Sunday, November 19, 2017

7th Circuit refuses to reverse a conviction even though the prosecutor did not comply with duty of candor to disclose perjured testimony

    Applying the principle that a federal court of appeals can not reverse a conviction unless the defendant shows that the lower state court’s decision was contrary to, or an unreasonable application of, clearly established law under Supreme Court authority, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently refused to reverse a conviction even though the prosecutor in the case failed to comply with the duty of candor. 

    In the case, Long v. Pfister, one of the key witnesses for the prosecution identified the defendant as the perpetrator of the crime in question even though the witness had at one point recanted her testimony.  When asked on cross–examination, the witness denied having recanted her testimony.  Both the prosecutor and defense counsel knew this was a lie.  Defense counsel eventually called another witness who testified that the prosecutor’s witness had lied on the stand.  However, the prosecutor did nothing to inform the court or the jury about the perjured testimony. The defendant was convicted.

    The defendant was denied post conviction relief by a federal district court, but a panel of the Court of Appeals reversed.  The panel concluded that, by not spontaneously correcting the perjured testimony, the prosecutor had violated the rule of Napue v. Illinois, 360 U.S. 264 (1959)  and Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150 (1972), which according to the panel’s interpretation, hold that whenever any witness makes a statement that the prosecutor knows is false, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires the prosecutor to correct that statement immediately.

    After an en banc rehearing, however, a majority of the court reversed.  According to the majority, the case involved four questions that have never been expressly decided by the Supreme Court: (1) Do Napue and its successors apply when the defense rather than the prosecutor elicits the false testimony?; (2) must the prosecutor correct false testimony when defense counsel already knows the truth?; (3) does the Constitution forbid a conviction obtained when the prosecutor does not correct but also does not rely on the falsehood?; and (4) does the Constitution forbid a conviction obtained when all material evidence is presented to the jury before it deliberates?

    In Napue v. Illinois the Supreme Court held that the State deprives a person of liberty without due process of law if it convicts the person by knowingly using false testimony.  Thus, Napue has been interpreted to hold that whenever any witness makes a statement that the prosecutor knows is untrue, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires the prosecutor to correct that statement. Rules of professional conduct in all jurisdictions also impose on all lawyers a duty to remedy the effects of material false evidence known to the lawyer before the end of the proceeding.  Further, in Giglio v. United States the Court reversed a conviction when a prosecutor failed to correct perjured testimony and then relied on it during summation to the jury. 

    The Court of Appeals, however, distinguished the case before it from these two cases.  In a 5 to 3 opinion, the court held that there is no clearly established Supreme Court law on whether a prosecutor has a duty to disclose perjury if the perjury is known to the defendant’s lawyer and the defendant’s lawyer presents evidence to contradict the perjured testimony. 

    In a strong dissenting opinion, however, three judges dispute the majority’s holding arguing that the opinion is based on notions that have been clearly rejected by the Supreme Court.  They, therefore, concluded that the defendant had met the burden to get Habeas Corpus relief. 

    According to the majority, it is not clearly established that a prosecutor has a duty to remedy known perjury if (1) the defendant’s lawyer already knew the testimony constituted perjury, (2) the defendant’s lawyer presented evidence to contradict it (which could create an inference in the jury that the testimony was not credible), and (3) the prosecution did not rely on the perjured testimony in its argument the jury. 

    The dissenting judges addressed all these arguments concluding that it is clear that a prosecutor has a duty to correct the testimony regardless of the circumstances.  A lie is a lie, and the prosecutor has a duty to correct it, they said.  The duty belongs to the prosecutor and he or she can’t rely on the evidence presented by the defendant to contradict the perjured testimony.  The fact that the defendant attempted to contradict the perjured testimony does not constitute a correction of the perjury.  

    It should be made clear that even though the case revolves around the issue of the duty of candor of a prosecutor, the court did not decide what that duty involves.  Unlike what has been reported in some news stories about the case (in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, for example), the court did not decide that a prosecutor does not have a duty to disclose perjury under the circumstances of the case.  It only held that the Supreme Court has not decided it.  It is precisely because, according to the court, the issue has not been decided, that it felt it could not reverse the conviction in this case.  I hope I am wrong, but I am afraid, however, that the case might be interpreted to relieve prosecutors of the duty of candor under certain circumstances.  That would be wrong.

    The Marshall Project has a comment on the case here.

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