Opinion ID: 1435822
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: 3507 Admissibility Foreign Language Statements Proper Interpretation Required

Text: A majority of individuals responding to this Court's Racial and Ethnic Fairness Task Force's statewide public opinion poll said that at least some improvement was needed in accommodating those with special language needs in the Delaware courts. A substantial majority of judges, lawyers, and court employees responding to the Task Force survey said that they had observed difficulties in communicating with witnesses or parties in the courts due to language difficulties. The vast majority of the need for interpreters involved Spanish interpretation. In 1996, this Court unanimously directed, in part, that: (1) A certification program should be developed and implemented for court interpreters providing foreign language interpretative services in Delaware, with priority given to certification of court interpreters providing services in the most commonly utilized languages, including Spanish. Towards that end, the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) shall explore all options for obtaining access to approved oral certification/proficiency language tests and interpreter training programs being developed through a consortium of states under the auspices of the National Center for State Courts. (2) The AOC shall develop and maintain a list of qualified court interpreters located in all counties based upon the following criteria: criminal history background evaluations and other background information, including feedback from courts or others who have utilized the interpreter's services, and certifications status (once the certification program is implemented). This list shall include sign language interpreters who have registered with the Delaware Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. (3) The AOC shall develop a systematic method for recording costs and data related to the use of court interpreters by court and county. (4) To be included on the list of qualified court interpreters, a court interpreter must complete an orientation session presented by AOC personnel, or demonstrate that he or she has satisfactorily completed comparable training in legal or court interpreting. Orientation sessions will include presentations on the role of the interpreter in the court process, ethical issues related to court interpretation, the structure of the Delaware court and justice system, social and cultural diversity issues and basic legal terminology, among other topics, and will be given on a regular basis. The implementation date of this provision will be six months from the effective date of this Administrative Directive to allow a reasonable time for court interpreters to satisfy this requirement. (5) Interpreters included on the list maintained by the AOC should be utilized for the provision of interpretative services in court proceedings, unless none of the listed interpreters are willing or available to provide services at the time or date those services are needed by the Court. (6) To guide the professional conduct of court interpreters the annexed Code is adopted and promulgated as The Delaware Court Interpreters' Code of Professional Responsibility. (7) Each court interpreter employed by the Judiciary to provide interpretative services in connection with a proceeding before any court in Delaware or any other activity ordered by a court or conducted under the supervision of a court shall swear, under oath, that they will comply with the provisions set forth in the Delaware Court Interpreters' Code of Professional Responsibility. [54] The Delaware Court Interpreters' Code of Professional Responsibility [55] is modeled on the Code of Professional Responsibility for Interpreters in the Minnesota State Court System. It prescribes ten canons that explain and govern the conduct of the interpreter in the Delaware court system. Before participating in any court proceeding, all interpreters must swear under oath that they will comply with the provisions of the Delaware Court Interpreters' Code of Professional Responsibility. [56] In response to Administrative Directive 107, Delaware joined the State Court Interpreter Certification Consortium which had been created by the National Center for State Courts and the states of Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington in 1995. [57] At the present time, Delaware's Chief Magistrate, Patricia W. Griffin, is the Chair of that Consortium. This nationwide program develops rigorous proficiency exams using legal and forensic terminology in English and another language. To pass the exams, prospective court interpreters must possess mastery of both English and the chosen foreign language at the level of an educated native speaker. In addition, they must have the ability to interpret in the simultaneous, consecutive, and sight modes, and be able to convey messages accurately, completely, and promptly. [58] Ultimately, the goal is to assess an interpreter's ability to interpret with exactitude while accurately reflecting a speaker's nuances and level of formality. The interpreter must interpret the original source material without editing, summarizing, deleting, or adding while conserving the language level, style, tone, and intent of the speaker. The interpreter must render what may be termed the `legal equivalent' of the source message. [59] Administrative Directive 107 was in effect at the time of Diaz's 1998 trial. Therefore, the Superior Court was required to use a qualified foreign language interpreter from the list maintained by the Administrative Office of the Courts, unless none of the listed interpreters was willing or available. In addition, the interpreter employed by the Superior Court was required to comply with the Delaware Court Interpreters' Code of Professional Responsibility. [60] In this appeal, Diaz does not raise any concerns with regard to the court interpreter who translated Ms. Rivera's trial testimony from Spanish to English. Diaz does, however, challenge the admission of the English translation by others of Ms. Rivera's three prior out-of-court statements that were originally given by Ms. Rivera in Spanish. Specifically, Diaz contends that the Superior Court erred by summarily dismissing his request for a showing that the English translations of Ms. Rivera's prior out-of-court statements were made by a qualified interpreter. Section 3507 [61] provides in pertinent part, as follows: (a) In a criminal prosecution, the voluntary out-of-court prior statement of a witness who is present and subject to cross-examination may be used as affirmative evidence with substantive independent testimonial value. (b) The rule in subsection (a) of this section shall apply regardless of whether the witness' in-court testimony is consistent with the prior statement or not. The rule shall likewise apply with or without a showing of surprise by the introducing party. Thus, the statute provides that if a Section 3507 statement is admitted it may be used as affirmative evidence with substantive independent testimonial value. This Court has held that before the out-of-court statement can be introduced into evidence, the witness must touch on both the events perceived and the out-of-court statement itself. [62] The witness must also be present and subject to cross-examination. When a witness testifies in a foreign language, the direct and cross-examination is made known to the trier of fact only by a qualified interpreter. When a prior out-of-court statement was originally given in another language, it is imperative that the trial judge ascertain the accuracy of that translation before the English interpretation of the statement is admitted into evidence. The accuracy of the translation is dependent upon the qualification of the interpreter. It would be incongruous and fundamentally unfair to have a qualified interpreter for the translation of the direct and cross-examination of foreign language trial testimony and have no standard for the interpreter who translated a Section 3507 statement from a foreign language into English. Once the English translation of the Section 3507 statement is admitted into evidence, the statute gives it substantive independent testimonial value. In Diaz's case, Ms. Rivera gave three prior out-of-court statements in Spanish. The Spanish statements to Officer Sutton and Ms. Jones were both translated by Ms. Rivera's then seven-year-old daughter. The Spanish statement to Detective Santiago was translated by Detective Santiago. Unfortunately, none of these original out-of-court statements in Spanish was tape-recorded. [63] Therefore, Diaz could not challenge the accuracy of the translations with his own interpreter. A person who is unquestionably fluent in a foreign language may not understand the role of an official interpreter and the ethical issues related to court interpretation. Before the English translations of Ms. Rivera's prior out-of-court statements in Spanish were admitted pursuant to 3507, Diaz was entitled to have an independent judicial determination made with regard to the interpreter's proficiency in Spanish, understanding of the role of an interpreter, and knowledge of the ethical issues related to court interpretation. Those judicial determinations should be made on the record at Diaz's new trial before a ruling is made on the admissibility of each Section 3507 statement that was originally given in Spanish.