Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/380/400/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 14:59:15+00:00

Document:
Petitioner was arrested and brought before a state judge for preliminary hearing on a robbery charge. The complaining witness testified but petitioner, who had no counsel, did not cross-examine. Petitioner was later indicted and tried. The witness had moved to another State, and the transcript of his testimony at the hearing was introduced over petitioner's objections that he was denied the right of confrontation. He was convicted and the highest state court affirmed.
1. The right granted to an accused by the Sixth Amendment to confront the witnesses against him, which includes the right of cross-examination, is a fundamental right essential to a fair trial and is made obligatory on the States by the Fourteenth Amendment. Pp. 380 U. S. 403-406.
2. The introduction of the transcript in a federal criminal case would have been a clear denial of the right of confrontation, since the statement was made without an adequate opportunity for cross-examination, and the right must be determined by the same standards in a state proceeding. Pp. 380 U. S. 406-408.
375 S.W.2d 293, reversed and remanded.
against him . . . and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence."
Two years ago, in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U. S. 335, we held that the Fourteenth Amendment makes the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of right to counsel obligatory upon the States. The question we find necessary to decide in this case is whether the Amendment's guarantee of a defendant's right "to be confronted with the witnesses against him," which has been held to include the right to cross-examine those witnesses, is also made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment.
The petitioner Pointer and one Dillard were arrested in Texas and taken before a state judge for a preliminary hearing (in Texas, called the "examining trial") on a charge of having robbed Kenneth W. Phillips of $375 "by assault, or violence, or by putting in fear of life or bodily injury," in violation of Texas Penal Code Art. 1408. At this hearing, an Assistant District Attorney conducted the prosecution and examined witnesses, but neither of the defendants, both of whom were laymen, had a lawyer. Phillips, as chief witness for the State, gave his version of the alleged robbery in detail, identifying petitioner as the man who had robbed him at gunpoint. Apparently Dillard tried to cross-examine Phillips, but Pointer did not, although Pointer was said to have tried to cross-examine some other witnesses at the hearing. Petitioner was subsequently indicted on a charge of having committed the robbery. Some time before the trial was held, Phillips moved to California. After putting in evidence to show that Phillips had moved and did not intend to return to Texas, the State at the trial offered the transcript of Phillips' testimony given at the preliminary hearing as evidence against petitioner. Petitioner's counsel immediately objected to introduction of the transcript, stating, "Your Honor, we will object to that, as it is a denial of the confrontment of the witnesses against the Defendant."
Similar objections were repeatedly made by petitioner's counsel, but were overruled by the trial judge, apparently in part because, as the judge viewed it, petitioner had been present at the preliminary hearing, and therefore had been "accorded the opportunity of cross-examining the witnesses there against him." The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest state court to which the case could be taken, affirmed petitioner's conviction, rejecting his contention that use of the transcript to convict him denied him rights guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. 375 S.W.2d 293. We granted certiorari to consider the important constitutional question the case involves. 379 U.S. 815.
as to the right to counsel. Whether there might be other circumstances making this Texas preliminary hearing so critical to the defendant as to call for appointment of counsel at that stage we need not decide on this record, and that question we reserve. In this case, the objections and arguments in the trial court, as well as the arguments in the Court of Criminal Appeals and before us, make it clear that petitioner's objection is based not so much on the fact that he had no lawyer when Phillips made his statement at the preliminary hearing as on the fact that use of the transcript of that statement at the trial denied petitioner any opportunity to have the benefit of counsel's cross-examination of the principal witness against him. It is that latter question which we decide here.
"a provision of the Bill of Rights which is 'fundamental and essential to a fair trial' is made obligatory upon the States by the Fourteenth Amendment."
"a right long deemed so essential for the due protection of life and liberty that it is guarded against legislative and judicial action by provisions in the Constitution of the United States and in the constitutions of most if not of all the States composing the Union."
criminal cases the accused shall enjoy the right 'to be confronted with the witnesses against him.' This Court has been zealous to protect these rights from erosion."
"A person's right to reasonable notice of a charge against him, and an opportunity to be heard in his defense -- a right to his day in court -- are basic in our system of jurisprudence, and these rights include, as a minimum, a right to examine the witnesses against him, to offer testimony, and to be represented by counsel."
