Adams v. Comm'r of Correction
| Decision Date | 03 May 2011 |
| Docket Number | AC 31388 |
| Court | Appellate Court of Connecticut |
| Parties | SEAN ADAMS v. COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTION |
The "officially released" date that appears near the beginning of each opinion is the date the opinion will be published in the Connecticut Law Journal or the date it was released as a slip opinion. The operative date for the beginning of all time periods for filing postopinion motions and petitions for certification is the ''officially released'' date appearing in the opinion. In no event will any such motions be accepted before the ''officially released'' date.
All opinions are subject to modification and technical correction prior to official publication in the Connecticut Reports and Connecticut Appellate Reports. In the event of discrepancies between the electronic version of an opinion and the print version appearing in the Connecticut Law Journal and subsequently in the Connecticut Reports or Connecticut Appellate Reports, the latest print version is to be considered authoritative.
The syllabus and procedural history accompanying the opinion as it appears on the Commission on Official Legal Publications Electronic Bulletin Board Service and in the Connecticut Law Journal and bound volumes of official reports are copyrighted by the Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut, and may not be reproduced and distributed without the express written permission of the Commission on Official Legal Publications, Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut.DiPentima, C. J., and Robinson and Borden, Js.
(Appeal from Superior Court, judicial district of
Tolland, geographical area number nineteen, A.
Damon A. R. Kirschbaum, special public defender, for the appellant (petitioner).
Robert J. Scheinblum, senior assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Michael Dearington, state's attorney, and Linda N. Howe, former senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (respondent).
The petitioner, Sean Adams, appeals from the judgment of the habeas court denying his amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus. On appeal, the petitioner claims that the court improperly concluded that he failed to prove that the state withheld impeachment evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87, 83 S. Ct. 1194, 10 L. Ed. 2d 215 (1963). In addition, he asserts that he was deprived of a fair trial by the state's knowing use of false testimony. We reverse the judgment of the habeas court.
The facts surrounding the petitioner's underlying conviction were set forth by this court in State v. Henry, 72 Conn. App. 640, 805 A.2d 823, cert. denied, 262 Conn. 917, 811 A.2d 1293 (2002), a companion case to the petitioner's direct appeal. ' Id., 643.
The petitioner, Henry, Ashe and Johnson were arrested and charged in separate four count substitute informations with murder in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-54a (a) and 53a-8 (a), conspiracy to commit murder in violation of General Statues §§ 53a-48 (a) and 53a-54a (a), and two counts of assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-59 (a) (5) and 53a-8 (a). The four individual cases subsequently were consolidated and tried jointly before a jury. Clark testified at the criminal trial, and he identified the petitioner as one of the individuals who had been involved in the shooting. The jury found the petitioner guilty of all four counts, and the trial court thereafter sentenced him to a total effective term of 100 years imprisonment. In the petitioner's direct appeal, this court affirmed the judgment. State v. Adams, 72 Conn. App. 734, 735-36, 806 A.2d 111 (2002). Our Supreme Court denied the petitioner's request for certification to appeal from that decision. State v. Adams, 262 Conn. 916, 811 A.2d 1292 (2002).
The following additional facts are relevant to our resolution of the present appeal. On December 16,1998, Roger Dobris, an assistant state's attorney, filed two substitute informations, charging Clark with one count of carrying a pistol without a permit in violation of General Statutes § 29-35 and two counts of possession of narcotics with intent to sell in violation of GeneralStatutes § 21a-277. On that same date, Clark pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine1 to all three charges. During the plea canvass, the trial court explained that if Clark were to receive the maximum sentence for all three charges, he would face up to thirty-five years imprisonment and $101,000 in fines. The court went on to explain, however, that the sentence would ''be a cap of four years with a right to argue for less'' and that ''[t]he cap situation depend[ed] to a large extent on [Clark's] cooperation with the state.'' Neither the court nor Dobris indicated what had induced Clark to plead guilty. The court postponed the sentencing hearing until a later date.
Approximately eleven months after Clark had entered his guilty plea, James Clark, a senior assistant state's attorney, called Clark as a witness at the petitioner's criminal trial.2 During his testimony, Clark was cross-examined regarding his pending criminal charges. When asked whether the state had extended any offers of consideration to him in exchange for his testimony, Clark testified in the negative. Clark claimed that he had agreed to testify simply out of a desire for justice. When asked if he expected to receive the full sentence on his pending criminal charges, Clark testified that ''you do the crime, you got to do the time, if they give me [the full sentence], they give me [the full sentence] Neither Attorney Clark nor Clark disclosed to the petitioner, or to the trial court, that Clark had entered a guilty plea on the pending criminal charges. Moreover, Attorney Clark failed to disclose that the court had indicated that it would impose a sentence cap of four years, conditioned on Clark's cooperation with the state.
On September 14, 2001, approximately twenty-two months after Clark had testified at the petitioner's criminal trial, Clark's sentencing hearing was held. At the hearing, following the request of Dobris, the court vacated Clark's guilty plea with respect to the count of carrying a pistol without a permit and one count of possession of narcotics with intent to sell. The state entered a nolle prosequi on both charges. As to the one remaining charge of possession of narcotics with intent to sell, Dobris recommended that the court impose an unconditional discharge. After Dobris made a brief statement in support of his recommendation, 3 the court imposed an unconditional discharge as to the remaining charge.
On March 14, 2008, the petitioner filed an amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus, alleging that the state had withheld impeachment evidence by failing to disclose to the petitioner that it had agreed to favorably resolve pending criminal charges against Clark in exchange for his testimony against the petitioner.4 The petitioner further alleged that, as a result of this undisclosed agreement, he had been deprived of a fair trialbecause the state had failed to correct Clark's testimony on cross-examination, in which he denied that he had received consideration in exchange for his testimony.
On April 15, 2008, the habeas court conducted an evidentiary hearing on the amended petition. Attorney Clark testified that, at the time of the petitioner's criminal trial, he was aware that criminal charges were pending against Clark and that Dobris was the state's attorney responsible for handling those charges. He maintained, however, that he had ''intentionally set [himself] apart'' from Clark's criminal case by telling Dobris that he ''did not want to know what was going on, '' including whether Clark had made any agreements with the state. Dobris testified that he and Attorney Clark had constructed a ''firewall'' between one another, whereby neither one shared information regarding Clark or his involvement in the petitioner's case.5 Dobris admitted, however, that he had been present during some of Clark's testimony concerning the December 14, 1996 shooting.
On July 23, 2009, the court denied the amended petition. In its memorandum of decision, the court concluded that ''even if it were presumed that the petitioner met the first two prongs of the Brady analysis, [his claim] must ultimately fail because the state's nondisclosure cannot be deemed material in the constitutional sense.'' The court granted the petitioner's petition for certification to appeal, and this appeal followed.
On appeal, the petitioner claims that the court improperly concluded that he failed to prove that the state withheld impeachment evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland, supra, 373 U.S. 87. Specifically, he argues that the court improperly concluded that the agreement between the state and Clark was not material evidence. In addition, the petitioner claims that he was deprived of a fair trial because Clark testified falsely on cross-examination that he had not been offered, nor was he expecting, any consideration in exchange for his testimony, and the state failed to contradict this false testimony. The petitioner argues that the state's failure to contradict this portion of Clark's testimony resulted in a violation of his constitutional rights under Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150, 92 S. Ct. 763, 31 L. Ed. 2d 104 (1972) and Napue v. Illinois, 360...
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