Cite as: 527 U. S. 263 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
Furthermore, there was considerable forensic and other physical evidence linking petitioner to the crime.41 The
weight and size of the rock,42 and the character of the fatal injuries to the victim,43 are powerful evidence supporting the conclusion that two people acted jointly to commit a brutal murder.
We recognize the importance of eyewitness testimony; Stoltzfus provided the only disinterested, narrative account of what transpired on January 5, 1990. However, Stoltzfus' vivid description of the events at the mall was not the only evidence that the jury had before it. Two other eyewitan active and immediate participant in the acts that caused the death.' " 2 App. in No. 97-29 (CA4), p. 777.
Henderson's trial took place before the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed the trial instruction, and the "joint perpetrator" theory it embodied, given at petitioner's trial. Strickler v. Commonwealth, 241 Va., at 494, 404 S. E. 2d, at 235. Petitioner's trial judge rejected one of petitioner's proffered instructions, which would have required the Commonwealth to prove that "the defendant was the person who actually delivered the blow that killed Leanne Whitlock." Ibid. Petitioner's trial judge recused himself from presiding over Henderson's trial, indicating that he had already formed his own opinion about what had happened the night of Whitlock's murder. 21 Record 2.
41 For example, the police recovered hairs on a bra and shirt found with Whitlock's body that "were microscopically alike in all identifiable characteristics" to petitioner's hair. App. 135. The shirt recovered from the car at Strickler's mother's house had human blood on it. Petitioner's fingerprints were found on the outside and inside of the car taken from Whitlock. Id., at 128-129. Tudor testified that petitioner's pants had blood on them, and he had a cut on his knuckle. Id., at 95.
42 The trial judge thought the shape of the rock so significant to the jury's conclusion that he instructed the lawyers to have "detailed, high quality photographs taken of [the rock] . . . and I want it put in the record of the case." Sentencing Hearing, 20 Record 53.
43 The Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, who performed the autopsy, testified that the object that produced the fractures in Whitlock's skull caused "severe lacerations to the brain," and any two of the four fractures would have been fatal. App. 112.
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