Opinion ID: 6930065
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Introduction of Mary McLaughlin’s testimony

Text: Kontakis contends that the trial court’s admission of Mary McLaughlin’s testimony violated his Sixth Amendment confrontational clause rights and his due process right to a fair trial and fundamental fairness. McLaughlin testified that on February 4, 1982, she saw Margaret Kontakis “banging at another door, for help.” McLaughlin then called out to her to come to McLaughlin’s apartment. McLaughlin testified that when Margaret Kontakis entered the apartment she was shaking, crying, and frightened, and said that Kontakis had placed a gun to her forehead that morning. McLaughlin also testified that she saw Kontakis “looking for somebody,” while he was walking quickly around the building. She testified that it appeared he was carrying something. Kontakis contends that the admission of his wife’s statements through McLaughlin’s testimony denied him his Sixth Amendment right to confront Margaret as a witness. We reject this argument because the Appellate Division held that the statement properly was admitted under state law under the excited utterance exception to the hearsay rule. Of course, the Sixth Amendment was not infringed by this evidence, as the amendment does not preclude admission of evidence under firmly rooted exceptions to the hearsay rule. See White v. Illinois, — U.S. -, - n. 8, 112 S.Ct. 736, 742 n. 8, 116 L.Ed.2d 848 (1992). Furthermore, for the admission of evidence in a state criminal proceeding to rise to the level of a constitutional error, the petitioner must show that the “use of the evidence” caused “fundamental unfairness” in violation of due process. Lisenba v. California, 314 U.S. 219, 236, 62 S.Ct. 280, 290, 86 L.Ed. 166 (1941). Brecht compels us to apply the Kotteakos harmless error test to determine whether the unconstitutional admission of evidence in a state proceeding justifies the granting of relief, inasmuch as a mistaken evidentiary ruling falls with the trial category of constitutional error. Therefore, even if we found the admission of McLaughlin’s testimony unconstitutional to the extent it included Margaret’s statements, which we do not, we nevertheless would deny habeas relief unless, in the words of Brecht, the evidence had a “substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury’s verdict.” McLaughlin’s testimony could not have had such a consequence. The trial record is replete with eye-witness testimony that Kon-takis carefully fired three bullets into his wife’s head. In these circumstances, the evidence that he threatened her three years earlier was not significant. This was, after all, not a case in which identity of the killer was in issue so that evidence of earlier threats was critical in establishing his identity. Therefore we conclude that, assuming arguendo the admission of McLaughlin’s testimony was unconstitutional, any error therefrom was harmless.