Warney v. Monroe County

08-0947-cv
Warney v. Monroe County
1 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
2
3 FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
4
5 August Term, 2008
6
7 (Argued: June 1, 2009 Decided: November 13, 2009)
8
9 Docket No. 08-0947
10
11 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x
12
13 DOUGLAS WARNEY,
14
15 Plaintiff-Appellee,
16
17 - v.-
18
19 MONROE COUNTY, LARRY BERNSTEIN, in his
20 individual capacity, WENDY EVANS LEHMAN, in
21 her individual capacity and MICHAEL C.
22 GREEN, in his individual and official
23 capacities,
24
25 Defendants-Appellants,
26
27 CITY OF ROCHESTER, SANDRA ADAMS, in her
28 individual capacity, EVELYN BEAUDRAULT, in
29 her individual capacity, STEPHEN EDGETT, in
30 his individual capacity, THOMAS JONES, in
31 his individual capacity, ROBERT GARLAND, in
32 his individual capacity, JOHN GROPP, in his
33 individual capacity, JOHN DOE OFFICERS
34 AND/OR DETECTIVES # 1-10, in their
35 individual capacities and RICHARD ROE
36 SUPERVISORS # 1-10, in their individual
37 capacities,
38
39 Defendants.
40
41 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -x
42
1 Before: JACOBS, Chief Judge, NEWMAN and POOLER,
2 Circuit Judges.
3
4 Appeal by prosecutors from denial of their motion for
5 absolute or qualified immunity by the United States District
6 Court for the Western District of New York (Larimer, J.) in
7 a suit alleging that the exculpatory result of post-trial
8 DNA testing, conducted by the district attorney’s office
9 while defending habeas and other initiatives, was not timely
10 disclosed to plaintiff Douglas Warney, who was in jail for a
11 murder that the DNA testing ultimately showed he did not
12 commit. Because the testing was undertaken in connection
13 with post-trial proceedings and was therefore integral to
14 the advocacy function, we hold that the prosecutors enjoy
15 absolute immunity under Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409,
16 430–31 (1976). Reversed.
17
18 MICHAEL E. DAVIS, Second Deputy
19 County Attorney, for DANIEL M.
20 De LAUS, JR., Monroe County
21 Attorney, Rochester, NY, for
22 Defendants-Appellants.
23
24 DEBORAH L. CORNWALL, (Peter J.
25 Neufeld, Sarah Crowley, on the
26 brief), Cochran Neufeld &
27 Scheck, LLP, New York, NY, for
28 Plaintiff-Appellee.
29
30 Steven A. Bender and Anthony J.
2
1 Servino, for Daniel M. Donovan,
2 President of the District
3 Attorneys Association of New
4 York State, for amicus
5 curiae District Attorneys
6 Association of New York State,
7 in support of Defendants-
8 Appellants.
9
10
11 DENNIS JACOBS, Chief Judge:
12
13 Three prosecutors of Monroe County appeal from denial
14 of their motion for absolute or qualified immunity by the
15 United States District Court for the Western District of New
16 York (Larimer, J.) in a suit alleging that the exculpatory
17 result of post-trial DNA testing, conducted by the district
18 attorney’s office while defending habeas and other
19 initiatives, was not timely disclosed to plaintiff, who was
20 in jail for a murder that the DNA testing ultimately showed
21 he did not commit. Because the testing was undertaken in
22 connection with post-trial proceedings and was therefore
23 integral to the advocacy function, we hold that the
24 prosecutors enjoy absolute immunity under Imbler v.
25 Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 430–31 (1976).
26 Plaintiff Douglas Warney was wrongfully convicted and
27 jailed for ten years. He sues a number of individuals (and
28 government entities) for violating his constitutional
3
1 rights. This appeal considers only issues bearing upon the
2 liability and immunity of three Monroe County prosecutors
3 for failing to disclose exculpatory DNA test results
4 promptly.
5 After Warney’s conviction, during the pendency of his
6 federal habeas corpus petition and his appeal from a state-
7 court decision denying him access to DNA evidence, the
8 Monroe County District Attorney’s office arranged the DNA
9 testing of crime scene evidence. The results showed that
10 all non-victim blood samples collected at the scene of the
11 crime were from one man, who was not Warney. Using the DNA
12 results, the prosecutors identified the man who actually
13 committed the murder, advised Warney’s counsel, interviewed
14 the new suspect to confirm that Warney was not involved, and
15 then achieved Warney’s exoneration. Warney alleges that his
16 constitutional rights were violated because at least 72 days
17 elapsed between the date the prosecutors learned of the DNA
18 test results and the date they informed Warney or his
19 counsel.
20 This appeal requires us to consider the scope of
21 absolute prosecutorial immunity in the post-conviction
22 context.
4
1
2 BACKGROUND
3 We set out only the facts that bear upon the
4 disposition of this appeal. Since this is an interlocutory
5 appeal from the denial of a motion to dismiss, we accept as
6 true all well-pled factual allegations, and draw all
7 reasonable inferences in the plaintiff’s favor. See
8 Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 129 S. Ct. 1937, 1949 (2009) (citing Bell
9 Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555 (2007)).
