Opinion ID: 2801073
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Analysis of Barton’s Brady Claim

Text: 1. Exculpatory or Impeachment Evidence Favorable to Barton The evidence here came to light when the police re-opened a burglary investigation that had been dormant for over a decade, just as the prosecution team was gathering evidence in its case against Barton. Although police detectives interviewed Jim, Ann, and Becky Kelly, none of the Kellys’ statements appear to have been written down. According to Ann and Becky, detectives threatened to bring obstruction-of-justice charges against Jim unless he testified against Barton at trial. R. 11-2 (Ann Kelly Affidavit at 2) (Page ID #579); R. 11-2 (Becky Kelly Affidavit at 2) (Page ID #581). Jim, however, has since died, thereby forcing us to rely solely on Ann’s and Becky’s affidavits to substantiate these claims. There is, moreover, no evidence that the police relayed the substance of their conversations to the prosecutors in Barton. We must thus address the question of whether these statements, known to the police but unrecorded, can properly be considered Brady evidence. We answer in the affirmative. We begin by recognizing that, under Supreme Court precedent, whether the police actually informed the prosecutors of their conversations is immaterial. The Supreme Court has held that prosecutors have “a duty to learn of any favorable evidence known to the others acting on the government’s behalf in the case, including the police.” Kyles, 514 U.S. at 437 (emphasis added). In addition, we also note that Brady is not a hard and fast evidentiary rule. To be sure, evidence that could have “no direct effect on the outcome of trial” cannot be considered Brady material. Wood v. Bartholomew, 516 U.S. 1, 6 (1995) (finding that polygraph results could not be considered Brady material when those results would not have been admissible under state law). However, inadmissible material might nonetheless be considered “material under Brady if it would ‘lead directly’ to admissible evidence.” Wogenstahl v. Mitchell, 668 F.3d 307, 325 n.3 (6th Cir. 2012) (quoting Sawyer v. Hofbauer, 299 F.3d 605, 614 (6th Cir. 2002)); see also Ellsworth v. Warden, 333 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir. 2003); 6 WAYNE R. LAFAVE ET AL., CRIMINAL PROCEDURE § 24.3(b) (3d ed. 2007) (“Most courts now view admissibility as a critical end-product, but note that the duty to disclose could encompass inadmissible information where that information appears likely to lead the defense to the discovery of admissible evidence.”); Brian D. Ginsberg, Always Be Disclosing: The No. 12-4003 Barton v. Warden, Southern Ohio Corr. Facility Page 17 Prosecutor’s Constitutional Duty to Divulge Inadmissible Evidence, 110 West Virginia Law Review 611, 626–634 (2008) (reviewing Brady and post-Brady Supreme Court cases and concluding that “the Court’s opinions in its Brady line of cases contemplate that constitutional criminal discovery encompasses inadmissible evidence.”). Although the Kellys’ unrecorded statements might have been inadmissible hearsay, disclosure of the substance of these statements might have led directly to admissible evidence. Barton might have, for instance, called Jim Kelly to take the stand at trial to testify in Barton’s favor, thereby putting into question Henson’s bias, self-interest, and motive to lie. During trial, the State questioned Henson at length about his prior experiences as a burglar for hire. The State thus opened the door for Barton to impeach Henson, either on cross-examination or by calling another witness to the stand. See, e.g., Ohio Evid. R. 616(A) (“Bias, prejudice, interest, or any motive to misrepresent may be shown to impeach the witness either by examination of the witness or by extrinsic evidence.”) (emphasis added); see also United States v. Tavera, 719 F.3d 705, 713–14 (6th Cir. 2013) (finding Brady violation when prosecutors decided not to relay statements made by co-defendant in initial plea-debriefing session); Bell v. Bell, 512 F.3d 223, 233 (6th Cir. 2008) (en banc) (concluding that existence of “less formal, unwritten, or tacit agreement is also subject to Brady’s disclosure mandate”). On a related note, we also acknowledge—and reject—the State’s assertion that the evidence at issue was inculpatory rather than exculpatory. According to John Newsom, an officer in the Warren County Sheriff’s Office, Kelly’s denial was “not exculpatory. In my experience, people often stick to the original story which they provide to the police, even if it turns out to be a lie. Thus, I would not consider it material that Mr. Kelly was sticking to the original story that the burglary at his home was legitimate.” R. 11-2 (Newsom Affidavit at 2) (Page ID #672). In fact, according to Newsom, “the information regarding the Kelly burglary was, in many aspects, inculpatory because it substantiated Henson’s story.” Id. at 3 (Page ID #673). It is worth analyzing what sort of evidence, in Newsom’s view, would or could have been considered exculpatory. As it stands, the police found Kelly’s denials not only to be insufficiently exculpatory, but actually inculpatory. Yet, had Kelly “confessed” to the police, his No. 12-4003 Barton v. Warden, Southern Ohio Corr. Facility Page 18 statement would have certainly been considered inculpatory. The State would, then, have us fall into a sort of inculpatory Catch-22—anything Kelly could say would have been inculpatory in the police’s view. This invitation we decline. The purpose of Brady and its progeny is to enforce an independent duty upon the State to hand over all of the material exculpatory evidence that it collects. It is not for the State to weigh the evidence and decide what the jury would ultimately find to be material and exculpatory—that is something that the jury itself must decide. And, as we discuss below, we believe that “there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence [in question] been disclosed, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” Smith v. Cain, 132 S. Ct. 627, 630 (2012). 