Nevertheless, even if we were to assume that the government violated its Brady obligation by failing to produce the two reports to Higgs's counsel, or that the performance of Higgs's counsel was constitutionally deficient, Higgs is not entitled to relief because he has also failed to demonstrate that he was prejudiced by the government's failure to disclose the reports to him prior to trial or by the admission of the CBLA evidence at trial. A DOJ report said Higgs and two friends picked the three women up in Washington, D.C. one night in January of 1996. In the alternative, Higgs contends that his trial counsel were constitutionally ineffective for failing to independently discover the studies, or present comparable impeachment material that was reasonably available in the public domain through an expert. For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court's order denying Higgs's motion under 28 U.S.C. During the early morning hours of January 27, 1996, Tanji Jackson, Tamika Black, and Mishann Chinn were found murdered in the Patuxent National … On Oct.11, 2000, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland found Higgs guilty of numerous federal offenses, including three counts of first-degree premeditated murder, three counts of first-degree felony murder, and three counts of kidnapping resulting in death, and unanimously recommended nine death sentences, which the court imposed. We granted a certificate of appealability to consider Higgs's claim that his constitutional rights to due process of law and effective assistance of counsel were violated by the introduction of Comparative Bullet Lead Analysis (“CBLA”) evidence at trial. The rifling evidence alone, unlike the CBLA evidence, demonstrated a consistency in the bullets fired at all three crime scenes and corroborated the eyewitness testimony that Higgs possessed, used, or directed the use of a .38 caliber weapon in connection with all three crimes. Microsoft Edge. Later, Higgs told Grayson that the lawyers were trying to make it seem like the murders were over something petty. 522. The post-trial studies published in 2002 and 2003 were largely cumulative of the criticisms known at the time of trial and were at best merely impeachment evidence. And, as discussed above, there is no reasonable probability that the post-trial studies or a new trial would have resulted in a different verdict. Ausgabe 1: Ausgabe 2: Ausgabe 3: Ausgabe 4: Ausgabe 5: 28.12.1995: 04.01.1996: 11.01.1996 One of the girls asked if they were trying to “make [them] walk from [t]here,” and Higgs responded, “something like that.” After the women got out of the van, Higgs pulled out the pistol and handed it to Haynes, who put it behind his back and also exited the van. Williams testified that Higgs also discussed the Chaconia shooting with him, and that Higgs said that he could not plead guilty to the Chaconia charge because the authorities would try to use the gun in another case. Because Higgs's convictions and sentences were imposed prior to these additional studies and the FBI's response, Higgs claims that his defense counsel were also ineffective post-trial for failing to investigate and present the ongoing developments in a motion for a new trial under Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Unlike the rifling evidence, however, there was no CBLA match between the ammunition used in the Chaconia shooting or the ammunition at Higgs's home and the ammunition used in the murders. Learn more about FindLaw’s newsletters, including our terms of use and privacy policy. Tansu Penbe Çiller (* 24. We cannot say that the post-trial defense counsel team was constitutionally ineffective simply because they did not pursue a new trial motion on the basis of the CBLA developments, particularly in view of the cross-examination that was conducted and the minor role that the evidence played during the trial, or that Higgs was prejudiced as a result. Higgs was convicted of ordering the 1996 murders of three women, Tamika Black, Mishann Chinn and Tanji Jackson, at a federal wildlife center near Beltsville, Maryland. at 687. § 1111(a), first-degree murder committed in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of a kidnapping, see id., and kidnapping resulting in death, see 18 U.S.C. However, Jackson was still angry and the three women left the apartment. The district court rejected the Brady claim, holding that the government was not required to disclose the studies because: (1) the studies' strongest critiques of CBLA were available in at least one published study which was publicly available at the time of Higgs' trial, strongly suggesting that, through the exercise of reasonable diligence, Higgs could have obtained identical or nearly identical information; (2) the studies' remaining critiques do not consist of strong, definitive