Opinion ID: 1722313
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: cross-examination of robert lee williams

Text: Defendant claims that the trial court improperly interfered with his counsel's questioning of the witness Robert Lee Williams concerning the witness's mental condition. He contends that he was seeking information material to the issue of the witness's competence, credibility and testimonial faculties, and that he was prevented from adequately impeaching the testimony of this significant witness. At trial, the direct examination of Williams was relatively brief. Williams testified that he had spent the night of Saturday, November 3rd, with the victim, had left in the morning, returned to the victim's apartment in the afternoon, and then left again. As he was leaving the building on the afternoon of November 4th he encountered a man he identified as the defendant. After they passed on the staircase he heard a sound of someone knocking, coming from the area of the third floor near the victim's apartment. Williams testified that he had not previously met the defendant. On cross-examination Williams was questioned concerning his mental condition. He was asked whether he had ever been treated for a mental disease or defect and whether he had ever been hospitalized for a mental disease or defect. He answered yes to each of these questions, and stated that in 1972 he had been hospitalized in Jackson, Mississippi, and in 1974, in Memphis, Tennessee, and Jackson, Mississippi. Defense counsel then asked Williams about the type of mental disease or defect for which he had been hospitalized, but the state interposed an objection. There followed a prolonged conference outside the presence of the jury concerning the physician-patient privilege, whether Williams was going to invoke it, and whether it had been waived. The defense claimed that Williams had waived his privilege because he had signed medical consent forms which allowed the defense to see his hospital records and talk to his doctors. [4] The validity of the consents came into question, however, and testimony on this subject was taken from Williams and from Curtis Riley, an investigator for the Public Defender's Office of the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee. After this testimony the court found the consents and alleged waiver invalid. Williams was allowed to and did invoke the physician-patient privilege. Defendant argued then, as he does here, that the exception to the rule of privilege stated in sec. 905.04(4) (d), Wis. Rules of Evidence, relating to homicide trials, applied. [5] The trial judge correctly rejected this argument, stating that the exception only relates to facts that are circumstances with respect to the homicide. The cross-examination of Williams before the jury then resumed. Williams testified that his hospitalizations were not court commitments; that he had never seen or heard things which he later learned were not there; that once, in 1974, he had a lapse of memory, but that no one had ever told him that he had done something that he did not remember doing. At the time of trial, he was taking medication and had been taking medication on the date of the homicide. Williams, twenty-six, had never been convicted of any crime, except for a fight which occurred while he was in high school. Dr. Craig Larson, a psychiatrist, was called as a court's witness. He testified that he had examined Williams that same day and concluded that as of the date of trial Williams was not suffering from any mental disease or defect, although in the past he had had three short periods of hospitalization for a mental problem. Defense counsel made offers of proof from which it appeared that he wished to suggest to the jury that Williams' identification of the defendant as the man he saw on the stairway on the afternoon of November 4, 1973, was the product of an hallucination. The general propriety of examining witnesses as to their mental condition insofar as it affects credibility was established by Sturdevant v. State, 49 Wis.2d 142, 181 N.W.2d 523, 44 A.L.R.3d 1196 (1970). Inquiry into the existence of and treatment for mental affliction is proper where it appears that a connection exists between the affliction and the reliability of the witness's testimony. [6] Although cross-examination with respect to mental condition and its possible effect upon the accuracy of testimony is proper, it does not follow that such cross-examination may proceed free of all restraint. Trial courts possess considerable latitude in determining the proper scope of cross-examination, the matter resting in the sound discretion of the court. State v. Cydzik, 60 Wis.2d 683, 690, 211 N.W.2d 421 (1973); Edwards v. State, 49 Wis.2d 105, 109, 181 N.W.2d 383 (1970). Thus where a trial judge allows some inquiry into the mental condition of a witness, but restricts the questioning when a certain point is reached, the question on appeal is whether in so doing the court abused its discretion. [7] [11, 12] We cannot say the judge abused his discretion in barring further cross-examination of the witness or in failing to take any other steps in regard to this testimony once the witness's mental condition was put into question. An attack upon competency does not necessarily allow an unlimited inquiry into the medical history of the witness. A cross-examiner is entitled to ask about past or present mental condition or treatment which common experience or expert testimony shows to be relevant to the witness's ability to testify. The court must weigh the potential unfairness and embarrassment to the witness of a full inquiry into his past medical history against whatever materiality the evidence might have. We need not draw the parameters of permissibility here. We need only say that here the inquiry into the witness's mental condition permitted by the court was sufficient. The fact that Williams had been hospitalized on several occasions for mental illness was before the jury, and Dr. Larson related much of what Williams had told him regarding the history of Williams' mental problems. Dr. Larson testified as to his opinion on the witness's competency on the date of trial. The jury knew the witness had been on some kind of medication relating to his mental problems at the time of the crime, as well as at the time of the trial. Williams denied having in the past seen things he later was told had not actually occurred, which the defense apparently felt to be equivalent to the question whether he had experienced hallucinations, fantasies or delusions. The defendant had an opportunity to explore the issue and the court's decision to permit no further evidence relating to the witness's medical history was not an abuse of discretion. The jury had an opportunity to observe the witness on the stand under examination by both sides. The witness's identification of the defendant led to the defendant's arrest but it was not of great import at the trial. The defendant's confession and physical evidence were more than sufficient to establish the defendant's identity as the murderer.