Court Opinion

ID: 9480694
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:55:32.208088+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:50.644349
License: Public Domain

KOZINSKI, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
While I agree with much of the court’s disposition, I am unable to join part C thereof. Having an Assistant U.S. Attorney who worked on the case testify before the jury is almost always an unwise and perilous exercise as it raises serious temptations for prosecutorial overreaching. In this case the temptation proved too great; it denied the defendant a fair trial.
There are two things a prosecutor may not do while testifying. The first is vouch for a witness; the second is express a personal opinion on the defendant’s guilt or the strength of the case against him. United States v. McKoy, 771 F.2d 1207, *3231210-11 (9th Cir.1985). In this case Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Carter did both.
A careful reading of the record finds Carter testifying that Silverman, a key government witness, was cooperative, RT 554-55, that he never changed his story, RT 551-52, and that the U.S. Attorney’s Office routinely verifies the statements of its witnesses, RT 553-54. Carter stopped just short of pinning a Boy Scout Merit Badge on Silverman; his accolades could not help but persuade the jury that they ought to believe Silverman because an experienced and efficient prosecutor like Carter found him credible. See McKoy, 771 F.2d at 1211.
Moreover, Carter’s prior statement that Kenney was involved in the scheme to defraud WPPSS was read to the jury, RT 482, and Carter testified that he would have brought the case against Kenney on these facts, RT 562. Few jurors would be unimpressed that Carter, the veteran Assistant U.S. Attorney who investigated the case, believed that the case was meritorious and that Kenney was guilty. See McKoy, 771 F.2d at 1211.
I cannot agree that the defendant opened the door to Carter’s testimony by accusing the U.S. Attorney’s Office of having political motivations or improperly encouraging Silverman to change his testimony. As I read the record, the issue of political ambitions arose because Silverman tried to convince Kenney to confess by telling him that the Assistant U.S. Attorney was ambitious and would eventually get him; the defense contended that Kenney’s consistent denial of wrongdoing in the face of such pressure tactics demonstrated his innocence. And the record reveals only one defense question — out of hundreds of pages of cross examination — which might conceivably suggest that the Assistant U.S. Attorney encouraged the witness to change his testimony; and the witness’ answer made it clear that the Assistant U.S. Attorney had not. RT 435-36.
Even if the door had been opened for Carter to deny the charges, it was open to direct rebuttal of the charges only. Rather than sticking to rebutting the charges, Carter added assessments of the strength of the evidence and the consistency and credibility of a witness, issues which lay well beyond the supposedly open door and about which his opinion was inadmissible and prejudicial.
The simple fact is that an ethical lawyer will never call to the stand a witness he knows is lying; he will also hesitate to bring a case he believes lacks merit. When the opposing side attacks the credibility of the witness or the strength of the case, there is an implicit attack against the integrity of the lawyer, who then wants nothing better than to get on the stand and tell the jury how much faith he has in the witness or the case. Our system just doesn’t allow for such a performance, particularly in a criminal case.
Cases like this one put defense lawyers in a real dilemma: How far can you go toward impeaching the prosecution’s witness before you find yourself Carterized, as happened here? If normal impeachment of a prosecution witness — which sometimes involves suggestions that the witness might be fibbing — gives an excuse for putting the prosecutor on the stand to tell just how upright the witness really is, criminal trials will be reduced to a credibility contest between the prosecutor and the defendant. The prosecutor must prove the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt; he may not testify to it.
Here, the prosecutor should have refrained from offering himself as a witness; failing that, the district court should have rejected his testimony; failing that, the district court should have limited his testimony to direct rebuttal of matters raised by the defense; failing that this court should reverse Kenney’s conviction. I fear that all of these successive failings have denied Kenney a fair trial. I must dissent.