Opinion ID: 1237936
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Excluded Testimony of Defendant's Dietician and Counselor

Text: Defendant asserts error in three trial court rulings restricting the testimony of the dietician and the counselor whom the court had appointed to assist defendant. He contends that these rulings violated his right to a reliable penalty determination under the Eighth Amendment to the federal Constitution. (125) The defense asked Helen Vatcher, the state-licensed counselor who counseled defendant during the trial, whether she had ever seen defendant cry. The prosecution objected on relevance grounds and the trial court sustained the objection. Defendant was not prejudiced by the ruling, however, because the witness answered yes to the question and the trial court did not strike the answer. When defense counsel asked the witness, a short time later, whether she had ever seen defendant express extreme emotional pain, the witness answered: Yes. He cried with me. Patricia Manuel, a dietician, testified as a defense witness about defendant's diet in jail during the trial and the effect of poor nutrition on defendant's physical and emotional health. Before she testified, the prosecution requested an offer of proof. Defense counsel said, among other things, that the witness's testimony would help to explain why defendant felt he could not come to court. The trial court remarked that [w]hether [defendant] came to court is irrelevant. Yet the trial court ruled that the proposed testimony was admissible to counter the prosecution's evidence about defendant's violent encounters with officers at the jail. (126) Defendant contends the court erred in precluding testimony about the effect of nutrition on his decision not to be present in the courtroom during the guilt trial. We disagree. Defendant testified fully about his decision not to attend the guilt trial. The court's ruling permitted the dietician to describe defendant's diet during the trial and to explain its probable effect on defendant's emotional and physical health. How the diet affected any particular decision defendant made was beyond the scope of the witness's expertise and would necessarily involve some degree of reliance on hearsay. It was a proper subject for argument, but not for testimony by this witness. Defendant also complains of the trial court's ruling sustaining an objection to a question asking the dietician why defendant was a vegetarian. The witness testified without objection that defendant was a vegetarian but the trial court correctly observed that his reasons for being a vegetarian were not relevant to the opinions the witness expressed about the adequacy of his diet and its effects on his health. (127) Defendant argues that his reasons for being a vegetarian were relevant to show his sensitivity and the uniqueness of his character. The issue is not preserved for review because defendant made no offer of proof. (Evid. Code, § 354.) Moreover, as the trial court's ruling implied, the proper way to present such evidence was by defendant's own testimony. In fact, defendant did explain briefly, and without objection, that as a result of the stresses he experienced during the trial he got to where [he] couldn't eat meat ... couldn't eat oily things, greasy things.