Court Opinion

ID: 9482128
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:41:20.947093+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:47.197382
License: Public Domain

THOMAS G. NELSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the opinion, except for Part II, dealing with prosecutorial misconduct, from which I respectfully dissent.
As the majority points out, an exception to the rule that a defendant cannot compel the government to grant immunity to a witness exists where prosecutorial misconduct intentionally distorts the fact-finding process. In my view, no prosecutorial misconduct occurred here.
A prosecutor’s refusal to immunize a defendant’s proposed witness is not misconduct unless the refusal intentionally distorts the fact-finding process. Here, the government granted immunity to two of its witnesses, but refused immunity to Artie Goldsberry. However, Mr. Goldsberry did not have any dealings with, or relationship to, the immunized witnesses presented by the government. In fact, Mr. Goldsberry’s testimony would not have directly conflicted with the immunized testimony, so far as counsel for Westerdahl asserts. Defendant counsel’s interview of Goldsberry was described in Appellant’s brief as follows:
Mr. Goldsberry indicated that he knew both Mr. Westerdahl and Mr. Hottman [the deceased robber]. He said that he had previously been involved in bank robberies with Mr. Hottman. He had committed bank robberies with Mr. Hottman where they used dent pullers to steal cars. He said that Mr. Hottman told him if anything ever went wrong that he should contact Mr. Westerdahl. When asked whether he was involved in the March 12th robbery, Mr. Goldsberry invoked his fifth amendment right to remain silent. He said he could say “with certainty” that Mr. Westerdahl was not involved in that robbery. However, he would go no further.
Westerdahl urges his case is analogous to the hypothetical situation posited by the court in United States v. Brutzman, 731 F.2d 1449 (9th Cir.1984). The court there postulated a case where the government presents immunized testimony from one of two eyewitnesses, but refuses to request immunity for the other eyewitness at defendant’s request as showing prosecutorial misconduct. Id. at 1452. However, West-erdahl’s situation was much different than the example in Brutzman.
*1089Westerdahl here showed a connection between Goldsberry and the deceased robber, but no material connection with the government’s immunized witnesses. Nor did Westerdahl show that Goldsberry’s testimony would be exculpatory or even admissible. A person may “know with certainty” many things he cannot testify to, because the testimony is hearsay, privileged, or otherwise inadmissible.
Since the United States Attorney did not know what he was being asked to give up by seeking immunity for Goldsberry, he could not be guilty of intentionally distorting the fact-finding process by refusing to seek immunity. The defense had to provide more information on which the prosecutor could base a decision. Goldsberry’s unsupported and unexplained statement that he could say “with certainty” that Westerdahl did not commit the crime did not require the United States Attorney to seek immunity for him.
On this limited issue, I respectfully dissent.