10 A. The Murder. In January 1996, William Beason was
11 found dead in his ransacked apartment on Chili Avenue in
12 Rochester, New York by officers of the Rochester Police
13 Department (“RPD”). In Beason’s bathroom, they found a
14 bloodstained knife, a bloody towel, and a bloody tissue.
15 The RPD lifted several fingerprints from two pornographic
16 videotape boxes found in the bedroom, and one partial print
17 from the knife. The autopsy showed nineteen stab wounds to
18 Beason’s neck and chest, all of them consistent with the
19 bloody knife found in the bathroom, and defensive wounds on
20 Beason’s left hand. Blood evidence was collected from his
21 fingernails. Thus it appeared that Beason died after a
22 violent struggle, and that the perpetrator was cut and had
5
1 gone into the bathroom to clean blood off himself with the
2 towel and the tissue.
3 After Beason’s murder was reported in the press,
4 Douglas Warney called the RPD “Crimestoppers hotline” and
5 referenced the murder. Warney had an IQ of 68, an eighth-
6 grade education, and full-blown AIDS. (Complaint ¶ 37.) It
7 is not clear what Warney said, but he alleges that he said
8 that he “knew of” Beason.1 An RPD officer went to Warney’s
9 apartment to speak to him. The complaint alleges that the
10 RPD was aware that Warney had made numerous crank calls to
11 the police (for which he had received psychiatric
12 assistance), and this officer in particular had responded to
13 Warney’s complaints about drug activity in his apartment
14 building. (Id. ¶ 39.) Warney told this officer that he was
15 concerned about his name being brought up in connection with
16 the murder of a “William” on Chili Avenue.
17 Two days later, RPD detectives picked up Warney at his
18 apartment and brought him to the police station. They put
19 him in a small office and interrogated him, using
1
Beason and Warney had a “passing acquaintance.”
(Complaint ¶¶ 37–38.) On occasion, Beason had hired Warney
to clean his house and shovel snow from his driveway. (Id.)
6
1 “escalating coercive tactics” including verbal abuse, and
2 physical and other threats, “in order to force him to admit
3 that he committed the murder.” (Id. ¶ 47.) After initial
4 denials, Warney eventually “yielded to [the] coercive
5 tactics and provided at least four wildly different versions
6 of events to the police.” (Id. ¶¶ 50-51.)2
7 In an ensuing typewritten “confession,” the detectives
8 included numerous non-public facts about the murder known
9 only to the police and the real killer, facts which (it is
10 now known) Warney could not possibly have known. (Id. ¶
11 52.)3 According to the complaint, there were
2
In the first version, Warney implicated his cousin.
In the second, Warney added that he and his cousin went
together to Beason’s home. In the third, Warney and his
cousin together stabbed Beason. In the fourth, reflected in
the typewritten statement, his cousin was no longer present,
and Warney confessed to murdering Beason alone. (Complaint
¶ 51.)
3
These facts included: (1) Beason was cooking
barbeque chicken and mashed potatoes at the time he was
killed; (2) Beason was wearing a red and white striped
nightshirt; (3) Beason was stabbed more than fifteen times
with a twelve-inch serrated knife; (4) Beason’s throat was
slit; (5) Beason’s body was found on his bed and his eyes
were open; (6) the assailant cut himself and bled in the
apartment; (7) the assailant wiped his wound with tissue
paper, which he discarded in the toilet; (8) the assailant
put intensive care lotion on his wound; and (9) the back
door and basement door were locked and the front door of the
house locks automatically. (Complaint ¶ 53.) The complaint
alleges that the detectives “deliberately failed to disclose
7
1 “inconsistencies” in Warney’s statement that rendered it
2 wholly implausible.4
3 Warney signed the confession and initialed minor
4 changes less than four hours after he had been picked up.5
5 According to the complaint, after Warney’s “confession” the
6 police performed no further investigation other than trying
7 to determine whether Warney’s cousin could have been an
8 accomplice. Notably, the latent fingerprint collected from
9 a pornographic videotape box was not run through the
to the prosecutor and to defense counsel the material
exculpatory fact that they fed the non-public details of the
crime to Mr. Warney.” (Id. ¶ 67.)
4
The inconsistencies are that: (1) Warney’s
confession says that he killed Beason downstairs, and
dragged him up to the bedroom; (2) Warney’s statement said
he drove his brother’s Chevrolet to Beason’s house, even
though Warney’s brother does not own a car; and (3) Warney’s
hands had no cuts or bruises, even though his confession
says he got cut and bled at the scene. (Complaint ¶ 62.)
5
At 5:30 p.m., the detectives took Warney to the
“Public Safety Building,” and placed him in a secured
interview room to “elicit further false confessions and
corroborate the [initial] falsified confession.” (Complaint
¶ 57.) In this second “confession,” Warney was said to have
volunteered another detail mentioned in the crime scene
reports–-that pornographic video tapes featuring a white
male and Hispanic male were found in Beason’s bedroom--and
that he and Beason had watched the tape together before the
murder. (Id. ¶ 58.)
8
1 statewide database.6 (Id. ¶ 63.)
