Opinion ID: 2334251
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Jury Instructions Concerning the Effect of Drug Usage on a Witness' Credibility

Text: At trial Gloria candidly admitted during direct and cross-examination that she had ingested anywhere from three to six lines of cocaine prior to the onslaught of attacks. Defense counsel requested a credibility instruction from the trial justice regarding the possible effect of drug usage on a witness' perception and memory of the event leading to prosecution. No evidence was presented at trial, however, concerning the negative effects of cocaine on a user's ability to perceive or recall. Rather, counsel for defendant argued at side bar that it is common knowledge that cocaine impairs a person's perception of events. In declining to give the requested instruction to the jury, the trial justice stated, I really don't have any idea what cocaine does to someone. Whether or not it sharpens their perceptions or diminishes their perceptions. On appeal defendant argues that the trial justice erred in failing to instruct the jury that in considering the credibility of witnesses, it could consider the possible influence of drugs on a witness' ability to perceive and recall accurately the event under scrutiny. The defendant cites State v. Carrera, 528 A.2d 331 (R.I. 1987), in support of reversal. In Carrera, this court held that evidence of use of drugs is admissible to show that the witness was under the influence of those drugs at the time of the events to which he or she is testifying. Such evidence of drug use bears on the question of whether the witness was accurately perceiving the events around him or her, certainly a matter of interest to the finder of fact. Id. at 333. Expanding on our holding in that case, we recently concluded in State v. Kelly, 554 A.2d 632, 637 (R.I. 1989) that evidence of the victim's drug use less than twenty-four hours before the alleged assault was reasonably relevant to her ability to perceive and recall the events in question accurately, and was not so inflammatory or prejudicial so as to outweigh its probative value. In both the Carrera and Kelly decisions we were concerned with a criminal defendant's right to confront and cross-examine a witness on the highly relevant issue of whether that witness was accurately perceiving the events in question while under the influence of drugs. Nothing in either of these cases, however, indicates that a trial justice is required in every instance to instruct the factfinder on the use of evidence relating to the effect of drug consumption on credibility once that evidence has been properly placed before the jury. In the instant case, Barnes was allowed to delve into the issue of the victim's drug usage on the night in question during cross-examination of the complainant and in his closing argument. Gloria testified that the cocaine actually heightened her degree of awareness. No expert testimony was introduced at trial concerning cocaine's alleged deleterious effects upon an individual's sensory system or memory. To have given the requested instruction in these circumstances would have been tantamount to the trial justice's rendering an opinion on the possible effects of cocaine upon the complainant. Such an instruction could be construed by the jury as an impermissible comment on the quality or credibility of the evidence by the trial justice. See State v. Hadrick, 523 A.2d 441, 444 (R.I. 1987); State v. Olink, 507 A.2d 443, 447 (R.I. 1986) (quoting State v. Fenner, 503 A.2d 518, 525 (R.I. 1986)). We are of the opinion that the trial justice correctly declined to recite defendant's requested instructions in circumstances wherein no expert testimony was adduced at trial concerning the effect of cocaine upon an individual's ability to perceive or recall.