Opinion ID: 585300
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: duest's conviction

Text: 23 Duest makes several claims regarding the alleged unlawfulness of his conviction, including those claims identified supra as Issue I (the Brady violations); Issue IV (to the extent the prosecutorial misstatements took place at the guilt phase of the trial); Issue V (to the extent that appellate counsel failed to raise on appeal issues arising out of the guilt phase of the trial); Issue VI (sufficiency of the evidence); and Issue VIII (erroneous admission of flight evidence and evidence of use of an alias). 24 Because Duest's Brady claim is the sole claim pertaining to Duest's conviction that merits extended treatment here, we reserve that discussion for last, and address Duest's other claims first. 25
26 With respect to Duest's claim that he was denied ineffective assistance of trial counsel at the guilt phase by virtue of his counsel's failure to object to improper prosecutorial statements, we note that in order to prove ineffective assistance of counsel, a habeas petitioner must show that his lawyer performed deficiently, and that such deficient performance prejudiced his client. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 687, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2064, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984); United States v. Yizar, 956 F.2d 230, 232 n. 8 (11th Cir.1992). An ineffective assistance of counsel claim presents a mixed question of law and fact and is therefore subject to de novo review. Lusk v. Dugger, 890 F.2d 332, 336 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 3297, 111 L.Ed.2d 805 (1990). 27 In this case, whether or not trial counsel behaved deficiently, his failure to object to the prosecutor's allegedly improper statements did not prejudice his client. To prove prejudice, petitioner must show that  'there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceedings would have been different. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.'  Yizar, 956 F.2d at 232 n. 13 (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. at 2068). Prosecutorial misstatements do not constitute reversible error unless such misstatements render the trial so fundamentally unfair as to amount to a denial of due process. Donnelly v. DeChristoforo, 416 U.S. 637, 645, 94 S.Ct. 1868, 1872, 40 L.Ed.2d 431 (1974). Given the nature of the (mis)statements in this case, the prosecutor's behavior in this case did not render Duest's trial so fundamentally unfair as to amount to a denial of due process. Thus, any objection by defense counsel would have proven fruitless. Defense counsel's failure to object to these statements was not ineffective assistance. 28
29 With respect to Duest's allegations of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel for failure to raise on appeal claims arising out of the guilt phase of Duest's trial, it is clear that the petitioner has not sustained his burden of proving prejudice resulting from appellate counsel's alleged deficient performance. See Strickland, supra. 4 In assessing the likelihood of success of a direct appeal, we must accord deference to the Florida Supreme Court's decisions to the extent the Court has decided one of the underlying state law issues giving rise to the ineffective assistance claim. Alvord v. Wainwright, 725 F.2d at 1291. Duest contends that appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise on appeal (1) the trial court's admission of flight evidence at trial; and (2) the trial court's admission of collateral misconduct. 30 In denying Duest state habeas relief and in affirming the trial court's denial of Duest's 3.850 motion, however, the Florida Supreme Court addressed petitioner's substantive state law claims on the merits. The court concluded that under prevailing Florida law, petitioner's arguments regarding the admission of flight and alias evidence would have been unavailing had it been raised on appeal. Duest v. Dugger, 555 So.2d at 852, and that the admission of collateral conduct was, at most, harmless error. Id. at 853. Thus, given the Florida Supreme Court's rejection of Duest's underlying state claims, no prejudice resulted from the failure of Duest's appellate counsel to raise these claims on appeal. 31
32 We find no merit to Duest's contention that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of first-degree murder. To prevail on a sufficiency of the evidence claim, petitioner must show that, viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, the evidence in this case could not have permitted a reasonable trier of fact to conclude that Duest was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of first-degree murder. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Petitioner cannot make such a showing in this case. 33
34 The Florida Supreme Court relied on an independent and adequate state procedural ground--that is, Duest's failure to raise the issue of improper introduction of flight and alias evidence on direct appeal--in denying relief on this claim. Duest v. Dugger, 555 So.2d at 851. Therefore, Duest is procedurally barred from raising this claim in a federal habeas proceeding. Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 81-83, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 2503-04, 53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977). 5 E. Brady Violation (Issue I) 35 In Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), the United States Supreme Court held that the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith of the prosecution. Brady, 373 U.S. at 87, 83 S.Ct. at 1197. In United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985), the Court noted that the evidence is material only if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A 'reasonable probability' is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome. Bagley, 473 U.S. at 682, 105 S.Ct. at 3383. 