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

Heading: Howard's Attorney's Failure To Interview, Investigate, or Elicit Trial Testimony from Ragland

Text: Howard claims that his trial attorney rendered ineffective assistance by failing to interview, investigate, or elicit trial testimony from Arthur Ragland, the surviving victim of the July 8, 2002 shooting with which he was charged. He alleges that he urged his trial attorney to interview Ragland and call him as a witness at trial, but the attorney steadfastly refused to do so. If his attorney had fulfilled his request, Howard contends, Ragland would have proclaimed his innocence at trial. Ragland's testimony would have been a powerful blow to the prosecution's case, which relied almost exclusively on the eyewitness identifications of two individuals, one of whom renounced her identification at trial, and nearly resulted in a deadlocked jury even without Ragland's testimony. The California superior court judge who reviewed Howard's habeas petition concluded that Howard's attorney was not deficient in failing to pursue Ragland's testimony. Ruling without the benefit of either Ragland's declaration or an affidavit or testimony from Howard's trial counsel, [3] the superior court reasoned: Apropos Petitioner's contentions concerning the determination not to call Mr. Ragland as a trial witness, the pre-conviction report prepared by the Probation Department in this case notes that Mr. Ragland was a documented member of the Rolling 40's criminal street gang, was reluctant to identify the shooter and had to be contacted through a law enforcement telephone number due to the seriousness of his gang-related crime. It is fair to consider that trial counsel was aware of this report. Here again, the record fails to demonstrate that there was no rational, tactical purpose in trial counsel's determination not to call a gentlem[a]n presenting serious credibility issues as a witness in this case. Since the California Court of Appeal and Supreme Court summarily denied Howard's subsequent habeas petitions, we must consider the superior court's reasoning in conducting the deferential review required by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). See Avila v. Galaza, 297 F.3d 911, 918 (9th Cir.2002) (In determining whether a state court decision is contrary to federal law, we look to the state's last reasoned decision ... as the basis for its judgment.). The superior court unreasonably applied the standard set forth in Strickland. First, its exclusive focus on the attorney's decision not to call Ragland as a witness at trial was unreasonable. In his superior court habeas petition, Howard claimed that his trial counsel was ineffective in not interviewing or calling Arthur Ragland to testify. Strickland recognized that an attorney's duty to provide reasonably effective assistance includes the duty to make reasonable investigations or to make a reasonable decision that makes particular investigations unnecessary. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 691, 104 S.Ct. 2052; see also ABA Standards for Criminal Justice: Prosecution Function and Defense Function 4-4.1(a) (3d ed. 1993) (Defense counsel should conduct a prompt investigation of the circumstances of the case and explore all avenues leading to facts relevant to the merits of the case....). Thus, the superior court unreasonably applied Strickland by failing to explicitly consider whether Howard's attorney made a reasonable professional judgment to limit his investigation of Ragland. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 690-91, 104 S.Ct. 2052. But even if the superior court's decision is read as having made an implicit judgment that Howard's attorney reasonably decided to limit his investigation of Ragland based on the credibility concerns raised by the Probation Department's preconviction report, that implicit conclusion was itself unreasonable. In Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003), the Supreme Court held that counsel's exclusive reliance on a psychological evaluation, a presentence investigation report, and social-services records was unreasonable when further investigation would have uncovered copious evidence of the defendant's bleak life historyevidence which probably would have made a difference in the sentencing phase of the defendant's capital murder trial. The Court emphasized that an attorney's decision to forgo a particular line of defense is not necessarily reasonable simply because it is based on  some information obtained in a limited investigation. Id. at 527, 123 S.Ct. 2527. Instead, the attorney's decision must be directly assessed for reasonableness in all the circumstances. Id. at 533, 123 S.Ct. 2527 (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 691, 104 S.Ct. 2052). Thus, [i]n assessing the reasonableness of an attorney's investigation ... a court must consider not only the quantum of evidence already known to counsel, but also whether the known evidence would lead a reasonable attorney to investigate further. Id. at 527, 104 S.Ct. 2052. Even without the preconviction report, one would normally expect the surviving victim to