Whitton v. Dixon (Habeas Corpus)

Send us Fan MailIf anyone thinks I am pronouncing Giglio incorrectly, please see: https://documents.law.yale.edu/pronouncing-dictionaryIn a brief per curiam opinion, the Supreme Court vacated an Eleventh Circuit decision denying federal habeas relief to Florida death-row inmate Gary Whitton. Whitton argued that prosecutors violated Giglio v. United States by allowing jailhouse informant Jake Ozio to falsely testify that he had no prior criminal history, despite the State possessing juvenile records showing prior assault, threats, and burglary charges. The Eleventh Circuit agreed that Ozio’s testimony was false and that prosecutors knew it was false, but nevertheless found no prejudice because the evidence against Whitton was overwhelming. In reaching that conclusion, however, the court relied in part on DNA test results obtained years after Whitton’s trial showing that blood on Whitton’s boots matched the victim. The Supreme Court held that this was error: because the post-trial DNA evidence was never presented to the jury, it could not be considered when assessing whether the alleged constitutional violation had a substantial and injurious effect on the jury’s verdict. The Court did not decide whether Whitton is entitled to relief, whether the Florida Supreme Court’s harmless-error determination was reasonable based on the trial record alone, or whether Whitton properly exhausted his claim in state court. Instead, it sent the case back to the Eleventh Circuit to reconsider those issues without relying on evidence the jury never saw.Support the show