Opinion ID: 202184
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Impeach Kelley with Telephone Testimony

Text: 56 Knight argues that his counsel was ineffective for failing to impeach Kelley's inconsistent testimony regarding the victim's telephone. Kelley testified that, despite having been careful to leave no fingerprints in the apartment, she did pick up the telephone, dial an automatic weather service, and then hide the phone under some clothes without turning it off. These statements might have been designed to explain why the victim's phone was off the hook when the landlord tried to reach him, and this explanation was cited by the government as evidence of Kelley's credibility. Knight now argues that his lawyer failed to introduce evidence that if Kelley had turned the phone on on Wednesday evening, the phone battery would have long since expired by Saturday afternoon, and the landlord's incoming calls would have been met by a ring, not by a busy signal. The SJC found that Kelley was not sure whether she had turned off the telephone; that, assuming she had left the telephone on, there was no probative evidence that the phone's battery would have been dead by Saturday afternoon; and that there was no evidence that the victim's phone would generate a ring instead of a busy signal when the telephone battery died. Knight, 773 N.E.2d at 402-04. In the absence of clearer evidence on this issue, it was not an unreasonable strategic decision by Knight's counsel not to seek to impeach Kelley about the telephone. If she was unsure about whether she had actually turned off the phone, there would be little point to try to prove the battery would have been dead. Additionally, Knight's appellate counsel conducted an experiment to try to prove that the battery would have been dead, but [t]he telephone used in the experiment was not the actual phone that was found in the victim's apartment, nor [wa]s it clear whether the telephone used in the experiment was even the same type or was similar in any respect to the telephone in the victim's apartment. Knight, 773 N.E.2d at 402-03. Defense counsel at trial also notably did examine Kelley on a number of issues, including her drug use, prior convictions, and her plea agreement. When counsel focuses on some issues to the exclusion of others, there is a strong presumption that he did so for tactical reasons rather than through sheer neglect. Yarborough v. Gentry, 540 U.S. 1, 8, 124 S.Ct. 1, 157 L.Ed.2d 1 (2003). Thus, Knight's ineffective assistance claim fails on this point. 57