be a star witness for the prosecution. A reasonable attorney would therefore have attempted to interview Ragland to prepare for trial. See United States v. Tucker, 716 F.2d 576, 583-84 (9th Cir. 1983) (holding that counsel was deficient in failing to interview key government witnesses before trial); Baumann v. United States, 692 F.2d 565, 580 (9th Cir.1982). The pre-conviction report provided even more reason to try to contact Ragland. The fact that Ragland was reluctant to identify his shooter would have suggested to a reasonable attorney that he might make statements in an interview that would exculpate Howard or at least raise doubts as to his guilt. Furthermore, Howard's attorney knew that his client wanted him to interview Ragland and call him as a witness at trial. Howard's attorney was obligated to take this request seriously. As the Supreme Court has noted: The reasonableness of counsel's actions may be determined or substantially influenced by the defendant's own statements or actions. Counsel's actions are usually based, quite properly, on informed strategic choices made by the defendant and on information supplied by the defendant. In particular, what investigation decisions are reasonable depends critically on such information. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 691, 104 S.Ct. 2052; see also Jones v. Wood, 114 F.3d 1002, 1011 (9th Cir.1997). In light of Howard's insistence that he contact Ragland, Howard's attorney could not reasonably have decided to forgo an independent investigation of this crucial witness who might have provided strong support for Howard's claim of innocence. See Hart, 174 F.3d at 1070 (A lawyer who fails adequately to investigate, and to introduce into evidence, records that demonstrate his client's factual innocence, or that raise sufficient doubt as to that question to undermine confidence in the verdict, renders deficient performance.); Gomez v. Beto, 462 F.2d 596, 597 (5th Cir.1972) (When a defense counsel fails to investigate his client's only possible defense, although requested to do so by him; and fails to subpoena witnesses in support of the defense, it can hardly be said that the defendant has had the effective assistance of counsel.). The superior court's narrow focus on the serious credibility issues Ragland would have presented as a witness was unreasonable. As we have previously noted, the fact that a witness might not appear credible at trial is not a reasonable basis for failing to identify or attempt to interview him. Avila, 297 F.3d at 920; see also Riley v. Payne, 352 F.3d 1313, 1324 (9th Cir.2003). Howard's attorney had a duty, at the very least, to apprise himself of Ragland's account of the shooting, even if he would later have decided based on the information he obtained not to put Ragland on the stand. See Sanders v. Ratelle, 21 F.3d 1446, 1457 (9th Cir.1994) (quoting United States v. Gray, 878 F.2d 702, 712 (3d Cir.1989)). To make an informed decision whether to call Ragland as a witness at trial, Howard's attorney was obligated to make an independent assessment of Ragland's account of the shooting and credibility as a witness. See Lord v. Wood, 184 F.3d 1083, 1095 (9th Cir.1999); Thomas v. Lockhart, 738 F.2d 304, 308 (8th Cir.1984) (holding that counsel rendered ineffective assistance by relying exclusively on the prosecution's investigative file even though his client provided him with information casting doubt on the prosecution's evidence). We have ordered that habeas petitions be granted in cases quite similar to Howard's. Brown v. Myers, 137 F.3d 1154 (9th Cir. 1998), held that the petitioner was prejudiced by his attorney's ineffectiveness in failing to contact or elicit trial testimony from alibi witnesses. And in Lord v. Wood, 184 F.3d 1083, 1095 (9th Cir.1999), we concluded that the petitioner's attorneys were deficient for failing to personally interview three witnesses who claimed to have seen a murder victim alive after the time when the prosecution claimed the petitioner killed her. Importantly, we determined that the attorneys did not fully discharge their duty to investigate even though they were equipped with reports from the police and defense investigators that indicated that there were inconsistencies in the witnesses' accounts that might undermine their credibility at trial. Id. at 1088-92. Despite these credibility concerns, we concluded that the attorneys' decision not to call the witnesses at trial was not a reasonably informed professional judgment entitled to deference, largely because the attorneys had not personally interviewed the witnesses and thus did not have an opportunity to look[ ] [them] in the eye and hear[ ] [them] tell [their] story. Id. at 1095. We conclude that any implicit conclusion by the superior court that Howard's attorney rendered effective assistance of counsel would be an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law. The pre-conviction report was not, as the superior court seems to have believed, a reasonable basis on which to ground a decision to forgo any further investigation into a pivotal witness who Howard appears to have believed would have proclaimed his innocence.