2 B. The Trial. Certain blood evidence at the scene was
3 found to exclude both Warney and Beason; so Warney was
4 charged both as a principal and an accomplice. At trial,
5 however, the prosecution’s only theory was that Warney
6 committed the murder alone, and the prosecution’s case
7 rested “almost exclusively” on Warney’s confession.
8 (Complaint ¶¶ 79-80.)
9 At trial, a chemist testified that the blood on the
10 murder weapon was consistent with the victim’s Type O, but
11 inconsistent with Warney’s Type A; and the bloodstains on
12 the towel and tissue belonged neither to Beason nor Warney.
13 (It fit neither of their “enzyme types.”) (Complaint ¶ 74.)
14 Of three latent prints from the pornographic videotape
15 boxes, two belonged to Beason, and the third was
16 unidentified, meaning it belonged to neither Beason nor
17 Warney.7 A second fingerprint specialist examined a partial
18 print from the murder weapon, and found only “three points
6
If the fingerprint had been run, as it later was, it
would have matched a man named Eldred Johnson. Johnson’s
fingerprints were in the database as of January 1996 (due to
crimes he committed in 1994). (Complaint ¶¶ 63, 77.)
7
The unidentified print later matched Eldred Johnson.
See supra note 6.
9
1 of comparison,” but concluded that Warney was a possible
2 source of the print. (He also specifically excluded
3 Beason.) (Id. ¶ 78.)
4 Warney testified to his innocence and about the threats
5 from the police that made him confess.
6 On February 12, 1997, the jury convicted Warney of two
7 counts of second-degree murder. On February 27, he was
8 sentenced to 25 years to life. The judgment was affirmed on
9 appeal, People v. Warney, 299 A.D.2d 956, 750 N.Y.S.2d 73110 (4th Dep’t 2002), and became final when the New York Court
11 of Appeals denied leave to appeal on March 4, 2003, 99
12 N.Y.2d 633, 790 N.E.2d 289 (2003).
13 C. Post-Conviction Proceedings. In May 2004, Warney
14 filed a federal habeas corpus petition under 28 U.S.C. §
15 2254 in the United States District Court for the Western
16 District of New York, Warney v. McGinnis, No. 04-cv-6202(L)
17 (filed May 4, 2004), a filing of which we take judicial
18 notice. Warney thereafter began seeking access to
19 biological evidence from the murder scene in order to
20 conduct DNA testing that he believed would exonerate him.
21 Warney’s attorney requested access to the evidence so as to
22 perform DNA testing at his own expense, but the Monroe
10
1 County District Attorney’s office refused consent.
2 (Complaint ¶ 91.)
3 In October 2004, Warney moved under New York State’s
4 post-conviction statute, N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law 440.30(1-a)
5 (McKinney 2004) (the “440 motion”), seeking access to the
6 blood evidence found at the crime scene. The 440 motion
7 sought access to, inter alia, blood found on the murder
8 weapon (which had been tested already), and blood found on
9 the victim’s fingernails (which had not been tested before).
10 The Monroe County District Attorney’s Office,
11 represented by District Attorney Michael C. Green and
12 Assistant District Attorney Wendy Evans Lehman, opposed the
13 440 motion, both in writing and at a hearing on November 15,
14 2004 before New York State Supreme Court Justice Francis A.
15 Affronti. (Complaint ¶ 93.) At the hearing, the District
16 Attorney’s office argued that Warney had not established due
17 diligence, and that the reasons underlying his request for
18 access to the blood evidence were speculative. (Id.)
19 The 440 motion was denied in an order issued December
20 15, 2004, on the grounds that DNA testing “would not provide
21 evidence which is significantly different from that
22 submitted to the jury which convicted [Warney],” and that
11
1 the request was based on “conjecture . . . too speculative
2 and improbable.” (Id. ¶ 94.) Warney appealed to the
3 Appellate Division.
4 D. DNA Testing and Exoneration. In February 2005,
5 while the Monroe County District Attorney’s office was
6 opposing Warney’s appeal from the denial of his 440 motion,
7 and while Warney’s federal habeas petition was still
8 pending, Second District Attorney Larry Bernstein submitted
9 for DNA testing the blood evidence that was the subject of
10 Warney’s 440 motion–-a total of seven samples, including the
11 blood found under the victim’s fingernails and on the murder
12 weapon. Bernstein did so with the authorization of the
13 District Attorney, and without informing the state or
14 federal court, Warney, or Warney’s attorney.8 (Id. ¶ 95.)
15 Warney alleges that, “[u]pon information and belief,
16 defendants Green, Bernstein, Lehman, and others in the DA’s
17 office received a verbal report of the DNA test results from
18 the Monroe County Public Safety Laboratory as early as
19 2005.” (Id. ¶ 97 (emphasis added)). The complaint does not
20 say when in 2005 the alleged verbal report was received, or
8
At oral argument, Warney’s counsel maintained that
the DNA testing was destructive, such that once tested, the
blood samples could not be retested.
12
1 what it contained other than that it was “exculpatory.”
2 (Id.)
3 On February 17, 2006, approximately one year after
4 submitting the evidence to be tested, the District
5 Attorney’s office received a written laboratory report
6 showing that each of the seven blood samples submitted
7 matched a single profile of a man who was neither Beason nor
8 Warney. The results of the testing were not immediately
9 disclosed to Warney or his lawyer.