conclusions, but at most suggest areas for possible additional study; (3) by his own admission, Higgs could have called live witnesses capable of offering conclusions nearly identical to those offered in the Government's studies; and (4) other evidence presented at trial provided a firm link between Higgs and the bullets found at the murder scene. Visitation records confirmed that Grayson visited Higgs in the D.C. jail in February and March of 1999. The names and photographs of the victims, however, had not yet been released. at 502. (citations omitted, alteration in original). In addition, Higgs made a number of incriminating statements after the murders. at 292. Higgs claimed that he first heard about the murders on January 27, 1996, while watching the ten o'clock news at the home of his girlfriend, Phyllis Smith, and that he commented to a guest at Smith's home that evening that he thought he knew “ ‘that Tanji girl.’ “ Id. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. And, as the government pointed out in closing arguments, Gloria's inability to recall every precise detail, such as who disposed of the gun, could well have bolstered his credibility. Chinn's mother and a friend of the Jackson family each confirmed that the girls had been picked up for dates the previous evening by a man or men in a blue Mazda MPV van. 6:30am Weather forecast Video. Williams told Higgs “that ‘his chances would be good.’ “ Id. A .38 caliber bullet was recovered by the police from the vehicle targeted by Higgs. Higgs's counsel has conflated the criticisms of CBLA that were present at the time of trial with the criticisms that followed. Alfred Bourgeois abused, tortured, and beat to death his young daughter. The government also introduced evidence of a taped telephone conversation between Higgs and Grayson in May 2000. 492. Having reviewed the challenged evidence in the context of the entire case, we conclude there is no reasonable probability that the district court would have excluded the CBLA testimony at Higgs's trial had it been challenged, or that the outcome of the guilt or sentencing phase would have been different had the CBLA evidence been excluded or subjected to additional cross-examination. In doing so, we made no mention of the CBLA evidence, which is unsurprising given that the CBLA evidence did not match the Chaconia bullet to the murder bullet at all. 770, 788 (2011). Higgs claims that this report should have been disclosed to him because it raised a question as to whether lead melts are unique in their elemental compositions. Mai 1946 in Istanbul) ist eine türkische Politikerin. Alison Sydor war rund 20 Jahre lang als Radsportlerin in verschiedenen Disziplinen – Straßenrennen, Mountainbike und Querfeldein-Rennen – aktiv und erfolgreich. After his trial was concluded, Higgs requested and was granted a substitution of counsel for one of his two defense attorneys for the purpose of pursuing an appeal and other post-conviction relief. With regard to Higgs's Strickland claim, the district court assumed that counsel's performance was deficient, but “conclude [d] that there was no reasonable probability that, absent counsel's alleged errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Higgs' journey to death row began in January 1996, when he, Haynes, and another friend Victor Gloria, drove from Washington, DC to Maryland to … In early 1992, Johnson went on a killing spree, shooting and killing each of the seven victims for perceived slights or rivalry in the drug trade. Given this overwhelming evidence of Higgs's role in the murders, we are satisfied that the CBLA evidence did not affect the outcome of the verdicts. A .38 caliber wad-cutter bullet was found at the scene. Higgs's claim that it was the CBLA evidence that enabled the government to introduce the 404(b) evidence of the Cherry Lane and Chaconia shootings is also inaccurate. 491. He received nine death sentences. The second shooting was on December 10, 1995, on Cherry Lane in Laurel, Maryland. The first document at issue in this case derives from a presentation at an FBI conference in 1991 (the “FBI Report”), reporting that CBLA matches had been found in bullets taken from boxes manufactured seven months apart and fifteen months apart. Similarly, Ednisia Darby, the mother of Higgs's child, testified that when she asked Higgs about the murders, he made an effort to remind her that they were together at the hospital that evening, which was not true. Jackson and Black had each been shot once in the chest and once in the back. Higgs' victims were 19-year-old Tamika Black, 21-year-old Tanji Jackson and 23-year-old Mishann Chinn. She also testified that bullets within the same box of ammunition may be found to have different elemental compositions. A sister of Tanji Jackson — one of the murdered women who