Larry Alan Whitely v. Sharon McCoy, Warden

Webb v. Texas prohibits the government from making gratuitous threats that preclude defense witnesses from freely and voluntarily choosing to testify. Petitioner’s key defense witness, his wife, was threatened by government social workers that her children would not be returned to her if she did not believe her daughter’s uncorroborated allegations of sexual abuse and support her and not petitioner. The Questions Presented are:

1. Whether the Compulsory Process Clause of the Sixth Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment were violated when defense counsel elicited only part of the key defense witness’s testimony due to his concern that the witness was overcome with fear by the social workers’ threats.

2. Whether the Right to Trial by Jury Clause of the Sixth Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment were violated when the reviewing courts assessed the credibility of a single accuser’s inherently-suspect, uncorroborated allegations against the missing testimony of post-conviction defense witnesses for prejudice resulting from Webb and Strickland errors.