Birch v. Commissioner of Correction
Case Details
- Judge(s)
- Robinson; Palmer; McDonald; D’Auria; Mullins; Kahn; Ecker
- Status
- Published
- Procedural Posture
- appeal
Related Laws
No specific laws identified for this ruling.
Claim Types
Outcome
The Connecticut Supreme Court reversed the habeas court's judgment and ordered a new trial, finding that the state violated the petitioner's due process rights by failing to correct false expert testimony about forensic evidence regarding a towel.
Excerpt
The petitioner, who had been convicted of felony murder in connection with the stabbing death of the victim inside the victim's home during what appeared to be a botched burglary, sought a writ of habeas corpus, claiming, inter alia, that the state deprived him of his due process right to a fair trial insofar as it failed to correct the trial testimony of L, a former director of the state police forensic laboratory, that a red substance on a towel found in the victim's home after the murder tested positive for blood when no such test had been conducted and when subsequent testing conducted in connection with the present habeas action revealed that the red substance was not in fact blood. The habeas court rendered judgment denying the habeas petition. With respect to the petitioner's due process claim, the court concluded that, because L mistakenly but honestly believed that the towel tested positive for blood and, thus, did not give perjured testimony, the burden was on the petitioner to demonstrate that there was a reasonable probability of a different verdict if the correct evidence had been disclosed. Applying this standard, the habeas court determined that L's testimony was immaterial because, among other things, the state's criminal case against the petitioner did not rely on forensic evidence but, rather, on the testimony of numerous lay witnesses. On the granting of certification, the petitioner appealed, claiming that the habeas court applied the incorrect standard for determining whether the petitioner was entitled to a new trial and that, upon application of the correct standard, which required the respondent, the Commissioner of Correction, to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that L's incorrect testimony was immaterial, he was entitled to a new trial. Held that, on the basis of this court's analysis in the companion case of State v. Henning (334 Conn. 1), this court concluded that the state's failure to correct L's incorrect testimony that there was bl
Similar Rulings
The petitioner, who had been convicted of kidnapping in the second degree, appealed following the denial of his petition for certification to appeal from the judgment of the habeas court dismissing his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The petitioner claimed, inter alia, that the court erred in concluding that he failed to establish good cause for his late filed petition pursuant to statute (§ 52-470). Held: The habeas court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing the petitioner's habeas petition as untimely pursuant to § 52-470, as the petitioner's argument essentially attacked the credibility determinations of the habeas court, and this court does not second-guess such credibility determinations on appeal. The habeas court did not abuse its discretion in denying the petitioner's petition for certification to appeal to this court, the petitioner having failed to show that the issues presented in his appeal were debatable among jurists of reason, that a court could resolve them in a different manner or that the questions raised deserved encouragement to proceed further. Argued November 19, 2024—officially released January 28, 2025
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