Opinion ID: 1057381
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendant's subpoena for recordings of eyewitness' telephone calls

Text: ¶ 7. Defendant first contends that the trial court erred when it quashed his subpoena for the recordings of eyewitness' telephone calls from jail. Defendant claims that the trial court's actions violated his rights under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution, Chapter I, Article 10 of the Vermont Constitution, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, and Rule 16 of the Vermont Rules of Criminal Procedure. ¶ 8. We first address defendant's claim of a Confrontation Clause violation, and conclude the Confrontation Clause affords no protection to defendant in the context of a pretrial motion for discovery. This Court discussed the reach of the Sixth Amendment to the pretrial context in State v. Percy, 149 Vt. 623, 548 A.2d 408 (1988). In Percy, we upheld the trial court's denial of the defendant's request to have a psychological expert examine the victim before trial with the aim of preparing his experts to testify before the jury. Id. at 631-32, 548 A.2d at 412-13. Because the Sixth Amendment right of confrontation is a trial right that is not violated by restrictions on pretrial discovery, we conclude that the defendant had no Sixth Amendment right at stake during the pretrial discovery stage of trial. Id. at 633, 548 A.2d at 414. Similarly, defendant's claim here, raised in the context of a pretrial subpoena of a witness' telephone records, must fail. ¶ 9. Defendant is not without recourse for denial of pretrial discovery. While rejecting the application of the Sixth Amendment to pretrial discovery in Percy, we explained that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment establishes disclosure rights relevant to defendant's [pre-trial] claims. Id. at 633-34, 548 A.2d at 414. [1] Defendant must pursue this due-process claim before the trial court, however, and in the instant case, this claim was not raised until defendant's motion for discovery pending appeal, filed more than a year after the October 2005 trial. Because defendant failed to raise this claim below, we review only for plain error. State v. Wiley, 2007 VT 13, ¶ 7, 181 Vt. 300, 917 A.2d 501. Plain error exists only in exceptional circumstances where a failure to recognize error would result in a miscarriage of justice, or where there is glaring error so grave and serious that it strikes at the very heart of the defendant's constitutional rights. State v. Carpenter, 170 Vt. 371, 375, 749 A.2d 1137, 1139-40 (2000) (quotation omitted). ¶ 10. No such miscarriage of justice occurred here. In the motion hearing before the court, defendant argued that he should be able to listen to recordings of the calls eyewitness made while in prison because eyewitness was a key witness in the case. Defendant offered no specific evidence as to the contents of the particular conversations requested, nor any indication why the evidence he sought would be found in the telephone records. Rather, he claimed that he should have the opportunity to see whether or not [eyewitness] made incriminating statements to the people on the outside, because eyewitness had, in the past, made inconsistent statements regarding the case. The trial court denied defendant's request for an in-camera hearing, finding that defendant, not having the slightest idea of the content of these conversations, had made an insufficient showing that these conversations contained material evidence. The court did, however, allow defendant another chance to prove the conversations were material: it ordered the Department of Corrections to release a call log containing a full listing of the telephone calls eyewitness had made while in jail, including the names and telephone numbers of the persons called, and instructed defendant to telephone the individuals listed on the log to determine whether those individuals had in fact discussed the case with eyewitness while he was incarcerated. The court suggested that the issue could be revisited if it appeared that the telephone conversations did contain specific information about the case. Defendant did not follow up on this information for more than a year after trial. Given the lack of evidence presented by defendant that the particular recordings he was requesting would provide material evidence, and the opportunity provided by the trial court for defendant to gather the information needed through call logs, we find no plain error here.