Habeas Corpus – Ineffective assistance

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Habeas Corpus – Ineffective assistance

Where the credibility of prospective defense witnesses was poor, it was not ineffective assistance of counsel to not call them as witnesses.

“As to the trial, it is even more difficult to see how the Estavias’ testimony might have made any meaningful contribution to the defense case. Again, their testimony would only have related to Monroe’s arrest. But the circumstances of his arrest, beyond when and where it took place, were not even mentioned at the trial, notwithstanding the fact that Monroe testified and the circumstances of his arrest certainly were within his knowledge. Monroe renews his assertion that his brother and sister-in-law would have bolstered the credibility of his own testimony that the police had punched him repeatedly at the station, giving the jury reason to credit his contention that his post-arrest statements, including in particular his written statement, were the product of coercion. But, again, the Estavias were not witnesses to what occurred at the police station at the hands of the detectives who interviewed Monroe; they would only have testified as to the alleged misbehavior of altogether different officers in arresting Monroe. And, as the Illinois Appellate Court recognized, given their familial connection to Monroe, their credibility would have been subject to doubt. In sum, the support that their testimony might have provided to the defense case was too weak to have required a competent attorney to call them as trial witnesses and to show that Monroe was prejudiced by his attorney’s omission to do so.”

Affirmed.

10-3407 Monroe v. Davis

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Gottschall, J., Rovner, J.

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