Court Opinion

ID: 9541907
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:29:33.104633+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:05:15.609233
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE SCHAEFER, dissenting: The convictions of defendant Herbert Martin and his co-defendant, Dewright Baxter, rested largely on the testimony of the informer, Buonauro. His name had not been included in the list of witnesses required to be furnished to the defendants by the prosecution. Nevertheless he was permitted to testify over their objections. (People v. Martin, 74 Ill. App. 2d 431, 433.) He lied when he testified “that he had never been paid or given money” for his services during the seven years he had served as an informer. In its former opinion in this case this court said: “It there appears [in the transcript of the defendant’s original trial] that the informer testified to a controlled purchase of drugs from defendant under circumstances wherein the informer was the only eyewitness to the actual sale. And of even greater significance, it discloses that officers Simpson and Nadile were both working with the informer when defendant’s arrest was effected. Yet, the petition and supporting transcripts establish that Nadile testified in a criminal proceeding to a long-standing arrangement with the informer whereby the latter was paid for his services if an arrest was made and if funds were available, whereas his partner, Simpson, testified categorically in defendant’s trial five days later that the informer had never been paid but gave his services gratuitously.” 46 Ill.2d 565, at 568. The opinion of the majority in the present case rejects the prosecution’s contention that no error occurred because it was not established at the post-conviction hearing that Officer Simpson had lied at the trial. I concur in that conclusion, for whether that officer deliberately lied or not, it was unmistakeably proved by the testimony of other officers that Buonauro had lied when he testified that he was not a paid informer. But I cannot agree that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The importance of Buonauro’s testimony is apparent from the opinion of the appellate court on the co-defendant’s appeal. There the court said: “*** we think there was sufficient corroboration of Buonauro’s testimony to permit the jury to determine the credibility of his testimony concerning the nature of his conversation with defendant [Baxter]. If Buonauro’s testimony is believed, there is sufficient evidence to sustain a conviction regardless of the fact that he had no physical contact with either the narcotics or the money.” (People v. Baxter (1966), 74 Ill. App. 2d 437, 444-445.) I think now, as the appellate court thought then, that Buonauro’s credibility was critical to a conviction of the defendant for the sale of narcotics. And we cannot know how the jury would have appraised his credibility if he had not been put before them in a completely false light.