Opinion ID: 844288
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Asserted presentation of false testimony by Penilton

Text: (22) A prosecutor's presentation of knowingly false testimony ( Mooney v. Holohan (1935) 294 U.S. 103, 112 [79 L.Ed. 791, 55 S.Ct. 340]), or the failure to correct such testimony after it has been elicited ( Napue v. Illinois (1959) 360 U.S. 264, 265-272 [3 L.Ed.2d 1217, 79 S.Ct. 1173]), violates a defendant's right to due process of law under the United States Constitution. (See also People v. Marshall (1996) 13 Cal.4th 799, 829 [55 Cal.Rptr.2d 347, 919 P.2d 1280]; In re Jackson (1992) 3 Cal.4th 578, 595 [11 Cal.Rptr.2d 531, 835 P.2d 371].) Defendant claims the prosecutor violated these rules when he presented the testimony of Vera Penilton, who denied that separately tried coperpetrator William Deon Proby was the father of any of her children. According to defendant, this assertedly false denial was relevant to Penilton's credibility in that it reflected both her bias arising from her relationship with Proby and her untrustworthiness, as shown by her willingness to commit perjury. As we explain, no due process violation occurred.
Sonya Williams, the first prosecution witness at the guilt phase, testified that she met defendant in April 1994 and they became intimately involved sometime thereafter. Williams testified that sometime in September 1994 defendant telephoned her, told her he was going to meet Proby and Penilton at a hotel, and asked if Williams would hang out with them. She agreed. Defendant and Penilton thereafter arrived in a car to pick up Williams. At the time, Williams had never met Proby or Penilton. In a videotaped interview with police conducted shortly after defendant and Proby were arrested, Williams told detectives that after he picked her up, defendant dropped her and Penilton off and went to pick up Proby from work. During this time, Penilton told Williams she just had a baby by, um Deon [Proby]. And she thinks [she's] pregnant again. ... At trial, on direct examination, prosecution witness Penilton testified she first met Proby in April 1994, when she was four months pregnant with her first child. Penilton denied Proby was the father of that child, who was born in August. Later, on redirect examination, Penilton denied Proby was the father of any of her three children. Penilton testified that, several hours after the robbery, she heard defendant admit to killing Ronald Lee.
According to defendant, Penilton's testimony that Proby was not the father of any of her children was, as the prosecutor well knew, false because it was contradicted by a direct admission Penilton made, before Proby was arrested, to another key prosecution witness, Sonya Williams. Defendant claims the circumstances under which Penilton disclosed Proby's paternity to Williams provide substantial assurances of its trustworthiness because it was a freely made statement, and Penilton had no reason to lie and no advantage to gain by falsely representing to Williams that Proby was the father of her newborn. This assertedly leads to the inescapable conclusion that Penilton lied when she testified about when she met Proby and that Proby was not the father of her children. (23) Unlike defendant, we do not find this conclusion inescapable. Mere inconsistencies between a witness's testimony and her prior statements do not prove the falsity of the testimony. (See People v. Anderson (1962) 209 Cal.App.2d 598, 600 [26 Cal.Rptr. 223].) On this record, we cannot know whether Penilton lied in her testimony or in her statement to Williams or, indeed, whether it was Williams whose statement was false or mistaken. Defendant therefore fails to establish that the prosecutor presented false testimony or failed to correct such testimony. Accordingly, no due process violation occurred.