Opinion ID: 331987
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the district court's in camera rulings.

Text: 17 The last two errors urged by appellant as grounds for reversal involve pre-trial rulings by the district court in an in camera hearing on appellant's motion to have John Doe produced at trial as a defense witness. Appellant contends that it was reversible error for the court to prohibit his attorney from cross-examining Agent Rochon as to the confidential informer's reliability, and to deny the motion to call Doe as a witness at trial. While we reject the first argument, we hold that it was error for the district court to deny appellant his Sixth Amendment right to call Doe as a witness. 18 With respect to the issue of limiting the scope of cross-examination of Agent Rochon in the in camera hearing, we do not find that the district court's refusal to allow questions pertaining to the confidential informer's reliability constituted reversible error. As noted before, the reliability of the informer in this case is irrelevant to the central issue of criminal liability: that is, whether appellant knowingly possessed (and/or conspired to possess) cocaine with the intent to distribute it. Moreover, appellant raised no Fourth Amendment issues with regard to which the informer's reliability might have been relevant. There was, for instance, no search or seizure based on the reliability of the informer. Given these facts, it is difficult to see how appellant's case could have been prejudiced by the district court's in camera refusal to allow defense counsel to pursue the issue of informer reliability via cross-examination of Agent Rochon. 19 The court's prohibition against calling John Doe as a witness at trial, however, presents a much more serious issue of constitutional dimensions. The Sixth Amendment guarantees to a criminal defendant certain fundamental rights, including the right to call witnesses on his behalf at trial, and to have the use of compulsory process if necessary to achieve this purpose. 3 In this case, however, the district court found that appellant's Sixth Amendment rights must be subordinated to the government's claim of confidential informer's privilege as enunciated by the Supreme Court in Roviaro v. United States, 353 U.S. 53, 77 S.Ct. 623, 1 L.Ed.2d 639 (1957). 20 In Roviaro the Supreme Court recognized for the first time the existence of a confidential informer's privilege, which it defined as 'in reality the Government's privilege to withhold from disclosure the identity of persons who furnish information of violations of law to officers charged with enforcement of that law.' 353 U.S. at 59, 77 S.Ct. at 627. In that case, Roviaro had unsuccessfully sought prior to trial, to learn the identity of the government informer involved in the case, claiming that the informer had been an active participant in the illegal activity at issue (a narcotics offense), and that therefore the government could not withhold his identity, his whereabouts, and whether he was alive or dead at the time of trial. The Supreme Court held that the district court had erred in upholding the government's assertion of the privilege, given that the informer was the sole participant, other than Roviaro, in the transaction charged, and the only witness in a position to amplify or contradict the testimony of government witnesses. Refusing to set out any inflexible rules for the applicability of the privilege at issue, the Court instead approached the question of the scope of the privilege in the following manner: 21 'The purpose of the privilege is the furtherance and protection of the public interest in effective law enforcement. . . . 22 The scope of the privilege is limited by its underlying purpose. Thus, where the disclosure of the contents of a communication will not tend to reveal the identity of an informer, the contents are not privileged. Likewise, once the identity of the informer has been disclosed to those who would have cause to resent the communication, the privilege is no longer applicable. 23 A further limitation on the applicability of the privilege arises from the fundamental requirements of fairness. Where the disclosure of an informer's identity, or of the contents of his communication, is relevant and helpful to the defense of an accused, or is essential to a fair determination of a cause, the privilege must give way. In these situations, the trial court may require disclosure and, if the Government withholds the information, dismiss the action. 24 We believe that no fixed rule with respect to disclosure is justifiable. The problem is one that calls for balancing the public interest in protecting the flow of information against the individual's right to prepare his defense. Whether a proper balance renders nondisclosure erroneous must depend on the particular circumstances of each case, taking into consideration the crime charged, the possible defenses, the possible significance of the informer's testimony, and other relevant factors.' 353 U.S. at 59--62, 77 S.Ct. at 627, 628 (footnotes omitted). 25 Roviaro thus appears to function as a limitation, in certain circumstances, on a criminal defendant's Sixth Amendment right to call a witness whose testimony could have a bearing on his defense. This results because it places limitations on the power of an accused to require the government to disclose the name of an informer. If the confidential informer's privilege is applicable, the defendant is prevented from obtaining access to the witness, for one cannot subpoena a witness whose name one does not know. This is quite a different matter from denying a defendant the right to subpoena a witness already known to him and who was present at the time of the alleged sale and who had introduced the defendant to the special agent who allegedly completed the purchase. We have found no case which authorizes a trial court to restrict the right of an accused person to subpoena any witness already known by him to give relevant testimony simply because by questioning such witness he may be uncovered as an informer. 26 The possibility that the witness's testimony might reveal the identity of a government informer connected with the case simply is not enough to bring this case within the scope of Roviaro's indirect limitations of a criminal defendant's Sixth Amendment right to call witnesses. See United States v. Davenport, 312 F.2d 303 (7th Cir. 1963), where at page 305 the Court said: 27 'Undoubtedly defendant is correct in his insistence that he was entitled to the right to have compulsory attendance of witnesses and that who they were to be was a matter for him and his counsel to decide . . .. That the witness was an informer is irrelevant.'Moreover, the concerns voiced by the Supreme Court in Roviaro--there the desirability of shielding from disclosure to those who would have cause to resent it, the identity of an informer--are not violated by our holding here. Appellant, the person who would have the greatest cause to resent the actions of the alleged informer, is not seeking disclosure of the informer's identity, but is merely exercising his Sixth Amendment right to call a witness whose identity and participation in the alleged illegal acts are already known to him. Roviaro does not apply in this situation 4 and consequently we find the district court's refusal to allow appellant to call Doe as a witness at trial constituted reversible error. 28 For the reasons above stated, the judgment of the district court is reversed and the case remanded for a new trial.