Opinion ID: 2072886
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: pretrial silence

Text: The first issue involves questions asked by the prosecuting attorney when cross-examining Carmody, who took the witness stand voluntarily in his own behalf. The first question asked by the prosecutor, who had not participated in the preliminary hearing, was whether Carmody had taken the stand at the hearing. With no objection from his counsel, Carmody replied, I was never asked to. The prosecutor then asked whether Carmody knew, at the time of the preliminary hearing, that if Eldon Hanson was the driver there would be no further case. The trial court overruled defense counsel's objection and, at defense counsel's suggestion, the question was reworded as follows: At the time of the preliminary hearing did you know and understand that if it was established that Eldon Hanson was the driver of the automobile there would be no further case? Carmody's reply was that he did not understand that, after which defense counsel again objected on the ground that the question called for a legal conclusion, and again the court overruled the objection. On this appeal it is argued that the statements of the prosecutor and the inferences from the questioning conveyed to the jury an impression that Carmody was under a duty to testify at the preliminary hearing. It has been held that a defendant in a criminal case who takes the witness stand in his own behalf is subject to the same rules of cross-examination as those that govern other witnesses. State v. Kent, 5 N.D. 516, 67 N.W. 1052, 35 L.R.A. 518 (1896) (also known as State v. Pancoast). See also, State v. Hanson, 73 N.W.2d 135, 139 (N.D.1955), where we said: A defendant cannot be compelled to testify. But when he voluntarily does so, he waives his constitutional privilege of not being required to give evidence tending to incriminate him, to impeach him, and he may be asked questions as to other offenses the same as any other witness. State v. Kent, supra . Where an accused voluntarily takes the witness stand in his own behalf, he waives his constitutional privilege of not answering proper questions that may tend to convict him of the crime for which he is on trial and he subjects himself to the same rules that govern other witnesses as to cross-examination and impeachment. When he voluntarily offers testimony upon any fact, the same constitutes a waiver as to all other relevant facts because of the necessary connection between them all. The United States Supreme Court, in Raffel v. United States, 271 U.S. 494, 46 S.Ct. 566, 70 L.Ed. 1054 (1926), held that: The safeguards against self-incrimination are for the benefit of those who do not wish to become witnesses in their own behalf and not for those who do. Raffel was subsequently limited by Stewart v. United States, 366 U.S. 1, 81 S.Ct. 941, 6 L.Ed.2d 84 (1961), in which the United States Supreme Court held that comment upon defendant's failure to testify at a previous proceeding was proper only when the prior silence was inconsistent with subsequent exculpatory statements in a later proceeding. Such prior silence could be elicited for impeachment purposes, the court held, when it constituted an admission. The view that silence after arrest at a previous proceeding could constitute an admission after the court's decision in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), seems incongruous, and whatever remaining vitality Raffel retained appears to have been substantially diminished by Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 96 S.Ct. 2240, 49 L.Ed.2d 91 (1976). In that case the prosecutor's cross-examination of the defendants concerning their failure to make exculpatory statements at the time of their arrest was held to violate due process. In deciding the constitutional question expressly left open by its decision in United States v. Hale, 422 U.S. 171, 95 S.Ct. 2133, 45 L.Ed.2d 99 (1975), the court discussed post-arrest silence in light of Miranda in these terms: Despite the importance of cross-examination, we have concluded that the Miranda decision compels rejection of the State's position. The warnings mandated by that case, as a prophylactic means of safeguarding Fifth Amendment rights, see Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U.S. 433, 443-444, 94 S.Ct. 2357, 2363-2364, 41 L.Ed.2d 182 (1974), require that a person taken into custody be advised immediately that he has the right to remain silent, that anything he says may be used against him, and that he has a right to retained or appointed counsel before submitting to interrogation. Silence in the wake of these warnings may be nothing more than the arrestee's exercise of these Miranda rights. Thus, every post-arrest silence is insolubly ambiguous because of what the State is required to advise the person arrested.    We hold that the use for impeachment purposes of petitioners' silence, at the time of arrest and after receiving Miranda warnings, violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Doyle v. Ohio, 96 S.Ct. 2244, 2245, supra. We think Doyle is particularly applicable to the instant case in which Carmody chose not to testify at the preliminary hearing. The decision often rests upon the sound advice of counsel, and nothing should be ascribed to Carmody's decision to accept that advice and remain silent. To do so in this instance was constitutional error. However, not every constitutional violation requires automatic reversal of a conviction. Doyle clearly indicated the applicability of the standard enunciated in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), when it stated: The State has not claimed that such use in the circumstances of this case might have been harmless error. Doyle v. Ohio, 96 S.Ct. 2245, supra. Chapman declined to rule that all federal constitutional errors require automatic reversal, and instead placed a heavy burden upon the beneficiary of a constitutional error to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the error complained of did not contribute to the verdict obtained. The comments to the North Dakota harmless error rule, Rule 52, NDRCrimP, adopt the Chapman test that before a federal constitutional error may be held harmless, the court must be able to declare a belief that it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. In State v. Bragg, 221 N.W.2d 793, 801 (N.D.1974), (a case in which the defendant did not voluntarily take the stand) we stated that the defendant's statement to the effect that his knowledge of a burglary was none of the investigating officer's business was an invocation by the defendant of his Fifth Amendment privilege of remaining silent as to the particular interrogatory posed. In that opinion, we quoted with approval from a Michigan court of appeals decision in People v. Severance, 43 Mich. App. 394, 204 N.W.2d 357, 359 (1972), in which that court commented upon the prosecution's use of the defendant's previous silence in these terms: Admission of such testimony is reversible error unless we can say that it is harmless error under the ruling in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), reh. den. 386 U.S. 987, 87 S.Ct. 1283, 18 L.Ed.2d 241 (1967). The Chapman harmless error standard has been applied in two recent federal court decisions which have decided the issue of the prosecutor's comment (when defendants have voluntarily taken the stand) upon the defendant's previous silence in light of Doyle. In Booton v. Hanauer, 541 F.2d 296 (1st Cir. 1976), the court found that it was constitutional error to introduce evidence of a refusal to answer questions but, after examining the circumstances and finding the absence of any kind of aggravating circumstances which have led to reversals of convictions in other cases, held that the error was harmless. In United States v. Harp, 536 F.2d 601 (5th Cir. 1976), the court, after making a similar analysis of the circumstances, concluded that because the prosecutor's comments struck at the jugular of their [defendants'] story, those remarks cannot be classified as harmless. Compare also the divided opinion by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Reichhoff v. State, 76 Wis.2d 375, 251 N.W.2d 470 (1977). Returning to our instant case, which was tried when Raffel, supra, still retained most of its vitality, the questions that were asked and the responses given by Carmody left no obvious inferences of a duty of a defendant to testify at his preliminary hearing. Significantly, there was no objection voiced when the question was asked as to whether he had testified. Objection was raised to the question relating to Carmody's understanding that if it were established that Hanson had been the driver of the automobile, the case against him would be ended. We are not persuaded that, by inference, this must be construed as a prejudicial comment concerning Carmody's pretrial silence. We know of no argument to the jury by the prosecutor, in this case, urging the jury to infer guilt from the silence. Carmody did not move for a mistrial. In the light of other substantial evidence of guilt, including admissions properly admitted, we are convinced that the constitutional error which occurred when the questions relating to pretrial silence were asked did not affect the substantial rights of Carmody. We believe that the constitutional error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Under the standards prescribed in Chapman and under Rule 52(a), NDRCrimP, it was harmless error.