Court Opinion

ID: 9676193
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:17:14.904764+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:45.292933
License: Public Domain

CARTER, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
Prosecutorial- misconduct by itself is not a basis for overturning a criminal conviction. It must be shown that the misconduct denied the defendant a fair trial. State v. Wilkins, 693 N.W.2d 348, 352 (Iowa 2005). This requirement to demonstrate prejudice exists even in those cases in which error has been preserved at trial. Id.; State v. Piper, 663 N.W.2d 894, 913 (Iowa 2003). When, as here, the issue is raised in the context of an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim, the degree of prejudice that must be shown is that set forth in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 2068, 80 L.Ed.2d 674, 698 (1984).
To sustain an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim under the Strickland standard the applicant must show “there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 669, 104 S.Ct. at 2068, 80 L.Ed.2d at 698. We have articulated this standard in terms. of our confidence level with respect to the validity of the outcome in the face of counsel’s omissions. State v. Graves, 668 N.W.2d 860, 883 (Iowa 2003). In applying this standard, the court of appeals determined that Bowman had not demonstrated sufficient prejudice to warrant the granting of relief. I agree with the court of appeals.
Our opinion in Graves considered the views of some courts that approved questioning an accused concerning the truthfulness of another witness’s testimony in those situations in which the contradiction between the defendant’s testimony and that of the other witness cannot be attributed to a difference in perception or inaccuracies in memory, but can only be explained by the conclusion that someone is lying. We rejected that exception for purposes of determining whether prosecutorial misconduct has occurred. We recognized, however, that this may be a factor in determining the extent to which a defendant has been prejudiced by the improper questioning. Id- at 873.
In the present case, the contradiction between Bowman’s testimony on the one hand and that of Karla Schwaegler and Todd Williams on the other may not in the *209ordinary course of human experience be attributed to differences in perception or inaccuracies in memory. The testimony of Schwaegler and Williams concerned emotionally charged events that would leave a vivid impression as to whether an abduction at gunpoint occurred or did not occur, notwithstanding possible misimpressions as to the details of how it occurred. I am convinced that this is the way in which ordinary jurors would view the conflict in testimony and that they would conscientiously consider and reject the possibility that the State’s witnesses might be lying even if that suggestion had not been presented in the cross-examination of Bowman and the prosecutor’s final argument.
Although an investigating officer expressed the opinion that Karla appeared to be intoxicated when police came on the scene, he believed it was also possible that her demeanor may have been an emotional reaction to what had occurred to her. Karla was able to provide a lucid account of the events that had transpired, and her account was corroborated by Williams. The possibility that these witnesses’ description of the alleged abduction, so soon after the event, was an innocent mistake is sufficiently slight that the prosecutor’s failure to admit that possibility was not something that would divert the jurors’ focus from the essential components of their fact-finding mission. I am confident that the prosecutorial misconduct that occurred when considered within the context of the entire trial did not result in sufficient prejudice to satisfy the Strickland standard for granting relief. I would affirm the decision of the court of appeals and the judgment of the district court.
LARSON and CADY, JJ., join this dissent.