10 Two weeks later, on March 2, 2006, the prosecutors
11 learned more: a search of the FBI’s Combined DNA Indexing
12 System (CODIS) database matched the profile to a man named
13 Eldred Johnson, who had been convicted of murder, as well as
14 several slashings and burglaries, and who was then serving a
15 life sentence in Utica, New York.
16 The district attorneys took the additional step of
17 ordering examination of the unidentified fingerprint found
18 on the pornographic videotape box. On March 24, 2006, an
19 evidence technician from the RPD determined that the
20 fingerprint also matched Eldred Johnson.
21 The DNA testing results and the fingerprint match were
22 disclosed to Warney for the first time on May 1, 2006, when
13
1 Monroe County attorneys informed Warney’s counsel that
2 Warney had been excluded as the source of the blood
3 evidence, though they did not advise that all the previously
4 unidentified blood was from the same man. From February 17,
5 2006 to May 1, 2006 is a period of 72 days.
6 On May 11, 2006, the District Attorney’s office
7 interviewed Eldred Johnson, who promptly confessed to the
8 murder of Beason. Johnson said that he had acted alone, and
9 did not know Douglas Warney. The next day, the District
10 Attorney’s office informed Warney’s counsel of Johnson’s
11 confession. Four business days after the confession (May
12 16, 2006), on application of the Monroe County District
13 Attorney’s office, Warney’s murder conviction was vacated.
14 In vacating Warney’s conviction, Justice Van Strydonck
15 pointed out that the inconsistencies in the blood evidence,
16 (i.e., the presence of a third source of blood) was known at
17 the time of trial: “the ‘newly found evidence’ is not the
18 fact that a third person’s blood was found at the scene . .
19 . [or] that Mr. Warney’s confession was inconsistent in many
20 important ways with the facts developed by the police and
21 the prosecutor’s office. Those inconsistencies were known
22 by the defense and argued to the jury. Rather the newly
14
1 discovered evidence is the confession of Mr. Eldred
2 Johnson.”
3 Warney was released from prison, and Eldred Johnson
4 later pleaded guilty to the Beason murder.
5 E. This Lawsuit. Warney filed suit under 42 U.S.C.
6 § 1983 against numerous defendants, including the City of
7 Rochester; Monroe County; various police officers and
8 detectives; and three prosecutors in the Monroe County
9 District Attorney’s office: Michael Green,9 Larry Bernstein,
10 and Wendy Evans Lehman.
11 The complaint initially pleaded three claims relating
12 to the prosecutors: (1) a due process claim for bad faith
13 denial of post-conviction access to biological evidence and
14 DNA testing (Count VI, which has since been withdrawn as to
15 the individual prosecutors); (2) a due process claim for
16 failing to promptly disclose material exculpatory evidence
17 (Count VII, which is at issue on this appeal); and (3)
18 a claim against Monroe County (Count IX, under Monell v.
19 Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978)), for
20 having a custom or policy of withholding biological evidence
9
The complaint named Green in both his individual
capacity and his official capacity as District Attorney.
15
1 in bad faith, and failing to promptly disclose exculpatory
2 information.
3 Defendants Green, Bernstein, and Evans Lehman, and
4 Monroe County moved to dismiss all counts against them on
5 grounds of absolute prosecutorial immunity, qualified
6 immunity, and failure to state a claim under Monell.10 By
7 Decision and Order dated February 11, 2008, the district
8 court denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss in all
9 respects.11 In summary, the district court concluded that
10 the prosecutors were acting in an “investigative” capacity
11 when they submitted the DNA evidence for testing and when
12 they later withheld the results, and they were therefore not
13 entitled to absolute immunity under Imbler, 424 U.S. at14 430–31. The court further concluded that the prosecutors
15 were not entitled to qualified immunity because reasonable
16 prosecutors should have known that failing to disclose
17 compelling exculpatory information for a period of at least
10
As to the Monell claim, Monroe County urged that
the claim related only to acts undertaken by the District
Attorney in his prosecutorial capacity, and in that capacity
a District Attorney acts as an agent of the State of New
York, not as an agent of a particular county.
11
However, the court did dismiss all claims against
Green in his official capacity because it found such claims
were subsumed by the Monell claim against Monroe County.
16
1 72 days violated a clearly established, substantive due
2 process right.
3 The prosecutors and Monroe County appeal.
4
5 DISCUSSION
6 When a district court denies immunity on a Rule
7 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, “we review the district court’s
8 denial de novo, accepting as true the material facts alleged
9 in the complaint and drawing all reasonable inferences in
10 plaintiffs’ favor.” Johnson v. Newburgh Enlarged School
11 Dist., 239 F.3d 246, 250 (2d Cir. 2001).
12 We have jurisdiction to review a denial of qualified
13 immunity under the collateral order doctrine if the denial
14 “‘turns on an issue of law.’” Iqbal, 129 S. Ct. at 1946
15 (quoting Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 530 (1985)).
16 I
17 The Supreme Court first acknowledged the absolute
18 immunity of prosecutors to § 1983 suits in Imbler v.
