Court Opinion

ID: 9536445
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 06:59:57.819496+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:54:29.713983
License: Public Domain

LUMPKIN, Judge,
dissenting:
I must respectfully dissent to the Court’s decision to reverse the convictions in this case and remand for a new trial when the *317record is not sufficient to support the allegations of the Appellant at this time.
The Court finds the convictions must be reversed due to the failure of the State to provide impeachment evidence in the form of prior convictions of witnesses who testified for the State. However, the record in this case is insufficient to sustain the allegations of the Appellants that the State failed to disclose known prior convictions of the witnesses. In compliance with the trial court’s granting of the Appellant’s Motion to Compel the State disclosed that Calvin Nunley had been convicted of cattle rustling in Tillman County. The record does not reveal if the trial court required the State to complete a records check on a statewide or nationwide basis, or merely disclose prior convictions actually known by the assistant district attorney handling the case. The single reference to the motion indicated that it was granted by agreement of the parties. The record is also void on what actions the assistant district attorney actually took to discover if the witnesses did have prior convictions. The Appellants have produced copies of judgments and sentences from Stephens County and Kiowa County naming Calvin Nunley as the defendant; Harris County, Texas, naming Richard Lamb as defendant; and Prowers County, Colorado, naming Earl Wayne Melton as defendant. However, the record does not reveal how these documents were discovered.
These unanswered questions deprive the Court of the evidentiary basis it needs to decide the issues presented. Rather than deciding the case on assumptions which are drawn from the allegations made by the Appellants, but which are not addressed in the evidentiary portion of the record presented on appeal, I would remand the case to the District Court of Tillman County with directions for the District Court to conduct an evidentiary hearing. The trial court could then receive evidence and enter an order setting forth findings of fact and conclusions of law which would determine what actions the State was required to take to discover and disclose prior convictions of witnesses who were listed to testify for the State, conclude whether the State complied with the trial court’s previous order, determine whether the agreement of the parties limited the State’s duty to take affirmative action to discover prior convictions outside Tillman County and establish how the prior convictions were ultimately discovered. Without these findings of fact and conclusions of law this Court cannot determine if the State did or did not comply with the duty to disclose as defined by the trial court when the Motion- to Compel was granted.
The facts of this case present an issue not previously addressed by the Courts. That issue is whether a prosecutor has a duty to “search” for exculpatory evidence for the defendant. The United States Supreme Court has addressed the duty of a prosecutor to disclose known exculpatory evidence to a defendant, regardless of the type of request or if no request made, in United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985), and United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976). However, these cases do not place a requirement on a prosecutor to seek out and disclose unknown exculpatory evidence. To fully address the issues presented in this case the trial court must be directed to conduct an evidentiary hearing to provide a complete factual basis upon which this Court will be able to render a decision.
For the reasons set forth above, I must dissent to the Court’s decision at this time.