Case Name: STATE of Utah, Appellee, v. Deon L. CLOPTEN, Appellant
Court: Utah Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Utah
Decision Date: 2015-09-04
Citations: 362 P.3d 1216
Docket Number: No. 20111020
Parties: STATE of Utah, Appellee, v. Deon L. CLOPTEN, Appellant.
Judges: Associate Chief Justice LEE, concurring in part and in result.
Reporter: Pacific Reporter 3d
Volume: 362
Pages: 1216–1232

Head Matter:
2015 UT 82
STATE of Utah, Appellee, v. Deon L. CLOPTEN, Appellant.
No. 20111020.
Supreme Court of Utah.
Sept. 4, 2015.
Sean D. Reyes, Att'y Gen., Jeffrey S. Gray, Asst. Att'y. Gen., Salt Lake City, for appellee,
Bamuel P. Newton, Kahspell MT, for appellant

Opinion:
Justice DURHAM,
opinion of the Court:
INTRODUCTION
[ 1 Deon Clopten was conwcted of. murdering Tony Fuailemaa after a concert in Salt Lake City, He now appeals his conviction, alleging five errors in the dzstmct court pro- ° ceedings. oe
T2 Two of these allegéd errors relate to Mr. Clopten's principal theory at trial, namely that the murder was committed by his cousin Freddie White. First, Mr, Clopten asked to call Mr. White as a witness so that he would claim a Fifth Amendment privilege in front of the jury, but the trial court denied this request. Second, Mr. Clopten attempted to introduce testlmony that Mr. White told fellow prison inmates that Mr. Clopten was not the murderer, but the trial court exelud-ed this testimony as inadmissible hearsay. Mr. Clopten challenges both of these ruhngs on appeal. i
18 The remaining three alleged «errors relate to the eyewitness testimony that identified Mr. as Mr. Fuailemaa's killer. ~ As we have recognized in a series of opinions beginning with State v. Long, 721 P.2d 483 (Utah 1986), the use of eyewitness testimony to identify perpetrators of crime presents a difficult constitutional problem,. On the one
hand, such testxmony is often the only evi-denee available to establish a eximinal's identity. Qn the other hand, as forensic science has demonstrated, eyewitness identifications are frequently wrong but nevertheless powerfully persuasive to juries, - Accordingly, such identifications lead with unusual, frequency to wrongful conviections-an uncomfortable prospect for a criminal justice system committed to letting ten felons escape before punishing a single innocent. See 4 Winu1am BLhacksTonE, CoMMENTARIES *358 We have now wrestled with this problem for nearly three decades, articulating a number of doctrines intended to reduce the likelihood of wrongful, convictions based on unreliable eyewitness identification testlmony '
T4 Mr. Clopten argues that the trial court incorrectly applied three of these doctrines. First, he argues that under State v. Ramirez, 817 P.2d 774 (Utah 1991), the trial court should have excluded a number of the proge-cution's eyewitnesses as unconstltutlonally unreliable. Second, he argues that under State v. Clopten (Clopten I ), 2009 UT 84, 228 P.3d 1103, the trial court should have excluded the testimony of a prosecution expert who disputed the defense's claims about eyewitness unreliability. The prosecution expert's testimony, Mr. Clopten argues, impermissi-bly contradicts Clopten I's conclusions about forensic science. Third and finally, he argues that the trial court's instructions to the jury regarding eyewitness reliability were constitutionally insufficient under Long, 721 P.2d 483.
{15 For reasons explained below, we reject all five of Mr. Clopten's assertions of error and affirm his conviction.
BACKGROUND
T6 On December 1, 2002, Tony Fuailemaa attended a concert in downtown Salt Lake City with his fiancée, Shannon Pantoja. Also present at the concert were Deon, Clopten, his cousin Freddie White, and two of their friends.
17 Early in the evening, Mr. Fuailemaa pointed Mr. Clopten out to his fiancée, asking
her if she knew the guy "in all red, the one all flamed up." When she answered that she did not, Mr. Fuailemaa told her his name, that Mr. Fuailemaa knew him, and that "he had a problem with some of the homeys." An undercover officer testified that he noticed tension between the groups, but no violence immediately ensued.
. T 8 Both groups left the concert early; Ms. Pantoja testified that she and Mr. Fuailemaa wanted to beat the traffic, Outside the venue, she noticed Mr. Clopten's three friends attempting to hide on the street in front of them, and Mr. Fuailemaa told her that he anticipated a confrontation. Ms. Pantoja suggested that they return to the concert so as to avoid a fight, but Mr. Fuallemaa insisted he would not back down. Ms. Pantoja then noticed Mr. Clopten approaching Mr. Fuailemaa from behind with his arm extended, holding a pistol. He exclaimed "What's up now, homey?" and shot Mr. Fuailemaa in the back of the head.
