Source: http://masscases.com/cases/app/1/1massappct265.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 10:55:59+00:00

Document:
Present: GRANT, KEVILLE, & ARMSTRONG, JJ.
At the trial of an indictment for arson, the opinion of an investigator as an expert that two simultaneous fires in the building were independent and were incendiary was not inadmissible as hearsay, although he did not arrive at the building until after the active fires had been brought under control, and he discussed the investigation he then made and his conclusions with other investigators and firefighters there, where it appeared that his investigation comprised a long personal examination of the entire premises and that his opinion was based primarily on facts he himself observed and to which he testified [266-267]; nor was the expert's opinion that the fire was incendiary inadmissible as subject matter for the jury, or as mere conjecture, although the expert did not know the specific incendiary agent used and his opinion was based largely on the elimination of causes rather than positive evidence of incendiarism, where extensive probing eliminated any danger of relinquishment by the jury of "independent analysis of the facts" [267-272].
Lack of compliance with the procedural safeguards required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, which made a deliberate alibi statement by the defendant inadmissable in the Commonwealth's case in chief at the trial of an indictment against him did not preclude its use, after a voir dire and under principles laid down in Harris v. New York, 401 U.S. 222, in cross-examination of the defendant to impeach his testimony on direct examination with respect to an inconsistent alibi [272-273]; a pre-trial assurance by the Commonwealth that it would not "rely upon or use" the earlier alibi statement went only to reliance and use in its case in chief .
INDICTMENTS found and returned in the Superior Court on October 5, 1970.
Robert V. Greco (Robert F. Fandel with him) for the defendant.
John M. Lynch, Special Assistant District Attorney (Robert F. McKenna, Jr., Legal Assistant to the District Attorney, with him) for the Commonwealth.
ARMSTRONG, J. This is an appeal under the provisions of G. L. c. 278, Sections 33A-33G, from convictions on two indictments charging (1) arson of the Congregation Agudath Israel Synagogue in Boston on the morning of May 27, 1970, and (2) breaking and entering the synagogue in the nighttime with intent to commit arson.
The defendant has presented and argued two of his assignments of error. Those assignments not argued are waived. Commonwealth v. Wilson, 357 Mass. 49, 51.
1. Over the defendant's objections, the trial judge allowed the Commonwealth to elicit an opinion by one Heggarty, a lieutenant assigned to the arson investigating squad of the Boston fire department, to the effect that there were two independent fires in the synagogue, and that they were incendiary in nature. The defendant argues that this testimony was inadmissible because it was based on hearsay; that it was not a proper subject for expert testimony; and that it was not really an opinion at all, but only conjecture.
at the scene, and with other fire fighters there. While Heggarty's official report categorized the fire as one of undermined origin, this conclusion is not inconsistent with his opinion that the fire was set.
The problem with an expert opinion based upon the hearsay of others is that "[s]uch an opinion would or might well be founded upon facts, the truth of which could not in the nature of things be established to the satisfaction of the jury because no competent evidence respecting them would be before the jury." Commonwealth v. Russ, 232 Mass. 58, 74. Commonwealth v. Harrison, 342 Mass. 279, 287-288. The problem does not exist in this case.
own foundation. His opinion was not inadmissible as based upon hearsay.
The defendant next contends that the question whether or not the fire was incendiary was not a proper subject for expert testimony, but on the contrary is a subject within the experience of the ordinary juror. "Where jurymen would have no difficulty in forming an opinion for themselves the testimony of an expert witness has no place. . . . On the other hand if a situation is presented on the evidence of such character or complexity that it cannot be assumed to be within the ordinary experience or knowledge of men the testimony of a qualified expert is admissible for such help as it may, if believed, give to the jury." Jackson v. Anthony, 282 Mass. 540, 544. "There is no prescribed formality for the admission of expert testimony. All that is necessary is that the subject matter be one about which special knowledge beyond that possessed by the ordinary juryman will aid the jury in their deliberations, and that a person possessing such knowledge give opinions pertinent to the issues of the case founded upon facts which either are conceded or could warrantably be found upon other evidence." Lovasco v. Parkhurst Marine Ry. 322 Mass. 64, 67. Commonwealth v. Makarewicz, 333 Mass. 575, 591-592. Commonwealth v. Boyle, 346 Mass. 1, 4.
The opinion of a properly qualified person concerning the cause of a fire is generally admissible in evidence. Edward Rose Co. v. Globe & Rutgers Fire Insurance Co. 262 Mass. 469, 472. Gechijian v. Richmond Insurance Co. 305 Mass. 132, 142. Commonwealth v. Reynolds, 338 Mass. 130, 134. Sheldon Forwarding Co. v. Boston & Maine R.R. 339 Mass. 679, 683-684. Kenney v. Sears, Roebuck & Co. 355 Mass. 604, 606-608. McLaughlin v. Bernstein, 356 Mass. 219, 222-224. M. C. Carlisle & Co. Inc. v. Cross, 386 F. 2d 672, 676 (1st Cir.).
cause live cinders to blow onto the plaintiff's property the boundary of which lay six feet downwind. The exclusion was sustained, not only because the opinion was immaterial, since the defendant was liable for damages caused by the spread of the fire whether it was probable or not, but also because it related "to a subject within the common knowledge of the jury." That case does not control the one before us. The causes of fires in buildings are less familiar to today's urbanized population than were the habits and dangers of brushfires to an agrarian population more than one hundred years ago.
of the original papers shows that Rodziewicz also argued that it was error to permit the same witness to state his opinion that there were six separate fires. Although the case might have been retried, the court did not suggest that this opinion was improperly admitted, perhaps because no matter how simple a conclusion it seems superficially, the possibilities implicitly excluded might be complex.
