Stock v. Rednour

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s habeas petition challenging his state-court murder conviction on ground that trial court improperly precluded defendant from impeaching key govt. witness (who had previously indicated that defendant had confessed to crime) with recorded telephone conversation between witness and defendant, which, according to defendant, would demonstrate that he had not previously confessed to said crime. Trial court permitted defendant to explore any potential bias of witness, as well as question witness with fact that witness in recorded conversation failed to confront defendant about purported prior confession. Moreover, exclusion of defendant’s hearsay exculpatory statements contained in recorded conversation did not violate Confrontation Clause where recorded telephone conversation was ambiguous as to whether both men were talking about purported prior confession. Ct. further suggested that result might have been different had review standard under AEDPA not applied.