- 9 Four undercover officers at the concert heard the shots and came running. Informed by Ms, Pantoja that the killer was the man "in all red," they chased Mr. Clop-ten and his friends to their vehicle Mr. Clopten and his friends drove away at high speed, pursued by police, and threw the murder weapon out the wmdow before they were caught.
1 10 It is undisputed that Mr, Fuailemaa's murderer was one of the four men in the vehicle, but proving that it was. Mr.. Clopten has now taken over a decade. Mr. Clopten was charged in 2008 and tried in 2005, but the court declared a mistrial. He was tried again and convicted in 2006, but we reversed the conviction because Mr. Clopten had not been allowed to present expert testimony about the reliability of eyewitness identifications,. Clopten I, 2009 UT 84, " 49, 228 P.8d 1108.
T 11 At Mr. Clopten's third trial in 2011, the state presented eyewitnesses who identified him as the shooter. Mr. Clopten primarily attacked the state's case in two ways. First, he sought to exclude the state's evi dence and to minimize its effect, calling an expert witness to testify about the unreliability of eyewitness identifications and asking the judge for jury instructions on the same subject. Second, he presented his own evi-denee that another man in the vehicle-Mr. Clopten's cousin Mr. White—actually committed the murder.
{12 Mr. Clopten's strategy failed. The jury convicted him of murder, and he now challenges his conviction on appeal.
ANALYSIS
I, THE TRIAL COURT CORRECTLY DENIED MR. CLOPTEN'S REQUEST TO CALL A DEFENSE WITNESS FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF PLEADING THE FIFTH IN FRONT OF THE JURY
113 In support of his defense that Mr. White was the true perpetrator of Mr. Fuai-lemaa's murder, Mr. Clopten proposed to call Mr. White as a witness. But Mr. Clopten stipulated that Mr. White would not give any testimony because he would invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege when called to the stand. Mr. Clopten argued in the trial court that the jury should be allowed to observe Mr. White plead the Fifth on the witness stand, but the trial court denied this request. Mr. Clopten later requested a jury instruction informing the jury that Mr. White had invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege and stating that the jurors were "entitled to give whatever weight you deem appropriate and draw any inference you feel is warranted regarding White's invocation of his Fifth Amendment privilege." The trial court re fused this instruction. ©
€{14 On appeal, Mr. Clopten has challenged only the trial court's refusal to require Mr. White to take the witness stand and invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege in the presence of the jury, thus allowing him to argue inferences favorable to the defense from that act. He has not challenged the trial court's refusal to instruct the jury about the inferences jurors could make from Mr: White's out-of-court invocation of the privilege. Thus this case does not reach the question of inferences, but only the question of whether it was proper for the court to preclude an-in-court demonstration. |
$15 As to the trial court's determination to avoid what would have been purely a theatrical event-putting a witness on the stand merely to refuse to testify-we have no doubt that its decision was well within its , power to manage the trial process. See State v. Parsons, 781 P.2d 1275, 1282 (Utah 1989) ("The trial court, with its inherent powers as the authority in charge of the trial, has broad latitude to control and manage the proceedings and preserve the integrity of the trial process.") Therefore, it was proper to exclude the witness. |
II. THE TRIAL COURT DID NOT ABUSE ITS DISCRETION WHEN IT - EXCLUDED HEARSAY TESTIMONY
A. Statements Against Interest
[ 16 Next, Mr. Clopten claims that the trial court erred when it excluded the hearsay testimony of two potential witnesses. Both of these proposed witnesses were inmates who spoke with Mr. White while he was in prison. At the time of these conversations, Mr. White feared that Polynesians in the prison system would harm his cousin, Mr. Clopten, because of their belief that Mr. Clopten killed Mr. Fuailemaa,. The first prisoner claimed Mr. White told him, "Look, if you can just let your homies know it wasn't [Mr. Clopten], I was there and I can tell you for a fact it wasn't him." When the prisoner asked Mr, White if he killed Mr. Fuailemaa, Mr. White gave the prisoner a "look" and said, "It wasn't [Mr. Clopten]." The second prisoner asked Mr, White if Mr. Clopten shot Mr. Fuailemaa, Mr. White responded negatively. When the prisoner then asked Mr. White if he was the shooter, Mr. Whlte said "I can't talk about that."
117 Mr. Clopten argued below that these two prisoners should have been allowed to tell the jury about Mr. White's hearsay statements 'because they were admissible as statements against interest. But the trial court excluded this testimony because it found that Mr. White's alleged statements were not suffimently contrary to his self-interest to warrant the application of this exception to the hearsay rule, To reverse the trial court on this issue, we must conclude the trial "court abused its discretion; See State v. WOT/15mm, 2005 UT 66 10, 122 P. 3d 639.
