Hilliard v. Williams

• Decision Date: 20 November 1972
• Docket Number: No. 71-1983.,71-1983.
• Citation: 465 F.2d 1212
• Parties: Lilly Mae Onie Lee Whitelaw HILLIARD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John L. WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

465 F.2d 1212 (1972)

Lilly Mae Onie Lee Whitelaw HILLIARD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John L. WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 71-1983.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

June 28, 1972.

As Amended July 31, 1972.

Certiorari Denied November 20, 1972.

Dwayne D. Maddox Huntington, Tenn., Julian P. Guinn, Paris, Tenn., on brief, for plaintiff-appellant.

Bart Durham, Asst. Atty. Gen., David M. Pack, Atty. Gen., Nashville, Tenn., on brief for defendant-appellee.

Before PHILLIPS, Chief Judge, EDWARDS, Circuit Judge, and McALLISTER, Senior Circuit Judge.

Certiorari Denied November 20, 1972. See 93 S.Ct. 461.

PHILLIPS, Chief Judge.

To what extent does a prosecuting attorney have civil immunity in a suit filed by a defendant whom he has prosecuted in a criminal proceeding? This recurring question is presented on the present appeal.

The defendant-appellee is the District Attorney General for the Twenty-sixth Judicial District of Tennessee. He was prosecuting attorney at a trial resulting in the conviction of plaintiff-appellant Hilliard for second degree murder. This conviction was reversed by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals on April 15, 1971. At the second trial Mrs. Hilliard was acquitted. In the meantime she had served one year in prison.

The evidence upon which Mrs. Hilliard was convicted at her first trial was entirely circumstantial. A key issue was whether stains on the nylon jacket worn by her at the time of her arrest were blood stains, and if so, whether the stains were from human blood as contended by the prosecution or hog blood as contended by the defense.

In reversing the conviction, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals said:

"Of quite devastating impact tending to show guilt was the fact that the defendant had what appeared to be blood stains on her jacket. The State introduced proof of this, and then it was revealed that the jacket itself had been sent to the F.B.I. laboratory in Washington D. C. for chemical analysis and, although some three months had passed since the jacket had been taken from the defendant, it had not been returned for use at the trial; nor was there any information available to shed light on the vital issue of whether the blood was human as theorized by the State or hog as theorized by Mrs. Hilliard.

"Although, as aforesaid, no opportunity was allowed the trial court to correct any error that might have been involved in allowing the State\'s proof concerning the blood being on the jacket when it developed that the jacket itself was, by State action, unavailable, and thus we cannot consider the propriety of the court\'s rulings on the objections made during trial; the impact of this testimony does enter into our decision. The proof offered by the State relative to this blood was circumstantial as was all the other. But here there was an opportunity to make available to the jury direct proof, in the face of the defendant\'s testimony that the blood was that of a hog, that would have supported one theory and discredited the other. Either the blood was human or swine. It is had been established as human, this would have left little room for doubt that the defendant was not telling the truth in her explanation of how she got blood on her clothing. If it developed that the blood was from a hog, this would have proved conclusively that she was telling the truth, in this particular at least.

"Certainly the two hypotheses suggested by the proof of blood on the jacket—one tending strongly to suggest guilt, the other tending to support the theory of the defendant—are equally reasonable. In its present condition the evidence offered by the defendant buttressed by the presumption of innocence never overcome by sufficient proof preponderates against the verdict."

Following her acquittal at the second trial, Mrs. Hilliard filed the present civil action for damages against the District Attorney General. Jurisdiction is asserted both on the ground of diversity of citizenship and under the civil rights act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3).¹

The District Attorney General filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b) (6), Fed.R.Civ.P. for failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted. The District Court sustained this motion, holding that the District Attorney General is immune from civil liability. We reverse, holding that the District Court erred in ruling that the complaint does not state a claim on which relief can be granted.