"In the constitutional sense, trial by jury in a criminal case necessarily implies at the very least that the 'evidence developed' against a defendant shall come from the witness stand in a public courtroom where there is full judicial protection of the defendant's right of confrontation, of cross-examination, and of counsel."
Compare Willner v. Committee on Character & Fitness, 373 U. S. 96, 373 U. S. 103-104.
"The Court has not hesitated to reexamine past decisions according the Fourteenth Amendment a less central role in the preservation of basic liberties than that which was contemplated by its Framers when they added the Amendment to our constitutional scheme."
"to be enforced against the States under the Fourteenth Amendment according to the same standards that protect those personal rights against federal encroachment."
Malloy v. Hogan, supra, 378 U.S. at 378 U. S. 10.
it follows that use of the transcript to convict petitioner denied him a constitutional right, and that his conviction must be reversed.
I agree that, in the circumstances the admission of the statement in question deprived the petitioner of a right of "confrontation" assured by the Fourteenth Amendment. I cannot subscribe, however, to the constitutional reasoning of the Court.
The Court holds that the right of confrontation guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment in federal criminal trials is carried into state criminal cases by the Fourteenth Amendment. This is another step in the onward march of the long-since discredited "incorporation" doctrine (see, e.g., Fairman, Does the Fourteenth Amendment Incorporate the Bill of Rights? The Original Understanding, 2 Stan.L.Rev. 5 (1949); Frankfurter, Memorandum on "Incorporation" of the Bill of Rights Into the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, 78 Harv.L.Rev. 746 (1965)), which for some reason that I have not yet been able to fathom has come into the sunlight in recent years. See, e.g., Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643; Ker v. California, 374 U. S. 23; Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U. S. 1.
For me, this state judgment must be reversed because a right of confrontation is "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty," Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U. S. 319, 302 U. S. 325, reflected in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment independently of the Sixth.
and a host of other thoughtful past decisions now rapidly falling into discard, recognizes that our Constitution tolerates, indeed encourages, differences between the methods used to effectuate legitimate federal and state concerns, subject to the requirements of fundamental fairness "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty." The philosophy of "incorporation," on the other hand, subordinates all such state differences to the particular requirements of the Federal Bill of Rights (but see Ker v. California, supra, at 374 U. S. 34) and increasingly subjects state legal processes to enveloping federal judicial authority. "Selective" incorporation or "absorption" amounts to little more than a diluted form of the full incorporation theory. Whereas it rejects full incorporation because of recognition that not all of the guarantees of the Bill of Rights should be deemed "fundamental," it at the same time ignores the possibility that not all phases of any given guaranty described in the Bill of Rights are necessarily fundamental.
It is too often forgotten in these times that the American federal system is itself constitutionally ordained, that it embodies values profoundly making for lasting liberties in this country, and that its legitimate requirements demand continuing solid recognition in all phases of the work of this Court. The "incorporation" doctrines, whether full blown or selective, are both historically and constitutionally unsound and incompatible with the maintenance of our federal system on even course.
* See state and English cases collected in 5 Wigmore, Evidence §§ 1367, 1395 (3d ed.1940). State constitutional and statutory provisions similar to the Sixth Amendment are collected in 5 Wigmore, supra, § 1397, n. 1.
on the States." That questionable tour de force seems to me entirely unnecessary to the decision of this case, which I think is directly controlled by the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee that no State shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
Here, that right was completely denied. Therefore, as the Court correctly points out, we need not consider the case which could be presented if Phillips' statement had been taken at a hearing at which the petitioner's counsel was given a full opportunity to cross-examine. See West v. Louisiana, 194 U. S. 258.
Kirby v. United States, 174 U. S. 47, 174 U. S. 55.
Alford v. United States, 282 U. S. 687, 282 U. S. 692.
Rideau v. Louisiana, 373 U. S. 723, 373 U. S. 727.
"due process requires as a minimum that an accused be given a public trial after reasonable notice of the charges, have a right to examine witnesses against him, call witnesses on his own behalf, and be represented by counsel."
349 U.S. at 349 U. S. 134.
reasoning as "another step in the onward march of the long-since discredited incorporation' doctrine," ante at 380 U. S. 408. Since I was not on the Court when the incorporation issue was joined, see Adamson v. California, 332 U. S. 46, I deem it appropriate to set forth briefly my view on this subject.
