Court Opinion

ID: 9482244
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:44:29.398759+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:51.519678
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
I disagree with my colleagues on two points in the court’s opinion: the disclosure of the videotape of the interview with young Roderick in section II.D and the upward departure in sentencing in section II.F2.

Discovery of the Videotape

I am concerned that the defendant did not strike his son Jamal on the occasion that led to his death. If the defendant did not strike him at the top of the basement stairs, causing Jamal to fall down the steps, then the defendant is not guilty of murder in the second degree under the prosecution’s theory of the case, the theory which the jury accepted in reaching its verdict.
If the jury had heard the live testimony of Roderick, and if it were the same as his initial videotaped testimony, the jury might well have believed it and rendered a verdict of not guilty on this charge. In the videotape, Roderick said that he was at the top of the basement steps watching Jamal come up when Jamal “fell down the steps.” He testified that the defendant did not strike his brother at the top of the steps, causing the fatal fall.
Roderick was therefore a key witness, potentially the only person who saw whether the defendant struck Jamal so as to knock him down the steps. Thus, I regard Roderick’s testimony as important. The government’s investigators apparently also regarded this testimony as important for they immediately conducted a long videotaped interview using a child psychologist. But the interview was unsatisfactory from the government’s point of view. The government wrongfully refused to reveal it in the face of a Brady and Rule 16 discovery motion. There seems little doubt that the government deliberately concealed the interview with the only other person who saw what happened at the top of the steps.
The defendant was incarcerated immediately after his arrest and did not know of Roderick’s potentially exculpatory testimony. He never had access to this videotape, *255nor was he ever aware of the videotape’s existence until shortly before his trial. Later, during trial, the trial court refused access. By that time Roderick was living at a distant location with relatives who were hostile toward the defendant.
The ABA Code of Professional Responsibility, Disciplinary Rule 7-103(B) (1976) requires that “a public prosecutor” make disclosure of evidence that “tends to negate the guilt of the accused, mitigate the degree of the offense, or reduce the punishment.” The government prosecutor clearly violated this ethical rule. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 16(c) also provides for discovery of “photographs ... which are material to the preparation of the defendant’s defense.” The defendant moved to discover such material before trial, but the government concealed the videotape. It seems clear that the videotape falls within the language of the Rule. Likewise under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), the government must disclose “evidence in its possession that is both favorable to the accused and material to guilt or punishment.” See also Pennsylvania v. Ritchie, 480 U.S. 39, 57, 107 S.Ct. 989, 1001, 94 L.Ed.2d 40 (1987). The defendant moved for disclosure of such exculpatory evidence under Brady, but the government did not disclose the videotape. Although not itself admissible, this videotape provided evidence that is, at the least, clearly relevant and material to defendant's preparation of his defense.
The standard of review applicable to our determination of Brady requests is whether the suppression of evidence, if exculpatory, creates a reasonable doubt that does not otherwise exist. United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 112, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 2401, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976). The Supreme Court has held that “[e]vidence is material only if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the results of the proceeding would have been different. A ‘reasonable probability’ is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome.” Id. 480 U.S. at 57, 107 S.Ct. at 1001, citing United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 682, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 3383, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985). This does not mean, then, that the defendant must show that the suppressed evidence probably would have resulted in an acquittal. Instead, disclosure and release of this evidence is required when such doubts exist. Failure to disclose is constitutional error. The error is harmless only if we can say beyond a reasonable doubt that the concealed evidence could not have affected the outcome of the trial. Here the evidence raises a serious question about whether the defendant knocked Jamal down the steps. The fact that the defendant was an exceedingly cruel and abusive father does not prove that he killed his son by knocking him down the steps. Our court and the trial court fail to maintain a distinction between these two facts.
Contrary to our court’s holding in this case, the Supreme Court has not limited Brady evidence to that which is itself directly admissible but, rather, to that evidence that is material to “the preparation or presentation of the defendant’s case,” considered in light of “the totality of the circumstances.” Bagley, 473 U.S. at 683, 105 S.Ct. at 3384. Discovery in criminal cases, although more limited in its scope than in civil suits, serves the essential purpose of enhancing the search for truth by allowing both parties access to critical information. Note, Prosecutorial Discovery Under Proposed Rule 16, 85 Harv.L.Rev. 994, 1013-14 & n. 78 (1972). “If the trial is to be the occasion at which well prepared adversaries test each other’s evidence and legal contentions in the best tradition of the adversary system, there can be no substitute for [criminal discovery procedures].” Goldstein, The State and the Accused: Balance of Advantage in Criminal Procedure, 69 Yale L.J. 1149, 1193 (1960).
