Opinion ID: 786204
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Garner's Final Interview

Text: 70 On August 21, 1980, after all of Soffar's confessions had been taken and the State had been enjoined from interacting with Soffar any further, the State submitted Garner to questioning under hypnosis. Presumably, the hypnotic interview was conducted in an effort to bolster the strength of the State's case against Soffar. However, Soffar's appointed counsel were not invited and did not attend this session with Garner ; and in the end, Garner's account of events under hypnosis only served to confirm the version of events he had described in his initial interviews with investigators, and that version of events differed dramatically from the version given by Soffar in his written statements. See Appendix A. If Garner had testified at trial in a manner consistent with the statements made to investigators on July 17, 18, 19, 20, and August 21, 1980, such testimony would have seriously undermined the State's case against Soffar. 71 The State did not call Garner as a witness at Soffar's trial. Indeed, at trial, instead of calling Garner, the State called Dr. Gildonburg, the neurosurgeon who operated on Garner, during its case-in-chief. Dr. Gildonburg testified that Garner could be suffering from retrogressed amnesia and that Garner could have created a false memory of events. Dr. Gildonburg did not express any medical opinion that Garner was in fact suffering from amnesia. Additionally, we note that Soffar's defense counsel were informed that Garner was a vegetable with no memory of the offense, and incredibly, based upon this assertion and the fact that Garner was not going to be called by the State as a witness, Soffar's defense counsel did not even attempt to interview Garner themselves. Rather amazingly, defense counsel instead chose to bolster Dr. Gildonburg's testimony by asking and receiving an affirmative response to the question, would it be a fair statement ... that a person that suffered the type of wounds that Greg Garner suffered, no one, including Greg Garner, himself, would ever know whether he was giving an accurate account of the events that caused his injury?, thus implying to the jury that, indeed, Garner had no useful memory of the offense.