Court Opinion

ID: 9483610
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:26:13.146194+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:43.675109
License: Public Domain

JERRE S. WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part:
I can see no justification at all to remand this case to the district court. It is true that the court did not consider the issue of prejudice. But on this record the evidence concerning the prejudicial nature of the faulty identification of the accused is overwhelming. The government’s ease relied virtually entirely upon the identification.
The majority of the Court remands the case for a consideration of the issue of prejudice as it applies to the abuse of the writ claim and also for the district court to reconsider its alternative determination denying the writ. I evaluate those issues in my conclusion that there should be no remand.
First, the issue of prejudice must be considered as it relates to abuse of the writ for failure to make the claim at an earlier time. Of course, I agree with the Court’s conclusion that there was good cause for failure to have raised the issue earlier. By way of dissent, I then go on to show why I feel there is no need to remand on this issue of prejudice.
Although Wainwright v. Sykes did not give “precise content” to the definition of prejudice, 433 U.S. at 91, 97 S.Ct. at 2508, later cases have interpreted the petitioner’s burden of proving actual prejudice as showing “ ‘not merely that the errors at ... trial created a possibility of prejudice, but that they worked to his actual and substantial disadvantage, infecting his entire trial with error of constitutional dimensions.’ ” Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 494, 106 S.Ct. 2639, 2648, 91 L.Ed.2d 397 (1986) (quoting United States v. Frady, 456 U.S. 152, 170, 102 S.Ct. 1584, 1596, 71 L.Ed.2d 816 (1982)) (emphases in original). Stated in another way, “[sjuch a showing of pervasive actual prejudice can hardly be thought to constitute anything other than a showing that the prisoner was denied ‘fundamental fairness’ at trial.” Murray, 477 U.S. at 494, 106 S.Ct. at 2648. See also Sawyer v. Whitley, 945 F.2d 812, 816 (5th Cir.1991) (“[prejudice requires a showing of actual prejudice amounting to a denial of fundamental fairness”), aff'd, — U.S. -, 112 S.Ct. 2514, 120 L.Ed.2d 269.
I must conclude that Hudson has also satisfied the prejudice element. Wilson’s identification and his credibility were virtually the state’s entire case against Hudson. In addition to being unable to identify Hudson in a lineup, the state’s only eyewitness initially picked someone else as the third participant from a photographic display, *1066and this third person was arrested. Wilson was then unable to identify the man in a live lineup. These facts presented to the jury as the heart of the state’s case would have cast highly significant doubt upon the reliability of Wilson’s identification. Further, the suggestive photographic identification merely intensified the serious consequences of the state's nondisclosure. I conclude that the “fundamental fairness” requisite obviously must fall in the face of significant uncertainty.
The district court then alternatively ruled that absent the applicability of Rule 9(b), Hudson’s grounds for relief were meritless. The Court remands for reconsideration of the merits. I would resolve the question.
In its determination, the district court conceded that the information concerning Wilson’s prior identification of Larry Jones should have been disclosed since it bore on Wilson’s credibility and ability to identify Hudson. Nonetheless, it concluded that the information was not sufficiently material under United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985), to have changed the outcome.
In making its assertion, the district court appears to have relied primarily on this Court’s reasoning in our earlier decision in Hudson v. Blackburn, 601 F.2d 785 (5th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1086, 100 S.Ct. 1046, 62 L.Ed.2d 772 (1979). As suggested above, in that case we addressed the state’s failure to disclose to Hudson prior to trial that Wilson had been unable to pick him out of a live pretrial lineup. 601 F.2d at 789. This information was in direct conflict with Wilson’s trial testimony that he picked Hudson out of the lineup. But we held that the error was harmless since the jury was made aware of the conflict when an officer present during the lineup testified that Wilson had failed to choose Hudson. While we found established trial errors harmless in Hudson’s third habeas petition, our conclusion as to their harmless quality was absent the closely related critical information now disclosed in this proceeding. Further, the Bagley standard of materiality was not in existence at the time this Court adjudicated his third federal ha-beas petition.
The Brady violation asserted on this appeal was not disclosed to the jury directly or indirectly in any way. In Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), the Supreme Court found 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.” 373 U.S. at 87, 83 S.Ct. at 1196-97. This is true as to impeachment evidence as well as exculpatory evidence. Bagley, 473 U.S. at 676, 105 S.Ct. at 3380. To establish that evidence falls within the purview of Brady, a petitioner must establish that the evidence was (1) suppressed, (2) favorable, and (3) material. Cordova v. Collins, 953 F.2d 167, 171 (5th Cir.1992). “Suppressed evidence is material ‘if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different.’ ” Id. (quoting Bagley, 473 U.S. at 682, 105 S.Ct. at 3383).
Information contained in police reports may constitute Brady material. See, e.g., Williams v. Whitley, 940 F.2d 132, 133 (5th Cir.1991); Lindsey v. King, 769 F.2d 1034, 1036 (5th Cir.1985). As to Brady’s first element, the evidence was clearly suppressed. As a result of the Louisiana law, Hudson did not have access to the police reports at issue at least until late 1986.1 Further, satisfying Brady’s second criterion, there is no question that the evidence is favorable.
As to Brady’s third factor, the assessment of prejudice on the merits, that factor may now be impacted to some extent by the heightened awareness of the prejudice issue emphasized by the McCleskey decision. McCleskey is procedural only, but a finding of prejudice under McCleskey makes it at least somewhat more difficult to find a lack of materiality under Bagley. The two evaluations clearly are not identi*1067cal. If the withheld evidence at issue is only one part of a substantial and strong body of proof against an accused, the level of prejudice justifying examining the merits would not necessarily be prejudicial to the level of justifying granting the writ. But here the withheld evidence was the critical part of the government’s ease, because the case was almost entirely grounded on this identity testimony. It follows that the prejudice required in finding materiality on the merits hinges on little more than the requisite prejudice justifying consideration of the merits.
I must conclude that the government’s case was seriously undermined by the withholding of evidence critical to identification of the accused by the key witness. I find it inescapable that the evidence withheld was highly material and its unavailability to the defendant casts clear and controlling doubt upon confidence in the outcome of the trial.
In view of the overriding importance of the faulty identification testimony there is no valid reason at all to remand the case to the district court. The record is complete. There is no genuine issue left to decide. Prejudice is certain and the merits are clear.
It appears to me to be a totally unjustifiable misuse of judicial resources to send this case back instead of deciding it. A serious waste of time and money are involved. I cannot conceive on the record with which we are presented that in the future any appellate court could uphold any decision other than that this conviction must be set aside as fatally flawed. Because of the serious misbehavior of the police, Hudson has amply demonstrated that he has not yet had a fair trial. The writ should be granted now.

. Hudson claims he did not obtain a copy of the police reports until 1988.