kickoff; Ducharme described both men as alternating in their kicking once or twice; and Cassidy described both men as kicking a number of times in the upper body, head area. 57 Finally, there was substantial consensus, and no contradiction, as to a final kick by petitioner. Peloquin's best memory was that it was petitioner who administered the final blow. Amaral described it as a half-hearted kick, turning Tamburro's head from one side to the other. And Cassidy, while not identifying a single final blow, was sufficiently moved by what he saw to rush toward petitioner and say, You're a loser. 58 Not corroborated by other witnesses, but in no way contradicted, was Peloquin's testimony that, at the very outset, petitioner not only removed his jacket along with Mosso, but made the statement, So it is going to be one of those; that, as Tamburro was wriggling to escape Mosso's elbowing in his eye, petitioner hit Peloquin on the back of his head as he started to intervene; and that, again, when Peloquin was trying to drag Tamburro to safety, petitioner kicked him in the ribs, causing him to drop Tamburro. Subsequent medical examination at St. Vincent's Hospital corroborated this testimony, revealing contusions in Peloquin's rib areas. 59 To this testimony must be added the findings of a pathologist reviewing his autopsy of Tamburro: at least twelve separate injuries, comprising abrasions, bruises, lacerations, swellings, discolorations, hemorrhaging, fractures to the head, chest, abdomen, neck, spine, and other vital parts. 60 All this presents a cohesive, consistent picture of an affray pitting two larger men against a smaller one, with Mosso initiating and petitioner intervening after the smaller man, on the ground and on his back, had suffered a series of hard blows to his eyes and/or testicles, then the two continuing to kick, with petitioner staying in to the end. The injuries were multiple and serious from testes to cranium, and inflicted largely through the medium of violent kicks with, at least in petitioner's case, heavy boots; so many discrete injuries occurred in so many parts of the victim's body that they could not have been produced by only a few kicks or blows. Moreover, the short time span of the affair argues for more than one participant. Perhaps even more persuasive of continued dual participation is the extent to which injuries were observed to both ears, both cheeks, and both sides of the victim's chest, indicating more than one assailant. 61 To borrow the language of the Court in Brecht, the State's evidence of guilt was, if not overwhelming, certainly weighty. 507 U.S. at 639, 113 S.Ct. at 1722. 62 Against this evidence, petitioner's case is not impressive. His claim that all the eyewitnesses had been drinking overlooks the different amounts of alcohol consumed and the time span of consumption, indicating that only Amaral could be said to be drunk. As for the minor differences in the numbers of kicks observed, the witnesses' total testimony, as we have seen, was remarkably internally consistent for a violent, short-lived fracas, observed in the early morning hours by four people at slightly different times from different vantage points. Moreover, it is likely that petitioner's own statement hurt rather than helped him. That he would have rushed in after Mosso had Tamburro on the ground and kicked him in the ribs, then suddenly have withdrawn and merely tried to keep other people from jumping into the fight while Mosso was going nuts and beating Tamburro, seems counter intuitive. 63 After our minute review of all the evidence, quantitative and qualitative, from eyewitnesses and the pathologist, as well as from petitioner, we conclude that, absent Mosso's statement, the evidence was far from being in equipoise, but rather was impressively cogent on the part of the prosecution, any chipping away as the result of vigorous cross examination being canceled out by the unlikely persuasiveness of petitioner's version.