Opinion ID: 148612
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Howard's Attorney's Failure To Call an Eyewitness-Identification Expert

Text: Although we reverse the district court's denial of Howard's claim based on his attorney's failure to interview or elicit trial testimony from Ragland, we affirm its denial of his claim that his attorney rendered ineffective assistance by failing to call as a defense witness an expert on the unreliability of eyewitness testimony. Without reaching the issue of whether Howard's attorney's failure to call such an expert fell below prevailing standards of professional competence, we hold that Howard's Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel was not violated because he suffered no prejudice. We have repeatedly affirmed district court decisions to exclude the testimony of eyewitness-identification experts from federal criminal trials. In reaching these decisions, we have made it clear that we adhere to the position that skillful cross examination of eyewitnesses, coupled with appeals to the experience and common sense of jurors, will sufficiently alert jurors to specific conditions that render a particular eyewitness identification unreliable. United States v. Christophe, 833 F.2d 1296, 1300 (9th Cir.1987); see also United States v. Labansat, 94 F.3d 527, 530 (9th Cir.1996); United States v. Langford, 802 F.2d 1176, 1179-80 (9th Cir.1986); United States v. Brewer, 783 F.2d 841, 842-43 (9th Cir.1986); United States v. Amaral, 488 F.2d 1148, 1152-54 (9th Cir. 1973). If federal defendants are not prejudiced by the exclusion of testimony from eyewitness-identification experts, Howard was not prejudiced by his trial attorney's failure to call such an expert, especially on this record. [6] His attorney extensively cross-examined Hernandez and Fontaine and, even more significantly, the jurors were instructed on the potential shortcomings of eyewitness testimony. Cf. Jones v. Smith, 772 F.2d 668, 674 (11th Cir.1985) (holding that state prisoner was not entitled to habeas relief based on his counsel's failure to call an expert witness on the unreliability of eyewitness testimony).