Opinion ID: 1201386
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: evidence of henry's silence

Text: The arresting officer testified that Henry said nothing about the killing when he was stopped on the highway. The state argued in closing that in view of this failure to volunteer information, Henry's story of innocence at trial didn't make sense. Henry claims that the evidence and argument (1) violated his right to remain silent, (2) were irrelevant and therefore inadmissible under Rule 401, Ariz.R.Evid., and (3) impermissibly impeached the exculpatory version of events that he gave on the witness stand. The state cannot impeach a testifying defendant with his post-arrest silence if it was or could have been in response to Miranda warnings. Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 619, 96 S.Ct. 2240, 2245, 49 L.Ed.2d 91, 98 (1976) (violation of defendant's due process rights); United States v. Hale, 422 U.S. 171, 95 S.Ct. 2133, 45 L.Ed.2d 99 (1975) (silence following Miranda warnings ordinarily so ambiguous as to have little probative value). When a defendant is not induced into silence by Miranda warnings, however, or waives his rights by answering questions after such warnings are given, due process is not implicated. Fletcher v. Weir, 455 U.S. 603, 102 S.Ct. 1309, 71 L.Ed.2d 490 (1982) (silence not induced by Miranda warnings); Anderson v. Charles, 447 U.S. 404, 100 S.Ct. 2180, 65 L.Ed.2d 222 (1980) (rights waived by post-arrest statement). Here, Henry's due process rights were not violated. This case does not involve silence induced by Miranda warnings. At no time, either before or after having been given such warnings, did Henry choose to remain silent, or otherwise invoke his constitutional right to do so. On the contrary, he talked freely. The stories he told, however, were vastly different from one another. At the scene of the traffic stop, and before any Miranda warnings were given, Henry volunteered information about the items in the back of the truck. He stated that he had paid the owner $50 to borrow the truck and that he had to return it by 9:00 that night. He also gave a false name. Later, after having been told of his right to remain silent, he repeated the same basic story at the DPS office. Once confronted with his true identity, however, he gave a totally different version of the facts, including details about how Foote allegedly committed the killing. This was the first time he mentioned the murder. It is also the story he repeated at trial. The fact that Henry was silent about the murder during the early versions he gave the police does not mean that his constitutional right to remain silent was violated by the later mention of those statements, which were clearly inconsistent with what he said at trial. As the United States Supreme Court stated in Anderson, [e]ach of two inconsistent descriptions of events may be said to involve `silence' insofar as it omits facts included in the other version. But Doyle [ v. Ohio ] does not require any such formalistic understanding of `silence,' and we find no reason to adopt such a view in this case. 447 U.S. at 409, 100 S.Ct. at 2182, 65 L.Ed.2d at 227. There are no constitutional implications here. Thus, this issue becomes one of state evidentiary law. Fletcher, 455 U.S. at 607, 102 S.Ct. at 1312, 71 L.Ed.2d at 494. We find no error under the facts as presented. See State v. Tuzon, 118 Ariz. 205, 207, 575 P.2d 1231, 1233 (1978) (defendant testified to self-defense at trial; was impeached with failure to mention self-defense during post-arrest statement); State v. Raffaele, 113 Ariz. 259, 263, 550 P.2d 1060, 1064 (1976) (prosecutor's comments on defendant's credibility permissible); Cf. State v. Benton, 109 Ariz. 427, 428-29, 510 P.2d 743, 744-45 (1973) (no fundamental error in asking defendant if he had told anyone besides arresting officer of his innocence). Because the evidence was relevant only as impeachment, the state should not have elicited the testimony in its case-in-chief. Since it could have done so on cross-examination, however, and did do so on rebuttal, the error does not require reversal. State v. Villarreal, 126 Ariz. 589, 590, 617 P.2d 541, 542 (1980) (admission by silence adduced in state's case-in-chief harmless error).