19 Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409 (1976). The Court relied on a common
20 law tradition of prosecutorial immunity, as well as strong
21 policy considerations that supported extending immunity to
22 the § 1983 context: “A prosecutor is duty bound to exercise
17
1 his best judgment both in deciding which suits to bring and
2 in conducting them in court. The public trust of the
3 prosecutor’s office would suffer if he were constrained in
4 making every decision by the consequences in terms of his
5 own potential liability in a suit for damages.” Imbler, 424
6 U.S. at 424–25.
7 Imbler defined the scope of prosecutorial immunity not
8 by the identity of the actor, but by reference to the
9 “function” performed. Id. at 430. Those acts that are
10 “intimately associated with the judicial phase of the
11 criminal process” would be shielded by absolute immunity,
12 but not “those aspects of the prosecutor’s responsibility
13 that cast him in the role of an administrator or
14 investigative officer rather than that of advocate.” Id. at
15 430-31.
16 Thus, to establish immunity, the “ultimate question” is
17 “whether the prosecutors have carried their burden of
18 establishing that they were functioning as ‘advocates’ when
19 they engaged in the challenged conduct.” Doe v. Phillips,
20 81 F.3d 1204, 1209 (2d Cir. 1996). “A prosecutor’s
21 administrative duties and those investigatory functions that
22 do not relate to an advocate’s preparation for the
18
1 initiation of a prosecution or for judicial proceedings are
2 not entitled to absolute immunity.” Buckley v. Fitzsimmons,
3 509 U.S. 259, 273 (1993); see also Parkinson v. Cozzolino,
4 238 F.3d 145, 150 (2d Cir. 2001) (“The cases thus draw a
5 line between the investigative and administrative functions
6 of prosecutors, which are not protected by absolute
7 immunity, and the advocacy functions of prosecutors, which
8 are so protected.”).
9 Drawing this line between “advocacy” and
10 “investigative” functions is vexed, perhaps no more so than
11 in the post-conviction context.12 For once a conviction
12 becomes final, there is no longer a pending adversarial
13 criminal proceeding; the “judicial phase” is technically
14 finished. Yet, by the nature of their office, prosecutors
15 will necessarily remain involved in criminal cases: opposing
16 civil habeas petitions (or other forms of collateral
17 relief); amending restitution orders; pursuing parole
18 violations; or resolving disputes over a prisoner’s
19 projected release date. These functions may be somewhat
12
Imbler specifically avoided the post-conviction
context. See Imbler, 424 U.S. at 431 (“We hold only that in
initiating a prosecution and in presenting the State’s case,
the prosecutor is immune from a civil suit for damages under
§ 1983.” (emphases added)).
19
1 administrative, and may not always relate to in-court
2 advocacy, yet often they are integral to an ongoing
3 “judicial phase” of a prosecution.
4 Confronted with questions about the scope of absolute
5 prosecutorial immunity post-conviction, federal appellate
6 courts have stressed different aspects of the analysis, and
7 come to apparently conflicting results. Compare Houston v.
8 Partee, 978 F.2d 362, 366 (7th Cir. 1992) (no absolute
9 immunity where prosecutors were “not personally prosecuting
10 the appeal” in post-conviction proceedings), with Carter v.
11 Burch, 34 F.3d 257, 263 (4th Cir. 1994) (absolute immunity
12 where prosecutor “was handling the post-conviction motions
13 and the initial direct appeal . . . [and thus] still
14 functioning as an advocate for the State”). Most recently,
15 the Third and Sixth Circuits have suggested that absolute
16 immunity should extend to post-conviction conduct so long as
17 the prosecutor can show that an advocacy function was being
18 performed. See Yarris v. County of Delaware, 465 F.3d 129,
19 137 (3d Cir. 2006) (“After a conviction is obtained, the
20 challenged action must be shown by the prosecutor to be part
21 of the prosecutor’s continuing personal involvement as the
22 state’s advocate in adversarial post-conviction proceedings
20
1 to be encompassed within that prosecutor’s absolute immunity
2 from suit.”); Spurlock v. Thompson, 330 F.3d 791, 799 (6th
3 Cir. 2003) (“[a]bsolute immunity applies to the adversarial
4 acts of prosecutors during post-conviction proceedings . . .
5 where the prosecutor is personally involved . . . and
6 continues his role as an advocate,” but “where the role as
7 advocate has not yet begun . . . or where it has concluded,
8 absolute immunity does not apply.”).
9 Our Court has not addressed the scope of immunity
10 enjoyed by prosecutors in collateral proceedings; but we
11 have held that absolute immunity extends to actions taken
12 while working on direct appeals. Parkinson, 238 F.3d at13 151–52. As we wrote in Parkinson:
14 We now join these courts in holding that
15 absolute immunity covers prosecutors’
16 actions after the date of conviction
17 while a direct appeal is pending. We
18 express no opinion as to when such
19 immunity ends; the prosecutors’ actions
20 in this case occurred while [the
21 defendant’s] direct appeal was pending,
22 and we have little difficulty extending
23 absolute immunity that far. [FN 5]
24
25 [FN 5] Specifically, because the facts of
26 this case do not raise the issue, we do
27 not decide whether absolute immunity
28 extends to collateral proceedings, such
29 as habeas petitions.
