Court Opinion

ID: 9461601
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:18:49.845524+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:09.303671
License: Public Domain

TAMM, Circuit Judge
(concurring separately):
I fully concur in those parts of the court’s opinion involving the request for assistance of counsel and the. remand for resentencing. Although my reasoning differs from that of the court, I also agree that appellant’s motion for a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence was properly denied.
Appellant urges the court to accept as newly discovered evidence the following facts: 1) that unknown to appellant, the United States Attorney had agreed to support Robert Ammidown’s appeal of the trial judge’s refusal to accept the plea bargain; 2) that this court enforced the bargain by ordering the trial judge to accept the plea in United States v. Ammidown, 162 U.S.App.D.C. 28, 497 F.2d 615 (1973); and, 3) that Robert Am-midown was acting under the compulsion of threats made by the trial judge when he testified against appellant.
The last of these “facts” formed the base for the argument that appellant made in his first appeal — that Ammi-down’s testimony was not voluntary. See Appellant’s Original Br. at 42-47. Having previously rejected this argument on the ground that appellant was not thereby prejudiced, it cannot be raised again.
Appellant’s second “newly discovered evidence” is Ammidown’s success on appeal. However, since Ammidown did not know the outcome of his appeal when he testified against appellant, it could not have been used to attack his credibility. I would therefore hold that this fact is not newly discovered evidence within the meaning of Fed.R.Crim.P. 33.
The only fact that has any significance is appellant’s contention that unknown to him, the United States Attorney had agreed to support Ammidown’s appeal.1 Apparently, this was not brought to the court’s attention during appellant’s first appeal because the transcript containing the United States Attorney’s position was sealed. Thus, the question becomes whether the United States Attorney’s failure to disclose to appellant that he (the U.S. Attorney) would not oppose Ammidown’s appeal mandates a new trial under the due process standards of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963) and Napue v. Illinois, 360 U.S. 264, 79 S.Ct. 1173, 3 L.Ed.2d 1217 (1959), recently re-affirmed in Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 92 S.Ct. 763, 31 L.Ed.2d 104 (1972). I do not believe that the “newly discovered evidence” offered here requires a new trial. In light of the overwhelming evidence of appellant’s guilt, there is no *427reasonable likelihood that the disclosure of the United States Attorney’s posture would have affected the jury’s judgment. See Giglio v. United States, supra, 405 U.S. at 154, 92 S.Ct. 763, 31 L.Ed.2d 104. However, I would not rely upon the standards set forth in Thompson v. United States, 88 U.S.App.D.C. 118, 188 F.2d 652, 653 (D.C. Cir. 1951), because Thompson does not involve newly discovered evidence withheld during the trial by the prosecution. If the Thompson criteria apply to prosecutorial conduct, then its continuing vitality in that area has been undermined by Gig-lio, Brady, and Napue.

. More precisely, the United States Attorney did not actively support the appeal but did not oppose it, and an amicus curiae was appointed to represent the district court. See United States v. Ammidown, 162 U.S.App.D.C. 28, 31, 497 F.2d 615, 618 (1973).