Opinion ID: 1785702
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Prior Opportunity for Cross-Examination

Text: Crawford also requires a prior opportunity for the defendant to cross-examine the declarant about the testimonial statement sought to be admitted. The State argues that this requirement was satisfied here because Contreras was afforded two opportunities to cross-examine the child during discovery depositions. The State also asserts that the State had no control over Contreras's decision not to admit the second videotaped deposition. In examining the history of the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause in Crawford, the Supreme Court explained that it was based on the English common law tradition of live testimony in court subject to adversarial testing. Crawford, 541 U.S. at 43, 124 S.Ct. 1354. This common law tradition was in contrast to the civil law that condone[d] examination in private by judicial officers. Id. The Supreme Court further explained that the originally proposed federal Constitution did not contain a right of confrontation, although many of the states' declarations of rights did. Id. at 48, 124 S.Ct. 1354. In response to general criticism of this omission, the First Congress included the Confrontation Clause in the proposal that became the Sixth Amendment. Id. at 48-49, 124 S.Ct. 1354. Early state decisions involving this right held that depositions or other prior testimony could only be admitted against an accused if he was present and had an opportunity to cross-examine the witness when the testimony was given. Id. at 49, 124 S.Ct. 1354. This prior opportunity to cross-examine is both a necessary and dispositive requirement to the admission of testimonial statements. Id. at 55, 124 S.Ct. 1354. Notably, under no circumstances shall the defendant be deprived of seeing the witness face to face . . . and subjecting him to the ordeal of a cross-examination. Id. at 57, 124 S.Ct. 1354 (quoting Mattox v. United States, 156 U.S. 237, 244, 15 S.Ct. 337, 39 L.Ed. 409 (1895)). Because the Confrontation Clause provides a procedural, not a substantive, guarantee, [i]t commands, not that evidence be reliable, but that reliability be assessed in a particular manner: by testing in the crucible of cross-examination.  Id. at 61, 124 S.Ct. 1354 (emphasis added). In Davis v. Alaska, 415 U.S. 308, 316-17, 94 S.Ct. 1105, 39 L.Ed.2d 347 (1974), the Supreme Court explained that the right of the accused to be confronted with the witnesses against him is more than being allowed to confront the witnesses physically; its primary interest is the right of cross-examination. As the Supreme Court made clear: Cross-examination is the principal means by which the believability of a witness and the truth of his testimony are tested. Subject always to the broad discretion of a trial judge to preclude repetitive and unduly harassing interrogation, the cross-examiner is not only permitted to delve into the witness' story to test the witness' perceptions and memory, but the cross-examiner has traditionally been allowed to impeach, i.e., discredit, the witness. . . . [T]he exposure of a witness' motivation in testifying is a proper and important function of the constitutionally protected right of cross-examination. Id. Thus, it stands to reason that the prior opportunity to cross-examine required by Crawford must serve the same functions. In Ohio v. Roberts , the Supreme Court addressed the adequacy of the defendant's examination of a declarant at an adversary preliminary hearing. Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 70, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980). [5] From Roberts, we can discern that the requirement for confrontation is satisfied where the opportunity is exercised, is more than de minimis, and is the equivalent of significant cross-examination. Roberts, 448 U.S. at 70, 100 S.Ct. 2531; see also Yetter, supra, at 31. In light of Crawford, the Colorado Supreme Court recently held that its preliminary hearings, which are usually restricted to a determination of probable cause and limit the opportunity for cross-examination, do[ ] not provide an adequate opportunity to cross-examine sufficient to satisfy the Confrontation Clause requirements. People v. Fry, 92 P.3d 970, 978 (Colo.2004). Notwithstanding the State's arguments to the contrary here, we have no guidance from the Supreme Court as to whether the Crawford cross-examination requirement would be satisfied if the opportunity is not actually exercised or if defense counsel has no motive to conduct a trial-like cross-examination. However, based on previous case law, we conclude that the same waiver requirements would be applicable to this constitutional right as to any other, i.e., waiver must be knowing, voluntary, and intelligent. As the Supreme Court stated in Barber v. Page, 390 U.S. 719, 88 S.Ct. 1318, 20 L.Ed.2d 255 (1968): The State argues that petitioner waived his right to confront Woods at trial by not cross-examining him at the preliminary hearing. That contention is untenable. Not only was petitioner unaware that Woods would be in a federal prison at the time of his trial, but he was also unaware that, even assuming Woods' incarceration, the State would make no effort to produce Woods at trial. To suggest that failure to cross-examine in such circumstances constitutes a waiver of the right of confrontation at a subsequent trial hardly comports with this Court's definition of a waiver as an intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege. Id. at 725, 88 S.Ct. 1318 (quoting Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 464, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938)); see also State v. Basiliere, 353 So.2d 820, 824 (Fla.1977) (concluding that defendant did not waive his constitutional right of confrontation because, at the time of deposition, the defendant had no idea that the deponent would die and that the only opportunity to confront the deponent would be at the deposition). The State contends that Florida's rules of criminal procedure provide an adequate opportunity for cross-examination through the chance to conduct a discovery deposition and to perpetuate the testimony of a witness through a deposition. Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220(h)(1)(A) provides that after the charging document has been filed the defendant may take the deposition of any witness listed by the prosecutor as a Category A witness under rule 3.220(b)(1)(A)(i). [6] However, rule 3.220(h)(7) provides that a defendant is not to be physically present at a deposition except by stipulation of the parties. The court can order the defendant's physical presence upon a showing of good cause. Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.220(h)(7). As explained in the committee notes, [c]ases requiring the defendant's presence are the exception rather than the rule. Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.220 comm. note (1989). The Supreme Court Commission on Criminal Discovery also explained that it was a common complaint that the presence of the defendant intimidates [rape and child abuse victims] and this trauma to the victim surpasses the benefit to the defense of having the defendant present at the deposition. Id. Because the commission found no right of a defendant to attend a deposition other than that granted by the rules of discovery, the commission stated its belief that no such right should exist in those cases, i.e., rape and child abuse cases. Id. Thus, as represented by the Commission on Criminal Discovery and adopted by this Court in rule 3.220(h), discovery depositions, especially in sex crime cases, would not function as the equivalent of the cross-examination opportunity envisioned by Crawford. See also Yetter, supra, at 30 ([I]f a discovery deposition is to have any chance of substitution for at-trial confrontation, the prosecution will at least have to stipulate to the attendance of the defendant, who, in turn, will have to be given the opportunity to attend.). Additionally, the purpose of a discovery deposition is at odds with the concept of meaningful cross-examination. In State v. Green, 667 So.2d 756, 759 (Fla.1995), this Court explained the fundamental distinctions between depositions taken to perpetuate testimony pursuant to Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.190(j) and discovery depositions under rule 3.220(h): Depositions taken pursuant to rule 3.190 are specifically taken for the purpose of introducing those depositions at trial as substantive evidence. Depositions taken pursuant to rule 3.220, on the other hand, are for discovery purposes only and, for a number of reasons, assist in shortening the length of trials. How a lawyer prepares for and asks questions of a deposition witness whose testimony may be admissible at trial as substantive evidence under rule 3.190 is entirely different from how a lawyer prepares for and asks questions of a witness being deposed for discovery purposes under rule 3.220. In effect, the knowledge that a deposition witness's testimony can be used substantively at trial may have a chilling effect on a lawyer's questioning of such a witness. A defendant cannot be expected to conduct an adequate cross-examination as to matters of which he first gained knowledge at the taking of the deposition. Basiliere, 353 So.2d at 824-25, especially if the defendant is unaware that this deposition would be the only opportunity he would have to examine and challenge the accuracy of the deponent's statements. Id. at 824. Finally, a deposition that is taken pursuant to rule 3.220 is only admissible for purposes of impeachment and not as substantive evidence. See Rodriguez v. State, 609 So.2d 493 (Fla.1992) (ruling that only depositions taken pursuant to rule 3.190(j) may be used as substantive evidence because rule 3.220 makes no provision for the use of discovery depositions as substantive evidence); State v. James, 402 So.2d 1169, 1171 (Fla.1981) ([D]iscovery depositions may not be used as substantive evidence in a criminal trial.); Basiliere, 353 So.2d 820 at 823 (holding that deceased victim's discovery deposition was not admissible as evidence in defendant's trial because defendant was not present during the examination); cf. State v. Green, 667 So.2d 756, 759 (Fla.1995) (ruling that an inconsistent discovery deposition given by a victim who recants at trial is not admissible as substantive evidence under section 90.801(2)(a) which provides that an inconsistent statement given under oath in a deposition is not hearsay). Thus, exercising the right to take a discovery deposition under rule 3.220 is not the functional substitute of in-court confrontation of the witness because the defendant is usually prohibited from being present, the motivation for the deposition does not result in the equivalent of significant cross-examination, and the resulting deposition cannot be admitted as substantive evidence at trial. In fact, for a discovery deposition pursuant to rule 3.220(h) to meet the Crawford requirement of an opportunity for cross-examination, it would have to be the functional equivalent of a rule 3.190(j) deposition to perpetuate testimony. For the above reasons, we conclude that defense counsel's discovery depositions of the child victim did not afford Contreras an opportunity for cross-examination as required by Crawford. Because the child's hearsay statement was testimonial and Contreras had no opportunity to cross-examine the declarant, the admission of the statement violated Contreras's Sixth Amendment right of confrontation.