Court Opinion

ID: 9654549
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:25:47.18187+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:10.497092
License: Public Domain

*706STORCKMAN, Chief Justice
(concurring in result only).
The limited examination I have been able to make of the law and the evidence in the time available inclines me to the following beliefs.
1. The rules announced in the principal opinion are broader than necessary for the disposition of the case and appear to impose a greater duty of disclosure on the prosecution than any decision thus far rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States.
2. In any event, the instant case can properly be decided on the narrower proposition, recognized by Missouri law, that a conviction may be set aside and a new trial awarded where the state has knowingly used false or perjured evidence.
3. Since the death penalty was imposed by the trial court under the Habitual Criminal Act, § 556.280, RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S., a determination should be made whether the rehearing should be limited to the issue of punishment and not the question of guilt which was determined by the jury.
The principal rule which I believe to be too broadly stated is as follows (Op. 700): “Various courts have held that the suppression of (or failure to disclose) evidence in the possession or control' of the prosecution which is favorable to defendant and which might be persuasive to a jury, constitutes such a fundamental unfairness as to invalidate a conviction because violative of due process.” Out of context, this imposes on the prosecutor the duty of determining what evidence or information he has favorable to the defendant and persuasive to the jury at the risk of having a conviction set aside if he does not make a disclosure. I doubt if the statement of the rule by the Supreme Court of the United States is that extensive.
The opinion cites various federal court cases but the' decisions of the Supreme Court which are most recent and seem most applicable are Alcorta v. State of Texas, 355 U.S. 28, 78 S.Ct. 103, 2 L.Ed.2d 9, and Brady v. State of Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215.
In Alcorta v. State of Texas, the defendant was convicted of killing his wife by stabbing and was sentenced to death. He admitted the killing but claimed it occurred in a fit of passion when he discovered his wife, whom he had suspected of infidelity, kissing one Castilleja late at night in a parked car. Under Texas law, a killing in a fit of passion due to adequate cause would be murder without malice, punishable by a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment. Castilleja in fact had had sexual intercourse with the defendant’s wife five or six times shortly before her death. He gave this information to the prosecutor who told him not to volunteer the information about the intercourse but if specifically asked to tell the truth. At the trial Castil-leja, the only eyewitness to the killing, testified for the state in substance that he and the defendant’s wife were not in love with each other, that they had never talked about love, that he had never had any dates with her except to bring her home a couple of times, that on the night she was killed he had driven her home and was parked in front of her house at 2 o’clock in the morning because of engine trouble. His testimony gave the impression that his relationship with her had been nothing more than that of casual friendship. Sometime after the defendant’s conviction had been affirmed, Castilleja “issued a sworn statement in which he declared that he had given false testimony at the trial.” 355 U.S. at p. 30, 78 S.Ct. at p. 105. In its Per Curiam opinion, the Supreme Court of the United States gave its ruling and decision as follows: “It cannot seriously be disputed that Castilleja’s testimony, taken as a whole, gave the jury the false impression that his relationship with petitioner’s wife was nothing more than that of casual friendship. This testimony was elicited by the prosecutor who knew of the illicit in-*707tef course between Castilleja and petitioner’s wife. Undoubtedly Castilleja’s testimony was seriously prejudicial to petitioner. It tended squarely to refute his claim that he had adequate cause for a surge of ‘sudden passion’ in which he killed his wife. If Castilleja’s relationship with petitioner’s wife had been truthfully portrayed to the jury, it would have, apart from impeaching his credibility, tended to corroborate petitioner’s contention that he had found his wife embracing Castilleja. If petitioner’s defense had been accepted by the jury, as it might well have been if Castilleja had not been allowed to testify falsely, to the knowledge of the prosecutor, his offense would have been reduced to ‘murder without malice’ precluding the death penalty now imposed upon him.” 355 U.S. at pp. 31-32, 78 S.Ct. at p. 105. The judgment denying the petition for a writ of habeas corpus was reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings. On its facts, the Alcorta case does not necessarily go beyond the rule that a trial is constitutionally unfair when false and misleading testimony is knowingly used.
In Brady v. State of Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215, the defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. At his trial he admitted participating in the killing but claimed his companion did the actual shooting. In his summation to the jury, defendant’s counsel conceded that the defendant was guilty of murder in the first degree and requested only that capital punishment be not imposed. Before trial the defendant’s counsel had requested the prosecution to permit examination of extrajudicial statements of the defendant’s companion. Several were exhibited; but one in which the companion had admitted the actual killing was withheld by the prosecution and did not come to the defendant’s notice until after his conviction had been affirmed. In a post-conviction proceeding, the Maryland Court of Appeals, 226 Md. 422, 174 A.2d 167, held that the suppression of the evidence by the prosecutor denied the petitioner due process of law. It remanded the case for a new trial on the question of punishment alone since it was of the opinion that nothing in the suppressed confession could have reduced the offense below murder in the first degree. On certiorari the Supreme Court of the United States held that the defendant had not been denied a federal constitutional right when his new trial was restricted to the issue of punishment and the judgment was affirmed. The opinion of the Supreme Court reviewed the evolution of the rule from the use of perjured testimony through the stages of suppression of favorable evidence and allowing false evidence to go uncorrected to the one presently applicable as follows (373 U.S. 87, 83 S.Ct. 1196) : “We now hold that the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution.” Emphasis supplied. On the facts of this case and under these decisions of the United States Supreme Court, further statements on page 700 of the opinion seem broader than necessary.