€18 Mr. Clopten had to satlsfy two requirements in order to qualify for the statement-against-interest exception to the hearsay rule. First, he had to show that the hearsay statement was an utterance that "A reasonable person in the declarant's position would have made only if the person believed it to be true because, when made, it . had so great a tendency to . expose the declar-ant to . criminal Hability." Urax R. Evin. 804(b)(8)(A). Second, because Mr. Clopten sought to introduce hearsay testimony in a criminal case 'under the theory that it tended to expose the declarant to criminal liability, he also had to show that the statement was "supported by corroborating cireumstances that clearly indicate its trustworthiness." Id. 804(b)(8)(B).
19 "In determining if a statementis one made against penal interest" under the first requirement, "we look to the cireum-stances under which the statement was given." State v. Drown, T9l P.2d 890, 894 (Utah Ct.App.1990). The statement need not be an outright confession to a crime in order to be sufficiently contrary to the declarant's penal interest to be admissible. The United States Supreme Court, for example, has the-origed that statements such as "I hid the gun in Joe's apartment" may be sufficiently self-inculpatory where the declarant knows that it would help the police to find a murder weapon, Williamson v. United States, 512 U.S. 594, 608, 114 S.Ct. 2481, 129 LEd.2d 476 (1994) {internal quotation marks omitted). The key inquiry is whether the statement has a sufficient tendency to expose the de-clarant to eriminal liability that "a-reasonable person in the declarant's position would have made [it] only if the person believed it to be true" Urax R. Evin. 804(b)(B)(A); see also State v. Sanders, 27 Utah 2d 354, 496 P.2d 270, 278 (1972) (statements that subject the declarant to criminal punishment are admissible "because experience teaches that it is unlikely that [a'person] would so declare unless it were true").
120 None of the hearsay statements allegedly made by Mr. White directly exposed him to criminal liability because he never said that he committed the murder. Mr. Clopten argues that Mr. White's statements that Mr. Clopten did not commit the murder are nonetheless contrary to Mr. White's penal interests. Four individuals were in the vehicle that sped away from the seene of the murder:; Mr. Clopten, Mr. White, and two other associates. The murder weapon was thrown from 'this vehicle during the ensuing high-speed pursuit. Thus, Mr. White would have known that the police suspected that one of these four individuals murdered Mr. Fuailemaa Under these cireumstances, statements exculpating Mr. Clopten necessarily indicate that one of the other three occupants of the getaway vehicle was the shooter,
1 21 Although Mr. White's statements have at least 'some tendency to expose him to criminal lability, this does not necessarily mean that his statements have a sufficient tendency to expose him to punishment that a reasonable person would not utter them if they were not true. That is a question for the trial court, Moreover, there is another motive for Mr. White to say that Mr. Clopten did not commit the murder other than the truth of the statement, Mr. White was concerned that other prisoners would harm his cousin if they believed that Mr. Clopten committed the murder. Mr. White, therefore, wanted to spread the word that Mr. Clopten was innocent in order to protect his cousin, The trial court was entitled to weigh the tendency of Mr. White's statements to expose him to criminal Hability against Mr. White's other motives for uttering the statements. See Sanders, 496 P.2d at 273 (the district court may consider "various possible motivations" for the declarant to make the hearsay statement that cut against the application of the statement-against-interest exception, including "concern for assisting the defendant"). Under the facts of this case, the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it determined that Mr. White's statements did not have a sufficient tendency to expose him to criminal punishment that "a reasonable person in the declarant's position would have made [the statements] only if the person believed [them] to be true." Utax R. Evip. 804(b)(8)(A)..
1 22 Because the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it found that the first requirement of the statement-against-interest exception was not met, we need not examine the gecond. requirement-whether "corroborating circumstances" clearly indicate the trustworthiness of the hearsay statements. See id. 804(b)(8)(B).
B. The Residual Hearsay Exception .
€23 Mr. Clopten also argues that the trial court erred when it refused to admit the hearsay statements under the residual exception to the hearsay rule. The residual exception is a catchall provision that may be applied when a hearsay statement "is not specifically covered by a hearsay exception in Rule 808 or 804." Under this exception, a hearsay statement is admissible when Utax R. Evin. 807(a)..
(1) the statement has equivalent ciream-stantial guarantees of trustworthiness;
(2) it is offered as evidence of a material fact;
(8) it: is more probative on the point for which it is offered than any other evidence that the proponent can obtain through reasonable efforts; and
(4) admitting it will best serve the purposes 'of these rules and the 1nte1ests of-Justice.