"it is possible that some of the personal rights safeguarded by the first eight Amendments against National action may also be safeguarded against state action, because a denial of them would be a denial of due process of law. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad v. Chicago, 166 U. S. 226."
Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U. S. 335; Malloy v. Hogan, supra, and Murphy v. Waterfront Comm'n, 378 U. S. 52, and my concurring opinion in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254, 376 U. S. 297, and I subscribe to the process by which fundamental guarantees of the Bill of Rights are absorbed by the Fourteenth Amendment, and thereby applied to the States.
"[i]t is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a . . . State may . . . serve as a laboratory, and try novel social and economic experiments,"
New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U. S. 262, 285 U. S. 280, 285 U. S. 311 (dissenting opinion), I do not believe that this includes the power to experiment with the fundamental liberties of citizens safeguarded by the Bill of Rights. My Brother HARLAN's view would also require this Court to make the extremely subjective and excessively discretionary determination as to whether a practice, forbidden the Federal Government by a fundamental constitutional guarantee, is, as viewed in the factual circumstances surrounding each individual case, sufficiently repugnant to the notion of due process as to be forbidden the States.
a consequent likelihood of considerable friction. This is well illustrated by the difficulties which were faced and were articulated by the state courts attempting to apply this Court's now discarded rule of Betts v. Brady, 316 U. S. 455. See Green, The Bill of Rights, the Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court, 46 Mich.L.Rev. 869, 897-898. These difficulties led the Attorneys General of 22 States to urge that this Court overrule Betts v. Brady and apply fully the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of right to counsel to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment. See Gideon v. Wainwright, supra, at 372 U. S. 336. And to deny to the States the power to impair a fundamental constitutional right is not to increase federal power, but, rather, to limit the power of both federal and state governments in favor of safeguarding the fundamental rights and liberties of the individual. In my view, this promotes, rather than undermines, the basic policy of avoiding excess concentration of power in government, federal or state, which underlies our concepts of federalism.
I adhere to and support the process of absorption by means of which the Court holds that certain fundamental guarantees of the Bill of Rights are made obligatory on the States through the Fourteenth Amendment. Although, as this case illustrates, there are differences among members of the Court as to the theory by which the Fourteenth Amendment protects the fundamental liberties of individual citizens, it is noteworthy that there is a large area of agreement, both here and in other cases, that certain basic rights are fundamental -- not to be denied the individual by either the state or federal governments under the Constitution. See, e.g., Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U. S. 296; NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 U. S. 449; Gideon v. Wainwright, supra; New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, supra; Turner v. Louisiana, 379 U. S. 466.
See Adamson v. California, supra, at 332 U. S. 59 (concurring opinion of Mr. Justice Frankfurter); id. at 332 U. S. 68 (dissenting opinion of MR. JUSTICE BLACK); Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U. S. 1; id. at 378 U. S. 14 (dissenting opinion of MR. JUSTICE HARLAN); Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U. S. 335, 372 U. S. 345 (concurring opinion of MR. JUSTICE Douglas); id. at 372 U. S. 349 (concurring opinion of MR. JUSTICE HARLAN); Poe v. Ullman, 367 U. S. 497, 367 U. S. 509 (dissenting opinion of MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS); Frankfurter, Memorandum on "Incorporation" of the Bill of Rights Into the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, 78 Harv.L.Rev. 746; Black, The Bill of Rights, 35 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 865 (1960); Brennan, The Bill of Rights and the States, 36 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 761 (1961); Fairman, Does the Fourteenth Amendment Incorporate the Bill of Rights? The Original Understanding, 2 Stan.L.Rev. 5 (1949); Green, The Bill of Rights, the Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court, 46 Mich.L.Rev. 869 (1948); Henkin, "Selective Incorporation" in the Fourteenth Amendment, 73 Yale L.J. 74 (1963).
See, e.g., Gitlow v. New York, 268 U. S. 652, 268 U. S. 666; De Jones v. Oregon, 299 U. S. 353, 299 U. S. 364; Cantwell v. Connecticut, 310 U. S. 296, 310 U. S. 303; Louisiana ex rel. Gremillion v. NAACP, 366 U. S. 293, 366 U. S. 296; New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254.
See Wolf v. Colorado, 338 U. S. 25; Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U. S. 643.
Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. v. Chicago, 166 U. S. 226.
Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U. S. 1.
Robinson v. California, 370 U. S. 660.
Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U. S. 335.

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