30
31 238 F.3d at 152 & n.5.
21
1 II
2 On the facts of this case, we must now decide whether,
3 and how, absolute immunity extends to prosecutors working on
4 post-conviction collateral proceedings. We see no
5 principled reason to withhold absolute immunity for work
6 performed in defending a conviction from collateral attack.
7 As we noted in Parkinson, there is language from some
8 Supreme Court decisions to the effect that “absolute
9 immunity appl[ies] to ‘acts undertaken by a prosecutor in
10 preparing for the initiation of judicial proceedings or for
11 trial.’” 238 F.3d at 151 (quoting Buckley, 509 U.S. at12 273). But “[s]uch language . . . does not serve to
13 delineate the endpoint of immunity. Rather, it simply
14 underscores the fact that absolute immunity does not apply
15 to the investigatory duties of a prosecutor, that is, it
16 serves to establish the starting point of such immunity.”
17 Id. (emphases in original).
18 Although a collateral attack is technically a separate,
19 civil proceeding, a prosecutor defending a post-conviction
20 petition remains the state’s advocate in an adversarial
21 proceeding that is an integral part of the criminal justice
22
1 system.13 The considerations that militate in favor of
2 absolute immunity for work done at trial or on appeal are
3 just as relevant in the context of a collateral proceeding.
4 A post-conviction petition often presents the same kinds of
5 legal issues as the underlying criminal case, requires the
6 same kinds of legal judgments, and calls upon the same kinds
7 of advocacy skills and measures. Often the same prosecutor
8 who conducted the trial will oppose the post-conviction
9 challenge.
10 Several courts have already held, or suggested, that
11 absolute immunity shields work performed by prosecutors
12 opposing habeas petitions. See, e.g., Spurlock, 330 F.3d at13 799 (“Absolute immunity applies to the adversarial acts of
14 prosecutors during post-conviction proceedings, including
15 direct appeals, habeas corpus proceedings, and parole
16 proceedings, where the prosecutor is personally involved in
17 the subsequent proceedings and continues his role as an
18 advocate.”); Summers v. Sjogren, 667 F. Supp. 1432, 1434 (D.
19 Utah 1987) (a prosecutor who allegedly filed false documents
13
See U.S. Const. art. II, § 9, cl. 2 (“The privilege
of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless
when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may
require it.”).
23
1 in opposition to a habeas petition “does not lose immunity
2 merely because she was acting in a post-conviction
3 setting”). We join these courts in holding that absolute
4 immunity shields work performed during a post-conviction
5 collateral attack, at least insofar as the challenged
6 actions are part of the prosecutor’s role as an advocate for
7 the state.
8 III
9 Having established that absolute prosecutorial immunity
10 may extend to advocacy work performed in the post-conviction
11 context, we must determine whether such immunity is
12 warranted in this case.
13 The answer depends in part on whether one looks at the
14 prosecutors’ discrete actions, or at their role and function
15 in an ongoing proceeding. If one focuses on the DNA
16 testing, the prosecutors’ conduct might be classified as
17 investigative; if one focuses on the act of delaying
18 disclosure, the prosecutors’ conduct might be classified as
19 administrative, or possibly investigative; if one focuses on
20 the opposition to Warney’s 440 motion and habeas petition,
21 the prosecutors’ conduct might be classified as pure
22 advocacy.
24
1 The district court, which focused on the testing and
2 the delay in disclosure, declined to extend absolute
3 immunity because it considered the prosecutors’ actions to
4 be “investigatory . . . no different than [] law enforcement
5 officials’ acts in obtaining and allegedly suppressing
6 favorable evidence.”
7 Warney does not complain that the prosecutors ordered
8 the testing; after all, that testing is what led to his
9 release. Nor is Warney complaining (here) about the denial
10 of access to test the DNA for himself.14 Nor is he
11 complaining of non-disclosure of the test results--
12 disclosure was made. Warney’s narrow focus is
13 (understandably) on the specific act that caused his harm:
14 the failure to disclose the DNA results promptly.
15 For the following reasons, we conclude that it is
16 unhelpful to ascertain the prosecutors’ functional role by
17 isolating each specific act done or not done; rather, a
18 prosecutor’s function depends chiefly on whether there is
14
Warney voluntarily withdrew his claim relating to
bad-faith denial of access to evidence. Its validity would,
in any event, be called into question by the Supreme Court’s
recent decision in District Attorney’s Office for the Third
Judicial District v. Osborne, 129 S. Ct. 2308, 2322 (2009)
(finding no substantive due process right to DNA evidence
post-conviction).
25
1 pending or in preparation a court proceeding in which the
2 prosecutor acts as an advocate.
3 Unless the DNA testing is considered with reference to
4 context, it is impossible to classify functionally. If the
5 testing inculpated Warney, it would be a potent tool of the
6 advocacy; if it exculpated Warney, it might be deemed
7 administrative, in the sense that it would entail
8 disclosure; if it inculpated someone else, it would be
9 investigative, at least to the extent that it might identify
10 the real killer. But the steps taken here--testing,
11 disclosure, and even the delay in making disclosure, as well
12 as the identification of the real killer–-were integral to
13 and subsumed in the advocacy functions being performed in
14 connection with Warney’s post-conviction initiatives. The
15 decisions made by the prosecutors in this case--whether to
16 test for potentially inculpatory (or exculpatory)
17 information, how and when to disclose or use that
18 information, and whether to seek to vacate Warney’s
19 conviction--were exercises of legal judgment made in the
20 “judicial phase” of proceedings integral to the criminal
21 justice process.
