Opinion ID: 1237936
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The Preliminary Examination Transcripts

Text: (35) Defendant contends that if, as the trial court ruled, Petry's lapses of memory were genuine, the trial court should have ruled that he was unavailable as a witness and that the transcripts of Petry's preliminary hearing testimony were therefore admissible under the hearsay exception for prior testimony (Evid. Code, § 1292). This theory of admissibility was never urged at trial, and even if we assume that a total lack of memory could make a witness unavailable within the meaning of the Evidence Code (see Evid. Code, § 240), Petry's lack of recall was far from total. As the trial court remarked, Petry has consistently cooperated in telling and retelling the same basic story. Although his memory of certain details was weak, he recalled far too much to justify a finding that he was unavailable as a witness. 4. Testimony of Dr. Blinder During presentation of its case, the defense moved to admit the expert testimony of Dr. Martin Blinder, a forensic psychiatrist, that the killing of Hickey appeared to be a classic crime of passion committed by a person with a close emotional attachment to the victim. Dr. Blinder testified outside the jury's presence as an offer of proof. The court said that although defendant was entitled to have Dr. Blinder explain for the jury the domestic homicide syndrome, permitting him to relate the syndrome to the facts of the case could lead to the disclosure of otherwise inadmissible hearsay materials that Dr. Blinder had considered in forming his opinions. The court concluded that Dr. Blinder could be questioned about any evidence that was before the jury, but nothing else. The court then asked defense counsel whether this material could be presented to Dr. Blinder in the form of hypothetical questions. Defense counsel accepted this suggestion. In his testimony to the jury, Dr. Blinder defined domestic homicide as the killing of one with whom the killer has an intimate relationship. He had studied 254 such killings. He found that in these cases the killer and victim are locked into a special kind of love relationship characterized by passion, anger, and masochistic dependency. A homicide was more likely to occur if an angry person was unable to feel or express anger comfortably. The victims of domestic homicide frequently rebel at the other person's controlling behavior and seek to bolster their low self-esteem by activities with persons outside the relationship. In response to hypothetical questions, Dr. Blinder testified that the following circumstances would be consistent with a domestic homicide: before the homicide, the killer had hit the victim but had denied doing so and had written passionately about his feelings for the victim; during the homicide, the killer inflicted extensive trauma on the victim's face and inflicted puncture wounds near the victim's breasts. Defense counsel requested permission to question Dr. Blinder about two of Petry's writings that had been received in evidence, but the court denied permission, stating I've tried to keep away from the psychoanalysis or psychiatric diagnosis of all these people specifically in this case. (36) Defendant contends the trial court erred both in the earlier ruling precluding mention of hearsay materials that had not been received in evidence and in the later ruling precluding questioning about two of Petry's writings that had been received in evidence, and that the errors deprived him of his Sixth Amendment right to present a defense and his Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment due process right to a fair trial. We find no error. On direct examination, an expert may give the reasons for an opinion, including the materials the expert considered in forming the opinion, but an expert may not under the guise of stating reasons for an opinion bring before the jury incompetent hearsay evidence. ( People v. Coleman (1985) 38 Cal.3d 69, 92 [695 P.2d 189].) A trial court has considerable discretion to control the form in which the expert is questioned to prevent the jury from learning of incompetent hearsay. ( Ibid. ) Here, the restrictions imposed on counsel's examination by the trial court's rulings, which permitted the main features of the case to be presented in the form of hypothetical questions, were reasonable and within the court's discretion. 5. State of Mind Evidence During direct examination of defense witness Zelna Hunsinger, the prosecution objected to a question asking whether Hickey had ever told the witness she was afraid of Petry. The court held a hearing outside the jury's presence, during which it said that the proposed testimony was hearsay, and although it would show Hickey's state of mind, her state of mind was not at issue. The prosecution argued that the defense was being inconsistent because it had successfully objected to evidence that Hickey had said she was afraid of a man named Curt. Defense counsel then withdrew the question, noting it would open the door to the previously excluded prosecution evidence. The court said it had made no ruling and was willing to consider any authority the defense offered on the issue. The matter was again raised when the defense called Kenneth L. Barney, a psychotherapist who had seen Hickey on three occasions about nine months before her death. Once again the court held a hearing outside the jury's presence, after which the court ruled that it would not permit the defense to introduce evidence of Hickey's statements to Barney expressing fear of Petry to prove that Petry rather than defendant had killed her. The court said that the defense was offering the evidence to prove Hickey's state of mind, but that Hickey's state of mind was not at issue in the case. Defendant now challenges this ruling. (37) Defendant argues that evidence of Hickey's fear of Petry was admissible to prove or explain her conduct in giving defendant her guns to sell on consignment. Because she was afraid of Petry, defendant argues, Hickey could leave him only if she could move far away to establish a new life. According to defendant, Hickey's urgent need for money to relocate herself and her children explains why she would entrust her guns to defendant, a relative stranger, for sale on consignment. [14] Defendant acknowledges that the defense never urged this theory in the court below (see Evid. Code, § 354 [verdict shall not be set aside for erroneous exclusion of evidence unless purpose and relevance of evidence was made known to the court]), but he argues that in a capital case technical insufficiencies in objections