Opinion ID: 2352739
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Failure to Impeach Sam Shepherd

Text: Appellant argues that his lawyer was ineffective in failing to impeach Sam Shepherd. Shepherd was a jailhouse snitch who testified at trial that Appellant had admitted that he went to the victim's house to commit a robbery and that he had stabbed the victim with two knives. Appellant claimed in his RCr 11.42 motion that his lawyer failed to introduce, among other things, evidence of Shepherd's prior felony convictions, an agreement to testify against another defendant, several felony charges then pending in Tennessee and Kentucky, and the fact that Shepherd had access to newspapers describing the crime and Appellant's legal papers. Appellant's lawyer did question Shepherd about the criminal charges against him in front of the jury. Appellant's lawyer suggested that the prosecution had cut a deal for Shepherd's testimony, and he also exposed the fact that Shepherd had entered into a plea agreement in his own trial in front of the same court. Shepherd also admitted in front of the jury that he was not generally an honest man. Although a lot of detail may not have come out, Appellant's lawyer's cross-examination was sufficient to raise serious doubts about Shepherd's credibility in the minds of the jury. Additionally, any deficiency in the lawyer's impeachment of Shepherd did not prejudice the defense. Most of the substance of Shepherd's testimony was identical to the facts Appellant himself admitted to during his taped confession. And as Appellant's own brief points out, Sam Shepherd's testimony concerning John Mills' alleged jailhouse confession contained no information that was not already known to the police. For this reason, the prosecution could easily have called other witnesses to give the same substantive testimony. Thus, Appellant's lawyer was not ineffective in this regard, and Appellant was not entitled to a hearing on this issue.