Opinion ID: 2508696
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Questions Regarding Witness' Prior Refusal to Speak

Text: Wilkerson also takes issue with the prosecutor's questions about Lane's pretrial refusal to speak to police. He asserts the questions violated Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 49 L. Ed. 2d 91, 96 S. Ct. 2240 (1976), relying on the Court of Appeals' application of Doyle in State v. Hazley, 28 Kan. App. 2d 664, 670, 19 P.3d 800 (2001) (no meaningful analytical distinction between prosecutorial comment on . . . silence when the defendant has chosen to invoke his or her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination and such silence when the defendant's sole witness has relied on the same privilege). Doyle and Hazley are distinguishable. The record in this case does not indicate that Lane was ever in custody or that she ever received Miranda warnings before refusing to talk to investigators. As the Court of Appeals recognized in Hazley, it is the administration of Miranda warnings that sets up a Doyle violation; the warnings imply that a person's invocation of his or her right to silence will carry no penalty, and a later breach of that bargain at trial offends due process. Doyle involved a defendant's refusal to speak after Miranda. Hazley involved the sole defense witness' identical behavior. Lane was not the defendant and was not Wilkerson's sole witness. She was not even his sole alibi witness. In contrast to the Doyle and Hazley limits on proper witness examination, evidence of bias may always be shown in order to place the witness' testimony in proper perspective. [Citation omitted.] State v. Abu-Fakher, 274 Kan. 584, 600-01, 56 P.3d 166 (2002). Here, the prosecutor's questioning of Lane about her earlier refusal to speak was designed to highlight her probable bias. No error resulted.