Opinion ID: 1386258
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Constitutional Right Forfeiture By Procedural Default

Text: Although my disagreement is well stated therein, constitutional forfeiture by procedural default as defined in Cutbirth, 751 P.2d 1257 cannot be morally or constitutionally ignored here. See also Murray v. State, 776 P.2d 206 (Wyo. 1989); Kallas v. State, 776 P.2d 198 (Wyo. 1989); and Amin v. State, 774 P.2d 597 (Wyo. 1989). Within the strictures of Harris, 109 S.Ct. 1038, this court is required to address constitutional ineffectiveness of appellate counsel. See Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674, reh'g denied 467 U.S. 1267, 104 S.Ct. 3562, 82 L.Ed.2d 864 (1984) for illustration of the failure of the attorneys responsible to brief and present obvious claims of trial error on initial appeal. Any application of the Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 53 L.Ed.2d 594, reh'g denied 434 U.S. 880, 98 S.Ct. 241, 54 L.Ed.2d 163 (1977) cause and prejudice factors as presently denominated in Cutbirth will not be ignored within the trial issues which are hereinafter substantively discussed in detail. On one issue, for example, where the attorney general admitted error in oral argument, it would not have been unreasonable for the importance and pervasiveness of the subject to have been recognized by Engberg's law school and public defender representation considering the singular exposure it had at trial. Furthermore, by reversal and remand, we should not only here but as we did in Jones v. State, 777 P.2d 54 (Wyo. 1989) recognize prejudice. The egregiousness of the Jones problem for this case was highlighted by parading Engberg's wife, previously identified in opening statement by the prosecutor to have turned in her husband in the Nevada police complaint, to then appear openly at the guilt phase of the trial and refuse to testify before the jury. In Jones, 777 P.2d at 60, we said: Under the circumstances of this case the invoking of the Fifth Amendment in the jury's presence by Keeler and Haefner, who the jury at least suspected to be alleged co-conspirators with appellants in the attempted murder, was too strongly prejudicial to be overcome by a cautionary instruction. We cannot consider this error harmless. The jury could easily have inferred, and the only purpose this testimony could have served was to demonstrate, that the witnesses were invoking the Fifth Amendment because they were guilty of the underlying conspiracy. The probability that the jury could reasonably infer an admission of guilt through a transfer process to appellants is highly prejudicial. Because of the extreme probability of transference, the calling of Keeler and Haefner added critical weight to the prosecution's case by creating the quintessential inference of guilt not clearly elicited through other testimony at trial. For Engberg in trial perspective, the participation by his wife in the flight to Las Vegas accentuated the suggestion persuasively created by open presentation and non-testimony at trial that she would have only confirmed guilt if her testimony had been permitted. Of no less importance, the very serious death penalty phase trial defect questions will be avoided by retrial under the present statute. IV.