US v. Boyd
| Decision Date | 20 September 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 89 CR 908.,89 CR 908. |
| Citation | 833 F. Supp. 1277 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Jeff BOYD, Edgar Cooksey, Andrew Craig, Charles Green, Sammy Knox, Felix Mayes and Noah Robinson, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
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Barry Elden, U.S. Atty., Chicago, IL, for U.S.
Kenneth Hanson, Chicago, IL, for Jeff Boyd.
Victor Pilolla, Oak Park, IL, for Edgar Cooksey.
Eugene O'Malley, Chicago, IL, for Andrew Craig.
Joshua Sachs, Chicago, IL, for Charles Green.
Michael Falconer, Chicago, IL, for Sammy Knox.
Ronald J. Clark, Harvey M. Silets, Edwin E. Brooks, Katten Muchin & Zavis, Chicago, IL, for Felix Mayes.
Noah Robinson, Chicago, IL, for Noah Robinson.
Thomas P. Sullivan, Thomas S. O'Neill, Jenner & Block, Chicago, IL, amicus curiae.
This is the most painful decision that this court has ever been obliged to render, making the crafting of this opinion a sad and difficult undertaking. Mindful of the consequences of our ruling, we would have preferred to have been able to reach a result other than what must be.
Significant questions of prosecutorial misconduct bring "Trial I" defendants Jeff Boyd, Edgar Cooksey, Andrew Craig, Charles Green, Sammy Knox, Felix Mayes and Noah Robinson before this court seeking new trials. Initially, we retained jurisdiction to address the following issues: (1) whether the government withheld evidence of post-incarceration, positive drug tests of witnesses Harry Evans and Henry Harris in violation of the principles set forth in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), and its progeny; and (2) to the extent that Evans and Harris testified that they had not used illicit narcotics while incarcerated, whether the government knowingly used perjured testimony during the course of trial. In light of the evidence adduced during these post-trial proceedings, however, we will expand our focus to consider the impact of other information within the possession of the government yet undisclosed to the defense, as well as additional instances of potentially perjured testimony. Finding that the government in fact (i) withheld information favorable to the defense in violation of Brady and its progeny, and (ii) suborned perjured testimony regarding such undisclosed evidence, we conclude that these defendants have been deprived of a fair trial and, consequently, grant their respective motions for new trial respecting all convictions, save Mayes' conviction for the intimidation of witness Henry Harris (Count 12) and Green's conviction for the unlawful possession of firearms as a convicted felon (Count 58).
The consequences of our ruling today are tragic in many respects. It is a tragedy that the convictions of some of the most hardened and anti-social criminals in the history of this community must be overturned.
It is tragic that the United States of America has squandered millions of taxpayer dollars and years of difficult labor by the courts, prosecutors and law enforcement officers in the investigation and trial of these botched prosecutions.
It is tragic that the hard-earned and well-deserved reputations for professionalism of the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois and other federal law enforcement and penal agencies in this district have been so unfairly tainted by the actions of so few.
It is a personal tragedy for the lead El Rukn prosecutor who, in seeking to attain the laudable goal of ridding society of an organization of predatory career criminals, was willing to abandon fundamental notions of due process of law and deviate from acceptable standards of prosecutorial conduct. The others who followed his lead or failed to supervise him properly, of course, share in this disgrace.
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