01-3909 Hardamon v. U.S.

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“A competent trial strategy frequently is to mitigate damaging evidence by allowing it to come in without drawing additional attention to it, such as an objection would. United States v. Payne, 741 F.2d 887, 891 (7th Cir. 1984) (‘A competent trial attorney might well eschew objecting . . . in order to minimize jury attention to the damaging material’). Further, as Hardamon conceded at oral argument, in certain cases where such testimony was given, an objection was not warranted because the prosecutor attempted to correct or limit the witnesses’ improper responses. Defense counsel’s decision to limit objections to evidence concerning Hardamon’s prior bad acts was, likewise, not unreasonable. Objecting to this evidence may further influence the jury negatively. Id. Defense counsel knew that similar testimony would be introduced later and chose not to call additional attention to the issue.

“Second, Hardamon argues that his attorney’s deficient performance appears in the cross-examination of government witnesses. Specifically, he claims that poor crossexamination by his attorney allowed for the admission of damaging evidence that would not have been admitted otherwise. As examples, Hardamon points to Trotter’s testimony regarding Hardamon’s drug sales in Decatur and Alton and testimony concerning Hardamon’s first appearance in Alton as well as testimony from Blackmon and Smith about seeing Hardamon with a controlled substance. Again, it is hard to find defense counsel’s performance deficient in these situations. Often an attorney must take risks on cross-examination, and when hostile witnesses are involved, these risks may backfire. Such risk taking, however, does not necessarily amount to ineffective assistance.

“Furthermore, we find that Hardamon’s attorney effectively attacked the credibility of several witness on crossexamination, a point which Hardamon also conceded at oral argument. As a whole, he elicited admissions that witnesses expected drastic sentence reductions for cooperating, were drug addicts or dealers, had cheated people in the past, had been involved in drug-related shootings, had spent significant amounts of time in prison, and had lied to police during investigations. He also established doubt about witnesses’ certainty of specific dates Hardamon was alleged to have been selling drugs in Alton. That the jury ultimately believed the cumulative testimony of multiple government witnesses is not for this Court to contradict. United States v. Algee, 309 F.3d 1011, 1016 (7th Cir. 2002) (‘Credibility determinations, however, are within the province of the jury, and we will not reverse them just because the credited testimony comes from confessed law-breakers or known liars.’).”

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Reagan, J., Bauer, J.