2. Willful or Inadvertent Suppression of Evidence by the State The second component of our Brady analysis—willful or inadvertent suppression of evidence—dovetails with our inquiry into “cause,” as part of our procedural-default analysis. See also Jamison v. Collins, 291 F.3d 380, 386 (6th Cir. 2002) (“In order to show cause, [the petitioner] must provide a substantial reason for the default that is external to him.”); Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 488 (1986) (“Without attempting an exhaustive catalog of such objective impediments to compliance with a procedural rule, we note that a showing that the factual or legal basis for a claim was not reasonably available to counsel, or that ‘some interference by officials,’ made compliance impracticable, would constitute cause under this standard.”) (citations omitted). We begin our analysis by looking to language in Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263 (1999), which instructs us to examine three factors in determining whether a petitioner has shown cause for his failure to raise a Brady claim in state court: whether “[t]he documents [in question] were suppressed by the [state],” whether “the prosecutor maintained an open file policy,” and whether “trial counsel were not aware of the factual basis for the claim.” Id. at 283; see also Banks, 540 U.S. at 692–93 (citing and applying Strickler factors). This case is on all fours with Strickler. Barton’s counsel requested that the State turn over all Brady material, including a specific request that it turn over “any and all information tending to or likely to lead to information tending to impeach the character of any witness intended to be called by the Government.” R. 11-1 (Def.’s Mot. to Dismiss Indictment at 7) No. 12-4003 Barton v. Warden, Southern Ohio Corr. Facility Page 19 (Page ID #64). The State indicated that it would “fully comply” with this request. R. 11-1 (Response to Def.’s Mot. to Dismiss Indictment at 4) (Page ID #81). Yet the State clearly did not do so. In fact, its inaction resulted in Barton’s inability to present his claim at trial and on direct appeal. As recounted above, police officers re-opened their investigation into the Kelly burglary after Barton’s indictment but before Barton’s trial. These officers gathered extensive evidence indicating that the Kelly burglary was not staged and was not intended to scare the Kelly family into moving to the city, contrary to Henson’s allegations. They had conversations with Jim, Ann, and Becky Kelly, with each member giving a consistent account—and an account that was inconsistent with Henson’s. Yet, in the end, authorities placed only a single police report into the Brady file that they turned over to Barton. That report was more than a decade old and lacked any mention of Henson, much less any mention that the burglary was staged with a nearidentical motive to the one that allegedly occurred in Barton’s case. In other words, at no point did the State provide Barton with any updated information from its 2004 reinvestigation. The State has insisted that Barton could have uncovered this evidence on his own, because he was given a copy of the police report that included details of the Kelly burglary and contact information for Becky Kelly. We are unconvinced. Nothing in the report mentions that the burglary might have been staged. Instead, the “Narrative” section focuses on summarizing Becky Kelly’s eyewitness account—an account that is remarkably consistent with the one she gave in an affidavit more than ten years later. See R. 11-2 (Kelly Police Report at 2–6) (Page ID #677–81); R. 11-2 (Becky Kelly Affidavit at 1–2) (Page ID #580–81). It is difficult for us to understand how Barton would have been able to (or should have been expected to) connect the dots between his wife’s murder, Gary Henson, and the Kelly burglary. In any event, we emphasize that this is not the purpose of Brady. In fact, it is the very opposite of the purpose of Brady. “The presumption, well established by tradition and experience, [is] that prosecutors have fully discharged their official duties.” Strickler, 527 U.S. at 286 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). These duties, of course, include complying with Brady. At no point have we or the Supreme Court offered any “support to the notion that defendants must scavenge for hints of undisclosed Brady material when the No. 12-4003 Barton v. Warden, Southern Ohio Corr. Facility Page 20 prosecution represents that all such material has been disclosed.” Banks, 540 U.S. at 695; see also Strickler, 527 U.S. at 282–89 (rejecting broad due-diligence requirement). To reiterate: Brady requires the State to turn over all material exculpatory and impeachment evidence to the defense. It does not require the State simply to turn over some evidence, on the assumption that defense counsel will find the cookie from a trail of crumbs. 