22 The DNA testing obviously would have bearing on the
26
1 advocacy work of deciding whether to oppose Warney’s
2 initiatives. A prosecutor has an affirmative obligation,
3 before filing an opposition, to ensure that the petition
4 should in fact be opposed. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 11(b) (“By
5 presenting to the court a pleading . . . an attorney . . .
6 certifies that to the best of the person’s knowledge . . .
7 the factual contentions have evidentiary support.”). The
8 proper and useful focus for ascertaining the function being
9 served by a prosecutor’s act is therefore on the pendency of
10 court proceedings that engage a prosecutor as an advocate
11 for the state.
12 The Supreme Court recently taught us that a prosecutor
13 enjoys absolute immunity even when doing an administrative
14 act if the act is done in the performance of an advocacy
15 function. Van de Kamp v. Goldstein, 129 S. Ct. 855 (2009).
16 In Van de Kamp, the plaintiff had won habeas relief because
17 the government failed to disclose at trial, as required by
18 Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150 (1972), that a
19 jailhouse informant had previously received reduced
20 sentences for providing favorable testimony. In a § 1983
21 suit, the plaintiff alleged that the Los Angeles County
22 District Attorney (and other prosecutors) failed to
27
1 establish information-sharing systems concerning jailhouse
2 informants, and failed to train prosecutors on how to share
3 such information. The Ninth Circuit denied the prosecutors
4 absolute immunity, on the theory that the alleged failures
5 were more “administrative” than “prosecutorial.”
6 See Goldstein v. Long Beach, 481 F.3d 1170, 1171–72 (9th
7 Cir. 2007). In reversing, the Supreme Court held that the
8 “administrative” tasks at issue (establishing information-
9 sharing systems and training attorneys on how to share
10 information) were “‘intimately associated with the judicial
11 phase of the criminal process.’” Van de Kamp, 129 S. Ct. at
12 864 (quoting Imbler, 424 U.S. at 430). The Court explained:
13 Here, unlike with other claims related to
14 administrative decisions, an individual
15 prosecutor’s error in the plaintiff’s
16 specific criminal trial constitutes an
17 essential element of the plaintiff’s
18 claim. The administrative obligations at
19 issue here are thus unlike administrative
20 duties concerning, for example, workplace
21 hiring, payroll administration, the
22 maintenance of physical facilities, and
23 the like. Moreover, the types of
24 activities on which Goldstein’s claims
25 focus necessarily require legal knowledge
26 and the exercise of related discretion,
27 e.g., in determining what information
28 should be included in the training or the
29 supervision or the information-system
30 management. And in that sense also
31 Goldstein’s claims are unlike claims of,
32 say, unlawful discrimination in hiring
28
1 employees. Given these features of the
2 case before us, we believe absolute
3 immunity must follow.
4
5 Id. at 862. Just as the administrative act in Goldstein was
6 integral to an advocacy function, we conclude that the
7 prosecutors’ actions here--which could be seen as
8 administrative or investigative--were also integral to the
9 overarching advocacy function of dealing with post-trial
10 initiatives challenging an underlying criminal conviction:
11 they “require[d] legal knowledge and the exercise of related
12 discretion.” Id.
13 If the conduct challenged by Warney had occurred during
14 Warney’s trial, that is, if the prosecutors had tested all
15 the evidence, and then sat on the exculpatory results for at
16 least 72 days, they may well have violated Brady v.
17 Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963); but they would be absolutely
18 immune from personal liability. See, e.g., Jones v.
19 Shankland, 800 F.2d 77, 80 (6th Cir. 1986) (a prosecutor’s
20 “non-disclosure of exculpatory information [is] certainly
21 entitled to absolute immunity”). The reason that is so is
22 that the disclosure of evidence to opposing counsel is an
23 advocacy function.
24 The disclosure decision in this case is advocacy
29
1 notwithstanding that the evidence would likely terminate the
2 ongoing post-conviction proceedings in favor of the
3 petitioner. The advocacy function of a prosecutor includes
4 seeking exoneration and confessing error to correct an
5 erroneous conviction. Thus prosecutors are under a
6 continuing ethical obligation to disclose exculpatory
7 information discovered post-conviction. 15 Any narrower
15
Rule 3.8 of the American Bar Association Model Rules
of Professional Conduct reads:
(g) When a prosecutor knows of new,
credible and material evidence creating a
reasonable likelihood that a convicted
defendant did not commit an offense of
which the defendant was convicted, the
prosecutor shall:
(1) promptly disclose that evidence to an
appropriate court or authority, and
(2) if the conviction was obtained in the
prosecutor’s jurisdiction,
(i) promptly disclose that evidence
to the defendant unless a court
authorizes delay, and
(ii) undertake further
investigation, or make reasonable efforts
to cause an investigation, to determine
whether the defendant was convicted of an
offense that the defendant did not
commit.