Id. This exception is "intended for use in those rare cases where, although the out-of-court statement does not fit into a recognized exception, its admission is justified by the inherent reliability of the statement and the need for its admission." State v. Nelson, 777 P.2d 479, 482 (Utah 1989).
124 We hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion when it declined to admit Mr. White's hearsay statements under the residual exception. Mr. Clopten has not shown that the statements have "equivalent cireamstantial guarantees of trustworthiness" that are different from other recognized exceptions to the hearsay rule.
125 Mr.. Clopten first contends that Mr. White's statements exonerating Mr, Clopten are corroborated by extrinsic evidence. that Mr. Whlte was the true killer. Mr. Clopten eltes, for example, evidence produced at trial that Mr. White had suggested to other individuals that he was guilty of the crime and that he wore a red top on the night of the murder, which would be consistent with eyewitness testimony that the shooter was dressed "in all red." But the trustworthiness requirement is not satisfied by extrinsic corroborating evidence. Instead, courts look to either the cireum-stances in which the hearsay statement was made or the content of the statement itself to determine Whether the declarant would be unlikely to lie. See, eg., Utah R. Evid. 804(Mb)(2) (hearsay statement made under the belief of imminent death admissible); id. 804(b)B8)(A) (hearsay statement that is contrary to declarant's self-interest may be admissible). .In order to satisfy the "equivalent cireumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness" element of the residual hearsay exception, id. 807(a)(1), "hearsay evidence . must possess indicia of reliability by virtue of its inherent trustworthiness, not by reference to other evidence at trial," State v. Plant, 236 Neb. 317, 461 N.W.2d 253, 265 (1990) (internal, quotation marks omitted); see also Nelson, 777 P.2d at 482 (residual exception applies where the hearsay statement's. "admission is justified by the: inherent reliability of the statement" (emphasis added)). Mr., Clopten's citations to evidence unrelated to the hearsay statements are simply not relevant to the trustworthiness requirement. .
126 Mr. Clopten also argues that the statements have cireumstantial gugrantees of trustworthiness because the statements tended to subject Mr. White to potential harm from other inmates. Mr. White believed that other prisoners wanted to seek retribution against Mr. Fuailemaa's killer. Thus, Mr. Clopten contends that statements implicating Mr. White as the actual killer are trustworthy because he would. not subject himself to the danger of prison violence had the statements .not been true. But the problem with this argument is that Mr. White never said that he killed Mr. Fuailemaa. And any assertion that Mr. White's statements indirectly implicated himself as the killér could reasonably be rejected by the trial court for the same reasons that the statement-against-interest exception does not apply to the hearsay statements. See supra ¶ 21.
.C. Adoptive Admission
127 The state filed a motion in limine to prohibit the two prisoners from testifying about Mr. White's hearsay statements, The motion, of necessity, provided the content of the hearsay statements. Mr. Clopten claims that because the state repeated the hearsay statements it sought to exelude, the testimony is admissible as an adoptive admission. See Utah R. Evid. 801(d)(2) (a statement is not hearsay if it "is offered against an opposing party and . is one the party manifested that it adop'Eed or believed to be true").
€28 This argument is 'without merit because it conflates the filing of a motion summarizing the hearsay statements with the endorsement of these statements. It is strange to suggest that merely by articulating hearsay statements as part of a motion in limine the state embraces the very. statements it is trying to exelude, Without some manifestation of adoption of the statement or affirmation of the truthfulness of the statement, statements like those in the state's motion are not adoptive admissions.
D. Constitutionality of the Hearsay Rule
129 Finally, Mr. Clopten argues that if no exception to the hearsay rule applies to the statements, he nonetheless should have been permitted to introduce the hearsay statements into evidence because of his constitutional due process right to present evidence in his defense. In support of this contention, he quotes State v. Harding, where we stated that "the defendant's right to present all competent evidence in his defense is a right guaranteed by the due process clause of our State Constitution, Art. I, See. 7, as well as our Federal Constitution." 635 P.2d 33, 34 (Utah 1981) (emphasis added): But a crimingl defendant does not have a due process right to present any evidence the defendant may desire. A defendant only has a right to introduce competent, admissible evidence. See Evidence, Buacks Law Dictionary (9th ed.2009) (defining "competent evidence" by cross-referencing the term "admissible evidence"). Because hearsay evidence is not c'onibetent 'evidence under Utah law, and because Mr. Clopten has not presented any support for the proposition that the hearsay rule is unconstitutional when applied to evidence proffered by a criminal defendant,. we reject his constitutional claim.