This process of discovery often involves several layers of information, with one part leading to another. Information initially may not be in admissible form. To prepare an adequate defense, the defendant necessarily must first use information and evidence that is not in a form which is immediately admissible. Through additional re*256search and preparation, the defendant refines this aggregate of information into evidence that may be admissible. Thus, much of the evidence clearly within Brady’s ambit will frequently be inadmissible in its original form. To limit Brady disclosure only to “directly admissible” evidence is anomalous, as “Brady guarantees access to favourable evidence either before or during trial ... when it is difficult if not impossible to tell whether evidence is admissible or not.” Capra, Access to Exculpatory Evidence: Avoiding the Agurs Problems of Prosecutorial Discretion and Retrospective Review, 53 Fordham L.Rev. 391, 399 n. 51 (1984). This restriction would necessarily mean that only a fraction of that evidence relevant to the defendant’s defense will ever be subject to disclosure by the government, regardless of its materiality and the circumstances of its suppression. If only admissible evidence were subject to disclosure, a deposition given by the perpetrator or an eyewitness exonerating a defendant could be concealed by the government because it is hearsay. The Brady rule contemplates the disclosure of exculpatory information. It is a constitutional rule designed, like the right of confrontation, to insure that the innocent are not convicted.
The court misunderstands the current state of the law in imposing such an admissibility requirement. The Fifth and Seventh Circuits have rejected admissibility as a prerequisite for disclosure under Brady. Sellers v. Estelle, 651 F.2d 1074, 1077 n. 6 (5th Cir.1981) (inadmissible reports not “immaterial,” as use of such reports could “produce witnesses whose testimony ... may have been admissible”); United States v. Wigoda, 521 F.2d 1221, 1227 (7th Cir.1975) (if witness’ statements would not lead to admissible evidence, then such statements would not be material). State supreme courts have adopted similar reasoning. See, e.g., Ex parte Watkins, 509 So.2d 1064, 1066 (Ala.1984) (“the crucial question is the significance of the suppressed information upon the question of ... guilt or innocence” and not its admissibility); In re Ferguson, 5 Cal.3d 525, 96 Cal.Rptr. 594, 600, 487 P.2d 1234, 1240 (1971); Stokes v. State, 402 A.2d 376, 380-81 (Del.1979); and State v. Hall, 249 N.W.2d 843, cert. denied, 434 U.S. 822, 98 S.Ct. 66, 54 L.Ed.2d 79 (1977). Moreover, the three Circuits which are cited as imposing an admissibility requirement have done so where the item or document at issue, itself inadmissible as hearsay, could not have led to any other admissible evidence within the Brady requirements. Cf. United States v. Kennedy, 890 F.2d 1056, 1059 (9th Cir.1989) (letter in dispute was inadmissible hearsay, not capable or producing the admissible evidence); United States v. Oxman, 740 F.2d 1298, 1311 (3d Cir.1984) (immunity agreement not admissible as substantive evidence, but was admissible for impeachment; disclosure warranted); United States v. Ranney, 719 F.2d 1183, 1990 (1st Cir.1983) (hearsay statement, not calculated to produce other admissible evidence); and United States v. Cuthbertson, 651 F.2d 189, 195 (3d Cir.1981) (Rule 17(c) subpoena for exculpatory material held by third party, as distinct from exculpatory material held by prosecutors; such third-party material must be admissible to require its disclosure).
The rule I would derive from these cases is the rule propounded in Stokes by the Delaware Supreme Court: “[T]o be material under Brady, undisclosed evidence must be either: (a) admissible evidence; or (b) there must be a showing on the record ... that it would have, or could have led to admissible evidence.” Stokes, 402 A.2d at 381 (citations omitted). The instant case is the only one I can find that rejects as Brady material evidence that falls within the second prong of this rule.
The Brady rule then requires this court to compare the suppressed evidence to all the other evidence in line with Bagley’s reasoning; the reviewing court should make its totality-of-the-circumstanees assessment “with an awareness of the difficulty of reconstructing in a post-trial proceeding the course that the defense and the trial would have taken had the defense not been misled_” Bagley, 473 U.S. at 683, 105 S.Ct. at 3384. Had Roderick been called to the stand as a live witness, this *257videotape would readily enable defense counsel to know precisely what Roderick had said and, also, most importantly, to find out about a potential weakness in the government’s case. Had Roderick been called as a witness, despite the fact that he said towards the end of the videotape that his mother had prompted his testimony, Roderick’s testimony could easily be regarded by the jury as creating a reasonable doubt about the government’s theory of the case.
This suppression of evidence by the government thwarts a defendant’s attempts to organize a coherent defense and causes his counsel to prepare his defense behind a veil of ignorance. “The principle [behind prosecutorial disclosure of evidence] is not punishment of society for misdeeds of a prosecutor but avoidance of an unfair trial to the accused. Society wins not only when the guilty are convicted but when criminal trials are fair; our system ... suffers when any accused is treated unfairly.” Brady, 373 U.S. at 87, 83 S.Ct. at 1197.

