Opinion ID: 2385862
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Limitation of Inquiry into the Adequacy of the State's Investigation

Text: On appeal Hilton contends that the trial justice improperly circumscribed his attempts to show that the state failed to pursue the possibility that others besides Hilton might have committed the murder. On two occasions during trial, defense counsel attempted to show that the state's investigation of the murder was inadequate. During the first of those efforts, defense counsel cross-examined a police officer concerning whether he or other law enforcement officials were aware of persons besides Hilton and Routhier who had fought with Boston. After the witness had stated that he knew of such fights but had not told the state police about them, the state objected to further inquiry on the ground that this evidence was unduly speculative concerning the issue of whether the police had ignored persons who had a motive to kill Boston. The trial justice sustained the objection. Contrary to Hilton's argument, that ruling was not erroneous. The trial justice must exercise a careful discretion concerning when a question as to the extent and adequacy of the police investigation into the conduct and whereabouts of other persons at the time of the crime passes beyond the point of proper cross-examination. State v. Inman, Me., 350 A.2d 582, 591 (1976). Here the trial justice stopped defense counsel only after he had elicited testimony showing that the police officer had not told other investigators about persons who had fought with Boston. There was no evidence that any such person had any connection whatever with the homicide. It was within the permissible range of the trial justice's discretion to determine that any probative value of testimony about the details of those fights would be outweighed by one or more of the countervailing considerations set forth in M.R.Evid. 403. During the defendant's case defense counsel again sought to elicit testimony regarding the adequacy of the state's investigation. At a side-bar conference Hilton's counsel announced his intention to call a certain police officer as a defense witness in order to ask the officer whether his superiors had requested him to gather evidence showing that Henry Routhier did not have time to commit the murder. When the state objected to any inquiry into the police officer's state of mind during his investigation, the trial justice ruled that defense counsel could ask questions about what the officer objectively did or did not do but could not inquire about the motives for his actions. To this ruling defense counsel merely said, Fine. In the light of defense counsel's response to the justice's ruling, we must conclude that no objection to this ruling was preserved for appeal; the trial justice could well have concluded that defense counsel was content to show the policeman's purpose through objective testimony about what he did or did not do. We find no manifest error in the ruling.