III, ADMISSION OF EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATIONS
(380 As we explained above, the prosecution had little difficulty proving that Mr. Fuailemaa was killed by one of the four men the- police captured after the shooting. But to prove that Mr,. Clopten committed the murder, rather than Mr. White as the de fense argued, the state relied on the testimony of eyewitnesses. Because some of these eyewitnesses testified that they recognized Mr. Clopten as the killer, their testimony potentially. implicates the doctrines we have articulated to protect the innocent from convictions based on unreliable eyewitness identifications.
1 31 The first such doctrine to which Mr. Clopten appeals is the Ramirez test, announced by State v. Ramirez, 817 P.2d 774 (Utah 1991), which, according to Mr. Clopten, governs the admission of eyewitness identification testimony under the Utah due process clause. Mr. Clopten argues that the trial court violated Ramirez: by allowing two of the state's eyewitnesses-Shannon 'Pantoja and Melissa Valdez-to identify him as the killer, Because of the importance of these witnesses' identifications to the state's case, Mr. Clopten argues, his conviction must be reversed.
182 We reject Mr. Clopten's appeals to Ramirez, concluding that we can apply it neither to Ms. Valdez's testimony nor to Ms. Pantoja's. First, as to Ms. Valdez, we conclude that the state did not actually present her identification of Mr. Clopten to the jury and that Ramirez therefore simply does not apply. Second, as to Ms. Pantoja, we conclude that we cannot review the trial court's decision to allow Ms. Pantoja to identify Mr. Clopten because Mr. Clopten has not adequately challenged that decision on appeal.
A. The State Did Not Present Ms. Vaides's Identification of Mr. Clopten to the Jury
188 The state argues that Ramirez does not apply to Ms. Valdez because her testimony did not actually identify Mr. Clopten, as the killer, Although the state was permitted by pretrial ruling both to have Ms. Valdez identify Mr. Clopten in court and to introduce evidence that she had picked Mr. Clopten out of a police photo lineup, it ultimately chose to do neither of these things. Instead, it questioned Ms. Valdez primarily about her memories of the night of the murder. }
I 34 Mr. Clopten disputes the state's characterization of Ms. Valdez's testimony, suggesting three ways in which Ms. Valdez identified Mr. Clopten before the jury. First, Ms. Valdez. identified Mr. Clopten's red sweatsuit as the clothing the killer wore. Second, her testimony corroborated the testimony of other eyewitnesses who did identify Mr. Clopten as the killer. And third, she testified that a defense investigator had presented her with a photo array, that she had recognized a person in the photo array as the killer, and that the defense investigator then told her that she "wasn't going to be any help to his case."
185 We can easily dismiss Mr. Clopten's first two arguments because Ramirez applies only to "eyewitness identifications." Ramires, 817 P.2d at 779. This category includes in-court identifications and testimony about out-of-court identifications like police lineups and photo arrays, but it does not include, as Mr. Clopten seems to believe, all eyewitness testimony tying a defendant to a crime. Ramirez thus does not apply to witnesses who, like Ms, Valdez, testify. merely about a perpetrator's appearance or apparel-his height, build, coloring, clothing, tattoos, and other qualities that might be shared by any number of people. It applies only when the state seeks to inform the jury that an eyewitness has recognized the defendant as the perpetrator.
$36 Mr. Clopten's third argument is a closer call since the state did ask Ms. Valdez to testify that she had recognized the killer in the defense's photo array. The question, then, is whether the state sought to inform the jury that the person Ms. Valdez had recognized was Mr. Clopten.
T 37 If we viewed the relevant testimony in isolation, we would likely conclude that was precisely the state's intent. Why else would the state have asked about Ms. Valdez's interview with the defense investigator? Yet the broader context ultimately persuades us that such a -conclusion would be incorrect. At no point did the state present testimony that the person Ms. Valdez had identified was Mr. Clopten, or even that Mr; Clopten was among the people depicted in the defense investigator's photo array. Neither did it admit the photo array into evidence, or even mention Ms. Valdez's testimony about the photo grrays in its first closing statement. > §
138 Instead, it was the defense that made sure the jury knew that Ms. Valdez had identified Mr. Clopten. It questioned her in detail about the various lineups she saw, admitted those lineups into evidence, and called a detective to testify about their flaws. Finally, during closing arguments, it was the defense that brought up Ms. Valdez's identification of Mr. Clopten, using the manifest weakness of the identification to support its argument for reasonable doubt. -
T39 This effort by the defense to tear down Ms. Valdez's identifications of Mr. Clopten-identifications the defense itself had presented to the jury-provoked the following rebuttal from the state:
[These photo arrays here are a pointless distraction. - Defense counsel is correct. Melissa Valdez didn't pick [Clopten] out of those lHneaps that were presented to her. Keep in mind, yes, she points to a guy to the defense investigator, but then when she is shown this [police photo array] she is unable to pick him out....
