Court Opinion

ID: 9583012
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:33:57.653152+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:38:48.895254
License: Public Domain

WALLER, Justice:
The issue presented in this habeas corpus matter is a simple, but troubling, one: Should the State of South Carolina execute a man for murder when someone else confesses to committing the murder and that confession has never been presented to a jury? Because I would answer that question in the negative, I respectfully dissent.
Both the majority and Justice Pleicones’s dissent analyze this issue under the standard set forth in State v. Spann, 334 S.C. 618, 513 S.E.2d 98 (1999). Pursuant to Spann, a new trial motion based upon after-discovered evidence should be granted when the evidence: (1) is such that it would probably change the result if a new trial were granted; (2) has been discovered since the trial; (3) could not in the exercise of due diligence have been discovered prior to the trial; (4) is materi*401al; and (5) is not merely cumulative or impeaching. Given Hess’s questionable credibility, the majority concludes that Hess’s statement would probably not change the result of a new trial. Justice Pleicones disagrees.
I believe that strict adherence to the Spann test yields the result the majority enunciates in its opinion. This result, however, is what I find troubling. Considering the unusual circumstances of this case,7 I believe that to deny Johnson a new trial in the face of a confession by someone who was admittedly present when the murder was committed would constitute “a denial of fundamental fairness shocking to the universal sense of justice.” Butler v. State, 302 S.C. 466, 468, 397 S.E.2d 87, 88 (1990) (citations and internal quotes omitted). Using this standard, I arrive at the conclusion that our system of justice dictates that before Johnson is put to death he must be given an opportunity to present such evidence to a jury of his peers.
Accordingly, I would grant the motion for a new trial.

. Absent the statements of Curtis Harbert and Hess, there is no conclusive evidence that Johnson committed this murder. Moreover, Hess has given numerous statements alternatively implicating Johnson and Harbert, and now herself, as the shooter. Johnson has maintained that he has no memory of shooting Trooper Smalls. See, e.g., State v. Johnson, 293 S.C. 321, 324, 360 S.E.2d 317, 319 (1987).