Court Opinion

ID: 9461547
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:16:58.465953+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:06.983441
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The divine plan that put the tender life of Misty Maness into the hands of her parents is both unknowable and incomprehensible. The distinction which the majority perceives between the proof wrongly excluded in Chambers v. Mississippi and that refused in the case at bar is almost as obscure to me.
The state’s case against Gary Maness was predicated upon his confession. The defense was built upon its repudiation. Gary tried to show that he “took the blame” because of a concern for his wife Linda, enhanced by a belief that she was pregnant. Dana Maness, his sister-in-law, offered testimony which tended to exculpate Gary and corroborate his recantation. The missing letters from wife Linda, according to our only information as to their content, not only supported Dana’s statements but also substantiated the theory of Gary’s defense. Misty received fatal wounds while she was in the custody of Gary or Linda, or both of them. Gary’s confession assumed sole responsibility, subject to the implausible possibility of self-injury. Linda’s letters and Dana’s statements tended to cast more than a reasonable doubt that Gary alone was guilty. The letters and testimony were excluded solely because of the Florida voucher rule which sanctified Linda’s testimony from attack by Gary.
As I perceive the due process principle announced in Chambers, it commands that every material source of evidence as to what was said and done by the principal players in this domestic tragedy should be laid before the triers of fact. At a minimum, it seems to me that this case must be remanded for a determination of the authenticity and content of Linda’s letters. If these were her letters and read as described, it further is my view that habeas corpus relief should be granted and Florida should be required to retry Gary in a fair proceeding which admits all of the facts in testing for the truth.
I respectfully dissent.