Opinion ID: 2271111
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Appellant's Inconsistent Statements

Text: During direct examination of appellant, defense counsel elicited the fact that appellant was interviewed by the police on the day after the shooting. When counsel asked appellant what he told the police, the government objected on the grounds that it was hearsay and the trial court sustained the objection. Appellant was permitted to testify on direct examination only that he lied to the police and why he lied, but he was prevented from explaining the content of the lies to the police. On cross-examination, however, the government asked appellant what he told the police. Appellant moved for a mistrial on the grounds that the court prevented him from asking the same exact line of questioning, arguing that the ruling prevented defense counsel from tak[ing] the sting out of [appellant's lies] and instead made it look as if the government were exposing appellant. On appeal, appellant argues that the court abused its discretion and that the court's error was not harmless. As the government concedes, the trial court erred in excluding as hearsay appellant's testimony about the lie he initially told the police because it was not being introduced for its truth. See, e.g., Peyton v. United States, 709 A.2d 65, 74 n. 21 (D.C.1998). The government argues, however, that this error was harmless because appellant admitted that he lied to the police and so all that was excluded was the specific content of the lie. Further, the government argues that appellant's credibility as a witness did not affect the verdict because of the weight of the other evidence against him. We have held that a party is entitled to `bring out on direct examination damaging information about ... his witness.' Reed v. United States, 452 A.2d 1173, 1179 (D.C.1982) (quoting Kitt v. United States, 379 A.2d 973, 975 (D.C.1977)). Here, appellant sought to reconcile his early statements to the police (that he did not see the shooting) with his later, inconsistent testimony at trial (that he shot Young in self-defense) so that he could preemptively take the sting out of the government's anticipated impeachment during cross-examination. His strategy was thwarted by the trial court, however, and the trial court erred when it prevented appellant from testifying on direct about the content of his lie. Reed, supra, 452 A.2d at 1179. We must determine next whether or not the error was harmless. Under the harmless error standard set forth in Kotteakos v. United States, we must be able to say with fair assurance ... that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error. 328 U.S. 750, 765, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (U.S.1946). [9] The inquiry cannot be merely whether there was enough to support the result, apart from the phase affected by the error. It is rather, even so, whether the error itself had substantial influence. Id.; see also Kitt, supra, 379 A.2d at 975 (finding a jury's evaluation of the credibility of several witnesses would not have changed had it known about their prior convictions). In this case, when measured against the remaining evidence, we can conclude with fair assurance that the effect of the error was not substantial. Indeed, permitting appellant to explain the content and specific details of his lie to the police during his direct examination would have had a minimal effect on the jury's evaluation of appellant's credibility. [10] Appellant contends that by preventing him from taking the sting out on direct, the jury got the impression that appellant was trying to hide the untrue version he told the police and that it took extensive cross-examination by the government to uncover the content of his lies. We disagree. As the government notes, the jury was present to observe that appellant wanted to explain himself on direct examination but he was precluded from doing so because the prosecutor objected and the court (erroneously) sustained the objection. Especially since the jury witnessed this exchange, we find it unlikely that it believed that appellant was trying to hide the content of what he told the police. In any event, whether the jury knew simply that appellant lied to the police or whether it knew the details of the lie, we find that the effect of the error was not so substantial as to have swayed the verdict. Kotteakos, supra, 328 U.S. at 765, 66 S.Ct. 1239. Thus, we conclude that the error was harmless.