Since the superior court's decision involved an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law, we must make an independent evaluation of Howard's constitutional claim. See Frantz, 533 F.3d at 732-37. Although the respondent attempts to provide additional reasons for rejecting Howard's claim that were not articulated by the superior court, none of these reasons is sufficient to affirm the district court's denial of Howard's petition. First, the respondent argues that Howard's attorney reasonably decided not to call Ragland as a witness because his testimony merely would have been cumulative of Fontaine's. But Howard's lawyer did not know that Fontaine would testify that Howard was not the shooter until she took the stand. Fontaine's unanticipated testimony at trial can hardly justify the attorney's failure to conduct an adequate investigation of Ragland before trial. Furthermore, we highly doubt that a reasonable attorney would have viewed Ragland's testimony as merely cumulative of Fontaine's. It is one thing for an eyewitness who has given seemingly inconsistent accounts of an event to say that the defendant was not the culprit of a crime. It is quite another for the victim himself to testify that the defendant was not the offender. A reasonable attorney would not have decided to forgo testimony from Ragland that Howard was not the shooter based simply on the force of Fontaine's testimony. The respondent also contends that Howard's attorney's failure to call Ragland as a witness was consistent with the attorney's strategic decision to largely refrain from presenting a defense and instead focus on calling into question the prosecution's ability to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The respondent notes that in a so-called  Marsden hearing on Howard's motion to dismiss his trial attorney and have a new lawyer appointed, see People v. Marsden, 2 Cal.3d 118, 84 Cal.Rptr. 156, 465 P.2d 44 (1970), Howard stated that his attorney was refusing to call several witnesses who were questioned by the detective and said they couldn't I.D. [him]. Howard now claims that one of these witnesses was Ragland. Howard's attorney indicated that he was somewhat familiar with these witnesses and would not call them to testify because he usually did not elicit testimony from witnesses who merely could not positively identify the defendant as the person who committed the crime. Thus, the respondent argues, Howard's attorney had a legitimate tactical reason for not calling Ragland to the stand: Ragland would simply have testified that he could not identify Howard as the shooter, which would have done little to bolster the defense's case. Since Ragland's testimony would not have significantly helped the defense, the respondent contends, the attorney's decision not to call Ragland as a witness was reasonable. This argument fails in light of both Howard's allegation that his attorney did not carry out an independent investigation of Ragland and Ragland's declaration that, if made to testify ... [he] would affirm that Howard was not the shooter. Perhaps if the evidentiary record in this case is further developed, it will become clear that Howard's attorney actually conducted an adequate investigation of Ragland or that Ragland would not have been willing to testify at the time of Howard's trial that Howard was not the shooter. But as the record now stands, Howard has made a preliminary showing that (1) Ragland would have declared his innocence if made to testify at trial, and (2) his attorney never interviewed Ragland at all. Under the circumstancesagain, a less than fully developed recordthe attorney's decision not to call Ragland as a witness could not have been a reasonably informed professional judgment. [4] Finally, the respondent argues that Howard was not prejudiced by his attorney's failure to interview or elicit trial testimony from Ragland because Ragland would not have been a credible witness and the government's evidence against Howard was overwhelming. However, the record belies the claim that the prosecution's case was strong. The government had no physical evidence linking Howard to the crime. It relied almost exclusively on the eyewitness identifications of Fontaine and Hernandez. At trial, Fontaine denied ever identifying Howard as the shooter and explicitly stated on cross-examination that he was not the man she had seen on the night of the shooting. Although Hernandez positively identified Howard as the shooter, if Ragland had testified otherwise, thereby buttressing Fontaine's trial testimony, some jurors might well have had a reasonable doubt as to Howard's guilt. Indeed, the jurors' declaration on the second day of their deliberations that they were deadlocked suggests thateven without Raglandthis was a close case. Whatever the challenges to Ragland's credibility, his testimony might well have tipped the balance in Howard's favor. At the very minimum, if Ragland was ready and willing to testify as to Howard's innocence, and Howard was deprived of such testimony because of his attorney's shoddy investigation, our confidence in the jury's verdict would be significantly undermined. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052. For these reasons, we hold that the district court erred in denying Howard's request for an evidentiary hearing. [5] We thus remand the case for further proceedings by the district court to test the merits of his allegations.