306
Opinion of Souter, J.
"the evidence clearly shows that this man was the aggressor. He was the one that ran out. He was the one that grabbed Leanne Whitlock. When she struggled trying to get away from him . . . , he was the one that started beating her there in the car. And finally subdued her enough to make her drive away from the mall, so you start with the principle that he is the aggressor." 20 Record 15.
Stoltzfus's testimony helped establish the "principle," as the prosecutor put it, that Strickler was "the aggressor," the dominant figure, in the whole sequence of criminal events, including the murder, not just in the abduction. If the defense could have called Stoltzfus's credibility into question, the jurors' belief that Strickler was the chief aggressor might have been undermined to the point that at least one of them would have hesitated to recommend death.
The Court suggests that the jury might have concluded that Strickler was the leader based on three other pieces of evidence: Kurt Massie's identification of Strickler as the driver of Whitlock's car on its way toward the field where she was killed; Donna Tudor's testimony that Strickler kept the car the following week; and Tudor's testimony that Strickler threatened Henderson with a knife later on the evening of the murder. But if we are going to look at other testimony we cannot stop here. The accuracy of both Massie's and Tudor's testimony was open to question,4 and all of it was subject to some evidence that Henderson had taken a major role in the murder. The Court has quoted the Dis-4 Massie's identification was open to some doubt because it occurred at night as one car passed another on a highway. Moreover, he testified that he first saw four people in the car, then only three, and that none of the occupants was black. App. 66-67, 70-73. Tudor, as defense counsel brought out on cross-examination, testified pursuant to a cooperation agreement with the government and admitted that the story she told on the stand was different from what she had told the defense investigator before trial. Id., at 100-101, 103-104.
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