Court Opinion

ID: 9723632
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:23:38.15247+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:10:11.512318
License: Public Domain

CADY, Justice,
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. Harrington’s due process claim is not based on his pretrial lack of knowledge of a potential suspect who had been seen walking a dog and carrying a shotgun near the railroad tracks by the car dealership a few days prior to the murder. Furthermore, Harrington’s claim is not that he did not have knowledge that dog prints were observed at the murder scene. If these were his claims, I would have no disagreement with the majority. Instead, his claim is that the police failed to turn over the written reports of their investigation into the potential suspect. Although suppression by the police of potentially exculpatory information can justify a new trial, it does not in this case because Harrington clearly knew enough about the information independent of the contents of the suppressed police reports to conduct his own investigation and determine its value as a defense.
I am outraged that the police, apparently, failed to turn over the questioned reports. This was a clear violation of Brady. However, due process does not require a new trial unless the suppressed reports would have reasonably altered the outcome of the trial. Although the passage of time, as well as the death of the defense attorney, has cast a cloud of vagueness over much of the trial proceedings, it is undisputed that Harrington and his attorney knew enough about the information contained in the suppressed police reports to examine witnesses at trial about the matter. Moreover, this information was so sensational and so exculpatory that Har*526rington’s counsel surely would have earnestly pursued the matter independent of any police reports and then formulated a defense around it if it had been warranted. Consequently, I am unable to conclude that the reports would have altered anything at the original trial.
The majority cites two decisions to support its conclusion that the suppression of the reports denied Harrington the essential facts to structure a defense around the suppressed reports. See Mazzan, 993 P.2d at 37; Wilson, 2002 WL 732110, — So.2d at -. However, in Mazzan the actual police reports were essential to understanding and appreciating the implications of the information. Similarly, in Wilson defense counsel would have had no reason to “expend the time or resources” to locate the witness unless he would have known about the details of their testimony contained in the suppressed reports. In this case, however, there is no dispute that Harrington and his counsel had been made aware of the eerie, suspicious circumstances mentioned in the suppressed reports. Moreover, police did provide defense counsel with a report identifying the potential suspect by name, together with a host of names and addresses of neighbors who had seen the suspicious person. The suppressed police reports were not necessary to understand the significance of this known information or to prod any competent attorney to investigate every aspect of the information.
I believe the majority has attached too much significance to the suppression of the reports, and has elevated the circumstances implicating Gates as the murderer into a sensationalized claim that seemingly vindicates Harrington today, yet was known and rejected by police and Harrington’s own defense counsel twenty-five years ago. The majority exalts the claim far beyond the significance anyone involved in the case gave it twenty-five years ago, including Harrington’s own defense counsel, whose competency was not questioned in this proceeding. The majority now sets aside a twenty-five year old jury verdict and places the State in the difficult position of retrying this case after the passage of two and one-half decades because of a misdeed by the police which, while disconcerting, did not result in prejudice to Harrington. I would conclude the Brady violation is not cognizable in this postconviction relief proceeding. I would otherwise affirm the district court ruling.