Opinion ID: 1266317
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Materiality of the State's Brady Violations

Text: To establish a Brady violation, it must be shown that (1) evidence was suppressed; (2) the evidence was favorable to the defense; and (3) the evidence was material to guilt or punishment. United States v. Risha, 445 F.3d 298, 303 (3d Cir.2006). Appellant does not dispute that the materiality prong is the only component of the Brady inquiry at issue in this case, and thus that element is where we will focus our analysis. (See Appellant's Br. 8-9 (conceding that the prosecution suppressed the four pieces of evidence discussed above).) Evidence is material where 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. United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 682, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985). In judging materiality in a case involving multiple Brady violations, the Supreme Court has mandated that the effect of the violations should be considered collectively, not item by item. Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 436, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995). Before considering the materiality of the evidence suppressed by the prosecution, we must first address the ruling of Chief Justice Flaherty and Justice Newman of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that Simmons had procedurally defaulted on three of his four Brady claims. The District Court disregarded that portion of the opinion on two grounds: first, that the procedural default reasoning had garnered only two votes and thus did not represent a majority or even plurality view of the seven justices; and second, that the contextualization rule cited was not a bar to federal habeas review because it was not a firmly established and regularly followed rule at the time the Pennsylvania Supreme Court reached its decision. Simmons, 356 F.Supp.2d at 558. The first of these rationales is somewhat debatable, given that Justice Cappy's concurrence also relied on procedural deficiencies as grounds for denial of Simmons's petition. However, the Commonwealth expressly conceded before the District Court that the contextualization rule on which the justices relied was a novel rule that had not previously been applied in the same manner. See Ford v. Georgia, 498 U.S. 411, 423-24, 111 S.Ct. 850, 112 L.Ed.2d 935 (1991) (explaining that a state procedural rule cannot bar review of a federal constitutional claim where it is not strictly or regularly followed and thus the defendant was not on proper notice of the rule when seeking review in state court). Furthermore, the Commonwealth did not pursue the procedural default issue in its opening brief, and we therefore deem it waived. See United States v. Pelullo, 399 F.3d 197, 222 (3d Cir.2005) (citing the well-established rule that the failure to identify or argue an issue in an opening brief constitutes waiver of that issue on appeal). Therefore, we consider all four of Simmons's Brady claims on the merits. As noted above, we consider the first three Brady claims de novo as claims not adjudicated on the merits by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, while according § 2254(d) deference to that court's ruling on the materiality of the mug book claim. We first review each individual Brady claim, and then discuss their collective effect on Simmons's trial. See Kyles, 514 U.S. at 437 n. 10, 115 S.Ct. 1555. We conclude that, as the District Court aptly explained, the Brady evidence at issue here is material because it calls into question the credibility of the two witnesses at the heart of the caseCobaugh and Pletcher. Had Simmons had access to the information suppressed by the prosecution, there is a reasonable probability that his trial would have had a different outcome. [6]
Had the jury known that Detective Rok pressured Pletcher into assenting to electronic surveillance of her conversations with Simmons by suggesting there was evidence tying her to Knaze's murder, it might well have distrusted Pletcher's testimony as another attempt to be helpful to the prosecution and avoid legal trouble herself. This evidence was particularly salient given that Pletcher initially stated that Simmons had been with her at the time of the assault on Cobaugh, and only altered her story after meeting with Detective Rok. When pressed about this inconsistency at trial, Pletcher attributed the change to having her memory refreshed by an intervening letter from Simmons. Undoubtedly the defense would have taken advantage of the opportunity to offer a competing explanation: that Pletcher only implicated Simmons in the Cobaugh assault because of a fear that otherwise she herself might face criminal liability. In an analogous case, United States v. Scheer, 168 F.3d 445 (11th Cir.1999), the Eleventh Circuit found that the prosecution's attempts to intimidate a crucial prosecution witness into testifying correctly by threatening to send him back to prison qualified as material information under Brady because it could have been used to impeach that witness at trial. Similarly, had the defense in this case had access to the information about Rok's efforts to pressure Pletcher into cooperating with the prosecution, it would have been much better positioned to cast doubt on her credibility. [7] The Commonwealth asserts that Detective Rok's threats to Pletcher were irrelevant because the jury would have understood that Simmons's girlfriend would not testify against him absent some sort of threat or pressure and would have taken that into account in judging her credibility. To the contrary, the fact that Pletcher seemed willing to condemn her boyfriend without any outside incentive to do so may very well have reinforced the damning nature of her testimony. The information about the threats against Pletcher was essential to explain why she might testify against Simmons even if he was not in fact guilty.
