Woods

Michael Woods was convicted of special circumstances murder for instigating the shooting death of his business partner Horace McKenna. As the prosecutor explained in his opening statement, this “case spans about 20 years and involves hundreds of people.” The jury heard from a good many of those people at trial. However, it did not hear from John Sheridan, the man who killed McKenna. Woods contends the prosecution unlawfully interfered with his right to call Sheridan as a witness. He also contends the police infringed upon his right to counsel by using an informant to elicit incriminating statements from him. We recognize the fact the prosecution’s actions in this case forced Woods to detour his defense, and put on a different—possibly less convincing—case than he wanted. But we find no misconduct on the part of the prosecution and, equally important, find no diminution of Wood’s Fifth or Sixth Amendment rights which rose to the level of constitutional error.

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Shortly after midnight on March 9, 1989, McKenna was gunned downed by machine gun fire as he returned to his Carbon Canyon home in the back of a limousine. It is undisputed Sheridan was the shooter. The only…