Court Opinion

ID: 9494162
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:30:55.667162+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:15.319971
License: Public Domain

CALABRESI, J.,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
At trial, defendants sought to persuade the jury that the violence inside the Colombo Family stemmed from a Scarpa Sessa war triggered by suspicions that Gregory Scarpa, Sr. was a government informant, rather than from the Persico/Orena factional battle charged by the government. Until after trial, the government admittedly suppressed evidence that Scar-pa Sr., in fact, was an informant.1 In the first appeal of these convictions, a panel of this court decided that, notwithstanding the government’s improper behavior, a new trial was not the appropriate remedy. The panel held that the presence of strong independent evidence of guilt, and the availability of other evidence with which the defense could attack the government’s case, rendered the government’s misconduct insufficiently material to violate the constitution.2 We are, of course, bound by that decision.
In these appeals, however, defendants argue that the government not only suppressed evidence directly supporting defendants’ theory of the case, but, in addition, that, through its cooperating witnesses, the government actually introduced perjured testimony tending to un*225dermine defendants’ theory. Thus, under direct examination, Sessa testified that he believed that a New York Post article claiming that “Gregory Scarpa” was a government informant referred to Scarpa, Jr., and was false. Given subsequent statements by Sessa and others that Sessa instead believed that the article referred to Scarpa, Sr. and that it was true, and given, moreover, that the government knew at trial (though it had suppressed this fact, see Orena, 145 F.3d at 556) that Scarpa, Sr. actually was cooperating with the FBI, it is plausible that Sessa was lying and that the government either was aware of Sessa’s perjury, or closed its eyes to what was obvious. Furthermore, it was helpful to the government for Sessa to cast doubt on the relevance of the Post article, and, as a cooperating witness, Sessa was motivated to lie if he thought that doing so would please the government.
In pointing this out I do not mean to suggest that the testimony about the Post article can only be explained as showing perjury by Sessa, and as indicating that the government knew or should have known about the perjury. The government has put forward a number of arguments, both in its appellate briefs and in a sworn affidavit submitted to the district court, that would explain the testimony as the result of confusion. The problem, however, is that the district court denied defendants the opportunity to test the government’s theories in an adversary hearing at which the critical issues of credibility and mental state could be explored. See Forts v. Ward, 566 F.2d 849, 851 (2d Cir.1977) (“Normally, an evidentiary hearing is required to decide credibility issues.”). Without such a hearing, I cannot rule on whether conscious lying took place.
If Sessa did perjure himself on the topic of Scarpa, Sr.’s cooperation, and the government knew or should have known of it, a new trial would, I think, be required, at least when one considers the cumulative effect of that perjury and the government’s suppression of evidence concerning its relationship with Scarpa. It cannot be gainsaid that this trial would have looked radically different had the government permitted an accurate view of Scarpa’s role to be put forward. Indeed, some, though not all, of the related cases that went to trial after Scarpa’s role was revealed, resulted in acquittals.
I do not doubt that the evidence introduced at trial was sufficient to convict defendants on each count, even if we eliminate all of the evidence that is possibly traceable to Scarpa. But the fact that a jury could convict does not mean that it will. And defendants must have a fair opportunity to convince the jury that it should not do so. That opportunity, moreover, must be untainted by misguided government attempts to tilt the scales in its favor. Perhaps these defendants received a fair trial, .and perhaps they did not. Because I cannot be confident of the answer on the current record, I dissent from the majority’s decision to affirm these convictions. I would remand for an evidentia-ry hearing on whether Sessa perjured himself and, if he did, whether the government knew or should have known of it.

. The suppressed evidence would have been helpful to the defense in other respects as well.

. I note that the government, in its explanations of its conduct, might be construed to be saying that, because the suppression was not deemed to require a new trial, it did nothing wrong in the first place. It goes without saying that such behavior is not to be condoned even when it ultimately is deemed harmless. As Attorney General John Ashcroft has recently observed, the government "has a more important duty than the prosecution of any single case,” namely a "responsibility to promote the sanctity of the rule of law and justice ... [and] to protect the integrity of our system of justice.” See David Johnston, Citing F.B.I. Lapse, Ashcroft Delays McVeigh Execution, N.Y. Times, May 12, 2001, at A1.