Her testimony is not important because she picks somebody or doesn't pick somebody. Her testimony is critical, absolutely. But it's important because she corroborates [other eyewitnesses] and her description of what the shooter was wearing matches what the defendant was wearing.
' 40 We are persuaded that the state did not intend to present Ms. Valdez's identification of Mr. Clopten to the jury, and that if the defense had not used the weakness of Ms, Valdeg's identification to bolster its own case, the jury would probably not have known that Ms. Valdez had identified Mr. Clopten. Though it is a close question, we therefore conclude that Ramirez does not apply.
B. Mr. Clopten Has Not Adequdiely Challenged the Admission of Ms. Pantoja's Testimony
141 Ms. Pantoja, Mr. Fusilemaa's fiancée, was especially important to the prosecution's case because she was the closest observer of the murder and because she identified .Mr. Clopten as the shooter less than an hour after the shooting. These factors, combined with her close personal connection to the victim, likely made her identification of Mr. Clopten very persuasive to the Jury.
1 42 Accordingly, the defense asked Judge Skanchy, who presided over Mr. Clopten's third trial, to suppress Ms. Pantoja's testimony because it was insufficiently reliable under Ramirez. Judge Skanchy "decline[d]" to consider this argument, concluding that he "need not readdress whether Ms. Pantoja's identification of Mr. Clopten is sufficiently reliable" because Judge Fuchs, who presided over Mr. Clopten's second trial, had already decided that issue. To supbort this decision, Judge Skanchy cited the following paragraph from one of our cases:
A different branch of the law of the case doctrine-often called the mandate rule-dictates that a prior decision of a district court becomes mandatory after an appeal and remand. The mandate rule, unlike the law of the case before a remand, binds both the district court and the parties to honor the mandate of the appellate court. The mandate is also binding on'the appellate court should the case return on appeal after remand. .
IHC Health Servs., Inc. v. D & K Mgmt., Inc., 2008 UT 73, ¶ 28, 196 P.3d 588 (footnotes omitted). This rule, if it applied in this case, would presumably not only prohibit the trial court from reconsidering the reliability of Ms. Pantoja's testimony, but also prohibit us from considering Ms. Pantoja's reliability on appeal. .
T 48 We decline to address the question of whether the mandate rule applies in this case because Mr. Clopten has not properly raised or briefed it. In all of Mr. Clopten's briefing, the trial court's decision not to reconsider Judge Fuchs's order is challenged only in a single footnote, reproduced here in its entirety: c he t
Judge Fuchs did not have the benefit of the multiple times Ms. Pantoja testified in this matter to highlight the numerous contradictions (including a subsequent trial) and the trial court should have revisited the issue given the new testimony.
This footnote neither acknowledges that the trial court invoked the mandate rule, nor argues that its invocation of that rule was in error, nor tells us whether any challenge to the trial court's use of the mandate rule has been preserved Cf. Utah R.App. P. 24(a)(5)(A) (fequiring appellants' briefs to include a "citation to the record showing that the issue was preserved in the trial court"). With some charity, we might read it as asserting that the mandate rule should not apply where new evidence has cast doubt on the earlier ruling, but it cites no authority for such an exception. Cf. id. 24(a)(9) (requiring "citations to the authorities . relied on"). And it certainly raises no argument that the mandate rule does not apply in a new trial, In short, it is entirely inadequate for contesting the trial court's decision.
T 44 Instead of contesting Judge Skanchy's decision not to determine Ms. Pantoja's reliability, Mr. Clopten has asked us to determine Ms. Pantoja's reliability ourselves. We cannot oblige. We cannot simply review Judge Fuchs's order, as Mr. Clopten apparently intends us to do: it was Judge Skanchy's order, not Judge Fuchs's order, that admitted Ms. Pantoja's testimony in the trial from which Mr. Clopten appeals. We also cannot review Judge Skanchy's order as if he had independently decided that Ms. Pantoja's testimony is reliable under Ramirez: applying Ramirez involves factual determinations that are outside our purview as an appellate court, and Judge Skanchy made none of those determinations because he concluded that the mandate rule prevented 'him from applying Ramirez.
T 45 Our cases occasionally remark that we are not " 'a depository in which the appealing party may dump the burden of argument and research'" Carlton v. Brown, 2014 UT 6, ¶ 18, 323 P.3d 571 (quoting State v. Thomas, 961 P.2d 299, 305 (Utah 1998)). Mr, Clopten did not intend to use us as one; his brief is lengthy and generally thorough. But where Ms. Pantoja's testimony is concerned, he has asked us to review a decision the trial court did not make, and he has failed to challenge the decision the trial court did make, We therefore. decline to consider whether the trial court erred in allowing Ms. Pantoja to testify. .