Cobaugh's misrepresentation of her criminal history in attempting to purchase a handgun, and the prosecution's assistance in helping her to avoid liability for that misrepresentation, were also highly relevant to Simmons's case. [8] First, Cobaugh made a misstatement under penalty of perjury, a fact that itself could have been used to impeach her testimony. The D.C. Circuit has described such prior perjurious statements as an infirmity ... that is almost unique in its detrimental effect on a witness' credibility. United States v. Cuffie, 80 F.3d 514, 517-18 (D.C.Cir.1996) (holding that undisclosed evidence of witness's prior perjury was material, despite availability of other types of impeachment material). Additionally, exposing Detective Rok's and ADA Kiniry's assistance to Cobaugh could have cast a new light on her October 1992 revelations regarding the statement made about Knaze during her assault and her ability to identify Simmons as her attacker. It is not clear from the record whether Rok and Kiniry found out about the gun charges and intervened in Cobaugh's case before or after her October meeting with Rok; however, the chronology of events is irrelevant, since the defense could just as well have argued either that Cobaugh came up with the October statements with the intent of leveraging them for help from the investigators, or that she was pressured into making those statements by the investigators armed with knowledge of her predicament. The Supreme Court has expressly stated that evidence regarding a witness's arrangements with the prosecution regarding pending criminal charges may affect the witness's credibility and thus may be material for Brady purposes. In Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 92 S.Ct. 763, 31 L.Ed.2d 104 (1972), the Court held that where the government's case depended almost entirely on one witness's testimony, the credibility of that witness was therefore an important issue in the case, and evidence of any understanding or agreement as to a future prosecution would be relevant to his credibility and the jury was entitled to know of it. Id. at 154-55, 92 S.Ct. 763. Similarly, the Ninth Circuit has concluded that knowledge of a leniency deal between the prosecution and a key witness was important Brady material because it constituted powerful and unique impeachment evidence demonstrating that [the witness] had an interest in fabricating his testimony. Horton v. Mayle, 408 F.3d 570, 579 (9th Cir.2005). The Commonwealth suggests that knowledge of Rok's and Kiniry's actions would have made no difference because the disclosure of similar efforts that the prosecution made on behalf of Gary Blough did not affect the verdict; however, that reasoning ignores the far more central role that Cobaugh played at trial compared to Blough, a role similar to that of the witnesses in Giglio and Horton. The prosecution's case rested in no small part on Cobaugh's credibility, and thus evidence relevant to her motives for testifying cannot be so easily dismissed as immaterial.
This is the weakest claim offered by Simmons, given that the lab reports did not eliminate him as the potential perpetrator of Cobaugh's sexual assault. Cf. Gary v. Hall, 558 F.3d 1229, 1256 (11th Cir.2009) (holding that inconclusive bite mark exemplar was not material in rape case where rapist had bitten victim, given that other evidence did link defendant to crime). Such negative or inconclusive results, however, may be exculpatory even where they do not provide definitive evidence on a particular issue. As the Fourth Circuit explained in Patler v. Slayton, 503 F.2d 472 (4th Cir.1974), neutral forensic evidence may, because of its neutrality, tend to be favorable to the accused. While it does not by any means establish his absence from the scene of the crime, it does demonstrate that a number of factors which could link the defendant to the crime do not. Id. at 479. In line with this approach, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court itself categorized rape kit results showing a lack of semen and foreign pubic hair as relevant evidence in a rape trial; though the results were inconclusive as to whether intercourse occurred, they were consistent with the defendant's testimony that he did not have sexual intercourse with the victim and thus might be probative of the defendant's credibility. Commonwealth v. Hawk, 551 Pa. 71, 709 A.2d 373, 377 (1998). Therefore, we must at least consider the potential effect of this evidence on the jury's verdict in combination with the other Brady material.