Court Opinion

ID: 9576777
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:28:22.402392+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:15:29.786184
License: Public Domain

ALICE M. BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur fully in the lead opinion and rely upon the lead opinion’s sound reasoning as the basis for my decision. I write separately merely to emphasize my disagreement with the dissent’s depiction of the value of the withheld evidence.
The dissent proceeds from the acknowledged premise that the appellant needs only to convince us “that the favorable evidence could reasonably be taken to put the whole case in such a different light as to undermine confidence in the verdict.” The dissent then attempts to persuade us why we ought not have confidence in the jury’s verdict. But, the dissent grossly overstates the value of the withheld evidence and, as a result, its claims cannot survive scrutiny.
The dissent urges us to find, in light of the withheld evidence, that Debra Smith’s story “rais[es] a substantial implication that the prosecutor had coached her to give it.” Further, the dissent actually expresses “doubts as to whether she was even present in Bell’s store on the night of the crime.” Thus, according to the dissent, Debra Smith is not simply mistaken or even misleading — Debra Smith, under the direction of the prosecution, has concocted a story for the purpose of incriminating and convicting Cecil Johnson, an acquaintance toward whom she had no pri- or animosity. There is no support in the record for this accusation. Nor does the record contain any basis upon which to *489assume that the prosecution did what it would have had to do to obtain such perjured testimony, i.e.: (1) select her as a participant in this scheme; (2) instruct her to lie under oath — to tell this false story when, in fact, she had not even been in the store; and (3) coach her into giving this suspiciously inconsistent and unbelievable testimony, during which she repeatedly contradicted herself and other prosecution witnesses. Although the dissent does not specify, presumably, the prosecutors’ motive would have been to produce a fourth witness placing Johnson at the scene of the crime. Of course, this requires us to assume that the prosecutors were so intent on obtaining Johnson’s capital conviction that they would risk sanctions and prosecution for suborning perjury — an assumption wholly lacking factual support in this record. And, even more tenuous is the necessary assumption that Debra Smith acted without any motive whatsoever. The dissent offers nothing — not even idle speculation, much less evidence from the record — to indicate any motive for Debra Smith to commit this particular (extensive) perjury. To be sure, the dissent is perfectly correct that motive has no role in the legal analysis. I raise the question of motive only to demonstrate the incredibility of the dissent’s theory, i.e., that Debra Smith was never even in the store and that she (with help from the prosecutors) concocted the entire story. Equally implausible — in light of that theory — is the dissent’s later contention that “[She] might just simply have been mistaken.” There is no question that Debra Smith was a poor witness, but contrary to the dissent’s exaggerations, her weak and confused testimony does not demonstrate, or even suggest, that the prosecutors suborned perjury in obtaining it. Indeed, the record suggests the contrary, inasmuch as the prosecutors — had they been inclined to coach her into giving false testimony — surely would not have coached her to give testimony that was so confused and inconsistent. The withheld evidence does not render her testimony any less credible than it was on its own.
The dissent next urges us, again based on the withheld evidence, to completely disbelieve the identification testimony of the two eye-witnesses, Bob Bell and Lewis Smith, testimony which — from each of them — was otherwise coherent and consistent, both with the testimony of the other and with the prosecutors’ theory of the case. I do not find their testimony questionable and thus, I do not lack confidence in the jury’s verdict. Even if the withheld evidence did render the testimony questionable — which it does not — in order to agree with the dissent, one would have to conclude that the emphatic and unequivocal in-court identifications of Johnson were either terribly mistaken or were part of a conspiracy to frame Johnson (a conspiracy orchestrated by the prosecution). And, while the dubious possibility exists that the potential for conviction would motivate the prosecution, the dissent’s only answer to why these two victims would testify falsely against Johnson — thereby convicting an innocent man of murder while setting the actual murderer free — is that “[t]hey might just simply have been mistaken,” and that without the withheld evidence, defense counsel was so “severely crippled” that it could not “bring[] to light such mistakes.” Given the magnitude of these alleged mistakes, this claim is as incredible as it is demeaning to defense counsel and jury alike.
Having thus discarded the testimony of Debra Smith, Bob Bell, and Lewis Smith, the dissent would have us conclude that the prosecution was left with only the testimony of Victor Davis. And that testimony, the dissent posits, was coerced by the prosecutors with “dangled threats of pros*490ecution and promises of immunity.” But, as the dissent concedes, none of the withheld evidence had anything to do with Davis. Moreover, it is clear from the record that Johnson’s counsel had ample opportunity to, and in fact did, cross-examine Davis about the circumstances of his arrest, detention, and initial story to the police, as well as his testimony incriminating Johnson. The jury had all of this information, and the dissent points to no new evidence to support its speculation that Davis’s testimony was coerced. And while one could ascribe to this witness a motive to testify falsely — avoiding implication in this triple murder and obtaining immunity on other crimes — one would still have to assume, without basis, that in procuring this false testimony, the prosecutors were willing to risk sanctions or prosecution for suborning perjury. In short, the jury was aware of this witness’s motive to lie and the withheld evidence does not cast any further doubt on this testimony.
In sum, the dissent surmises that if Johnson’s counsel had been given the withheld evidence before trial, he might have convinced the jury that Debra Smith lied, Bob Bell and Lewis Smith either lied or erred drastically, and that this — when added to the argument that Davis’s testimony was coerced and therefore unreliable — so undermines confidence in the jury’s verdict that the trial was unfair. But the withheld evidence, considered in context with the totality of the evidence, is neither as damaging to the witnesses nor as beneficial to the defense as the dissent suggests. And though the dissent argues that the evidence is exculpatory, that too is a gross exaggeration — it points to one witness’s misidentification, it does not point to anyone else as the murderer (there is no “Beanie” in this case) and it does not even point away from Cecil Johnson. At most, the withheld evidence makes a little bit of already questionable evidence a little bit more questionable. This does not reduce confidence in the jury’s verdict and this is not a valid basis for habeas relief.