Opinion

Engberg v. Meyer

  • 820 P.2d 70
  • 1991 Wyo. LEXIS 160
  • 1991 WL 207178
Court
Wyoming Supreme Court
Filed
Oct 17, 1991
Status
Published
Author
MacY
On the bench
Brown, Ret, Thomas, Cardine, Urbigkit, MacY
Cited by
62 cases
Authority
More cited than 6.8%

no Brady violation where witness who could have been impeached ■with hypnosis evidence was only one of several eyewitness

How later courts described this case

  • no Brady violation where witness who could have been impeached ■with hypnosis evidence was only one of several eyewitness
  • same result under the Due Process Clauses of both the state and federal constitutions
  • “recent research seems to demonstrate that the process [of eyewitness identification] is more complex than earlier assumed, and some of the research findings are contrary to intuitive perceptions”
  • adopting Justice Rose’s position

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

MACY, Justice,

dissenting in part and concurring in part.

I dissent to that portion of Justice Thomas’ opinion pertaining to the question of Engberg’s guilt or innocence. It is unreasonable for this Court to require that, in order to avoid procedural default, defense counsel should have called Engberg’s wife a second time after she had already refused to testify. This is the very type of secondguessing of defense counsel’s trial strategy which we have said we will not do when we are reviewing a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. See Seeley v. State, 715 P.2d 232 (Wyo.1986). Also, while the record shows that at trial both counsel and the court ignored Wyo.Stat. § 1-12-104 (1988), Justice Thomas’ construction of the statute violates Engberg’s constitutionally protected right to obtain witnesses in his favor. U.S. Const, amend. VI; Wyo. Const, art. 1, § 10. See also Section V.B. of Chief Justice Urbigkit’s opinion dissenting in part and concurring in part.

I concur with Justice Cardine that it was impermissible to use the underlying robbery as an aggravating circumstance when it had already been used to elevate the crime to first-degree murder. It is also impermissible to use the robbery to support two independent aggravating circumstances.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

I. HISTORY OF THE PROCEEDINGS AND ISSUES PRESENTED 96

II. FACTS 100

III. SCOPE OF REVIEW 100

A. Introduction and Outline 100

B. Scope of Review in Death Penalty Cases 101

C. Constitutional Right Forfeiture by Procedural Default 103

*96 IV. INEFFECTIVENESS OF COUNSEL

V. GUILT PHASE ISSUES rH

A. Errors Contended «O T — I H

B. The Refusal by the Trial Court to Allow Engberg the Right to Call his Wife as a Witness

C. What the Record and Totality of Procedures Established

D. Use of Secondary Evidence From an “Unavailable Witness”

E. Prejudice in Witness Presentation in Open Court

F. Eyewitness Identification Witness — Refusal of the Trial Court to Allow the Engberg to Call an Expert Witness to Testify on the Potential for Error in Identification OO <N i — I

G. The Failure of the Prosecutor to Inform Engberg and His Attorney That They Had the Principal Eyewitness Hypnotized to Enhance Her Memory and Subsequent Denial of a Post-Trial Hearing CO

H. Additional Guilt Phase Issues Raised by Engberg lO

VI. DEATH PENALTY ISSUE CO 1C

A. The Death Penalty in “Modern” America

B. Felony Murder as a Predicate for Capital Punishment IO

C. Present Wyoming Statute ⅞©

D. Weighing and Burden of Persuasion Conflicts Now Ameliorated by Present Law CO rH

E. Other Death Penalty Issues CO rH

VII. CONCLUSION CD CO t-H

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.