Court Opinion

ID: 9501526
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 19:25:27.694176+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:00:38.049858
License: Public Domain

MANION, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur with the court’s comprehensive opinion. The Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that the accused shall have the right “to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor.” This seldom-visited provision necessarily emerges under the facts of this case. Forty-five years ago the Supreme Court summed it up pretty well.
The right to offer the testimony of witnesses, and to compel their attendance, if necessary, is in plain terms the right to present a defense, the right to present the defendant’s version of the facts as well as the prosecution’s to the jury so it may decide where the truth lies. Just as an accused has the right to confront the prosecution’s witnesses for the purpose of challenging their testimony, he has the right to present his own witnesses to establish a defense. This right is a fundamental element of due process of law.
Washington v. Texas, 388 U.S. 14, 19, 87 S.Ct. 1920, 18 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1967).
At the time of Jaquari’s death, his brother Diante was five years old. Apparently he was the only one in the room when Jaquari became strangled by the elastic band from the fitted bed sheet. After many hours in custody, Nicole Harris made a very lucid confession, on videotape, under careful questioning by the prosecuting attorney. When this was presented at trial, Ms. Harris vehemently challenged it. Nevertheless, the jury viewed it in full.
The court cites several shortcomings in Harris’s counsel’s performance that contributed to the decision not to allow Di-ante’s testimony. In that regard, I agree that counsel’s assistance was ineffective.
If the government chooses to retry the case, presumably two things will occur. The jury will again see the taped confes*651sion and Ms. Harris will similarly challenge it. But when Diante testifies, he will be IS or 14 years old. No doubt he has reflected on what he saw (and did not see) ever since, especially during his visitations in prison with his mother during the intervening years. His reflections will be much more precise, and in all likelihood beneficial to his mother.
Regardless of the decision whether or not to retry, or the subsequent testimony if it is tried, nothing will override the tragedy of Jaquari’s death.