Turner v. United States

137 S. Ct. 1885 (2017)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

A grand jury indicted Ps-Timothy Catlett, Russell Overton, Levy Rouse, Kelvin Smith, Charles Turner, Christopher Turner, and Clifton Yarborough-and several others for the kidnaping, robbery, and murder of Catherine Fuller. Catherine Fuller left her home to go shopping. At around 6 p.m., William Freeman, a street vendor, found Fuller’s body inside an alley garage between Eighth and Ninth Street N. E., just a few blocks from Fuller’s home. Fuller had been robbed, severely beaten, and sodomized with an object that caused extensive internal injuries. P claimed Fuller had been attacked in the alley by a large group of individuals, including Ps; codefendants Steve Webb, Alfonso Harris, and Felicia Ruffin; as well as by Calvin Alston and Harry Bennett. Alston and Bennett confessed to participating in the offense and cooperated with P in return for leniency. Their testimony diverged on minor details. P presented several other witnesses who corroborated aspects of Alston’s and Bennett’s testimony. P played a videotape of a recorded statement that Yarborough had given to detectives. The video shows Yarborough describing in detail how he was part of a large group that forced Fuller into the alley, jointly robbed and assaulted her, and dragged her into the garage. None of the Ps testified, nor did any of them try, through witnesses or other evidence, to rebut the prosecution witnesses’ claim that Fuller was killed in a group attack. Ps hid in the SODDIT defense that some other dude did it. Each pointed their accusations at the other. Ps were convicted. The jury acquitted codefendants Alfonso Harris and Felicia Ruffin. The D. C. Court of Appeals affirmed. In 2010, Ps sought to vacate their convictions or to be granted a new trial. It turns out that D possessed certain evidence that it had withheld from Ps at the time of trial. Ps discovered other withheld evidence that D turned over to Ps in the course of the postconviction proceedings. Ps contend that the withheld evidence was both favorable and material, entitling them to relief under Brady. The Superior Court rejected those claims because “none of the undisclosed information was material.” The Court of Appeals affirmed. Ps learned that Freeman, the vendor who found Fuller's body, had identified two men he saw in the alley as James McMillan and Gerald Merkerson. McMillan lived in a house that opens in the back onto a connecting alley. In the weeks following Fuller’s murder, but before Ps’ trial, McMillan was arrested for beating and robbing two women in the neighborhood. Neither attack included a sexual assault. Ps also learned that seven years after their trial, McMillan had robbed, sodomized, and murdered a young woman in an alley. Willie Luchie also told D that he and three others walked through the alley on their way to an H Street liquor store between 5:30 and 5:45 p.m. on the evening of the murder. As the group walked by the garage, Luchie “heard several groans” and “remembers the doors to the garage being closed.” App. 25. Another person in the group recalled “hear[ing] some moans,” while the other two persons did not recall hearing anything unusual. The group continued walking without looking into the garage or otherwise investigating the source of the sounds. They did not see McMillan or any other person in the alley when they passed through. Ammie Davis told a police investigator that she had seen another individual, James Blue, beat Fuller to death in the alley. Shortly thereafter, she said she only saw Blue grab Fuller and push her into the alley. Davis also said that a girlfriend, whom she did not name, accompanied her. She promised to call the investigator with more details, but she did not do so. The prosecutor who interviewed Davis testified that he did not disclose Davis’ statement because she acted “playful” and “not serious” during the interview and he found her to be “totally incredible.” The prosecutor stated that he knew Davis had previously falsely accused Blue of a different murder, and on another occasion had falsely accused a different individual of a different murder. The balance of the evidence was the impeachment of witnesses.