Court Opinion

ID: 9478991
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:05:38.386628+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:46.072672
License: Public Domain

*496HILL, Senior District Judge,
specially concurring:
I concur in the result but I cannot concur in certain portions of the Court’s opinion. I agree with what the majority has said concerning the witness Mattingly. The prosecutor had an obligation to correct the witness’s false testimony as to the promises made to her. The breach of that duty was, by itself, serious enough to require reversal.
I am unable to concur in the majority’s view of the witness Buckley. As I read the record, his testimony was not false. He was asked whether any promises had been made to him about whether or not he would be prosecuted as a result of his activity in Minnesota. His response, that there had been no such promises at all, was truthful. A different and far lesser promise had been made to him. The only promise made to him was one concerning the use against him in Minnesota of the testimony he would give in the instant trial. Under the circumstances, especially because the defense counsel had been fully informed about that promise, I cannot characterize Buckley’s testimony as false. Nor can I agree that the prosecutor, under these facts, was required to bring out the understanding concerning use immunity.
I am also unable to agree with the majority’s discussion of the events involved in answering the jury’s question concerning immunity after deliberations commenced. In my view, the majority opinion mischarac-terizes the record as to the matter. It is true that when the note came in from the jury, the court addressed a question to counsel (apparently both counsel) asking what counsel’s position was with respect to how the question should be answered. The majority opinion asserts that the prosecutor responded by suggesting that the answer should say, “No, they have not been granted immunity”. The prosecutor did so answer the court, but only after defense counsel had answered the court’s question by categorically asking the court to inform the jury, “There is no immunity granted to them.” In other words, defense counsel suggested the answer which the court eventually gave and the prosecutor concurred. I do not think this colloquy can fairly be characterized as a misrepresentation by the prosecutor. The answer the court gave to the question was suggested by defense counsel and concurred in by him. The prosecutor’s concurrence in the answer suggested by defense counsel, should not, in my opinion be condemned. The trial judge apparently interpreted the question as an inquiry as to whether witnesses Buckley, Mattingly and Jackson had been formally and totally immunized as had witness Keough. It appears to me that the prosecutor and defense counsel similarly interpreted the question. On that basis, the court’s negative answer was not a misrepresentation, but was a correct answer. It could have been made more complete by describing the other types of promises made to the three witnesses named. In hindsight it might have been better to make the answer entirely complete. But I cannot regard the prosecutor’s concurrence in an answer suggested and agreed to by defense counsel as an act of misrepresentation or a violation of a prosecutor’s “duty of candor”.