Opinion ID: 1239284
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: admissibility of testimony of an alleged threat made to a witness

Text: Defendant contends that he was denied the right to confront his accuser where the complaining witness gave the explanation on redirect questioning by the prosecutor that she had identified the wrong man at the corporeal lineup because she had been frightened by alleged threats by her sister-in-law as follows: [S]he just told me [that] she knew him [defendant Doursey Lee] and was a real good friend of his; everything; and somebody would be after me; something, you know. I was scared    . Parenthetically, we find that the witness's testimony regarding the sister-in-law's alleged out-of-court statement is not barred by the hearsay rule. The hearsay rule proscribes evidence of statements made by another offered to prove the facts asserted therein. But where the alleged statements of the sister-in-law were offered to show, circumstantially, the effect of the communited statement on the hearer, the complaining witness, then it is not offered for a hearsay purpose because its value does not depend upon the truth of the statement. McCormick, Evidence, § 228, pp 464-465. Here, the testimony was elicited by the prosecutor on redirect to show the complaining witness's reasonable apprehension of danger and thereby rehabilitate her testimony after her misidentification at the corporeal lineup had been brought out by the defense. Significantly, no objection was made to this testimony during the trial, yet Lee now argues that he should have had the right to confront the sister-in-law in court. Since the statements were not barred by the hearsay rule, the prosecution was not required to produce and indorse as a witness the out-of-court declarant. Therefore, Lee's claim of error apparently rests on MCLA 763.1; MSA 28.854 which provides that: On the trial of every indictment or other criminal accusation, the party accused shall be allowed to be heard by counsel and may defend himself, and he shall have a right to produce witnesses and proofs in his favor, and meet the witnesses who are produced against him face to face. A defendant is afforded on appeal an opportunity to protect himself against infringement of his statutory or constitutional rights. But he is not entitled to retry his case on appeal. In the case at bar Lee was not denied the right to call, under the court's subpoena power if necessary, MCLA 600.1455; MSA 27A.1455, witnesses on his own behalf. Therefore, had he desired to confront the sister-in-law in court, he had the right to call her to the stand, as a hostile witness, and confront her face to face. He did not choose to do so, and therefore he will not now be heard to complain that his trial strategy was not effective. No error being found, the conviction is affirmed.