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that foreclosure of the mere opportunity of impeaching Cobaugh's identification at trial by informing the jury that she had failed to identify appellant from a mugbook does not begin to establish a reasonable probability that the result of the trial would have been different given that Cobaugh was looking for one photograph among hundreds, later identified Simmons in a lineup, and was one of multiple witnesses who identified Simmons. Simmons, 804 A.2d at 637. Assuming arguendo that we review this claim under § 2254(d), see Part III.B, supra, we must defer to that conclusion unless it was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States, or was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). Appellee does not call to our attention any Supreme Court precedent that would directly undermine the above reasoning. It does appear, however, that the Court's assumption that the lineup would still have occurred had the failed mug book identification been disclosed was an unreasonable construction of the factual evidence presented to the PCRA court. A state court's fact-finding may qualify as unreasonable where the state court ... had before it, and apparently ignored, evidence supporting the habeas petitioner's claim. Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 346, 123 S.Ct. 1029, 154 L.Ed.2d 931 (2003). Here, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ignored the apparently undisputed contention that defense counsel would not have requested the lineup if it already had a failed identification that it could use to impeach Cobaugh's identification. The absence of a lineup identification would have left the defense at trial with a witness who told the police immediately after her assault that she did not get a good look at her attacker, identified Simmons from a photo array only after seeing his picture in the media as a suspect in Knaze's murder, and then failed to pick him out of a mug book. That is a far different scenario than that sketched out by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, of a failed mug book identification during a brief attempt versus a successful lineup identification. Consequently, we will give this Brady violation more weight than the Pennsylvania Supreme Court did in considering whether it contributed to Simmons's conviction in combination with the other three violations.
Both Cobaugh and Pletcher were critical witnesses at Simmons's trial, providing the main testimony that tied him to Knaze's murder. The other witnesses identifying Simmons as the man talking to Knaze on the day of her death, Thelma Blough, her son Gary Blough, and Tammy Ickes, only belatedly did so after each had already seen him either in person or in a photograph identified as the person charged with Knaze's murder. The prosecution appears to have recognized Cobaugh's central role in its case, beginning its opening statement with the threat that Simmons allegedly made against Cobaugh during her assault and referencing that threat several more times as the key to identifying Simmons as Knaze's killer. The Commonwealth itself called Cobaugh a critical witness. (Supp.App.269.) Pletcher's testimony was also pivotal, as her deviation from her original story that Simmons had been with her the night of May 5 deprived him of a potential alibi defense as to the attack on Cobaugh. Yet Cobaugh's and Pletcher's testimony had certain flaws. Cobaugh had not asserted that she could identify her attacker, or even mentioned the attacker's statement regarding Knaze, until after Knaze's murder was publicized and Simmons was charged as her killer. Meanwhile, Pletcher had changed her account of Simmons's whereabouts on the evening of Cobaugh's assault, at first stating that he had been with her the entire night of May 5 and only later recollecting that he had actually come home late and drunk on that date. Cobaugh's testimony might have been further debunked by some of the Brady material suppressed by the prosecution. The defense could have cited the inconclusive lab reports as highlighting the lack of physical evidence tying Simmons to Cobaugh's assault. Additionally, the knowledge that Cobaugh had been unable to identify Simmons from a mug book even after seeing his picture in the media might have made the jury more dubious of her accusation that Simmons was the man who threatened and tried to rape her, especially since in her initial report Cobaugh did not suggest that she would be able to identify her attacker. Most importantly, the inconsistencies in both Cobaugh's and Pletcher's stories, revealed on cross-examination, meant that the jurors were well-primed to hear that these two witnesses had good reason to come up with testimony helpful to the prosecution. Without the evidence suppressed by the prosecution, however, the defense could not credibly proffer such a theory. Had this information been available to the defense before trial, it could have much more effectively attacked the Commonwealth's case on not just one, but two critical fronts. Cf. Kyles, 514 U.S. at 444-45, 115 S.Ct. 1555 (holding that non-disclosure of evidence undermining eyewitness identifications of the defendant by what the state identified as its two best witnesses was material under Brady ). Overall, the picture of what Simmons's trial would have been like had these four Brady violations not occurred is vastly different from what actually happened. The two key witnesses presented by the state would have been substantially less credible, thus undermining the main evidence implicating Simmons in Knaze's death and Cobaugh's assault. Therefore, we agree with the District Court and hold that, cumulatively, the Commonwealth's Brady violations leave us without confidence in Simmons's conviction.