Opinion ID: 706003
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sherlin's Distinct Claims

Text: 27
28 The district court permitted the government to cross-examine Sherlin regarding statements that he had made to arson investigators in 1990, approximately three years before the arson charged in the instant case, in connection with two unrelated fires. Sherlin's statements to the investigators were recorded. In both of these statements, Sherlin initially denied any knowledge of the fires. After questioning, Sherlin admitted that he had originally lied to the investigators and that he knew who set the fires. 29 The district court permitted the cross-examination pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 608(b), which provides the following: 30 Specific instances of the conduct of a witness, for the purpose of attacking or supporting the witness' credibility, other than conviction of crime as provided in rule 609, may not be proved by extrinsic evidence. They may, however, in the discretion of the court, if probative of truthfulness or untruthfulness, be inquired into on cross-examination of the witness (1) concerning the witness' character for truthfulness or untruthfulness.... 31 Fed.R.Evid. 608(b). The district court specifically found that the evidence was highly probative and not unfairly prejudicial. Fed.R.Evid. 403. At Sherlin's request, the district court instructed the jury that the evidence was not to be used for any purpose other than to assess Sherlin's credibility. 32 Sherlin contends that the district court erred in allowing the government to cross-examine him regarding his involvement in the two previous arsons. Sherlin claims any probative value was greatly outweighed by the prejudicial value of the evidence because he was on trial for arson, conspiracy to commit arson, and perjury. 33 This court has held that [a] trial judge's decision regarding an evidentiary ruling will not be reversed absent a clear showing of abuse of discretion. United States v. Phillips, 888 F.2d 38, 40 (6th Cir.1989). Abuse of discretion exists where the reviewing court is firmly convinced that a mistake has been made. Id. 34 The evidence in question clearly fit within the confines of Rule 608(b). The government inquired into the prior arson investigations on cross-examination of Sherlin, and the admitted lies were obviously probative of Sherlin's character for truthfulness or untruthfulness. Moreover, the evidence was not unfairly prejudicial to Sherlin. See United States v. Rey, 923 F.2d 1217, 1222 (6th Cir.1991). Under these circumstances, we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the evidence.
35 Next, Sherlin argues that the trial court erred in failing to grant Sherlin's Motion for Severance pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 14. The basis for the severance motion was the government's plan to seek admission of portions of two statements of Teague, a nontestifying codefendant, which allegedly contained information that incriminated Sherlin in violation of his Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him. See Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968) (holding that admission of nontestifying codefendant's confession at a joint trial may violate a defendant's confrontation rights if defendant is expressly incriminated). 36 The decision to grant or deny a severance is within the sound discretion of the trial court. Zafiro v. United States, 506 U.S. 534, ----, 113 S.Ct. 933, 938, 122 L.Ed.2d 317 (1993). A defendant must show compelling and specific prejudice to reverse a district court's denial of a severance. United States v. Sivils, 960 F.2d 587, 594 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 130, 121 L.Ed.2d 84 (1992). This is so because there is a strong preference in the federal court system for jointly indicted defendants to be tried together. Zafiro, 506 U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 937. The defendant bears a heavy burden since jurors are presumed to follow the court's instruction to consider each defendant's case separately. Francis v. Franklin, 471 U.S. 307, 324 n. 9, 105 S.Ct. 1965, 1976 n. 9, 85 L.Ed.2d 344 (1985); Sivils, 960 F.2d at 594. 37 We find that Sherlin's confrontation rights were adequately protected by measures taken during the trial to avoid any Bruton problems, including the district court's instructions to the attorneys. Specifically, counsel for the United States did not offer into evidence statements of Teague that incriminated Sherlin, and the court prevented Teague's attorney from eliciting such statements on cross-examination of the government's witness. The government only offered two statements of Teague. The first was an oral and written statement that he gave to an arson investigator in which he claimed that he was a lookout. The second statement was a portion of Teague's testimony before the grand jury. In neither case was Sherlin's Sixth Amendment right to confrontation compromised. 38 With regard to the first statement, Sherlin's name was redacted from Teague's statement to the arson investigator, and the district court refused to allow Teague's counsel to elicit on cross-examination of the government witness any statements within Teague's confession that incriminated Sherlin. Subsequent to Bruton, the Court declined in Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U.S. 200, 208-11, 107 S.Ct. 1702, 1707-09, 95 L.Ed.2d 176 (1987), to take a contextual implication approach or evidentiary linkage approach to Bruton questions. In Marsh, the confession of a nontestifying codefendant was redacted to omit any reference at all to the defendant. The confession only became incriminating when linked with other evidence introduced at the trial, such as the defendant's own testimony. Marsh, 481 U.S. at 208, 107 S.Ct. at 1707-08. The Marsh Court found that Bruton was distinguishable because, unlike the confession in Bruton, the redacted codefendant's confession in Marsh did not expressly implicate the defendant as an accomplice. Marsh, 481 U.S. at 208, 107 S.Ct. at 1707-08. Thus, the Court held that the Confrontation Clause is not violated by the admission of a nontestifying codefendant's confession with a proper limiting instruction when ... the confession is redacted to eliminate not only the defendant's name, but any reference to his or her existence. Id. at 211, 107 S.Ct. at 1709. 