Opinion ID: 1946348
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: refusal to summon prisoners

Text: Gray argues that the trial court's refusal to order the return of prisoners Halbert and Breland from Parchman to testify in his behalf violated his right under Mississippi Constitution Article 3, § 26, and United States Constitution Amendment VI, that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right ... to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor.... See United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976); Washington v. Texas, 388 U.S. 14, 87 S.Ct. 1920, 18 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1967). Gray filed a motion three days prior to trial requesting an order to return the two prisoners. The morning of trial, he offered in support of his motion a letter from Halbert stating that a prisoner (identified by defense counsel as Breland) was told by Cannaday while they were in the Biloxi jail that she had tried to cut off Wojcik's head. Gray argues that the sole basis for the trial judge's refusal was the expense of transporting the prisoners from Parchmen to the Gulf Coast. The trial judge did refer to the expense of transferring prisoners in ruling on this motion, but the primary basis for overruling Gray's request was that the testimony of Breland as to what Cannaday told him would be inadmissible hearsay if offered to prove the truth of the fact asserted. Murphy v. State, 453 So.2d 1290, 1293-94 (Miss. 1984). Also, any testimony by Halbert as to what Cannaday told Breland would be double hearsay, unless each link fits under an exception to the hearsay rule. Id. at 1294. The judge recognized that if Cannaday took the stand as a witness, waived her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, and denied that she took part in the murder, then Breland's testimony that she said she cut off Wojcik's head might have been admissible to impeach her testimony as a prior inconsistent statement. Therefore, the trial judge ruled that, if the proper predicate were laid for impeaching Cannaday, he would reconsider his ruling on the motion to transfer. The trial judge also was made aware that Breland had discussed the matter with defense counsel and said that, if brought back, he would not testify. At trial, Cannaday was called by Gray to testify but she invoked the Fifth Amendment right to remain silent on all matters concerning the murder. The trial judge's refusal to order the attendance of the two prisoners was based on the lack of a colorable need for them to be summoned. The court correctly foresaw the fact that Cannaday, whose trial followed Gray's, would choose to remain silent, so that no basis arose for Halbert and Breland to be summoned to give their otherwise inadmissible testimony. Even so, the trial court left its ruling open for reconsideration in the event that Cannaday's testimony allowed for impeachment. It has been observed that the accused's right to compulsory process is not absolute and the state may require a showing of some colorable need for persons to be summoned lest the right be abused. Passman v. Blackburn, 652 F.2d 559, 566 (5th Cir.1981). The motion to return Halbert and Breland from Parchman was addressed to the trial court's sound discretion, and we cannot conclude that Gray has demonstrated that the court's ruling was so fundamentally unfair as to deprive him of due process of law. See United States v. Wilson, 732 F.2d 404, 412 (5th Cir.1984). Gray's reliance on Gradsky v. State, 243 Miss. 379, 137 So.2d 820 (1962), is misplaced. In that case we held that a defendant may summon his own attorney to give evidence vital to his defense, even though it may cause the lawyer embarrassment or raise the appearance of an ethical violation. Unlike Gradsky, supra, the admissibility of evidence which Gray sought to introduce through the prisoners was contingent upon the laying of a proper predicate which failed to materialize. This assignment of error is without merit.