Court Opinion

ID: 9457451
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:22:20.845301+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:21.389314
License: Public Domain

LEVENTHAL, Circuit Judge,
concurring: If the argument of counsel for appellant Matthews had been only casual, I am not sure that I would have reached the same judgment as that reached in United States v. Hammonds, 138 U.S. App.D.C. 166, 425 F.2d 597 (1970). I think it appropriate to review how appellant’s trial counsel handled the case and why there was ineffective assistance of counsel.
1. In this case the counsel’s handling of the witnesses was brief but not “ineffective.” The Government’s principal witness was Voyles, the manager of the restaurant. Mitchell had introduced himself to Voyles in January, 1967, as a Treasury Agent, and said some Hot Shoppe employees were suspected of being narcotics distributors. He visited Voyles again and phoned him to schedule an appointment, and came to make an arrest. On February 14, he arrived with Matthews whom he introduced to Voyles as an agent. As soon as the introduction was over Matthews produced a gun and demanded that Voyles open the safe.
With respect to both the robbery and transportation of Voyles in his car following the robbery, Voyles gave very positive identification. His direct testimony made it clear that he had opportunity to see both of the men involved.
Counsel for Matthews declined cross-examination. Counsel for Mitchell engaged in cross-examination, and while *993opinions may differ in my view the cross-examination only made the testimony of Voy les more effective.
The same was the consequence of the cross-examination by Mitchell’s counsel of the Government’s next witness, Robert Arata, who was preparing salads while the manager was with the two men and who had opportunity to look into the room because the upper half of the manager’s office was glass enclosed. He saw them for several minutes. His testimony, too, was strengthened, in my opinion, by the cross-examination by counsel for Mitchell.
Perhaps this is why there was no cross-examination of the next two witnesses, — ■ Robert Simpson, the food production manager who saw Matthews eating breakfast at the counter, and Mabel Snyder, waitress, who said that she served breakfast to these two men on both the 13th and 14th of February and had spoken to them.
The testimony of Mr. Leach, the owner of the Explorer Restaurant, as to Matthews was only that he worked at the Explorer as a cook on February 11 and 12, a time when Mitchell was also working there. There was no cross-examination, but the same testimony was in essence established by appellant Matthews himself.
The one item of cross-examination which counsel for Matthews did provide was in the questioning of the police officer Robert Greaner, who received a lookout for the Voyles’ car, and minutes later spotted Matthews driving it, abandon it, and get on a bus.
Counsel elicted on cross-examination that in the course of turning around in his follow-up maneuvers, he did not in fact see who got out of the ear when it was abandoned. This was not much, but at least it qualified the testimony of a crucial Government witness.
2. Counsel advised Mr. Matthews to take the stand. The Government advised the court that appellant’s prior conviction (carrying a concealed weapon in Ohio) was of a sufficiently similar crime that it might be prejudicial and it waived impeachment.
Matthews explained his presence on the D. C. Transit bus in Hyattsville, Maryland as follows:
He said he had been with his cousin stationed at Fort Belvoir the previous night; that he had just come to the District from Columbus, Ohio; he had taken a bus from the Dunbar Hotel on 14th Street down to Pennsylvania Avenue; and then at Pennsylvania Avenue, where he was told he could catch the connecting bus to Ft. Belvoir, Va., he had indeed taken a bus going North to Hyattsville.
I see two major weaknesses in the testimony of Matthews. First that he made no inquiry at Pennsylvania Avenue where to get the bus to Ft. Belvoir. This requires belief in his alleged understanding that the first bus he saw on Pennsylvania Avenue after he got off the 14th Street bus would be the one for Ft. Bel-voir. Second is the avowal that he did not ask the conductor anything about Ft. Belvoir until he had been on the bus for quite some considerable period.
3. The prosecutor’s opening argument fairly set forth the requirements of presumption of innocence and of the need for the Government to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. He laid heavy stress on the credibility of the Government’s witnesses, and lack of motivation to lie, and clear and convincing identification; and then relied heavily on the fact that Matthews had not seen fit in any way to arrange for his cousin to testify and verify that he was expecting Matthews at Ft. Belvoir as Matthews testified. It had been brought out that Matthews knew the present address of his cousin, now living in Columbus.
4. About all that was required of defense counsel at this point was a restatement of the presumption of innocence, a brief summary of Matthews’ defense, and a submission to the jury that Matthews’ testimony was certainly sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt. But he did not *994do this. In fact his argument rather indicated that he did not believe the testimony of Matthews. As stated in the Petition for Rehearing, there were elements of this argument that were “markedly prejudicial” to Matthews. He said:
“Counsel for the defense — I happen to be counsel for the defendant Ronnie Matthews — also has his job. I hesitate to say, but I believe I have done it to the best of my ability with what I have had to work with, so I will make these few remarks and I will sit down.”
* *X- *
“The missing cousin is an interesting aside in this case. I don’t know anything about the cousin. All I know is what I heard from the witness stand. And if he isn’t here, perhaps you might very well draw whatever inferences you might see fit to draw from the fact that he isn’t here to testify on behalf of his cousin. I really don’t know.” (Tr. 222-23.)
5. While the case was very strong against Matthews, strong enough so that a number of errors might be regarded as harmless, this particular error was prejudicial because it really served to undermine the only defense that Matthews had. It was more damaging than a casual summation; it was a summation by defense counsel that was positively prejudicial to defendant.
I have taken the trouble of outlining the prejudice I think occurred, because I am by no means of the view, as suggested in the Petition for Rehearing, that in these cases no possibility of prejudice need be shown. Where defendant has not been provided with counsel, that fact in and of itself establishes the need for-reversal without regard to any other possibility of prejudice. Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 76, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942), but when the claim is posed in terms of ineffective assistance of counsel, then I think the ineffectiveness has to be measured in terms of whether the attorney has in effect blotted out the substance of a defense, Bruce v. United States, 126 U.S.App.D.C. 336, 340, 379 F. 2d 113, 117 (1967).