304
Opinion of Souter, J.
alone who described Strickler as the initiator of the abduction, as the one who broke into Whitlock's car, who beckoned his companions to follow him, and who violently subdued the victim while "Shy Guy" sat in the back seat. The bare content of this testimony, important enough, was enhanced by one of the inherent hallmarks of reliability, as Stoltzfus confidently recalled detail after detail. The withheld documents would have shown, however, that many of the details Stoltzfus confidently mentioned on the stand (such as Strickler's appearance, Whitlock's appearance, the hour of day when the episode occurred, and her daughter's alleged notation of the license plate number of Whitlock's car) had apparently escaped her memory in her initial interviews with the police. Her persuasive account did not come, indeed, until after her recollection had been aided by further conversations with the police and with the victim's boyfriend. I therefore have to assess the likely havoc that an informed cross-examiner could have wreaked upon Stoltzfus as adequate to raise a significant possibility of a different recommendation, as sufficient to undermine confidence that the death recommendation would have been the choice. All it would have taken, after all, was one juror to hold out against death to preclude the recommendation actually given.
The Court does not, of course, deny that evidence of dominant role would probably have been considered by the jury; the Court, instead, doubts that this consideration, and the evidence bearing on it, would have figured so prominently in a juror's mind as to be a fulcrum of confidence. I am not convinced by the Court's reasons.
The Court emphasizes the brutal manner of the killing and Strickler's want of remorse as jury considerations diminishing the relative importance of Strickler's position as ring-leader. See ante, at 295-296. Without doubt the jurors considered these to be important factors, and without doubt they may have been treated as sufficient to warrant death. But as the Court says, sufficiency of other evidence and the
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