Opinion ID: 1738282
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Admission of Accomplice's Statements

Text: Defendant complains of the admission of a statement made to the police by his accomplice. Defendant argues that the accomplice's statement was inadmissible hearsay and that its use deprived defendant of his rights under the Fourteenth and Sixth Amendments, the Louisiana Constitution, and the special Louisiana statutory right to confrontation. [13] The accomplice first told the police that both victims were at the store, alive and unharmed, when he and defendant left the restaurant together. However, in a later statement of which defendant now complains, the accomplice stated that he saw defendant with a gun, heard a gunshot, and saw the surviving victim fall to the ground. He then stated he saw defendant go behind the bar and shoot the murder victim. The basis for the exclusion of an accomplice's statement, even one which is against the accomplice's penal interest, is the longstanding perception that custodial confessions of non-testifying, unavailable codefendants are inherently suspect and presumptively unreliable as evidence against the defendant. Lee v. Illinois, 476 U.S. 530, 106 S.Ct. 2056, 90 L.Ed.2d 514 (1986); Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968); Douglas v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 415, 85 S.Ct. 1074, 13 L.Ed.2d 934 (1965). Admission of parts of an accomplice's purportedly interlocking statement pertaining to a defendant's participation in the crime poses too serious a threat to the accuracy of the verdict to be countenanced by the Confrontation Clause, unless the parts are thoroughly substantiated by the defendant's own confession. Lee, 476 U.S. at 545, 106 S.Ct. 2056. But cf. Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 65-66, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980) (approving admissibility of a codefendant's statements when there is a showing of particularized guarantees of trustworthiness). Moreover, the hearsay exception for declarations against penal interest [14] does not allow admission of non-self-inculpatory statements by accomplices, even if they are made within a broader narrative that is generally self-inculpatory. Williamson v. United States, 512 U.S. 594, 600-01, 114 S.Ct. 2431, 129 L.Ed.2d 476 (1994). Accordingly, only the self-inculpatory parts of an accomplice's confession should be admitted. In the present case, the accomplice's statement interlocked with defendant's own statements, but was not sufficiently self-inculpatory to be considered a statement against interest admissible against defendant under La.Code Evid. art 804 B(3). Moreover, the accomplice's statement did not fall within any other hearsay exceptions. Nevertheless, the admission of the accomplice's statement was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. In light of the other overwhelming evidence of guilt, including defendant's own confession, the murder weapon linked to defendant, and the surviving victim's testimony, the guilty verdict was surely unattributable to the error in admitting the accomplice's statement. See State v. Wille, 559 So.2d 1321, 1332 (La. 1990) (admission of hearsay violated confrontation rule, but was harmless in light of other overwhelming evidence of guilt) (citing Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 682, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986)). Moreover, the statement (which interlocked with defendant's own confession on every material point) did not introduce an arbitrary factor into the proceedings that would diminish the reliability of the jury's verdict in the penalty phase. [15]