IV. THE STATE'S EXPERT TESTIMONY WAS ADMISSIBLE UNDER RULE 702 AND CLOPTEN I
46 At trial, Mr. Clobten took advantage of our decision in his first appeal and called an expert witness to testify about the various factors that might make eyewitness testimony unreliable. In response, the state called its own expert, Dr. John Yuille.
[ 47 Dr. Yuille testified primarily that the laboratory studies on which the defense expert based his testimony have limited real-world applicability because of the differences between laboratory studies and actual crimes. Consequently, although many laboratory studies have shown that such factors as high stress and the presence of a weapon reduce the likelihood of accurate identifications-and although we have adopted these factors into our jurisprudence in Long and Ramirez-Dr. Yuille testified that the extent to which these factors actually influence eyewitnesses' ability to remember crimes is much less certain and much more. complicated than the laboratory studies suggest.
148 Mr: Clopten now argues that Dr. Yuille's testimony 'was inadmissible under rule 702 of the Utah Rules of Evidence and our decision in Clopter I. Because the defense did not object below to the qualification of Dr. Yuille as an expert witness or to most of his testimony, Mr. Clopten acknowledges that this issue was not preserved. He argues that we may nevertheless consider it because admitting the testimony was plain error and because the defense's failure to object denied Mr. Clopten his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. Both arguments fail because Dr. Yuille's testimony was admissible under rule 702 and Clopten I.
A. Dr. Yuille's Testimony Was ' . Admissible Under Rule 702
149 Dr. John Yuille is an emeritus professor in the Department of Psychology at the Univex'sity of British Columbia, He has specialized in eyewitness memory research for forty years, during which tlrrfe he has published over a hundred scholarly works, including eight books and many dozens of peer-reviewed articles. In recognition of his work, he has been inducted as a fellow into the Canadian Psychological Association.
€ 50 There is therefore no dispute that Dr. Yuille is a qualified expert under rule 702(a): The only question is whether his testimony is based on "principles or methods" that "(1) are reliable, (2) are based upon sufficient facts or data, and (8) have been reliably applied to the facts." Utan R. Evin. 702(b). This condition is automatically deemed satisfied "if the underlying principles or methods, including the sufficiency of facts or data and the manner of their application to the facts of the case, are generally accepted by the relevant expert community." Id. 702(c). Mr. Clopten argues that Dr. Yuille's testimony did not meet the requirements of rule 702(b) because, as Dr. Yuille acknowledged, his conclusions -differed from those 'of the maJorlty of researchers. - . j »
51 Mr. Clopten's argument fails because rule 702(b)'s reliability requirement does hot apply to expert witnesses' conclusions, but rathér to the "principles and methods" underlying their conclusions, Certainly, if an expert's conclusions are universally rejected by other experts in the field, that may be strong evidence that her principles and methods are unsound, or at least not generally accepted. But rule 702 does not permit courts to exclude expert testimony because it represents a minority view or because the court disagrees with it. See id. 702, advisory comm. note ("Contrary and inconsistent opinions may simultaneously meet the threshold; it is for the factfinder to reconcile-or choose between-the different opinions."). It allows suppression only where the testimony lacks an adequate methodological basis.
52 In this case, nothing amiss has been identified in the methodological basis for Dr. Yuille's testimony, His criticism of the defense expert's conclusions was not mere speculation, as Mr. Clopten has asserted on appeal. Rather, it was based on a thirty-year history of peer-reviewed field studies, many of them not conducted by Dr. Yuille, and on the generally accepted principle of psychological science that differences between laboratory studies and the real world sometimes limit the studies' external validity-that is, their ability to predict real-world behavior. That Dr. Yuille disagrees with the majority of researchers in his field about some laboratory studies' external validity does not prove that his conclusions lack an adequate methodological basis. It merely demonstrates that eyewitness memory science, like all science, is an unfinished project whose conclusions are subject to debate and revision as researchers publish more studies and methodologies i 1mprove -
B. Br. leles Testzmony Was Admzsszble Under Clopten I
€58 The continued progress of science is among the chief reasons that expert testimo-
ny is superior to the Long instructions: expert witnesses will be aware of recent developments in the field and testify accordingly, while our Long factors are now almost thirty years old. See State v. Long, 721 P.2d 483 (Utah 1986). Even our lengthy discussion of eyewitness memory science in Clopten I is five years old, see Clopten I, 2009 UT 84, 223 P.3d 1103, and we expect that some of the scientific findings on which Clopten I relied have already been called into question by subsequent research. We would not have expected otherwise when Clopten I was decided.
