Opinion ID: 727279
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mr. Mize's failure to object to the trial testimony of

Text: Mr. Boyer and subsequent witnesses did not 14 prejudice Mr. Nickel's defense. 15 To establish the second element under Strickland, that Mr. Mize's deficient performance prejudiced Mr. Nickel's defense, Mr. Nickel must show that there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. at 2068. 16 Mr. Nickel claims that his defense was prejudiced by Mr. Mize's failure to object to the trial testimony of Mr. Boyer and of subsequent witnesses on the basis that admission of this testimony violated Mr. Nickel's attorney-client privilege under Kansas law, see Kan. Stat. Ann. § 60-426 (defining the attorney-client privilege under Kansas law); State v. Maxwell, 10 Kan.App.2d 62, 691 P.2d 1316, 1319 (1984) (paraphrasing the rule in Kan. Stat. Ann. § 60-426). He asserts that had Mr. Mize made this objection, he would not have been convicted of first-degree murder. He argues that at some point in the proceedings, a court would have suppressed both Mr. Boyer's testimony because it breached Mr. Nickel's attorney-client privilege and subsequent witnesses' testimony because it was the result of Mr. Boyer's breach of the attorney-client privilege in reporting Mr. Nickel to the police. Under this scenario, Mr. Nickel contends, the prosecution would have been left with no evidence against him, see Aplt's Br. at 36, because the authorities were not even aware that a crime had been committed until Boyer telephoned, id. at 33. 17 Mr. Nickel has not shown that Mr. Mize's failure to object to the trial testimony of Mr. Boyer and subsequent witnesses prejudiced his defense: If Mr. Mize had objected on the basis that the witnesses' testimony had breached Mr. Nickel's attorney-client privilege, and assuming that the trial court had concluded that Mr. Nickel's statements to Mr. Boyer were privileged and that Mr. Nickel had not waived his privilege, the trial court would have suppressed only Mr. Boyer's testimony, leaving sufficient additional evidence to support Mr. Nickel's conviction. The trial court could have found that Mr. Boyer's testimony concerning Mr. Nickel's first confession to Mr. Boyer, made to Mr. Boyer alone on the morning of June 20, 1980, and his testimony about Mr. Nickel's second confession to Mr. Boyer, made to Mr. Boyer and Mr. Wuest in Mr. Boyer's office later that day, would have breached Mr. Nickel's attorney-client privilege. 6 However, still in evidence would have been Ms. Perret's testimony that Mr. Nickel had confessed to her, see Rec. vol. II, St. Dist. Ct. Transcript, at 187, and Detective Marble's testimony that Mr. Nickel had confessed to him, id. at 141. 18 Mr. Nickel contends that the trial court would have suppressed Detective Marble's testimony had Mr. Mize objected to it as being in breach of Mr. Nickel's attorney-client privilege because it was directly traceable to Boyer's violation of attorney-client privilege. Aplt's Br. at 32. However, although Mr. Nickel's confession to Detective Marble could be considered the result of Mr. Boyer's breach of Mr. Nickel's attorney-client privilege in reporting Mr. Nickel to the police, there is no indication that Kansas law requires the exclusion of all evidence derived from a breach of an attorney-client privilege. Further, other courts have refused to apply such a broad evidentiary rule of exclusion to breaches of privilege. See United States v. Marashi, 913 F.2d 724, 731 n. 11 (9th Cir.1990) (stating in dictum that no court has ever applied [the 'fruits of the poisonous tree'] theory to any evidentiary privilege and that we have indicated we would not be the first to do so); SEC v. OKC Corp., 474 F.Supp. 1031, 1039-40 (N.D.Tex.1979) (rejecting the application of the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine to evidence obtained from a breach of attorney-client privilege and reasoning that the marginal effectiveness of denying use to an innocent [state] agency for reports produced not by a state but by a private citizen is not justified). Noting this authority and the absence of Kansas law on this issue, we decline to apply the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine to the possible breach of attorney-client privilege in this case. Therefore, any breach of Mr. Nickel's attorney-client privilege that Mr. Boyer may have committed had no effect on the admissibility of Mr. Nickel's confession to the police. 19 Thus, even if the trial court had suppressed Mr. Boyer's testimony, the testimony of Detective Marble and Ms. Perret would have been properly in evidence. Because Mr. Nickel's confession to Detective Marble is admissible due to the fact that it is not suppressible as fruit of the poisonous tree and that, as we will later discuss, see infra Part B, it was voluntarily made, and because Ms. Perret's testimony is also admissible, Mr. Nickel cannot establish that there is a reasonable probability that Mr. Mize's failure to object to the admission of Mr. Nickel's confessions to Mr. Boyer and to the police changed the result of his trial. The only certain difference in outcome resulting from Mr. Mize's objection at trial would have been to have preserved the issue for appeal. See State v. Johnson, 255 Kan. 252, 874 P.2d 623, 627 (1994) (holding that under Kansas law, the failure to renew an objection to the admission of evidence at trial results in that issue not being preserved for review on appeal); State v. Synoracki, 253 Kan. 59, 853 P.2d 24, 31 (1993) (same). Therefore, Mr. Nickel cannot use this failure of Mr. Mize to object to testimony on the basis that it breached Mr. Nickel's attorney-client privilege to establish the prejudice prong of the Strickland analysis. 20