Opinion ID: 77443
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Interview or Call Renee

Text: 63 Sullivan's argument is that Kirk knew that Renee was present at the scene of Smith's death and, accordingly, that he was ineffective in failing to interview her to determine what she saw. The district court denied Sullivan's § 2254 petition based on Sullivan's failure to establish prejudice and did not address the performance prong of Strickland. Because we agree with the district court that Sullivan failed to establish prejudice, we affirm on that ground and do not address the performance prong. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 697, 104 S.Ct. at 2069 (If it is easier to dispose of an ineffectiveness claim on the ground of lack of sufficient prejudice, which we expect will often be so, that course should be followed.). 64 As explained above, to meet Strickland 's prejudice prong, Sullivan must establish a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Chandler, 218 F.3d at 1312-13 (quotation marks and citation omitted). Sullivan argues on appeal that Renee was the sole eyewitness to the fight and her testimony would have supported his argument that Smith was the initial aggressor and attacked Sullivan first with a knife. 7 Thus, Sullivan argues, there is a reasonable probability that, had his trial counsel interviewed Renee and called her as a witness at trial, the jury first would have believed Renee and therefore then would have believed his self-defense argument, or at least convicted him of manslaughter in the heat of passion rather than murder. 65 Sullivan's argument fails because Renee's testimony wholly lacked credibility for several reasons. First, Renee changed her story and gave inconsistent versions of what happened at the scene. For example, Renee testified in her 1995 deposition—given six years after the murder, when she was eleven years old—that Smith pulled a knife from his back pocket and then attacked Sullivan, stabbing him three or four times. However, at the 2001 evidentiary hearing, at age seventeen, Renee changed her story, testifying that she never saw Smith strike or cut Sullivan with Smith's knife. Renee also maintained at the 2001 hearing that Smith initiated the encounter by coming at Sullivan with his knife held high, as opposed to pulling his knife from his back pocket. In addition, Renee changed her story as to where she was when the fight first started. In her 1995 deposition, she testified that as Sullivan went outside, she and her mother Janice went inside, and she watched Smith attack Sullivan from a window. However, in 2001, Renee testified that only her mother went inside and that although her mother thought she followed her, Renee stayed outside and saw Smith jump out with his knife held high and land on her father. 66 Second, even setting aside the obvious inconsistencies in Renee's own testimony, both of Renee's accounts are entirely inconsistent with the physical and testimonial evidence presented at trial. For example, photographs of the defendant Sullivan taken the day after the murder, when he turned himself in to police, establish that Sullivan suffered no stab wounds, but only a single, minor scratch across his stomach. The photographs of Sullivan are in marked contrast with those of Smith's body, which reveal seven deep, gaping wounds over Smith's body that resulted in his death, not to mention numerous less severe cuts, abrasions, and bruises. The photographs negate Renee's 1995 deposition testimony that Smith had a knife and stabbed Sullivan multiple times. While this may help explain why Renee changed her story at the 2001 hearing and testified that she never saw Smith strike or cut Sullivan, Renee's change in her story, along with the photographs, together significantly undermine her credibility. 67 Moreover, although Renee claimed Smith had his own knife, no knife was discovered on Smith's body or at the scene, and none of the other witnesses who were at Kitty Sullivan's house the day of the murder saw Smith with a knife any time that day. Indeed, even Sullivan himself admitted three times at trial that he did not see Smith with a weapon, that Smith never was in control of Sullivan's knife, and that the scratch across Sullivan's stomach was inflicted by Sullivan's own knife as the two struggled. Sullivan also never claimed that Smith ever stabbed him. 8 In light of Sullivan's testimony at trial that he did not see a knife on Smith and the clear evidence that Smith did not use his knife against Sullivan, neither version of Renee's testimony—that Smith attacked Sullivan with his knife held high or that Smith stabbed Sullivan multiple times—is credible. 68 In addition, Dr. Lauridson, the state medical examiner, testified that in light of the extent and nature of Smith's seven deep, gaping stab wounds, one of which was on Smith's back, it was highly unlikely that the wounds were inflicted as two individuals rolled on the ground or by a person defending himself against the victim, as Renee testified. Dr. Lauridson's testimony, along with the photographs, establishes a one-sided attack by Sullivan against Smith and not the type of struggle described by Renee. In short, none of the trial evidence supported Renee's version of the facts, and overwhelming evidence contradicted it. 69 Finally, we can only speculate as to which version of Renee's testimony would have been offered had she been called to testify in Sullivan's trial. See Guerra, 628 F.2d at 413. All we have is her 1995 deposition and 2001 evidentiary hearing testimony, and that testimony is inconsistent. Perhaps her testimony in 1990 would have been different from that in 1995 and 2001. But even assuming that Renee would have testified at trial in full support of her father's self-defense story, as set forth in either her deposition or her evidentiary hearing testimony, we conclude that Renee's testimony lacked credibility for several reasons. As such, Sullivan has not carried his burden to show a reasonable probability that Renee's testimony would have changed the outcome of his trial. See Thompson v. Nagle, 118 F.3d 1442, 1453 (11th Cir.1997) (affirming denial of habeas corpus petition because potential witnesses, who were not called and who allegedly would have testified in petitioner's favor at trial, were not believable); Wiley v. Wainwright, 793 F.2d 1190, 1194-95 (11th Cir.1986) (same). To support a different outcome based on Renee's testimony, the jury would have had to reject the substantial physical and other testimonial evidence presented at trial in favor of a six-year-old girl's inconsistent testimony about an altercation that she allegedly witnessed a year before and upon which her father's freedom depended. Simply put, Sullivan has failed to establish a reasonable probability of such a result. Accordingly, we conclude that the district court correctly determined that Renee's testimony lacked credibility and thus that Sullivan has failed to establish that he was prejudiced by his trial counsel's failure to interview Renee or call her as a witness at trial. 9