1 54 Yet Mr. Clopten asks us to bind trial judges and experts like Dr. Yuille forever to our own assessment of the state of the science in 2009, arguing that "Yuille's claims directly violated this Court's clear precedent." This argument is a category error: precedent is a statement of law, not facet, so it is logically impossible for a witness's factual claims to "violate precedent."
[ 55 It may violate precedent for a judge to allow a particular witness to testify, but nothing in Clopten I directs judges to accept only those expert witnesses whose understanding of eyewitness memory science agrees with the one we expressed five years ago based on the state of the science at that time. Indeed, it would have been legally problematic if the Clopten I court had required suppression of experts who disagreed with it-Clopten I interprets and applies rule 702, and, as explained above, rule 702 does not allow a court to suppress expert witnesses because it disagrees with their conclusions.
(56° We therefore conclude that Dr. Yuille's testimony was properly admitted. Consequently, Mr. Clopten's trial counsel was not constitutionally ineffective for failing to object to it, and the trial court did not plainly err by failing to exclude it.
V. THE TRIAL COURT DID NOT ERR WHEN IT DECLINED TO GIVE ADDITIONAL PROPOSED INSTRUCTIONS ON EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY
157 Finally, Mr. Clopten argues that his conviction should be reversed because the trial court did not give certain instructions on eyewitness identification that he had requested. Even though Mr. Clopten and the State presented expert testimony on the reliability of eyewitness identifications, the trial court instructed the jury on the Long factors. The Long factors identify a number of considerations a jury may weigh in determining the reliability of an eyewitness identification, including whether the eyewitness had an adequate oppox'tunity and capacity to observe a criminal actor and whether the eyewitness's memories are reliable. State v. Long, 721 P.2d 483, 494 n. 8 (Utah 1986). In addition to these Long instructions, Mr. Clopten asked the trial court to give more detailed instructions regarding identifications where the eyewitness and the suspect are of differ'ent races and instructions, regarding the degree of certainty expressed by the eyewitness.
158 The trial court refused to give these proposed instructions. On appeal, Mr. Clopten argues that the trial court erred. He asserts that the trial court improperly denied him "the ability to educate the jury about factors this Court expressly countenanced in Clopten I."
159 In State v. Long, we directed trial courts to instruct the jury on eyewitness identifications whenever it "is a central issue in a case and such an instruction is requested by the defense." 721 P.2d at 492. Later, in Clopten I, we held that expert testimony "regarding factors that have been shown to contribute to inaccurate eyewitness identifications should be admitted whenever it meets the requirements of rule 702 of the Utah Rules of Evidence." 2009 UT 84, ¶ 30, 223 P.3d 1103. In order to reconcile the central holdings of Long and Clopten I, we further clarified that trial courts should still give a Long instruction where the defendant does not call an expert on eyewitness identifications. Id. "Where eyewitness expert testimony is heard, however, Long no longer applies and the inclusion of a cautionary instruction, if requested, is a matter for the trial judge's discretion." Id.
~ T 60 Because Mr. Clopten presented extensive expert testimony designed to educate the jury on the factors relevant to the reliability of eyewitness identifications, the trial court had no obligation to present a Long instruction. The presentation of any instructions on this subject, including the supplemental eyewitness identification instructions created by Mr. Clopten, was chscre'uonary Given the extent of expert testimony on eyewitness identifications at trial, we see no reason to believe it was an abuse of discretion to decline to give the addltlonal proposed instructions.
CONCLUSION
¶61 We conclude that none of Mr. Clop-ten's assertions of error have merit,. We therefore affirm his conviction.
Associate Chief Justice LEE, concurring in part and in result.
. Mr. Clopten argues that Mr. White's statements are self-inculpatory because State witnesses testified that the shooter was dressed all in red and only Mr. Clopten and Mr. White wore solid red tops on the night of the murder, But there is no indication that Mr. White knew that eyewitnesses would testify that the shooter wore red when Mr. White made the statements. The relevarit inquiry is whether the declarant knew that a statement was inculpatory at the time the statement was made. | Information unknown to the declar-ant at that time is irrelevant.
. During the state's direct examination, Ms. Valdez testified only that she had recognized one of the défense investigator's photographs as the killer, and that the investigator had told her that she would not be helpful for his case. Although in hindsight it may seem obvious that this meant she had identified Mr. Clopten, it may not have been obvious at the time. From the state's questioning, the jury knew nothing about the lineup except that it had been shown to Ms. Valdez by a defense investigator, and the jurors may have imagined alternative explanations for the defense investigator's reaction. In particular, given the defense's theory that Mr. White was the killer, the jurors may 'have imagined that Mr. White, not Mr. Clopten, was depicted on the array, and . that rather than successfully identifying Mr. Clopten, Ms. Valdez had failed to identify Mr. White.