was 21 when she died — addressed a written statement to Higgs after his execution … Cory Johnson murdered seven people — Peyton Johnson, Louis Johnson, Bobby Long, Dorothy Armstrong, Anthony Carter, Linwood Chiles, and Curtis Thorne — in furtherance of his drug-trafficking activities. At trial, he provided a detailed, eyewitness account of the kidnappings and murders, which we summarized as follows: On Friday evening, January 26, 1996, Higgs, Willie Mark Haynes and Victor Gloria drove from Higgs's apartment at 13801 Briarwood Drive in Laurel, Maryland, to Washington D.C. to pick up [Jackson, Black, and Chinn]. CBLA evidence, when introduced at trial, generally consisted of two components: (1) the scientific test used to measure the elemental composition of the lead in bullets; and (2) the conclusions drawn by the examiner based upon the similarities or differences in the elemental compositions of the compared bullets. at 292 (internal quotation marks omitted). Dustin Higgs, 48, was sentenced to death for the murder of three women. On Jan. 27, 1996, a passing motorist found the bodies of three D.C. women on the side of Route 197 at the Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge in Beltsville, Maryland. According to Gloria, either Higgs or Haynes then commented that they had to “get rid of the gun,” and Higgs drove to the Anacostia River where, according to Gloria, either Higgs or Haynes got out and threw the gun into the water. Higgs contends that defense counsels' failure to also challenge the CBLA evidence in a motion for a new trial amounted to constitutionally deficient performance, and that he was prejudiced as a result. Gloria admitted to authorities that he was with Higgs and Willis Mark Haynes on the night of the murders and agreed to cooperate with the authorities in the murder prosecutions. At trial, Higgs's counsel did not challenge the government's evidence that Higgs knew Jackson prior to the murders, that the women were present at Higgs's apartment complex that evening, or that Haynes was the triggerman. Each of … While on the trip, Bourgeois systematically abused and tortured her — including by punching her in the face, whipping her with an electrical cord, and burning the bottom of her foot with a cigarette lighter. What happened the night Tamika Black, Tanji Jackson and Mishann Chinn were murdered? As we previously summarized, there was overwhelming evidence confirming that: it was Higgs who set up the “dates” with the girls, Higgs who got into the violent argument with Jackson, Higgs who observed Jackson writing down his license plate number, Higgs who retrieved the .38 caliber murder weapon (which he owned) and told the other two men to come along, Higgs who told Haynes to “trick” the women into getting into the van, Higgs who drove the van past the route back to their homes and into the Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge, Higgs who handed the murder weapon to Haynes moments before Haynes shot and killed the women, and Higgs who orchestrated the destruction of the physical evidence at his apartment after the murders. See United States v. Higgs, 95 Fed. An official website of the United States government. She testified that all bullets come from the same six secondary smelters, that they all share some similarities in elemental composition, that an exact replication of elemental compositions can never be achieved, and that there is always uncertainty in measurements. Williams also related conversations that he had with Higgs about Gloria. 404(b). Copyright © 2021, Thomson Reuters. In the ensuing years, the FBI and the scientific community collaborated their efforts to quantify the significance of bullet lead matches from CBLA. In October 2000, a federal jury in Maryland convicted Higgs of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the killings of Tamika Black, 19; Mishann Chinn, 23; and Tanji Jackson, 21. Neighbors in the area heard and saw the three girls laughing and talking around 3:30 that morning. Of particular note was Jackson's day planner and its references to Higgs's identifying information, which corroborated Gloria's testimony that Higgs commented that Jackson was “ ‘writing down [his] sh-,’ “ just after his violent argument with Jackson and just prior to his retrieving his gun and pursuing the women. Higgs asked Williams what his chances of defeating the murder charges “would be ‘if the witness after the fact wasn't there.’ “ Id. Gloria's eyewitness testimony provided compelling and convincing details of the events of that evening and of Higgs's involvement in them. Stay up-to-date with FindLaw's newsletter for legal professionals. They were traveling in Higgs's blue Mazda MPV van. We may summarily dispose of Higgs's claim that the production of the preliminary studies or the presentation of comparable information would have resulted in the district court's exclusion of CBLA evidence at trial. The email address cannot be subscribed. While there, the men also smoked marijuana. And after unsuccessfully attempting to establish an alibi through Smith and Darby, Higgs admitted to Darby that he was with Haynes on the night of the murder, that the women were killed because Jackson was “snitching” on one of them, and that the other two women were just along “for his friends.” Id. 522. Higgs also failed to demonstrate that his trial counsels' handling of the CBLA issue rose to the level of constitutionally deficient performance under Strickland. Join Facebook to connect with Tanju Acilan and others you may know. Tamika Black, Tanji Jackson, and Mishann Chinn were all shot and killed near the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, on the Patuxent Research Refuge in Prince George's County, Maryland. During the sentencing phase, portions of Haynes's statements to the authorities were admitted, further corroborating Gloria's account of the events that occurred that evening. At the apartment, Jackson rebuffed an advance by Higgs and the women left. The multiplicity and the strength of the evidence ․ establish that proposition beyond peradventure.” Id. Although Gloria was an important witness for the government, substantial additional testimony and evidence corroborated Gloria's testimony. Petitioner Dustin John Higgs was convicted of three counts each of first-degree premeditated murder, see 18 U.S.C. We recommend using Higgs is scheduled to be executed on Jan. 15, 2021. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS In order to properly evaluate Higgs's challenges to the CBLA evidence in the context of his Brady and Strickland claims, we begin with some background on CBLA evidence and the developments that took place before and after Higgs's trial. All crimes were committed in Maryland. The defendant must show that “there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different,” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694, or that counsel's errors were so serious as to deprive the defendant of a fair trial, a trial whose result is reliable,” id. Jackson had supposedly taken a knife from the kitchen and threatened Higgs after she rejected his alleged sexual advances towards her. 2. See Higgs v. United States, 711 F.Supp.2d 479 (D.Md.2010). The prosecution's version of events was that Higgs got into a heated argument with Tanji Jackson at his apartment on the evening of January 26, 1996. Thus, while the CBLA evidence matched the bullet from Cherry Lane with the murder bullet, it was cumulative to other evidence but not inconsistent with Higgs's defense. See Brief of Appellant at 41 (arguing that “[e]ven without the information withheld by the [g]overnment, reasonable counsel would still have had much at their disposal to exclude CBLA, impeach Lundy or persuade the jury that her testimony lacked probative value”). At approximately 4:30 a.m., on January 27, 1996, Tanji Jackson, Tamika Black, and Mishann Chinn were found dead in a roadway in the Patuxent National Wildlife Refuge in Prince George's County, Maryland. at 293 (citation omitted). Affirmed by published opinion. According to Lundy, the lead composition of the .38 caliber bullet recovered from the Chaconia shooting matched the lead composition of eighteen of the .38 caliber bullets found at Higgs's apartment. Official websites use .gov Such decisions by experienced, capital defense counsel fall squarely within the class of those to which we give deference. At the apartment, Jackson rejected an advance by Higgs, and the women decided to leave. Sie war von 1993 bis 1996 die erste und bislang einzige Frau im Amt des Ministerpräsidenten der Türkei. Higgs later told Williams “ ‘that he wasn't worrying about the [murder] case’ “ because two of the former inmates at the jail, Melvin Grayson and T, “ ‘would be out there,’ “ and “ ‘[t]hat Mel would be out there to handle anything that he needed and that he could rely on him.’ “ Id. Dustin John Higgs (March 10, 1972 – January 16, 2021) was an American man who was executed by the United States federal government, having been convicted and sentenced to death in 2000 for his role in the January 1996 murders of three women in Maryland. The defendant must demonstrate that defense counsel's performance “fell below an objective standard of reasonableness” measured by “prevailing professional norms,” Strickland, 466 U.S. at 688, and that the “deficient performance prejudiced [his] defense,” id. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. 