This is an interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b). The District Court certified that the order of dismissal involves a controlling question of law as to which there is substantial ground for difference of opinion and that an immediate appeal may materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation. The District Court also directed the entry of final judgment as to the District Attorney General, making an express determination that there is no just reason for delay. Rule 54(b), Fed.R.Civ.P. This court granted leave to appeal.

Our reversal is based entirely upon the factual averments of the complaint, which are summarized hereinafter in this opinion. These averments must be treated as true for purposes of this appeal and are viewed in the light most favorable to Mrs. Hilliard. Lucarell v. McNair, 453 F.2d 836 (6th Cir. 1972), L'Orange v. Medical Protective Society, 394 F.2d 57, 59 (6th Cir. 1968). "In appraising the sufficiency of this complaint we follow, of course, the accepted rule that a complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of her claim which would entitle her to relief." Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 102, 2 L. Ed.2d 80 (1957).

The complaint avers that Mrs. Hilliard is a citizen of Indiana; on or about December 24, 1969, she arrived in Carroll County, Tennessee, to visit her maternal aunt, Vina Prince, and the aunt's husband, Ernie Prince; the purpose of her visit was to assert and settle her claim to a one-half interest in certain real estate inherited from her grandmother; Ernie Prince had operated the land for many years and had claimed ownership from time to time; on February 19, 1970, Ernie Prince was killed and Mrs. Hilliard was arrested and charged with his murder.

The complaint further states that at the time of her arrest Mrs. Hilliard was wearing a blue nylon jacket which the officers claimed was stained with the blood of Ernie Prince; the victim was murdered by two vicious axe blows to the skull, and the body thereafter was dragged to the rear of the house and shot in the mouth with a shot gun. Mrs. Hilliard asserted that when she was arrested there was no blood on her jacket, but if there were any such stains it was hog blood from preparing raw meat.

The complaint asserts that circumstantial evidence pointed the finger of guilt to Vina Prince, who is insane. The opinion of the State Court of Criminal Appeals pointed out that Mrs. Prince was not available as a witness, due to her mental condition. The court commented:

"It is regrettable that she was not available as a witness . . . Since there is no doubt that this woman was present before, during, and after the assault of the deceased, her potential as a witness is quite evident. She could have witnessed the crime or have committed the crime herself."

It is averred that the only probative material evidence against Mrs. Hilliard was the allegedly blood stained jacket and some allegedly blood stained curtains; that the jacket and curtains were sent to the FBI laboratory in Washington, D. C., for analysis; that the FBI report was negative as to human blood, or any blood, being on either the jacket or the curtains; that the District Attorney General saw the FBI report well in advance of the trial and was familiar with its contents; that neither the FBI report nor the jacket and curtains were made available to be introduced in evidence at the trial; that the contents of the FBI report were never divulged to Mrs. Hilliard or her attorney; instead, it was claimed by the prosecution that the jacket and curtains had been resubmitted to the FBI on April 28, 1970, at a time when the trial already had been set for May 15, 1970, too late for them to be returned in time for introduction in evidence; that the District Attorney General produced evidence before the jury to the effect that the spots on the jacket and curtains "looked like" or "appeared to be" blood stains, in spite of the FBI report that there were no blood stains; that the District Attorney General suppressed and concealed the positive proof that there was no blood on either the jacket or curtains; and that if the FBI report had been introduced into evidence, Mrs. Hilliard would have been acquitted at her first trial as she was at the second.

The complaint further contains these averments:

"22. That in the preparation of the case, the Defendant Williams advised or suggested or implied by some means that the witness Defendant Clark and perhaps others, should not mention anything about the first report of March 28, 1970, and that the Defendant Clark and other witnesses followed his instructions and answered both direct examination questions and cross-examination questions evasively, deliberately misleadingly, with half truths and in instances falsely, to carry out the complete suppression of the report of negative blood analysis of the items.

"23. That the Defendant Williams to carry out his intention of

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