In Davis v. Terry, No. 04-13371 (Sept. 26, 2006), the Court affirmed the denial of habeas relief to a Georgia death row inmate.
The Court noted that it was reaching the merits of Davis’ challenges to the fairness of his trial, even though he procedurally defaulted these issues by failing to raise them on direct appeal of his state sentence, because Davis accompanied these arguments with a claim of actual innocence.
The Court rejected the Giglio claim that the prosecution presented knowingly false testimony. The Court noted that there was no evidence the State knew the evidence was false when it presented it.
The Court also rejected a Brady claim that the State failed to disclose exculpatory material during trial. The Court noted that the exculpatory evidence was revealed during the trial, and that defense counsel declined to recall a witness to the stand to go over this evidence. Thus, the defense was aware of the evidence, and the failure initially to advise the defense of the evidence was not material because the defense elected not to recall the witness.
Finally, the Court rejected an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, pointing out that the defense presented a viable defense of mistaken identity. Moreover, none of the testimony which Davis asserted should have been elicited would have changed the outcome of the trial.