Upward Sentencing Departure

The Court also disregards an error in the enhancement of defendant’s second-degree murder sentence, an increase predicated solely on facts relevant to his other sentence for criminal abuse in the first degree. The District Court specifically relied upon testimony regarding the beatings and punishment administered to Jamal by the defendant in justifying a 98-month upward departure under Sentencing Guideline § 5K2.8 — the same facts that constituted the factual basis for the counts and sentence of criminal abuse. When added to a base offense level of 37 and a criminal history category of I, the defendant received a thirty-year sentence for the murder count, combined with the ten years for the criminal abuse counts to be served concurrently.
Despite the clear brutality evinced by the defendant’s treatment of Jamal, the imposition of an enhanced sentence for one offense from essentially the same factual predicate of a separate offense that has been already calculated into the latter sentence is not a proper basis for departure from the Guidelines. An upward adjustment based on evidence already taken into consideration has the effect of improperly accounting for the same factors twice. United States v. Fuller, 897 F.2d 1217, 1221-22 (1st Cir.1990). To do so amounts to cumulative punishment for one offense not intended by Congress, absent its express intent to provide for multiple punishments. See, e.g., Whalen v. United States, 445 U.S. 684, 689, 100 S.Ct. 1432, 1436, 63 L.Ed.2d 715 (1980). Moreover, double-counting in applying the Guidelines is inconsistent with the intended goals of the Guidelines and also contravenes their overall policy goal of providing certainty and fairness in sentencing. United States v. Werlinger, 894 F.2d 1015, 1017-18 (8th Cir.1990). This repetitious use of the same factors to sentence the defendant for one crime and then enhance his sentence on a separate count is an improper departure from the Sentencing Guidelines. See generally United States v. Williams, 922 F.2d 737, 739-40 (11th Cir.1991); United States v. Fonner, 920 F.2d 1330, 1334 (7th Cir.1990); United States v. Franklin, 902 F.2d 501, 508 (7th Cir.1990); and United States v. Hernandez-Vasquez, 884 F.2d 1314, 1315 (9th Cir.1989).
The factors applied to considering counts 2 and 3 of the indictment relating to the criminal abuse charges were used by the District Court to judge the factual basis of cruelty, brutality and degradation considered in section 5K2.8. Thus, the District Court’s allocation of sentencing enhancement based squarely on the identical conduct, for which the defendant received a sentence, amounts to double-counting. The government cannot have this evidence used “both ways.”