On the facts set out in the present opinion and the prior opinion reported in 363 S.W.2d at 711, it appears that this appeal can properly be disposed of without any extension of the rules announced in these cases cited in the principal opinion: State v. Statler, Mo., 383 S.W.2d 534; State v. Eaton, Mo., 302 S.W.2d 866, and State v. Eaton, Mo., 280 S.W.2d 63. From the statement of facts of the previous appeal, it appears that: “A search was made at the scene of the shooting for bullets and spent shells, but none were found.” 363 S.W.2d 714. This is an affirmative representation which now appears to be false in view of the statement in the present opinion that on the day following the killing two cartridge cases were found on the east side and one on the west side of the highway, and five were later found in the abandoned automobile used by the defendant and Tucker. The prosecutor knew, if the witness did not, *708that the testimony at the trial was not true and under the rule of State v. Statler the prosecutor was obligated “to correct it then and there.” 383 S.W.2d 537. See also Brady v. State of Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215. Such a correction would have led to a disclosure of all events connected therewith including the ballistic tests.
Whether the undisclosed evidence was material and hence prejudicial would depend on whether the defendant had the Browning automatic in his possession and not a revolver which did not eject spent shells, and whether the Walther automatic was used only by Tucker. The defendant is the only living person who knows what gun he had and whether he fired it. It was admitted that the defendant had a gun and there was direct evidence that he fired it. The evidence that all of the spent shells found at the scene and in the automobile came from the Walther gun would not have erased this direct evidence and exculpated the defendant. Some of the ejected shells from the automatic fired outside may have landed in the car, and there can hardly be any doubt that any shots fired from inside the car during the getaway were fired by the defendant and not by Tucker who was driving. On the facts shown by the opinions, I am not persuaded that we should hold that the defendant has demonstrated that he was deprived of a fair trial because of the state’s failure to disclose the finding of the spent shells and the results of the ballistic tests. The undisclosed evidence only tended to prove that the Walther gun was fired at the scene of the crime. It did not tend to prove or disprove that the defendant had that gun in his possession, that he did not fire it, or that the gun he had did not eject shells. It did not tend to refute the state’s evidence that the defendant fired a gun or support the defendant’s contention that he did not. The statements of the prosecutor to the jury and his argument based on the assumption that no spent shells were found were improper and are not to be condoned, but standing alone they can hardly be said to deprive the defendant of a fair trial in view of the evidence in the case. The comments are more in the nature of trial errors reviewable on appeal.
Even if the combination of the failure to correct false or untrue testimony plus the prosecutor’s argument based thereon were held to spell out a constitutionally unfair trial violating due process of law, it does not follow that the judgment of conviction should be set aside and a new trial granted on all issues. The crime involved in Brady v. State of Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215, was murder committed in the perpetration of a robbery for which the punishment was life imprisonment or death. The jury could restrict the punishment to life imprisonment by adding to its verdict the words “without capital punishment” which the jury did not do and the death penalty was assessed. The Maryland Court held the suppression of the confession of defendant’s companion that he fired the shot on which the murder charge was based could not have reduced Brady’s offense below first-degree murder and limited the retrial to the issue of punishment. The action was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court on the theory that the holding was a ruling that the confession would not have been admissible on the issue of guilt or innocence. This raises the question whether any possible new trial in the present case could properly be so limited. If the state had offered the evidence in question, it might have been excluded if the defendant had objected on the ground it was immaterial unless the state also showed that the defendant had possession of the Walther gun. If offered by the defendant, it is doubtful that the trial court would have been convicted of error in excluding it on the theory that it did not prove the defendant did not fire a shot or substantially corroborate his contention that he did not. At most it would have been corroborative evidence in which area the trial court has some discretion regarding its admissibility.
*709As stated, my view is that the majority opinion goes beyond what is required by the Supreme Court of the United States. I do not deem it advisable to try to keep pace with the various United States Courts of Appeals because they have differed in the application of the rules of law just as the state courts have. I doubt if any decision of the Supreme Court of the United States compels the result reached by the majority opinion.
Nevertheless, in view of the aggregate facts and circumstances shown by the evidence and by applying a narrower and better established rule, I can agree with the ultimate holding of the majority opinion that the defendant was deprived of a trial consistent with due process of law, but I do not subscribe to the broad rules announced in reaching that result.
Therefore, I concur in the result only.