Commonwealth v. Rodziewicz has been cited and argued by litigants, in such cases as Gechijian v. Richmond Insurance Co. 305 Mass. 132, and Commonwealth v. Reynolds, 338 Mass. 130, in an attempt to exclude expert opinion as to the cause of fire. It has not been given that effect in any case we have found (cf. Bradford v. Boston & Maine R.R. 225 Mass. 129, 135); indeed, in the two cases referred to, the court did not even deem it necessary to address itself to the argument. And in the recent case discussed above, Commonwealth v. Rucker, 358 Mass. 298, although the expert's opinion as to the cause of the fire was held inadmissible because based on hearsay, the court expressly suggested that the defect could be cured on retrial by introducing first-hand testimony of the facts upon which the expert predicated his opinion, and did not suggest that the opinion as to cause suffered from any other infirmity.
Brownhill v. Kivlin, 317 Mass. 168, that careless cigarette smoking caused an automobile fire. In that case the fire chief had little basis to support an opinion so particularized; in the case before us, the opinion is more general and the basis more suggestive. As an abstract proposition it would seem possible for an arsonist to employ a causative agent which would be wholly consumed in the fire he set, and nevertheless for an experienced investigator reasonably to infer incendiary origin from systematic elimination of other possibilities. That further inferences as to details may be deemed unwarranted conjecture, and inadmissible, only illustrates that the distinction between what is reasonable and what is not is one of degree and not of kind.
unusually extensive probing laid bare the strengths and weaknesses of the basis for the opinion, and had the effect of whittling it down in size. After careful consideration of Heggarty's entire testimony, we are of the opinion that the danger had been satisfactorily eliminated that "the jury might forego independent analysis of the facts and bow too readily to the opinion of an expert . . .." McCormick, Evidence (2d ed.) Section 12, p. 27.
2. The second assignment of error argued by the defendant is directed towards the prosecution's use, while cross-examining the defendant, of a prior inconsistent statement for impeachment purposes. The prior statement, made by the defendant to the police in the dock of the Dorchester District Court just before his arraignment, was an alibi inconsistent with an alibi later used by the defendant in his direct testimony. The trial judge in the Superior Court, after a voir dire, ruled that the prior inconsistent statement, although inadmissible in the prosecution's case in chief because of lack of compliance with the procedural safeguards required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, could be used in cross-examination for impeachment purposes under the principles laid down in Harris v. New York, 401 U.S. 222.
who was to corroborate it when approached. See Commonwealth v. Pratt, 360 Mass. 708, 714.
The defendant also argues that the prosecution's use of the earlier alibi in cross-examination violated an earlier assurance by the Commonwealth that it would not "rely upon or use" the alibi. We agree with the conclusion reached by the trial judge that the Commonwealth's assurance went only to reliance upon and use of the defendant's alibi statement in the Commonwealth's case in chief. We do not agree with the defendant's argument that because Harris v. New York had not been decided or even argued at the time the prosecution could not have contemplated a distinction between using the statement in its case in chief and using it for impeachment. [Note 2] It seems more probable that the attorneys for the Commonwealth and the defendant were only addressing themselves to the evidence the Commonwealth would introduce in its own case. At that time the defendant's first alibi was of little or no significance to the Commonwealth's case; only when the defendant uttered his second alibi at the trial did the first alibi statement become significant. Something more certain than what appears here would be required to convince us that the Commonwealth intended to bargain away its ability to meet the case for the defence as it developed.
[Note 1] The doctrine of harmless error appears to have been applied very restrictively at the time. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. White, 162 Mass. 403, 405, and Akeson v. Doidge, 225 Mass. 574, 575, both cited in Wigmore, Evidence (3d ed.) Section 21, fn. 17, p. 384, as examples of undue strictness in reversing for trivial errors, and Note, The Harmless Error Rule Reviewed, 47 Colum. L. Rev. 450, at 450.
[Note 2] Four State Courts had previously taken the position later vindicated by the United States Supreme Court; People v. Kulis, 18 N. Y. 2d 318; State v. Kimbrough, 109 N. J. Super. 57; State v. Butler, 19 Ohio St. 2d 55; State v. Grant, 77 Wash. 2d 47. The possibility was also considered in commentaries: 20 Syracuse L. Rev. 494, 500; 36 Brooklyn L. Rev. 41, 44-45; 35 Fordham L. Rev. 723; 13 N. Y. L. Forum 146.

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