Court Opinion

ID: 9462429
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:40:47.470269+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:35.127662
License: Public Domain

ROBB, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I would not remand, but would affirm the conviction and judgment.
I think defendant’s counsel made a wise tactical judgment when he did not attempt before the jury to explore the relationship between Mrs. Moore and Officer Stewart. In light of Mrs. Moore’s denial the jury might well have considered such an attempt as an unjustified attack by Moore on the character of his wife, with resulting prejudice to Moore. Moreover, I do not understand how, as the opinion suggests, “denials by Detective Stewart and the defendant’s wife could have been contradicted by testimony from the defendant’s mother and the two unidentified spectators”. Since it is highly unlikely that the mother and the spectators were eyewitnesses to the affair their testimony at most would have been hearsay. Finally, I note that the point on which the opinion rests — the alleged Detective Stewart, Mrs. Moore relationship — was not raised in the appellant’s brief on appeal. I agree with the conclusion implicit in the brief, that the point now raised was not worth arguing. There can be no suggestion that the able appellate counsel is ineffective.