Opinion ID: 2305923
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Janice Wong's identification of Wong Kin Fung/Kwa Jai as First Man

Text: One of the lynchpins of Appellant's Brady claim is Janice Wong's identification of Wong Kin Fung/Kwa Jai as the First Man on the same day she identified the photograph of Appellant as the Second Man. As noted, her identification of Wong Kin Fung/Kwa Jai directly conflicts with her prior identification of Ah Thank Lee, and could have been used to question the certainty of her identification of Appellant, or to challenge her assertion that Appellant, rather than Wong Kin Fung/Kwa Jai fired the fatal shot. The first question is whether the information was disclosed. Trial counsel testified that the prosecution failed to inform him of the conflicting identification. N.T.(PCRA), 4/4/00, at 339-40. The PCRA court concluded that the Commonwealth had disclosed this information based on testimony of ADA Fisk indicating that she provided documentation to the defense of Janice Wong's identification of Appellant from an array of photographs and her identification of a single photograph of Wong Kin Fung/Kwa Jai as First Man. PCRA Ct. Slip Op, at 4. ADA Fisk contended that a document indicating the display of a single photograph to Wong should have alerted defense counsel that the investigators had shown Wong a photograph depicting someone other than Ah Thank Lee, because Ah Thank Lee had already been identified and was represented by counsel. [16] Appellant counters that this was not sufficient disclosure of the conflicting identification. [17] Appellant notes that ADA Fisk testified that the face of Janice Wong's statement did not reveal the identity of the single photograph as Wong Kin Fung/Kwa Jai. N.T.(PCRA), 6/7/00, at 940. Moreover, the Commonwealth's attorney at the PCRA hearing verified that the PCRA exhibit of the statement allegedly disclosed to defense counsel attached only Appellant's photograph and not the single photograph of Kwa Jai. N.T.(PCRA), 6/7/00, at 941; PCRA Exhibit C-10. Upon review, we determine that the PCRA court erred in concluding that the conflicting identifications made by Janice Wong were disclosed to defense counsel prior to trial. Instead, the testimony by ADA Fisk indicates only that she supplied counsel with Janice Wong's statement of August 8, 1985, indicating only that Wong identified a photograph in an array as depicting Appellant, as the Second Man, and that she identified a single photograph shown to her as the First Man. We refuse to hold that trial counsel should have divined the identity of the individual in the undisclosed single photograph as someone other than Ah Thank Lee from the mere fact that one unidentified photograph was shown to the witness. The Commonwealth fails to reveal why Appellant's trial counsel should have realized that the Commonwealth had a new suspect in the case rather than assuming that the Commonwealth merely engaged in improper procedures relating to Ah Thank Lee, a co-defendant who was not Appellant's trial counsel's client. Accordingly, we cannot accept the PCRA court's conclusion that trial counsel pursued a valid strategy of not raising the issue of the conflicting identifications when it is not clear that counsel knew of the identification of Wong Kin Fung/Kwa Jai that conflicted with the prior identification of Ah Thank Lee as the First Man. This is not a question of counsel's ineffectiveness in failing to pursue an issue but instead is a question of whether Appellant's constitutional rights, protected by Brady, were violated by the Commonwealth's failure to disclose the evidence. Regarding the second element of a Brady claim, whether the non-disclosed evidence was favorable to the defense because it was exculpatory or related to the credibility of a witness, trial counsel testified that the information would have been useful in challenging Janice Wong's ability to identify accurately the individuals involved in the crime, especially when the identifications occurred over two years after the crime. N.T.(PCRA), 4/4/00, at 344-45. Appellant argues that the conflicting identifications are especially damning given that Janice Wong testified in response to the prosecution's question at trial that she was one hundred percent sure of all her identifications. N.T.(Jury), 1/26/88, at 75, 99-100. The Commonwealth counters that Janice Wong never misidentified Appellant's photograph and never suggested that Wong Kin Fung/Kwa Jai played the role credited to Appellant. Accordingly, the Commonwealth claims that the misidentification of Appellant's primary accomplice was not exculpatory. We conclude that Appellant met his burden of demonstrating that the evidence was favorable because it related to the credibility of a key witness. Accordingly, we hold that the conflicting identification should have been disclosed because it could have been used to question Janice Wong's identification of Appellant as the shooter, especially given the prosecution's attempt to bolster Janice Wong's identification of Appellant with her identification of Ah Thank Lee. See Giglio, 405 U.S. at 154, 92 S.Ct. 763 (When the `reliability of a given witness may well be determinative of guilt or innocence,' nondisclosure of evidence affecting credibility falls within this general rule.). Although we determine that the identification by Janice Wong of Wong Kin Fung/Kwa Jai was improperly withheld, we conclude that Appellant was not prejudiced by the non-disclosure in either the guilt or the penalty phase, and thus, Appellant has not met his burden for relief under Brady. Janice Wong never wavered in her identification of Appellant as the shooter and she presented clear and explicit testimony as to why she remembered Appellant so clearly given their encounter under the streetlight at gunpoint. Moreover, during proceedings related to Ah Thank Lee's case, Janice Wong explained the misidentification by stating that she assumed the photograph of Wong Kin Fung/Kwa Jai was a more recent photograph of the same person she previously identified, Ah Thank Lee. While the identification of Wong Kin Fung/Kwa Jai was clearly material and prejudicial in the case of Ah Thank Lee, because Janice Wong identified both as the First Man, the conflicting identifications do not alter her identification of Appellant as the shooter; nor do they do anything to suggest that Wong Kin Fung/Kwa Jai fired the fatal shot, rather than Appellant. [18] Therefore, the conflicting identifications of the individual playing the role of First Man do not undermine the jury's verdict regarding Appellant's role as the shooter. Accordingly, we conclude that Appellant failed to demonstrate that the alleged Brady violation so undermined the truth determining process that no reliable adjudication of guilt or innocence could have occurred. See Copenhefer, 719 A.2d at 259.