Whitton v. Dixon · ¶1

During petitioner Gary Richard Whitton's murder trial, the State called a jailhouse informant named Jake Ozio, who testified that he overheard Whitton confess. Ozio also falsely testified that he had no criminal history prior to the arrest for which he was jailed with Whitton. Ozio's juvenile records showed he had previously been charged with assault with bodily injury, terroristic threats, and burglary. Whitton was convicted and sentenced to death. After unsuccessfully pursuing a direct appeal and state postconviction relief, he fled an application for a writ of habeas corpus in Federal District Court. Whitton argued that Ozio's criminal-history testimony was false, that the prosecution knew it was false because it possessed Ozio's juvenile records, and that there was a reasonable likelihood the testimony affected the jury's verdict, thereby violating his due process rights under…

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