36 Under the law of this circuit, a defendant seeking to establish a Brady violation must prove (1) that the government possessed evidence--which may include impeachment evidence--favorable to the defense; (2) that the defendant did not possess the evidence, and could not obtain it with any reasonable diligence; (3) that the prosecution suppressed the evidence; and (4) that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, a reasonable probability exists that the outcome of the proceedings would have been different. United States v. Meros, 866 F.2d 1304, 1308 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 932, 110 S.Ct. 322, 107 L.Ed.2d 312 (1989). There is no question but that the first three of these requirements have been met in this case. 6 The question is whether, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, a reasonable probability existed that the outcome of the proceedings would have been different. This issue presents a mixed question of law and fact, reviewable de novo. See United States v. Rivalta, 925 F.2d 596, 597-98 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 215, 116 L.Ed.2d 173 (1991). 37 Duest has presented several Brady claims based on the failure of the State to furnish to the defense various witness statements that, Duest argues, could have been used to impeach the State's witnesses at trial. Although such impeachment evidence falls within the Brady rule under Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 154-55, 92 S.Ct. 763, 766, 31 L.Ed.2d 104 (1972), none of the statements sought by the defense in any way raised the possibility that the outcome of the trial would have been different. Accordingly, we reject Duest's Brady claims with respect to these statements. Duest's claim regarding the April 5 bus ticket merits more extended discussion. 38 Duest contends that the April 5 Trailways bus ticket served to bolster the contentions of the defense that Duest had been in Massachusetts during President's Day Weekend 1982 and through April 5, 1982, the date on which, according to the defense, Duest left Boston for Ft. Lauderdale. Duest suggests that because the prosecution focused on the credibility of Duest's alibi witnesses, the existence of the bus ticket would have enhanced the credibility of these witnesses such that a reasonable probability exists that the jury would have accepted Duest's alibi. We disagree. 39 As noted by the Florida Supreme Court, the prosecution presented seven witnesses who testified that Duest had been in Ft. Lauderdale on President's Day Weekend. These witnesses included a man who allegedly had sat next to Duest on the two-day bus trip from New York to Ft. Lauderdale that landed Duest in Florida on President's Day weekend, as well as women with whom Duest allegedly shared an apartment in Florida that weekend. The jury clearly believed these witnesses rather than Duest's alibi witnesses, most of whom were family members or friends. The existence of the April 5 bus ticket in no way impeaches the testimony of the prosecution's witnesses, in that the ticket indicates only that someone traveled from Boston to Ft. Lauderdale on April 5, and says nothing about Duest's whereabouts during the President's Day Weekend. 40 Admittedly, the existence of the ticket serves to corroborate the testimony of Duest's parents that they put him on a Ft. Lauderdale-bound bus in Boston on April 5. None of Duest's alibi witnesses, however, testified that Duest was in Boston the entire period between February and April 1982. Thus, the existence of the bus ticket in no way contradicts the prosecution's contention, accepted by the jury, that Duest was in Ft. Lauderdale on President's Day Weekend. At oral argument, Duest's counsel conceded that the prosecution never argued explicitly that Duest had not been in Massachusetts on April 5. 41 The fact that the bus ticket serves to corroborate a part of Duest's story that is not directly relevant to the crime charged does not justify a finding for Duest on the fourth prong of the Meros test. In United States v. Booz, 451 F.2d 719 (3d Cir.1971), the Third Circuit addressed a situation similar to the one posed in this case. In Booz, the prosecution suppressed evidence in the form of statements by local townspeople corroborating the defendant's story as to his whereabouts between 9:30 AM and 10:00 AM the day of a bank robbery for which he was charged. The court found that no Brady violation occurred because the bank robbery had occurred between 8:30 AM and 9:00 AM: [e]vents occurring later in the day ... could lend no support to appellant's case. Booz, 451 F.2d at 725. Thus, even though the withheld statements in Booz served to corroborate a portion of the defendant's story, they did not corroborate the portion of the story involving the defendant's whereabouts at the time of the crime. If corroboration of events occurring an hour after commission of the crime lend no support to a defendant's case, corroboration of events occurring months after commission of a crime can have even less relevance to a defendant's case. 42 Finally, we note that the jury rejected alibi evidence as to Duest's whereabouts on President's Day Weekend that was more compelling than the April 5 bus ticket. The jury failed to be swayed by introduction of an auto parts store receipt from Watertown, Massachusetts, dated February 15, bearing the name of Duest. 7 As stated by the District Court in its September 19 Order, [u]nder Bagley, there is no reasonable probability that an April bus ticket would have convinced the jury that Duest did not commit the February murder, when the jury did not believe a hardware store owner who produced a February receipt that purportedly showed that Duest was in Massachusetts when Pope was killed. September 19 Order at 12. 43 Accordingly, we reject Duest's Brady claims in their entirety. Because we also reject the remainder of Duest's claims as they pertain to his conviction for first-degree murder, we affirm the district court with respect to Duest's conviction for first-degree murder.