Opinion ID: 423615
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Advance Ruling on Index Cards

Text: 35 In a legal search of appellant's possessions, the FBI found a stack of index cards containing the names, addresses, and license plate numbers of various women. According to the FBI, most of these women did not know appellant; he had apparently compiled the cards by copying the license plate numbers of women he observed and by obtaining their addresses through law enforcement channels. 36 The trial court ruled that these index cards were unduly prejudicial and thus not admissible during the prosecution's case-in-chief. It refused to rule in advance, however, that the cards would not be admissible to impeach appellant should he elect to testify. Appellant argues on appeal that this refusal to rule in advance precluded him from testifying, thus depriving him of his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel. 37 In reviewing the trial court's failure to make the requested advance ruling here, we adopt the analysis of the Second Circuit and the Eighth Circuit. United States v. Pfingst, 477 F.2d 177 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 412 U.S. 941, 93 S.Ct. 2779, 37 L.Ed.2d 400 (1973); United States v. Witschner, 624 F.2d 840 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 994, 101 S.Ct. 532, 66 L.Ed.2d 291 (1980). The trial court has discretion to issue an advance ruling, but it need not do so, even if the refusal to do so prevents a defendant from testifying in his own behalf. Pfingst, supra, at 193; Witschner, supra, at 844; see also United States v. Cook, 608 F.2d 1175, 1186 (9th Cir.1979) (en banc) (pretrial ruling on admissibility of prior convictions left to discretion of trial court), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1034, 100 S.Ct. 706, 62 L.Ed.2d 670 (1980). The test on appellate review is whether the trial court abused its discretion in failing to issue an advance ruling. Pfingst, supra; Witschner, supra. 38 The trial court did not abuse its discretion here. The relevance of the index cards depended on what the appellant would have said once he had actually taken the stand. An advance ruling would have required speculation the trial court was not required to undertake.