Opinion ID: 1058311
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Extrinsic Evidence of Prior Inconsistent Statements

Text: The defendant contends that the trial court erred in excluding extrinsic evidence of inconsistent statements offered during the testimony of Sgt. R.W. Knight to impeach two of the State's witnesses. See Tenn. R. Evid. 613(b). The State responds that the trial court did not abuse its discretion and that any error was harmless. We begin our review of this issue by summarizing the relevant portions of the transcript. The defense questioned the State's witness, Sgt. R.W. Knight, about statements made to him by a witness for the prosecution, Jay Smith. Although Smith had testified that he saw a car similar to the defendant's at Dunbar Cave on the night of April 23, 1997, and said that he did not recall contacting the police, Sgt. Knight testified that Smith had called the police on May 1, 1997, to provide the license number of a car he had seen at Dunbar Cave. Sgt. Knight further testified that the license number provided by Smith did not belong to the defendant. Similarly, the defense questioned Sgt. Knight about prior statements made by another witness for the prosecution, Lavanda Zimmerman. Zimmerman had testified that she saw a car similar to the defendant's in the Baskin-Robbins parking lot on the night of April 23, 1997, but said that police officers did not ask her whether she had seen any cars at that time. Sgt. Knight testified, however, that the police asked Zimmerman whether any cars had been in the parking lot. The trial court denied the defendant's request to introduce Sgt. Knight's written summaries of the interviews with Smith and Zimmerman, even though the defendant had asked Sgt. Knight about the witnesses' statements and had properly moved that the summaries be admitted into evidence during Sgt. Knight's testimony. The trial court concluded that evidence of a prior inconsistent statement may be introduced only by either (1) using a second witness to relate the prior inconsistent statements or (2) using extrinsic evidence of the prior statement during the examination of the witness who is being impeached. The Court of Criminal Appeals held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion because Sgt. Knight's written summaries were cumulative to his testimony in court. Extrinsic evidence of a witness's prior inconsistent statement is not admissible unless and until the witness is afforded an opportunity to explain or deny the same and the opposite party is afforded an opportunity to interrogate the witness thereon, or the interests of justice otherwise require. Tenn. R. Evid. 613(b). The Advisory Commission Comments to Rule 613(b) clarify that the only requirement for the use of extrinsic evidence is that the witness must be afforded an opportunity to explain or deny. [9] The extrinsic evidence may be the written or recorded content of the prior statement itself or the testimony of another witness as to the content of the prior written or oral statement. Neil Cohen et al., Tennessee Law of Evidence, § 613.4 (4th ed.2003). In our view, the trial court erred in concluding that the defendant could not introduce the written summaries of the statements made by Smith and Zimmerman to Sgt. Knight. Rule 613(b) requires only that the witnesses be given an opportunity to explain or deny their prior statement. This requirement was met during the defense's cross-examination of Smith and Zimmerman during the State's proof regarding their prior statements. Moreover, Rule 613(b) does not expressly limit the impeaching party to one form of extrinsic evidence, nor does it require an impeaching party to choose between two available forms of extrinsic evidence. In short, the trial court's ruling, which limited the defense to the use of the testimony of Sgt. Knight and precluded the use of the witnesses' statements, was erroneous under Rule 613(b). We also conclude, however, that the trial court's error did not affect the result of the proceeding. The defendant attempted to elicit inconsistencies between Smith and Zimmerman's in-court testimony and their prior statements. The defendant asked both Smith and Zimmerman about their prior statements on cross-examination; thus, both witnesses were given an opportunity to explain or deny their statements. The defense then used Sgt. Knight's testimony as extrinsic evidence of the prior inconsistent statements made by Smith and Zimmerman. Although there were written summaries of the witnesses' prior statements, the defense did not establish that the written summaries would have been more effective than Sgt. Knight's testimony or otherwise critical to the defense. In sum, the trial court's error was harmless, and the defendant, therefore, is not entitled to relief on this issue.