304
Opinion of the Court
thus he could not have participated in the murder. Conversely, had there been a delay of several minutes between the murder and the distress call, Schlup might have had sufficient time to participate in the murder and still get to the dining room over a minute before the distress call went out.6
The prosecutor adduced evidence tending to establish that such a delay had in fact occurred. First, Flowers testified that none of the officers on the prison floor had radios, thus implying that neither he nor any of the other officers on the floor was able to radio for help when the stabbing occurred. Second, Flowers testified that after he shouted for help, it took him "a couple [of] minutes" to subdue Stewart.7 Flowers then brought Stewart downstairs, encountered Captain James Eberle, and told Eberle that there had been a "disturbance." 8 Eberle testified that he went upstairs to the prison floor, and then radioed for assistance. Eberle estimated that the elapsed time from when he first saw Flowers
6 A necessary element of Schlup's defense was that Flowers and Maylee were mistaken in their identification of Schlup as one of the participants in the murder. Schlup suggested that Flowers had taken a visitor to Schlup's cell just 30 minutes before the murder. Schlup argued that Flowers had therefore had Schlup "on the brain," Trial Tr. 493-494, thus explaining why, in the confusion surrounding the murder, Flowers might have mistakenly believed that he had seen Schlup.
Schlup argued that Maylee's identification was suspect because Maylee was three floors away from the murder and did not have an unobstructed view of the murder scene. Schlup further suggested that Maylee's identification of Schlup had been influenced by a postincident conversation between Maylee and another officer who had talked to Flowers.
Schlup also argued that there were inconsistencies between the description of the murder provided by Flowers and that provided by Maylee. For example, Maylee testified that he saw Schlup, Stewart, and O'Neal running together against the flow of traffic, and that the three men had stopped when they encountered Dade. See id., at 332. Flowers noticed only Stewart running against the flow of traffic, and he testified that O'Neal and Schlup were at the other end of the walk on the far side of Dade. See id., at 249.
7 Id., at 243.
8 Id., at 245.
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