39 As in Marsh, Sherlin's name was redacted from Teague's statement to the investigator, and the statement did not expressly implicate Sherlin. See J.A. at 284, 319-322. Because Teague's statement was not facially incriminating of Sherlin and could only have been incriminating when linked with other evidence, this redacted statement did not pose Bruton problems. 1 40 Regarding the portion of Teague's testimony before the grand jury, which was admitted at trial in connection with the perjury charges against Teague, it, too, did not violate Sherlin's confrontation rights because it was not offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted. See Fed.R.Evid. 801(c). Although the statement did refer to Sherlin, it was the government's position that the statement was false. Cf. Anderson v. United States, 417 U.S. 211, 220-221, 94 S.Ct. 2253, 2260-61, 41 L.Ed.2d 20 (1974) ([T]he point of the prosecutor's introducing those statements was simply to prove that the statements were made so as to establish a foundation for later showing, through other admissible evidence, that they were false.... Here, since the prosecution was not contending that anything [the codefendants] said at the election contest was true, the other defendants had no interest in cross-examining them so as to put their credibility in issue.). Because the government's position was that Teague's grand jury statement, which referred to Sherlin, was false, Sherlin's confrontation rights were not implicated by the admission of the statement. 41 For all of these reasons, we hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the severance motion.
42 At trial, Sherlin sought to admit polygraph test results that allegedly proved that he was truthful when he denied burning the Ellis Hall dormitory and that he did not lie to the grand jury. Relying on the Supreme Court's recent interpretation of Federal Rule of Evidence 702 2 in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993), Sherlin contended that the polygraph results were admissible pursuant to Rule 702. The district court ruled, however, that the proposed evidence was inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 403 because its probative value was outweighed by the prejudice. J.A. at 95-96. On appeal, Sherlin contends, based on the same grounds as below, that the court erred in this decision. 43 The decision to exclude from evidence the results of a polygraph examination is within the sound discretion of the trial court. United States v. Blakeney, 942 F.2d at 1014. In order to determine whether the results of a polygraph examination should be admitted at trial over an opponent's objections, this court has established a two-step analysis. First, the evidence must be relevant, and second, its probative value must outweigh the prejudice. United States v. Barger, 931 F.2d 359, 370 (6th Cir.1991). As a general rule, the results of a polygraph examination are inadmissible. Blakeney, 942 F.2d at 1014. Indeed, this circuit has recently stated that unilaterally obtained polygraph evidence is almost never admissible under Evidence Rule 403. Conti v. Commissioner, 39 F.3d 658, 663 (6th Cir.1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1793, 131 L.Ed.2d 722 (1995). 44 The Sixth Circuit has consistently recognized that in the absence of a prior agreement between the parties that the results of an examination would be admissible, the probative value of the polygraph is substantially less because the defendant would have no adverse interest at stake in the polygraph. Id. at 662-63; Wolfel v. Holbrook, 823 F.2d 970, 974 (6th Cir.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1069, 108 S.Ct. 1035, 98 L.Ed.2d 999 (1988). Thus, Sherlin's privately commissioned polygraph test, which was unknown to the government until after its completion, is of extremely dubious probative value. 45 Federal Rule of Evidence 403 provides that even relevant evidence may be excluded if in the discretion of the court its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. This court has previously suggested in Barnier v. Szentmiklosi, 810 F.2d 594, 597 (6th Cir.1987), that the use of a polygraph solely to bolster a witness' credibility is highly prejudicial, especially where credibility issues are central to the verdict. In this case, the district court noted that Sherlin's credibility is probably, without overstating it, maybe the central issue in this case. J.A. at 590. 46 Although Sherlin relies on Daubert and its analysis of Federal Rule of Evidence 702, this court has held that when a defendant unilaterally takes a polygraph, the district court has the separate discretion to exclude the test results under Federal Rule of Evidence 403. Conti, 39 F.3d at 662-63. In Conti, we rejected the argument that Daubert was controlling in these circumstances; Rule 403 offers a basis for excluding polygraph results independent of Daubert. Conti, 39 F.3d at 662-63. In the instant case, the district court reached the same conclusion. J.A. at 95-96. 47 Thus, we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it refused to admit this polygraph evidence pursuant to Rule 403 because its probative value was outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice.