Court Opinion

ID: 9849154
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:35:23.117042+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:02.460973
License: Public Domain

LUMPKIN, Judge,
concur in results:
¶ 1 While I concur in the results reached by the Court in this case, I disagree with the Court’s determination that certain evidence, i.e. affidavits from Petitioner’s friends and an OSBI report, was unavailable to Petitioner’s direct appeal counsel. The Court’s conclusions are in conflict with our reasoning in Walker v. State, 933 P.2d 327 (Okl.Cr.1997) *125(Lumpkin, J. concurring). In Walker, we found “this Court may not review ... claims of ineffective assistance of trial counsel if the facts generating those claims were available to Walker’s direct appeal attorney and thus either were or could have been used in his direct appeal.” Walker, 933 P.2d at 332. See also McGregor v. State, 935 P.2d 332 (Old.Cr.1997). Here, the facts were available to appellate counsel and could have been used in Petitioner’s direct appeal.
¶ 2 The affidavits from Petitioner’s friends were clearly available to Petitioner’s trial and appellate counsel. Petitioner has provided no evidence that his friends were “unavailable or unwilling at the time of (his) direct appeal to provide sworn statements.” Walker, 933 P.2d at 332. In fact, one affiant admitted he was extensively interviewed by the State and was subpoenaed by the District Attorney’s office to testify at trial. The second affiant was never asked to provide information regarding Petitioner, but “would gladly have done so” if he had been asked. Additionally, the second affiant did not accuse Stefanie Duncan of theft, as the Court’s opinion suggests. Rather, the affiant merely testified that he heard about the theft but did not “know whether it happened.”
¶3 Likewise, it can hardly be said that information regarding Ms. Duncan’s criminal past was unavailable to Appellant’s trial and appellate counsel. Trial counsel surely could have obtained such information by discovery, by simple investigation, or merely asking the question. Moreover, Appellant has failed to provide this Court with any evidence to suggest this information was “either not in existence at the time his direct appeal was filed” or was “kept from his direct appeal attorney.” Walker, 933 P.2d at 332.
¶4 The teachings of Walker regarding unavailability are clear. Information which could have been discovered upon the exercise of reasonable diligence is not “unavailable.” Walker did not adopt some type of “don’t ask don’t tell” policy as a way of side stepping the requirement to raise issues at the first opportunity. Rather, Walker adopts a responsibility that has been with us through the ages, i.e. ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.1 Or as stated by John Dryden, “errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls must dive below.”2 Trial and direct appeal counsel have the opportunity to “dive for the pearls,” if in fact they exist. However, failure to exercise that opportunity, absent a showing of some external impediment which precluded them from doing so, constitutes a waiver of the issue in post-conviction proceedings.

. See, e.g. Matthew 7:7.

. All for Love. Prologue