Opinion ID: 2973002
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to Impeach

Text: Moore argues that his trial counsel performed ineffectively by failing to impeach a commonwealth witness, Doris Riddle. Riddle, an employee at the driver’s license bureau, testified concerning the alibi of a second suspect, Kenneth Blair, whom Moore tried to target at trial as the real killer. Riddle’s testimony placed Blair at the license bureau in the same general time frame as the crime (as described by witnesses) and thus hurt Moore’s attempt to blame Blair. But Riddle had told police shortly after the murder that she did not know what time Blair came in to the license bureau—and Moore’s counsel failed to impeach Riddle with this earlier inconsistent statement. To support a Sixth Amendment ineffective-assistance claim, a defendant (or petitioner) must show (1) that counsel’s performance was deficient, and (2) that the deficient performance prejudiced the defense. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687 (1984). To show prejudice, the defendant must show a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s deficient performance, the proceeding’s result would have been different. Id. at 694. The Kentucky Supreme Court rejected Moore’s claim in state post-conviction proceedings, finding that, although Moore’s counsel was deficient for failing to impeach Riddle, that deficiency did not prejudice Moore, and therefore was not ineffective assistance under Strickland. See Moore II, 983 S.W.2d at 482-84. The Kentucky court gave three reasons for its lack-of-prejudice finding: (1) even considering Riddle’s testimony, Blair’s alibi was not air-tight—he could have committed the murder and still been at the license bureau during Riddle’s time-frame; (2) other witnesses confirmed Blair’s alibi; and (3) abundant evidence, including physical evidence and Moore’s confession, demonstrated that Moore—not Blair—killed the victim. Id. at 483-84. Moore argues the Kentucky court unreasonably applied Strickland by creating a new requirement that to show prejudice, a defendant must demonstrate actual innocence or show that the jury had insufficient evidence to support its guilty verdict. But the Kentucky court did not create any such requirement. That court identified the correct standard for prejudice (“reasonable probability”), looked at the totality of the evidence (including the flaws in Blair’s alibi and the overwhelming evidence against Moore), and found no reasonable probability of a different outcome in the absence of the error. While Moore claims the state court considered the remaining evidence against him in an effort to create a sufficiency-of-the-evidence standard, the court properly looked at that evidence only to determine whether a reasonable probability of a different outcome existed. See, e.g., Hicks v. Collins, 384 F.3d 204, 215 (6th Cir. 2004) (“overwhelming evidence” of petitioner’s guilt precluded reasonable-probability determination). And even if the Kentucky court might have undervalued Riddle’s testimony2 (so we could possibly disagree with its ultimate decision), that decision did not constitute an unreasonable application of established Supreme Court precedent, sufficient to grant the writ. See Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 411 (2000) (“[A] federal habeas court may not issue the writ simply because that court concludes in its independent judgment that the relevant state-court decision applied clearly established federal law erroneously or incorrectly. Rather, that application must also be unreasonable.”). Thus Moore’s first ineffective-assistance claim fails. 2 Indeed, the prosecutor in closing argument described Riddle as “probably the most important witness in the entire case.” No. 03-6105 Moore v. Parker Page 4