Post-Conviction posts a 9th Circuit win

USC's Post-Conviction Justice Project (PCJP) won an appeal of a case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week on behalf of a client whose trial attorney did not interview two eyewitnesses whose testimony would have refuted the state's case. The appeal was argued by 2L Keith Jones on Aug. 5 at the 9th Circuit's Pasadena courthouse.

On June 29, 1995, PCJP client Michael Black was standing with an acquaintance on a corner in Alhambra when two men pulled up in a car and stopped at a red light. An argument between Black and the passenger in the car ensued; when the light turned green, the car drove away. Several hours later, police arrested Black and charged him with attempted carjacking and assault with a deadly weapon. The car's passenger later testified that Black brandished a knife during their argument. However, the acquaintance with whom Black had been talking and the driver of the car - both of whom told police that they did not see Black brandish a weapon - were never interviewed by Black's trial attorney.

Black was acquitted on the car-jacking charge but convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to 11 years in prison. On direct appeal, Black's conviction was affirmed. A habeas petition filed in state court was denied. PCJP took the case two years ago, says Michael Brennan, PCJP supervising attorney, and filed a habeas petition in federal court, arguing that the trial attorney had not provided effective assistance. That petition also was denied.

A 2002 summer supervisor for PCJP, Jones took Black's case and, under Brennan's supervision, presented oral argument to a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit. The court's opinion, handed down Tuesday, concluded that Black's trial attorney indeed provided "ineffective assistance of counsel" by failing to interview the eyewitnesses and that "it is reasonably probable that the jury would have reached a different verdict had they heard the witnesses' testimony." The case was remanded to District Court; Black likely will remain in state prison until the district attorney's office decides whether to pursue a new trial.

--Melinda Vaughn