413, 415 (5th Cir.2010) (denying request to file successive application for habeas relief from capital conviction based upon CBLA criticism because, even assuming that the petitioner could not have discovered the flaws in the CBLA evidence through the exercise of reasonable diligence, he failed to “show [ ] that but for the flawed bullet analysis, no reasonable factfinder would have found him guilty of capital murder”). Chief Judge TRAXLER wrote the opinion, in which Judge SHEDD and Judge KEENAN joined. Higgs contends that this study should also have been disclosed to him because it called into question the premise that lead melts are unique and homogeneous in their elemental compositions. Haynes talked to Jackson and got the knife away from her. In fact, Lundy did not even bother to test the Chaconia bullet or the majority of the bullets found in Higgs's apartment for comparison to the murder bullets because they were of a different type, and the only .38 caliber wadcutter bullet that was found in Higgs's apartment did not match the wad-cutter bullets found at the murder scene or at Cherry Lane. First, Higgs asserts that the CBLA evidence permitted the government “to put the .38 caliber handgun in Higgs's possession” prior to the murders by “showing that a bullet recovered from the Chaconia incident matched the chemical composition of the bullets recovered from Cherry Lane and the capital killings.” Brief of Appellant at 45. § 2255. Police recovered 9mm bullet casings from the front of the house, where the eyewitnesses placed Haynes, and a .38 caliber bullet from inside the house. Higgs I, 353 F.3d at 291 (internal quotation marks omitted). See Clemons v. Maryland, 896 A.2d 1059, 1076–78 (Md.2006) (discussing the various studies released in 2002 that questioned the value of CBLA evidence and recommended further study of the issue). The standard for Strickland prejudice is the same as for Brady materiality. To succeed on a Sixth Amendment claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, the defendant must satisfy the two-prong test set forth in Strickland. Higgs, 711 F.Supp.2d at 498. See, e.g., United States v. Davis, 103 F.3d 660, 673–74 (8th Cir.1996); Haynes v. United States, 451 F.Supp.2d 713, 720 (D.Md.2006); State v. Noel, 723 A.2d 602, 605–06 (N.J.1999).3 However, it seems equally clear, as Higgs has acknowledged, that the criticisms of CBLA were already present in the public domain at the time of Higgs's trial, even if the FBI Study and the Iowa State Study might not have been. Neither assertion, however, is accurate. A sister of Tanji Jackson — one of the murdered women who was 21 when she died — addressed a written statement to Higgs after his execution and mentioning his family. 491 (internal quotation marks omitted). Johnson’s convictions and sentences were affirmed on appeal more than 24 years ago, and his initial round of collateral challenges failed 15 years ago. The .38 caliber bullets recovered from the three crime scenes were all fired from a firearm with five lands and grooves with a right twist. Higgs's incriminating statements made in connection with the two prior shootings are particularly significant. Johnson is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Jan. 14, 2021, at the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute, Indiana. He contends that his post-trial counsel were also ineffective because they failed to file a motion for a new trial on the basis of newly discovered studies on CBLA evidence. Concerned that a conspiracy to harm Gloria might be in the works and that he might be implicated, Williams reported these conversations to the authorities. During the search of Higgs's apartment, the police found cash, crack cocaine, a .380 semiautomatic fire-arm, and ammunition for .380, .45, and .38 caliber weapons. The women were whispering in the back of the van and apparently believed they were being taken home. Under the Due Process Clause, the prosecution is required to disclose evidence favorable to an accused upon request, “where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution.” Brady, 373 U.S. at 87. Berry, 624 F.3d at 1043 (concluding that even “the [NRC] report and the FBI's discontinued use of [CBLA] evidence were no more than impeaching evidence of the [CBLA] testimony introduced at [defendant's] trial”). Presently before us is Higgs's motion for relief under 28 U.S.C. Id. See United States v. Roane, 378 F.3d 382, 402 (4th Cir.2004); Fullwood v. Lee, 290 F.3d 663, 686 (4th Cir.2002) (“The Brady rule does not compel the disclosure of evidence available to the defendant from other sources, including diligent investigation by the defense.” (internal quotation marks omitted)). As we have twice concluded, the evidence of Higgs's guilt and of his predominant role in the brutal kidnappings and murders of the three women was overwhelming, as was the evidence, irrespective of the CBLA evidence, that linked Higgs to the .38 caliber weapon and to .38 caliber ammunition.
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