By: Derek Hawkins//September 28, 2015//
Civil
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Officials: RIPPLE, KANNE, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.
Writ of Habeas Corpus
No. 13-3454 Fedell Cafeey v. Kim Butler
Appellant allegations of misconduct at trial are without merit.
“We agree with the district court’s conclusion and analysis. Iacullo’s statements to Walker would have added little to the reliability analysis under Chambers and nothing to the materiality analysis. So Iacullo’s statements to the police still would have been inadmissible. But Caffey argues that the statements somehow show foul play by the prosecution. Caffey’s argument is sketchy, but he seems to suggest that the prosecution procured Iacullo’s unavailability at trial, and ensured her silence about Kendall’s drug use, in exchange for an agreement not to charge her with murder. As the district court found, there is no evidence of any such agreement. Nor do the facts plausibly suggest the existence of a tacit agreement or understanding. There is nothing untoward about Iacullo’s invocation of her Fifth Amendment privilege; she was, after all, charged with obstruction of jus‐ tice and may have been guilty of worse. And there is nothing suspicious about the fact that Iacullo was not charged with murder. One of the prosecutors testified before the district court that the State considered bringing such charges but decided not to because it could not place Iacullo at the murder scenes. “
Affirmed