Opinion ID: 506169
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Strickland's Plan to Murder Kupits

Text: 89 The trial court refused to allow Bell's counsel to cross-examine Strickland about an alleged plot, involving Strickland, Black, Kohn, Ribera and Kastranakes, to hire a hit man to murder Kupits in Texas. The supposed rationale for the plan was to prevent Kupits from testifying as a government witness. Tr. 1256-72. Bell asserts that this ruling was an abuse of the trial court's discretion. 90 Under FED.R.EVID. 608(b), specific instances of conduct may, in the discretion of the trial court, be inquired into on cross-examination if probative of truthfulness or untruthfulness. Although the government argues that the plan to kill Kupits is not probative at all of Strickland's credibility, we cannot agree. To be sure, the planning or commission of a crime of violence without more is not usually thought to bear on a witness' veracity. See J. WEINSTEIN & M. BERGER, 3 WEINSTEIN'S EVIDENCE Sec. 608(05) at 608-45 to 608-46 (1987). For instance, in United States v. Young, 567 F.2d 799 (8th Cir.1977), a case heavily relied upon by the government, the Eighth Circuit held that it was not an abuse of discretion to refuse to allow cross-examination of a witness regarding her attempt to have her ex-husband killed. There the court held that the attempted murder was not relevant to veracity and honesty. Id. at 803. The viewpoint suggests a strong judicial concern over the drawbacks of allowing such inquiries; surely readiness to kill others for one's personal advantage, of any kind, signifies an egotism that in turn signifies a readiness to blur the truth when it is personally advantageous to do so. Judicial exclusion of such material is not sufficiently explained by any lack of logical connection to credibility. 91 Nonetheless, we think that a murder plan aimed at stamping out evidence impugns a witness' credibility more directly than murder plans generally. Young is therefore not controlling; nowhere in that case was there any suggestion that the witness had wanted her former spouse killed to prevent him from testifying, or in any way to obstruct justice. We think the excluded evidence bears sufficiently on credibility that if the only drawback to admission were the universally applicable ones--diversion of attention, confusion, consumption of time--exclusion would likely be an abuse of discretion. See Fed.R.Evid. 403 (proper to exclude relevant evidence where probative value outweighed by various negative features); United States v. Lavelle, 751 F.2d 1266, 1277 (D.C.Cir.1985) (trial court's balance reversible only for abuse of discretion), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 817, 106 S.Ct. 62, 88 L.Ed.2d 51 (1986). 92 Here, however, a substantial additional factor tilted the balance against inclusion. Strickland's testimony could have been highly prejudicial to Black, who was implicated in the plot to kill Kupits. Indeed, evidence of a conspiracy to kill a co-conspirator could have prejudiced even the defendants not implicated in the plot. Given that the defendants took advantage of numerous opportunities to impeach Strickland in other ways 6 --the defendants' cross-examination of Strickland took five days and covered nearly 1,000 pages of transcript, Tr. 563-1550--and bearing in mind the demands of the Confrontation Clause, we think Judge Hogan's balance entirely suitable. 93