(h) When a prosecutor knows of clear and
convincing evidence establishing that a
30
1 conception of a prosecutor’s role would be truly alarming.
2 The prosecutors are therefore entitled to absolute
3 immunity in this lawsuit. On the facts of this case, we
4 need not, and do not, decide whether absolute immunity
5 extends to prosecutorial conduct regarding DNA evidence,
6 occurring after a prisoner’s appeals and collateral attacks
7 have been exhausted. Moreover, because we extend absolute
8 immunity in this case, we do not address the prosecutors’
9 alternative argument that they are entitled to qualified
10 immunity.
11 IV
12 Affording absolute immunity in this context, with the
13 resulting dismissal of Warney’s claim against the
14 prosecutors, does not deprecate the duty of prosecutors to
15 prevent unjust imprisonment. Indeed, absolute immunity is
16 afforded in part because we conclude that the duty is a part
17 of the prosecutor’s advocacy function. This outcome affords
18 no incentive for concealment. A civil law suit is not a
19 necessary enforcement mechanism for ensuring that
defendant in the prosecutor’s
jurisdiction was convicted of an offense
that the defendant did not commit, the
prosecutor shall seek to remedy the
conviction.
31
1 prosecutors disclose exculpatory information promptly.
2 Prosecutors remain ethically bound to disclose exculpatory
3 information, and, in extreme cases of intentional
4 suppression, prosecutors may be subject to criminal
5 liability. See Imbler, 424 U.S. at 428–29 (“We emphasize
6 that the immunity of prosecutors from liability in suits
7 under § 1983 does not leave the public powerless to deter
8 misconduct or to punish that which occurs. This Court has
9 never suggested that the policy considerations which compel
10 civil immunity for certain governmental officials also place
11 them beyond the reach of the criminal law.”).
12 Moreover, the availability of absolute immunity in this
13 context will likely encourage prosecutors in the future to
14 seek exculpatory information post-trial. Absolute immunity
15 of prosecutors is grounded in the fear that the “public
16 trust of the prosecutor’s office would suffer if [the
17 prosecutor] were constrained in making every decision by the
18 consequences in terms of his own potential liability in a
19 suit for damages.” Imbler, 424 U.S. at 424-25; see also
20 Kalina v. Fletcher, 522 U.S. 118, 125 (1997) (“[I]t is the
21 interest in protecting the proper functioning of the office,
22 rather than the interest in protecting its occupant, that is
32
1 of primary importance.”). “ To be sure, this immunity does
2 leave the genuinely wronged defendant without civil redress
3 against a prosecutor whose malicious or dishonest action
4 deprives him of liberty. But the alternative of qualifying
5 a prosecutor’s immunity would disserve the broader public
6 interest. It would prevent the vigorous and fearless
7 performance of the prosecutor’s duty that is essential to
8 the proper functioning of the criminal justice system.”
9 Imbler, 424 U.S. at 427-28 . Prosecutors facing tough
10 choices as to whether or not to seek exculpatory information
11 post-conviction should not have to fear personal liability
12 in the event that issues are raised later as to the
13 evaluation and disclosure of what is learned during the
14 pendency of post-conviction proceedings. Such a peril would
15 be an incentive to avoid exculpatory inquiries.
16 V
17 Finally, Monroe County argues that Warney’s claim
18 against it should have been dismissed because the claim
19 relates solely to actions undertaken by the Monroe County
20 prosecutors in their “prosecutorial” capacity, and
21 prosecutors acting in that capacity are agents of the State
22 of New York, not agents of the particular county. See,
33
1 e.g., Baez v. Hennessy, 853 F.2d 73, 77 (2d Cir. 1988).
2 Alternatively, Monroe County argues that Warney has failed
3 to identify an underlying constitutional deprivation to
4 support a claim under Monell, 436 U.S. 658.
5 Unlike the order denying immunity, the order denying
6 Monroe County’s motion to dismiss is not immediately
7 appealable pursuant to the collateral order doctrine. See
8 Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, 437 U.S. 463, 468 (1978)
9 (under the collateral order doctrine, an appellate court may
10 not exercise jurisdiction where an order does not
11 “conclusively determine the disputed question”). Monroe
12 County asks us to exercise pendent appellate jurisdiction;
13 but in this Circuit we exercise pendent appellate
14 jurisdiction only “over an independent but related question
15 that is ‘inextricably intertwined’ with the [appealable
16 issue] or is ‘necessary to ensure meaningful review’ of that
17 issue.” Kaluczky v. City of White Plains, 57 F.3d 202, 207
18 (2d Cir. 1995) (quoting Swint v. Chambers County Comm’n, 514
19 U.S. 35, 51 (1995)). The elements of a Monell claim, and
20 the extent to which prosecutors in New York are agents of
21 the state (as opposed to a county) are not inextricably
22 intertwined with the question of absolute immunity. We
34
1 therefore decline to exercise pendent appellate jurisdiction
2 over these issues at this time.
3
4 CONCLUSION
5 For the foregoing reasons, the order of the district
6 court insofar as it denied absolute immunity to the three
7 Monroe County prosecutors is reversed, and the case is
8 remanded for further proceedings consistent with this
9 opinion.
35