Opinion ID: 2437720
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Missing Witness

Text: The State failed to call either of the Rislers as a witness. The defendant tendered, and the trial judge refused, a special request in the following language: Failure to call an available witness possessing peculiar knowledge concerning facts essential to party's cause, direct or rebutting, or to examine such witness as to facts covering his special knowledge, especially if witness be naturally favorable to party's contention, relying instead upon evidence of witnesses less familiar with the matter, gives rise to an inference that testimony of uninterrogated witness would not sustain contentions of such party. This is a correct statement of the prevailing law in this jurisdiction. See Paine, Tennessee Law of Evidence, Sec. 46. The failure to give this charge, in the context of this case, was plain, palpable and reversible error. The witness, Helen Risler, the prime mover on this entire entrapment operation, was very much available and most assuredly was within the keeping of the State, since she was in the Hamilton County Jail. The State insists that the defendant could have called her. The defendant is under no obligation to call two witnesses that the State had paid a total of $6,760.00 to build a case against him. The State's position in this regard is preposterous. It is true, as maintained by the State and held by the Court of Criminal Appeals, that the State is under no obligation to produce every possible witness. Hicks v. State, 539 S.W.2d 58 (Tenn.Cr.App. 1976). The quid pro quo is that the defendant may be entitled to a missing witness charge. That Helen Risler possessed peculiar knowledge concerning facts essential to this case, there can be no doubt. She was the only witness to the entire sequence of events. The two witnesses called were only partially familiar. She was the only witness who could explain the gaps or breaks in the tapes, the interruptions, the conversations and portions of conversations that transpired, the substance of the unrecorded conversations, the vague and nebulous nature of the tapes, and the enigmatic expressions. The State simply made a command decision not to put her on. It was indicated at the trial it was because she had a felony conviction. In this regard, the record shows a conviction in federal court on her plea of guilty to a charge of obstructing justice and a sentence of five years in federal penitentiary; that she was carrying a 257 magnum when arrested on this charge; that she was on probation after passing 40-50 worthless checks; that she had pleaded guilty to two cases of forgery, and in general that she had an unsavory background and character. Her end of the various conversations shows that her spoken English was spiced with vulgarities and crudities. She was not exactly what one would call a sweet-smelling geranium. We sustain this assignment.