Opinion ID: 874771
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The District Court Correctly Applied the Drapeau Standard

Text: A defendant who has been found guilty of a crime may seek a new trial under I.C. § 19-2406 [w]hen new evidence is discovered material to the defendant, and which he could not with reasonable diligence have discovered and produced at the trial. I.C. § 19-2406(7). Newly discovered evidence warrants a new trial only if the defendant demonstrates: (1) the evidence is newly discovered and was unknown to the defendant at the time of trial; (2) the evidence is material, not merely cumulative or impeaching; (3) it will probably produce an acquittal; and (4) failure to learn of the evidence was not due to a lack of diligence on the part of the defendant. Stevens, 146 Idaho at 144, 191 P.3d at 222 (citing State v. Drapeau, 97 Idaho 685, 691, 551 P.2d 972, 978 (1976)). [A] defendant wishing to gain a new trial based on newly discovered evidence must show that the evidence meets all four of the requirements set out in Idaho law. Stevens, 146 Idaho at 146, 191 P.3d at 224. Motions for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence are disfavored and should be granted with caution, reflecting the importance accorded to considerations of repose, regularity of decision making, and conservation of scarce judicial resources. Id. at 144, 191 P.3d at 222 (citing State v. Hayes, 144 Idaho 574, 577, 165 P.3d 288, 291 (Ct.App.2007)). Mr. Ellington claims that the court abused its discretion in not applying the standard this Court adopted in State v. Scroggins, 110 Idaho 380, 716 P.2d 1152 (1985) to Mr. Ellington's motion for new trial. In that case, this Court stated that  where a defendant submits an affidavit by a government witness in which the witness recants his testimony and specifies in what ways he dishonestly testified and in what ways he would, if given the opportunity to testify again, change that testimony and where a defendant makes a showing that such changed testimony may be material to a finding of his guilt or innocence, a new trial should be held. Scroggins, 110 Idaho at 385, 716 P.2d at 1157 (emphasis added). The standard applied in Scroggins considers (1) whether the testimony given by a material witness was false; (2) whether without that testimony the jury might have reached a different conclusion; and (3) whether the party seeking the new trial was taken by surprise when the false testimony was given and was unable to meet it, or, did not know it was false until after the trial. Bean v. State, 119 Idaho 632, 638, 809 P.2d 493, 499 (1991) (citing with approval the Scroggins test for new trial based upon the recantation of testimony by a witness). In Scroggins, the only eyewitness for the defense delivered a note to the court after the trial insinuating that he had not told the truth in his trial testimony. Scroggins, 110 Idaho at 384, 716 P.2d at 1156. The Court went on to hold that the note did not constitute an affidavit and even so, it was subject to multiple inferences, such that the Court could not conclude that the witness had provided evidence that he had recanted his testimony. Id. at 385, 716 P.2d at 1157. The Court of Appeals recently confirmed that the language in the Scroggins case suggests that the use of that standard should be confined to a specific set of facts when a trial witness has recanted his or her trial testimony and evidence of that recantation has been presented to the trial court. State v. Griffith, 144 Idaho 356, 366, 161 P.3d 675, 685 (Ct.App.2007) (citations omitted); see also State v. Lawrence, 112 Idaho 149, 152, 730 P.2d 1069, 1072 (Ct.App.1986) ( Scroggins provides the standard for evaluating recanted testimony in Idaho.). Excepting evidence of recantation, [a]ny other type of new evidence presented by a defendant as an alleged basis for a new trial, including other types of proof of perjury and evidence of a recantation that has itself been subsequently disavowed by the trial witness, are subject to the Drapeau test. Griffith, 144 Idaho at 366, 161 P.3d at 685 (citations omitted); [19] see also Cootz v. State, 129 Idaho 360, 366-67, 924 P.2d 622, 628-29 (Ct.App.1996) (applying the Scroggins test to a newly-discovered affidavit from the witness which constituted a recantation, but applying the Drapeau test to a newly-discovered affidavit from a third party that suggested a witness had perjured himself). This is not a situation where a government witness specifically identified that he had perjured himself on the stand, and further expressly recanted his testimony. Cpl. Rice has not submitted any affidavit, and has not presented anything to the trial court to indicate that he is recanting his testimony in the Ellington trial. While the evidence suggests he may have perjured himself, he did not recant his testimony. Therefore, the district court properly applied the Drapeau test.