or offers of proof should be disregarded (see People v. Frank (1985) 38 Cal.3d 711, 729, fn. 3 [700 P.2d 415]), [15] and that counsel's failure to argue this theory deprived defendant of his Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel. Assuming for argument's sake that the issue has been preserved for appeal, the theory defendant now argues does not provide a valid basis for admitting the evidence under the state-of-mind exception to the hearsay rule (Evid. Code, § 1250). To be relevant and therefore admissible, evidence must tend to prove or disprove a disputed fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action. (Evid. Code, § 210.) Here, the prosecution did not dispute that Hickey made or attempted to make some sort of business arrangement with defendant for the sale of her guns. Indeed, the prosecution introduced in evidence a note apparently written by Hickey stating Call Curt ... about money for guns. The prosecution theorized that defendant, despite what he may have promised Hickey, never intended to pay for the guns and killed Hickey to prevent her from protesting the lack of payment or testifying to defendant's possession of the guns. Because Hickey's attempted sale of her guns to defendant was not a disputed fact, the trial court could properly exclude as irrelevant any evidence offered to prove that Hickey had a reason to give her guns to defendant for consignment sale. 6. Videotape of Hickey Children's Bedroom On the morning that Hickey's body was discovered, the police made a videotape showing the condition of the Hickey residence. The last portion of the tape showed the bedroom occupied by Hickey's two young children. The children were not present. The bedroom contained dilapidated mattresses and bedding. The mattresses were soaked with urine; fecal matter was smeared on the walls. The prosecution brought a motion in limine to exclude the portion of the tape showing the children's bedroom. The defense argued in response that the motion was premature because the prosecution had failed to show that any portion of the videotape was admissible, but it also argued that if the court did admit any of the videotape, it should admit the portion showing the children's bedroom. The court declined to rule on the motion, saying it did not know whether the tape would be received in evidence. The court remarked that the tape would probably be admissible insofar as it showed the condition of the crime scene when the body was discovered, but that it did not see any relevance in the portion of the tape showing the children's bedroom. The court advised the parties not to mention the tape during voir dire. Some days later, the prosecutors indicated their intention to use the videotape, edited to delete the children's bedroom, during opening statement. The defense argued that the entire tape should come into evidence. The trial court granted the prosecution's request to use the edited tape during opening statement, but it emphasized that it was not precluding the defense from establishing at a later time a basis for admission of the excluded portion of the tape. (38) Contrary to what defendant now argues, the court did not err in excluding the portion of the tape showing the children's bedroom. The prosecution used the videotape to show the place where Hickey was murdered and the guns were stolen. Because no part of these crimes was committed in the children's bedroom, the prosecution could reasonably omit that portion of the tape. Defendant now argues that the evidence was relevant to dispute Petry's claim of a happy household and a loving family relationship. But Petry had not testified when the court ruled, the ruling was expressly made without prejudice, and the defense never raised the issue again. Defendant's present description of the evidence as crucial to the defense is an exaggeration. During the course of the trial, the defense amply established, and the prosecution effectively conceded, that the relationship between Petry and Hickey was marked by deep conflicts and unhappiness on both sides. Defense counsel could reasonably conclude that it had sufficiently established this point and that further evidence, including the videotape showing the deplorable condition of the children's bedroom, was unnecessary. 7. Polygraph Evidence Three days after the death of Elizabeth Hickey, the police gave Berlie Petry a polygraph examination. The officer who gave the examination concluded that Petry was deceptive in his responses to several questions, including a negative response to a question asking if he had killed Hickey. An investigator for the district attorney gave Petry another polygraph examination a few weeks later, with similar results. (39) At trial, the defense moved to admit the results of these examinations. The trial court denied the motion, relying on Evidence Code sections 351.1 (making polygraph test results inadmissible absent a stipulation for admission) and 352 (giving the trial court discretion to exclude evidence when its probative value is outweighed by the risk of undue prejudice). Because the defense did not offer to prove that the polygraph had been accepted in the scientific community as a reliable technique, [16] the ruling excluding the evidence was correct. ( People v. Morris, supra, 53 Cal.3d 152, 193.) Citing United States v. Hart (E.D.N.Y. 1971) 344 F. Supp. 522, defendant contends that proof of reliability is unnecessary when the defense seeks to use the results of a prosecution-administered polygraph examination to impeach the testimony of a prosecution witness. The Hart court reasoned that because the prosecution has a duty to disclose any evidence that may tend to exculpate a defendant ( Brady v. Maryland (1963) 373 U.S. 83 [10 L.Ed.2d 215, 83 S.Ct. 1194]), the government should be required to convince the jury that the test it used to evaluate the witness's credibility was not significant. We agree with another federal court's observation that this reasoning requires an incorrect logical leap. ( U.S. v. MacEntee (E.D.Pa. 1989) 713 F. Supp. 829, 831.) Although the prosecution has a duty to inform the defense of polygraph results that cast doubt on the credibility of a prosecution witness, the existence of this duty does not make the results admissible. Finally, we reject defendant's contention that excluding evidence of the polygraph test results denied him his due process right to a fair trial under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. A party has no due process right to present evidence of test results if the tests used scientific techniques not generally accepted as reliable in the scientific community.