3. Prejudice to Barton Third, we must determine whether the information withheld from Barton was material and prejudicial to his defense. Our inquiry here is guided by the reasonable-probability standard. This standard “does not mean that the defendant would more likely than not have received a different verdict with the evidence, only that the likelihood of a different result is great enough to undermine[] confidence in the outcome of the trial.” Smith, 132 S. Ct. at 630 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). In finding the evidence at issue immaterial, the magistrate judge’s supplemental report stated that such evidence “would have been at best further gilding of the lilly [sic]. Defense counsel impeached Henson by getting him to admit many prior convictions, including for falsification offenses . . . . [Henson] admitted on the stand that he had lied to investigators about this very crime. And still the jury believed him. It is extremely doubtful that the Kelly information would have tipped the balance.” R. 49 (Magistrate Judge’s Supplemental Report and Rec 6–7) (Page ID #2493–94). We disagree. The evidence at issue is not cumulative or superfluous to the other impeachment evidence that was levied against Henson. Rather, it goes to the heart of the State’s theory of the case: that Barton hired Phelps and Henson to stage a burglary at his house to scare his wife into moving to the city. Consider what the jury would have had to believe if Kelly had actually testified in Barton’s favor: that, in the span of two years, two farm owners, living in the same Ohio county, decided—separately—that they both wanted to move to the city; and decided—again, separately—that they could convince their families to do so only by staging a home burglary; and decided—once again, separately—that they would hire the same two-man team to stage this burglary. The jury would have had to believe that Henson (and the State) were telling the truth, despite vehement denials by Barton and every member of the Kelly family. The No. 12-4003 Barton v. Warden, Southern Ohio Corr. Facility Page 21 jury would have had to contend with the fact that the Kellys continue to live on their farm in Warren County, more than twenty years after Jim supposedly sought to frighten them into moving to the city. We believe that the evidence here would have done more than simply raise general questions about Henson’s character. It would have addressed whether Henson was telling the truth in this specific instance. See, e.g., Banks, 540 U.S. at 702 (“The State argues that Farr was heavily impeached [at trial], rendering his informant status merely cumulative. The record suggests otherwise. Neither witness called to impeach Farr gave evidence directly relevant to Farr’s part in Banks’s trial.”) (first alteration in original) (emphasis added) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted); Robinson v. Mills, 592 F.3d 730, 736 (6th Cir. 2010) (rejecting State’s contention that “undisclosed impeachment information would have been merely cumulative” because “the undisclosed information was different in kind.”). In finding that Barton has demonstrated a reasonable probability of prejudice, we follow the Supreme Court’s decisions in Smith and Banks. In each of these cases, the prosecution relied on a single witness for its theory of the case. In Smith, the key witness, Boatner, “identified Smith as the first gunman to come through the door. He claimed that he had been face to face with Smith during the initial moments of the robbery.” 132 S. Ct. at 629. Yet, during his postconviction relief proceedings, Smith “obtained files from the police investigation of his case,” including a report from the State’s lead investigator which revealed that Boatner “could not identify any of the perpetrators of the murder” in a conversation with the police on the night of the murder. Id. at 629–30. In concluding that the State had improperly withheld evidence under Brady, the Supreme Court took note that “Boatner’s testimony was the only evidence linking Smith to the crime,” with the State presenting “[n]o other witnesses and no physical evidence implicat[ing] Smith.” Id. Similarly, in finding that petitioner had shown both cause and prejudice in Banks, the Supreme Court contrasted the facts of that case to those in Strickler, where the Court found cause, but not prejudice. The Banks Court noted that “[t]he witness whose impeachment was at issue in Strickler gave testimony that was in the main cumulative,” because “considerable forensic and other physical evidence link[ed] [the defendant] to the crime.” 540 U.S. at 700–01. No. 12-4003 Barton v. Warden, Southern Ohio Corr. Facility Page 22 Farr’s testimony in Banks, on the other hand, was entirely “uncorroborated by any other witness” and unsupported by any other evidence. Id. at 700. Our own precedent is in accord with these decisions. In Robinson v. Mills, 592 F.3d 730 (6th Cir. 2010), prosecution witness Sims was the single eyewitness to a homicide. She gave a dramatically different account of events at Robinson’s trial than at Robinson’s preliminary hearing. Id. at 736. We found evidence of a Brady violation similar to that in Smith and reiterated the importance of admitting impeachment evidence where the government’s case rests on the testimony of a single witness. Id. In Harris v. Lafler, 553 F.3d 1028, 1030–31 (6th Cir. 2009), the State withheld evidence that the police had offered to release witness Ward and Ward’s girlfriend if he chose to testify against Harris. In determining that the State had committed a Brady violation, the Harris court took note that Ward’s testimony “was the only piece of eyewitness evidence that directly linked Harris to the shooting . . . and there was no forensic or physical evidence connecting Harris to the crime.” Id. at 1033 (emphasis in original). The defendant, we continued, “suffers prejudice from the withholding of favorable impeachment evidence when the prosecution’s case hinges on the testimony of one witness.” Id. at 1034. Like the cases described above, the State’s theory here rests on the testimony of a single witness—not even an eyewitness, in fact. That witness presented an unsupported, shifting, and somewhat fantastical story at trial. The State suppressed material, exculpatory evidence from Barton, thereby making it more difficult for Barton to discredit this theory. There is a reasonable probability that such actions affected the outcome of the trial.