Donnell Thomas v. Harold Cardwell
Opinion
Opinion
Barnes, J.
This is an appeal from the district court’s denial of appellant’s habeas corpus peti tion seeking relief from his Arizona state court conviction for the first degree murder of Mason Branch. Background information and details surrounding the crime itself are summarized in two reported cases and, for purposes of economy, will not be duplicated here. /
Appellant has raised many challenges as to the State’s conduct in prosecuting his case and as to several of the trial judge’s rulings. Basically, these objections fall into three groups:
First, appellant alleges that the prosecution had arranged a deal with one key witness, Gilbert Alzua, and failed to disclose that material information both prior to and during the trial. Appellant asserts in support of this issue that at his trial: 1) the prosecutor knowingly or negligently solicited false testimony from Alzua in the form of the latter's denial of the existence of any deal; 2) the prosecutor improperly inhibited appellant’s cross-examination of Alzua as to the alleged deal; and 3) the trial judge erroneously refused to admit relevant documentary evidence impeaching Alzua’s testimony on that issue.